Importance of Spiritual Mentors

Gordon McDonald, at the passing of a lifelong mentor, recalled his loyalty and the crucial counsel he gave in a crisis:

He was there when, many years later, ...

Importance of Church in Spiritual Formation

Spiritual formation is so often couched in more individualistic terms, that it's easy to forget the important role the church community plays in our ...

John Ortberg on Thriving

FTT—my wife first introduced me to those initials. Nancy was a nurse when I first met her. There were many parts of nursing for which she did not ...

Man Learns Early Lesson in Accountability

Kevin Harney writes in “Leadership from the Inside Out:”

I had been serving in the church high school ministry for just over a year. I loved ...

Biker Covers Up Dirty Tattoo

Parishioners of a conservative, small-town church in rural Indiana were surprised one Sunday when a biker came to visit. He stuck out like a sore thumb—pony-tailed, ...

Facing Harsh Reality

The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your ...

Giving Thanks for Less Obvious Blessings

The author Fleming Rutledge writes:

The life of thankfulness—biblically speaking—is lived in view of the hard things of existence. As the life ...

President Ford Benefited from Spiritual Mentor

As a young Michigan Congressman, Gerald Ford met a gospel-film executive named Billy Zeoli who stopped by his office and gave him a Bible. Over the next ...

Spiritually Malnourished

Leroy Eims writes:

One spring our family was driving from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa, Florida. As far as the eye could see, orange trees were loaded with ...

Man Deals with His Anger

Leroy Eims writes:

As a new Christian, I was challenged to apply my weekly Bible study personally. I was working through Colossians. The Holy Spirit caught ...