The Message & Mission of the Church

As many of today’s churches cater to those seeking entertainment-based worship services, they end up demanding very little of the average Christian and offer little or no shepherding or accountability. As a result, many people slip in and slip out below the radar. Though it often attracts the crowds, the question is whether this model […]

While it’s true that big box churches continue to see growth in numbers, there is a real question as to whether Christians in these churches experience true spiritual growth. So how do faithful churches grow, and what does it mean to be a lifelong disciple who is growing mature in Christ (Eph 4:15)? On this […]

In addition to making life-long Christian disciples, churches in our day need to equip the saints so that they can faithfully share the gospel with outsiders. And as we take the gospel out to the world, we need to resist the temptation to change or dilute the message in order to remove the offense of […]

Successful churches in our time are often led by dynamic pastors with excellent communication skills. But are these particular virtues praised in the pages of the New Testament? On this program the hosts will take a look at the issue Paul faced with the “super-apostles” of his own day, and they’ll discuss how this manifests […]

How are pastors to care for Christians in our day who hop from church to church and refuse to recognize any authority over the self? Why should anyone even go to church if they can listen to sermons online? On this program Michael Horton, Steve Parks and Mike Brown unpack this subject by pointing out […]

According to the latest statistics, nine out of ten pastors don’t end up retiring as pastors, and close to 50% don’t even make it to their 5th year of ministry before changing professions. What are the causes of these alarming trends, and what can we do to create a more sustainable vision of Christian ministry? […]

As churches conform more and more to the values of the marketplace, true and lasting community is getting harder to find. Most of us don’t even know the person we’ll sit next to on Sunday morning, and few of us care. What are the essential ingredients of an authentic Christian community? Joining Michael Horton to […]

Do today’s Christians end up focusing more on the experience of faith rather than the object of faith? Are we more interested in the practical application of Christianity than we are in truly understanding the Christianity that is to be applied? What are the dangers of this kind of approach to the Christian life? On […]

Scott Keith from ‪1517.org‬ joins Michael Horton, Bob Hiller, Walter Strickland, and Justin Holcomb to discuss how churches can recover high views of preaching and the sacraments, as well as robust views and practices around vocation.

Is it wrong for a church to be seeker sensitive? Pastor Adriel Sanchez expounds on the differences between seeker-sensitive and seeker-driven churches, and why ordering our services to be palatable for certain demographics is a way of domesticating the worship of God.

Episode 1582 | According to Pew Research, only 51% of self-identified Christians attend church regularly. Pastor Adriel Sanchez is joined by Caleb Keith from ‪1517 where they both argue that this crisis is not primarily cultural, but theological. Most Christians are simply unaware what the church actually is, what happens there, and why nothing else can replace it.

I’ve rolled into church many a Mother’s Day morning with a heavy heart and deflated expectations. There were years of singleness, and then miscarriage, when I felt invisible in the pew, wondering if I would ever wear the title of “mother” myself. Then came holidays where I felt steamrolled by the demands of raising babies […]