Blog (Page 8)
Peace in Making Decisions (Part I)
In this life, we make decisions of all kinds. We make smaller decisions regularly on a daily basis. We call them smaller decisions because if we happen to make the wrong choices on these smaller decisions, it is not the end of the world. But from time to time, we are asked to make bigger life decisions. Making bigger decisions is quite different. If we happen to make the wrong choices on bigger decisions, it can lead to catastrophes. How…
Christians in Conflict
Hello, LifeWay Family! It’s Edwin, and I wanted to take a moment to say how excited I am for this Sunday! For those of you who may not know, this Sunday will be my first opportunity to preach to the church as a whole! I am so elated to be able to share something that God has really been placing on my heart this year. Have you ever had a conflict with an unbeliever? Has a conversation and attempt to…
Gospel, Meet World
This Sunday I’ll be teaching again on the overall theme of the gospel and our culture. I’m going to be laying out some practical things from scripture about raising up a church family with the identity that we can find in Christ. I’ll teach some practical ways in which the body of Christ relates to the rest of the world and helps the world discover their identity as a creation of God. This is a bit challenging, because the church…
LifeWay and the Desna Cup
The Desna Cup story and LifeWay’s long connection with it This coming Sunday, we are closing our building, leaving our church property, and heading to join a handful of local churches for a group worship service at an event called the Desna Cup. The worship time is at 10:30 a.m. and the basic instructions are highlighted for you in this week’s newsletter. Some of you, for the last several years, may have driven by Saghalie Middle School on a mid-August…
The Gospel in Our Culture
During the month of August, we are taking a few weeks to explore how to take the gospel into the very complicated culture that surrounds us. We are hopping around a little bit: On July 31, I launched the series by beginning an unfinished message about sexual identity. Last Sunday, Chris Berry taught about our government—and more importantly, how we should navigate our own relationships when we disagree politically. This Sunday, I am picking up where I left off on…
God and the Government
“My country, ’tis of thee…” From an American background, those words sound so patriotic and wonderful. We (especially those of us who are a little older) grew up saying the Pledge of Allegiance at school and singing the national anthem for ball games. I even remember taking a patriotism class when I was young; such classes can be helpful, and they’ve come to us historically in our American culture because we grew up being taught to love and support our…
The Gospel and the Sexual Identity Crisis
Last week, I began a series of teachings wrapped up in the subject of the gospel and our culture. The plan is to address on Sunday mornings a few issues with which we all seem to be faced, and about which we are often confused. The intent is to deal with a few specific topics this August, and from time to time pick this theme back up and deal with a few more. This Sunday, July 31, I am addressing the gospel…
Good News!: Our Missions Pastor Goes Full-Time
The Council of Elders at LifeWay, including Pastor Billy Arnold, are proud to announce that Heather Althoff is moving to full-time status as Missions Pastor at LifeWay, beginning August 1. Heather has been part of our pastoral staff team for over 14 years, having been on mission with her husband, Matt, in Germany for 5 years previously. During those 14 years, she has served LifeWay both as the Discipleship Pastor and also in her current role leading our mission work, which…
The Gospel and Our Culture
When the Church (Ekklesia) was being planted in Gentile territories in the 1st century, they quickly realized they were having to deal with issues that had long since been settled in the Jewish world of Israel—prostitution worship, emperor worship, allegiance to the government, paying taxes, polytheism, animism, child sacrifice, and many, many, many more issues. The issues today are not all the same, of course, but amazingly, most the core concerns of the historical church are the same core concerns…
The Moment We’ve Been Waiting For
At the beginning of my message series on Ecclesiastes, I said that the Book of Ecclesiastes was a hard book. Along with Proverbs, Job and Song of Solomon, we know that the Book of Ecclesiastes is one of the Wisdom Books in our Bibles, but God sure didn’t make it easy for us to extract wisdom out of Ecclesiastes. Much of the book is complex and enigmatic to me. It takes a lot of work for me just to understand…
At World’s End
Did you know that from polls done in 2012, some 14% of the population of the world believed that the world would end sometime during their lifetime? The lowest percentage was 6% in France. Can you guess in which country the percentage was the highest? You guessed it. America tied with Turkey at 22%. Does that say something about Americans? Anything? Fascination with the end of the world has always been a people’s topic of discussion. If you are as…
Wisdom About Wisdom
How can you tell if a person is a wise person? All things being equal, how can you tell a wise person from an unwise person? If you asked some people what are some of the things they look for when they set out to find a wise person, most people would probably say it has something to do with the ability to ask good questions, gain knowledge, analyze complex situations, apply common sense, recall past experiences, consider sensible options,…
It’s Not Fair!
