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Here's why to strive for last place!

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  What Jesus Taught About True Greatness By Bart Denny We live in a world obsessed with greatness. Turn on your TV or scroll through your feed, and you’ll find no shortage of “top 10” lists, success stories, and headlines about who’s first, fastest, richest, or most followed. From athletes and actors to business moguls and influencers, we elevate the people at the top. Even in churches, the temptation is real. We celebrate big numbers, fast growth, best-selling books, and booming ministries. “Bigger is better,” or so we’re told. But in Mark 9:33–37, Jesus offers a radically different view: “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” —Mark 9:35 (NIV) In other words, if you want to be great in God’s kingdom, strive for last place. Wait—what? The Disciples Had the Same Struggle We Do In this passage, Jesus and His disciples have arrived in Capernaum, and He asks them what they were arguing about on the road. Cue awkward silence. ...
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Successful Revitalization of Small Evangelical Churches Hinges on Leadership Development

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My doctoral dissertation, focused on how successful church revitalization pastors act to develop and empower next-generation leaders. A Phenomenological Study of Pastoral Leadership Development Behaviors in the Revitalization of Small Evangelical Churche s Available at https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/4002 Abstract Church revitalization has received renewed interest in the last several years. Rainer (2014) says that a congregation’s failure to develop and empower next-generation leaders is one of the leading contributors to church closure. Likewise, Clifton (2016) and Stetzer (2007) highlight the importance of developing next-generation leaders during church revitalization.  The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the leadership development behaviors of senior or solo pastors who successfully led revitalization in a small evangelical church. This study defined a small church as one averaging 65 or fewer in attendance at the beginning of the past...
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Did the Early Church Fathers Believe in a Pretribulational Rapture?

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UPDATE: I look back at this old paper and find some good arguments but, as I concluded, there is no smoking gun for the belief in a pretribulation Rapture among the early church fathers. I am more compelled now to say why: No, the early church fathers did not believe in a pre-tribulation Rapture, at least in the way Darby and dispensationalists ever since the 1800s have held it. They didn't believe it because the Bible didn't teach it--and they were much closer in time and place to the biblical authors. They did expect the imminent return of Christ--with no hint of an idea that they expected to escape the Great Tribulation (indeed, for much of the early church, the Roman Empire certainly proved a source of great tribulation!). They also believed in a millennium. What Scripture actually says has always been the standard to which we evangelical Christians have always claimed to hold. I hope to write more soon, but I think the "Pre-Wrath" Rapture--the idea that the chur...
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