In today’s churches, pastors are often expected to be jacks of all trades but also master the art of the care of souls (what Harold Senkbeil identifies as the “enactment of the word of Christ upon the souls for whom our Lord shed his blood and...
Daniel Ritchie was born without arms and faced a unique kind of adversity daily. Yet after surrendering his life to Jesus, he learned that only in Christ could true worth and purpose be found—freeing him from comparisons and restrictions and...
How will you draw closer to Christ this Christmas? Guide your personal study, family study, or worship in your church with these books on Advent and Advent book collections. 1. Tidings of Comfort and Joy: 25 Devotions Leading to Christmas by...
Pastors have a monumental calling. Acts 20:28 instructs, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” Whether you’re...
How should Christians relate to the Old Testament? Was the author of Hebrews against it? Adrio König explores these questions in this excerpt adapted from Christ Above All: The Book of Hebrews The basic message of Hebrews is that Christ is...
I have two young adult children, and as they finished high school, I remember feeling the weight of knowing I hadn’t equipped them well enough to process many issues they would face that could potentially challenge their beliefs. I had tried my...
Remember always to go on to theology. — Mark Ward In preaching and other Bible teaching, your big strength can become a weakness. If you are good at careful analysis of biblical texts, don’t stop there. Remember always to go on to theology. Analysis...
When we’re talking about eschatology (that’s the study of the end times), it’s easy to get confused by the different terms people use. Before you really dig into the topic, it’s helpful to know the four main views of the end...
This post is lightly adapted from “Preach to the outer edges” by Patricia Batten in Preaching Points: 55 Tips for Improving Your Pulpit Ministry, edited by Scott M. Gibson (Lexham Press, 2016).
Learn little-known facts about polygamy in the Bible, what Jesus says about polygamy, and whether Jesus and Paul changed God’s commands.
Many Christians reflect often on how the resurrection impacts the everyday life of believers. Because Jesus lives, we will live too. But what about the ascension of Jesus? Is it a doctrine we return to? In this excerpt from The Ascension of Christ:...
After a year that feels oddly like we’ve all walked into an episode of the Twilight Zone, Harold Senkbeil’s Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley—which just won the 2021 Christianity Today Award of Merit in the Beautiful...
In our busyness leading up to December 25, the date set aside to remember when God entered time and space to dwell or “tabernacle” with humanity, have we missed the beauty of anticipating Christmas and what it means? In this excerpt from A Light Has...
We can learn a lot from others about prayer, but often we forget to seek out the Bible and how others throughout biblical history prayed. Yet we can glean much from Old Testament prayers and those faithful few who prayed them and approached God...
The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) released its 2020 Christian Book Award finalists, and we’re excited to share that three Lexham Press titles have been selected as finalists! The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart is a...
By Peter J. Leithart The Church has always taken the Decalogue [Ten Commandments], with modifications, as God’s word to Christians. . . . Has the Church been right? Or is this an unfortunate old covenant residue that needs to be purged from the...
Who wants to spend more time in prayer next year? (My guess is that’s everyone.) Prayer is one of those few things you can do with excellence the first time you do it—and you can still get better at it. But becoming better at prayer is an exercise...
Every year, Christianity Today announces their “picks for the books most likely to shape evangelical life, thought, and culture.” That’s a tall order, and it makes the winners well worth looking at. For 2020, two Lexham Press titles carved out a...
For over 60 years, Christianity Today (CT) has set a high standard in Christian publishing. Covering everything from current events to theological trends, the magazine and its authors have modeled evangelical cultural engagement at its finest. CT’s...
Why read a book of Protestant appreciation for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI/Joseph Ratzinger? First, it helps clarify some misunderstood doctrines of the Catholic Church. Second, the prevalence of Catholicism should challenge Protestant pastors...
Samuel Pearce was a Baptist pastor known in eighteenth-century England for his moving preaching and strong, pious character. In his short life, he supported believers in his own parish as well as in the many cities where he preached and helped send...
This excerpt is adapted from James: Verse by Verse by Grant R. Osborne. *** James [1:19–26] begins with three characteristics of what we may call “people of the word,” those who truly center their lives on God’s principles for a proper walk with...
This post is adapted from Church History for Modern Ministry: Why Our Past Matters for Everything We Do by Dayton Hartman. I used to suffer from chronological snobbery, but that wasn’t my only problem. I was also arrogant, rude, and condescending to...
This post is excerpted from The Bible Unfiltered by Dr. Michael S. Heiser. Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus 14 has been spectacularly depicted several times for television and movies. But anyone who retraces the steps of Moses and the...
By David Instone-Brewer, adapted from Moral Questions of the Bible: Timeless Truth in a Changing World. Prison is a great place to find Jesus. A friend of mine in Cambridge offered to work in a prison as a chaplain and found that prisoners...
This post on knowing Christ is adapted from In Season and Out: Sermons for the Christian Year by David A. deSilva. This title is available through Lexham Press. *** Paul, of course, was not just a seeker of Christ on Sundays. His passion for...
A couple years ago, we asked some of our team members who attended seminary to share some of their experiences—what is the one piece of advice each one would want to leave for current seminarians. I hope the reflections are helpful to you. Many of...
In this adaptation below, we read about the gutsy step preachers should take with their preaching. *** In an issue of Leadership journal, Lee Eclov tells the story of a researcher named Hillary Koprowski, who was a leader in the search for the polio...
How does Scripture talk about great leaders? *** We begin as servants and, if we are faithful, we become leaders. You find this pattern illustrated throughout Scripture. Joseph was hated by his brothers, sold as a slave, and taken to Egypt. He was...
By Scott M. Gibson, adapted from Preaching Points: 55 Tips for Improving Your Pulpit Ministry. Charles Gore, formerly bishop of Worcester, Birmingham, and finally Oxford, wrote more than a century ago, “The disease of modern preaching is its search...