Partners and Citizens

A church’s success is rarely measured the way Christ measures it. In our culture, we love what is large, impressive, and successful. We celebrate churches with swelling attendance, polished branding, and seemingly endless resources. But Revelation 3 reminds us that Christ evaluates His church by a completely different standard. He is not impressed by what dazzles the world. He is moved by what is faithful to Him.

This trend has been building for years. Young adults are delaying marriage and children, and the preference for singlehood continues to rise. A recent study of 25–34-year-olds in 14 countries, published in The Economist, reveals just how deeply this shift has taken root. Yet beneath the statistics lies a deeper issue affecting many young adults today.

Baseball is the game of the long season, where small, incremental differences determine who wins games, series, and championships. When you go to the ballpark, you know you might win or you might lose. Nothing is certain. Baseball isn’t a game for those who demand victory every time. The best team will lose a third of its games, and the worst team will win a third. The difference lies in the middle third. The best hitters succeed only 25 to 30 percent of the time. Failure happens far more often than success.

Why do church offices matter? Not because they save us, but because they shape us.

Many leaders treat church polity as a side topic—tertiary, practical, even negotiable. It is true: we are not debating an attribute of God or the doctrine of inerrancy. Yet if Scripture speaks about the church’s structure, then wisdom invites us to listen. God, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, reveals His purposes not only in doctrines to believe but also in patterns to embody. Polity is one of those patterns.

Most of my casino knowledge comes not from firsthand experience but from movies and television. On screen, casinos often appear glamorous, but in reality they exude an atmosphere of discontentment, exploitation, and false promises. Watching Ocean’s Eleven for perhaps the millionth time, I found myself unsettled by a question that has since weighed heavily on me: How similar is the American church to a modern-day casino?

Belief is a word we hear often, but what does it really mean to believe the gospel? Psalm 100 shows us the end goal: a life overflowing with praise, thanksgiving, and joyful worship. But how do we get there when our hearts are so often weary, distracted, or even ashamed? Let’s walk through four truths that reveal why the gospel is good news, why belief is so vital, and why we can live unashamed in the light of Christ.

The Antediluvian period, or the era between creation and the Flood, is described in Genesis 1–6. God created the universe in six days and rested on the seventh. On the sixth day, He created man and woman in His image. Moses’ account becomes more specific as Adam is named and placed in the garden of Eden, located “in the east.” Moses gives geographical markers: four rivers surrounding the garden—the Pishon (linked to the land of Havilah), the Gihon (flowing around Cush), the Tigris (east of Assyria), and the Euphrates. This suggests Eden may have been located in the region of modern-day Iraq or Iran.

In the heart of the Protestant Reformation was a cry that still echoes in our churches today: Sola Scriptura—Scripture alone. For the Reformers, this wasn’t a slogan of rebellion but a return. It was a return to the foundation that had once grounded the early church—the Word of God rightly read, taught, and trusted.

Let me take you back to the summer of 2018. Lisa and I traveled through Dubai to Nepal for the first time, accompanied by three fellow members of my former church, Redeemer Fellowship Church. The trip was in response to an invitation from Dan Pokharel, the Nepali founder of Global Mission Nepal, a church-planting ministry. Dan and I were doctoral students together at Southern Seminary. He often wrote his papers about Nepal, and through them, I came to witness the incredible stories of God’s power in that nation. Over the past few decades, it has felt as though the Book of Acts is being reenacted in Nepal—and Pastor Dan has been at the center of it.