One day when I was a teenager, my father bought a book from a local bookstore, handed it to me, and asked me to read it. Back in those days, I didn’t particularly like to read. I still don’t really like to read today. But the title of the book intrigued me: When Bad Things Happen to Good People. I remember I was excited to read and see what the author had to say about the topic. By the time children…
Promises, Promises
Since the beginning of the human race, making a promise to one another is one of the most serious things we do in life. We make a vow or pledge to each other we will take an action or give an assurance that something will happen. And yet, how many times do we make a promise to someone, perhaps a friend, and we don’t follow through? A promise not kept causes frustration to that someone, especially if he or she…
An Appointed Time
For those of you who are a little older (than the rest of us), do you remember as a young boy or girl, your parents woke you up in the middle of the night because they thought it was important for you to watch a nationally televised broadcast of a NASA rocket launch? Either you were glad and your eyes were glued to the television screen, or you were cranky because someone had just rudely interrupted your sleep. But have…
A Message for Our Graduates
Excerpted from a message given to high school seniors, their families, and LifeWay Youth students at Grad Night, May 25, 2022. The next season of life is approaching for our graduates, and there are some things they will need to be prepared for in life. Here are three points that you will probably not hear at any commencement ceremony, this year or ever. (This is also important for people who are not graduates this year!) If you can latch onto…
The Final Exam
Last Sunday, I laid out the final exam for the series we have been teaching through this whole academic year, entitled Building His Church. If you missed last Sunday, I ask you to get a copy of this 4-page test, sit down with someone, and walk through this together. It would be great if you would turn your completed test in to me. The most important part of why I am doing this is that we, as His Church Body, must…
Introducing Ecclesiastes
You did it! We did it! For this past year, we learned together what are the four walls of Christ’s church and the critical importance of building our church with those four walls in balance. And now we are off to take the final exam Billy gave us, pass it (or for you high achievers, ace it), and the whole summer is ours. Good luck! But just because the LifeWay academic year unofficially ended last Sunday, and the school bell…
A Note About Elders
This past Sunday morning, Mark Neidlinger, the chairman of the LifeWay elders, brought us a wonderful sermon about the critical role an elder plays in the life of a church, what an elder actually does, and the character traits elders are to display in their lives. If you did not hear this sermon, I encourage you to go back and watch it online. In addition, here are the accompanying sermon notes to help you review the tasks and qualifications of…
Finals Week
“It’s Finals Week! Time to take the test!“ Those words struck terror for me in college and seminary. The pressure was on to go back and try to remember all that had been taught, all that I’d read, and then to articulate it on an exam. As a Religion major, most of my classes were the kind that required an essay of explanation in the old blue book, as opposed to math problems and equations. With every spring came final…
Guarding the Flock
What do church leaders do for the church? Guard the flock! Acts 20:28-31Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! In 1978,…
The Goal and the Role
As you know already, there are altogether six chapters in the Letter to the Ephesians. When I consider Ephesians, I like to visualize the letter in two parts: Ephesians 1–3 and Ephesians 4–6. Ephesians 1–3 is packed with doctrines of the Christian faith, and I mean packed. After the Apostle Paul wrote sentence after sentence of Christian treasure, he became overwhelmed by God’s glory from his own writing, so much so that he went right into doxology even though he…
Mother’s Day Responses
On Mother’s Day—Sunday, May 8—as part of our worship service, we asked the kids (kids of all ages, that is) to fill out a questionnaire about their moms. We were able to share some of the responses with our congregation. Their answers will put a smile on your face. Enjoy! If I could give my mom anything, it would be… Food Cookware Pay off our mortgage! A world 3-month cruise Snuggles A diamond ring Me—her well-behaved handsome son My love A…
Rome or Bust!
Acts 23:11 (NIV)“Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.” “California or Bust!” In the 1930s, there were two great disasters that affected thousands of American families. On the great plains of the USA, a huge drought led to what is called in history the Dust Bowl days, affecting farmers from Texas to South Dakota. These farmers were left with unproductive dirt and unmanageable debt. At the same time the stock market…
My Thoughts on Baptism
Every Sunday at LifeWay is a special time because we come together and fellowship with God and with each other. But this Sunday is extra special because four individuals (two very young brothers and two very young sisters) will be baptized. Hallelujah! What an exciting time in their lives! God is to be praised because their parents have made it a priority to teach their children about God and the Christian faith while they are still very young. God is…