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Loving Christ When Obedience Costs

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by Bart Denny Most of us don’t struggle to admire Jesus. Who wouldn’t admire His courage, His wisdom, and the way He held truth and love together? Who wouldn’t admire His compassion, His purity, and His strength? That’s not usually where the struggle begins. The struggle begins when what Jesus commands conflicts with what we want. It begins when obedience costs us something we’d rather keep, our comfort, our approval, our control, our preferred timeline, or our pride. That’s where John 14:15–21 lands with unusual force. Here, we come to a passage where Jesus makes something painfully clear: loving Him means  more than admiring Him. It means obeying Him when obedience gets expensive, relying on the Spirit He gives, and trusting that He won’t leave us alone. And that is a word many of us need to hear. Loving Jesus feels wonderful... until obedience gets expensive.  This passage isn’t mainly aimed at people who hate Jesus. It’s aimed at people who really do ...
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But some doubted...

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by Bart Denny “The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted.” —Matthew 28:16–17 (CSB) I try to be faithful to Scripture when I write or preach. I want to draw out lessons and apply them to daily life without saying more than the text itself says. My goal is to dig deep into God’s Word and share what I find—without putting words in God’s mouth. But I can’t help wondering—have you ever heard someone really focus on that last phrase in Matthew 28:17? “But some doubted.” In the very presence of the risen Christ—after seeing Him crucified, buried, and now alive—the disciples worshiped. And yet… some doubted. That moment has always fascinated me. We often say, “seeing is believing.” But here were disciples looking at Jesus with their own eyes, and still, something inside them wavered. Was it too good to be true? Could it really be Him? After everything they’d seen—the horror of the cross, the...
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Stop Searching for a Silver Bullet Pastor: What Declining Churches Really Need

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Stop Searching for a Silver-Bullet Pastor: What Declining Churches Really Need by Bart Denny When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March 2020, the crisis of declining churches in America wasn’t new—it just accelerated the inevitable. Honestly, I tend to disregard 2020 – 2022 when measuring decline because of how chaotic those years were. But let’s be real: if your church had higher attendance and stronger giving in March 2020 than it does in March 2024—and we’re not talking just a slight dip—you’re in decline. If your children’s ministry was once thriving but now you’re lucky to gather a handful of kids each Sunday, you’ve declined. Your church needs revitalization. Sure, church health isn’t measured by numbers alone. Are you evangelizing? Are you making disciples? Are you reaching your community with the hope of Jesus? If the answers to those questions aren’t a resounding yes , you’re not just declining—you’re in danger. Kicking the Can… Until I...
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