Serious About Scripture

Mentoring and motivating Christ’s people to live his words

Why Not Skip Church Meetings?

More evangelicals skip church meetings than attend them. That’s a fact . . . an embarrassing one. One leader claims even the FBI could not find many of them. Some churches have decided to take action to recover the inactive only to find that their church rolls were filled with people who never intend to come again, moved to other states, or died. I once removed 700 people from a church when I first became its pastor—people who simply did…

Praise Luck? : A Letter From Jim

­­Dear CCW family, Joni Eareckson Tada is one of the most gracious and effective Christians in the world. She has lived with the results of a diving accident that broke her neck during her teen years. At 76, she continues to radiate Christ to a listening world. Joni is known by millions of Christians through her books, radio program, and conference speaking. Once my brother asked Joni how she made it through the difficult battle with her paraplegia. I later…

Who Sends Missionaries?

Who sent out Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey?* You might say that it was the church in Antioch. But to be precise, the correct answer is the Holy Spirit: “So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit . . . ” (Acts 13:4a). However, Acts 13:3 says the church “sent them off,” but that does not mean the church was ultimately responsible for commissioning and sending out these two. New Testament scholar David G. Peterson explains. [T]he…

This Mystery is Profound: Why Are You Married?

Perhaps you have never thought of marriage as a mystery, even though you might sometimes make humorous (or not so humorous) jabs about not being able to understand your spouse. “I’ll never understand you!” is not an uncommon phrase in most homes. But marriage itself is not a mystery, even if you think your spouse is. The institution itself is as common as a potato. After all, since time on earth began, people have been “marrying and giving in marriage.” Even…