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A recent report from the Barna Group opened the lid to a scary prospect: the aging of America’s pastors. I quickly sat up, adjusted my bifocals, and read on. The news bothered me, but not the way Barna intended. You see, I don’t think aging is a bad thing. After all, there are perks galore.…

Authority means power, strength, or ability over something weaker and subordinate. Jesus demonstrated His authority and power in this passage over disease and death. Christ’s authority, blended with God’s power, combined with a woman’s daring faith for a result of healing. Christ’s omnipotence, coupled with a father’s daring faith and love, produced life over death.…

OK, I admit it. I’m a bad listener. Sometimes, I just don’t listen. Ask my wife. She’ll tell you. In my defense, I would like to make the point that I do listen—to ESPN, to the game announcers, to the pundits on the editorial talk shows. I just, sometimes, don’t listen to her. I will,…

We all have our fears of one kind or another. Some are well-known, while others are locked away in personal vaults. Some are irrational. Phobias, they’re called, a kind of anxiety disorder, are the most common mental disorder in America. Phobias can range from the sublime to the ridiculous, such as coulrophobia (the fear of…

When I began to explore my calling as a pastor, I latched onto the images of the Old Testament prophets. Who could have been a better role model for a young pastor than Elijah calling down fire from heaven or Elisha calling bears to attack the boys who taunted him? Red-faced, fist-swinging, vein-bulging, Holy Ghost…

Ambrose Bierce, the 19th-century cynic, said, “The brain is an apparatus with which we think we think.” I agree . . . I think. The human brain is the most unrivaled mechanism in the world, and certainly the most complex part of the human body. These three little pounds of remarkable matter govern thought, memory,…

On a March 2015 flight bound for Denver from Washington’s Dulles Airport, an unruly and psychotic passenger disregarded crew instructions and charged the cockpit in mid-flight. Another passenger, an ordinary guy sitting in seat 3E, responded like a lightning bolt and, with no thought for himself, jumped out of his seat and tackled the threat…

Eight seconds doesn’t seem like a long time, unless you’re a professional bull rider, but according to a study done by Microsoft, eight seconds is now the length of the attention span of the average person. In eight seconds, a person will decide to click on a website or move on from it. That means…

Here’s a song from Dr. Dolittle in which the good Doctor, convinced from a conversation with his parrot, Polly, that intelligently communicating with animals is an acquirable human skill, resolves to master animals with as many species as possible and starts the song as he contemplates the possibilities. The song is reprised outdoors when the…