Look Inside Portals of Prayer

May isn’t just the month of Mother’s Day; it is also Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month. Before I became a mother, I thought that the conversation surrounding maternal mental health...

Early adolescence is an especially formative time in the life of a Christian—not only as youth take ownership of their faith for a future of following Christ, but also as they contribute...

When we use the expression “take my word for it,” we are asking another person or group to trust that what we are saying is true. More specifically, we are asking this person or group to...

Does church management software really help small churches? In short, the answer is yes, of course! However, the answer is much more complex than that. Church management software isn’t...

The Greek title “Book of the Twelve” (dodekapropheton) describes [the last twelve] of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew canon. Jesus son of Sirach perhaps referred to this title when he...

Beloved Lutheran hymnals have a long history, dating all the way back to 1524 in Germany. Each variation has been used for different purposes, such as a home devotional that eventually...

Have you ever wondered how Google knows what websites to suggest when you look something up? It’s called SEO—search engine optimization—and it helps users find a website by improving its...

In college, I attended a Bible study hosted at a pastor’s home. One week, he said our homework was to make a list of our biggest questions about faith, and we’d discuss them and seek...

I grew up reading comic books (often when I should have been studying). I was fascinated by the heroes, stories, art, and action. Back then, you could buy comic books at the grocery...

Edwin T. Childs adds to his series of settings for minimal pedal, providing a collection of hymn tunes for the Easter season. Composed as a single stanza, these preludes are suitable as...

Every day, most of us receive text messages—from our family members, coworkers, and friends. But have you ever received a text from your church? The concept might seem foreign to some,...

The first book of the New Testament begins in a manner similar to the first book of the Old Testament: focused on genealogy (cf Matthew 1:1–17; Genesis 5). Matthew sketches for us a human...

While your church is busy making plans for a successful Lent and Easter season, summer will be here before we know it. With the joys of summer come warmer weather and summer vacations,...

Offerings, or financial giving, can be a tricky thing to talk about in the church. Yet it’s a vital part of ministry and people’s life of faith.

Every spring, Easter comes around in the Church Year as a celebration of the battle Christ has won for believers everywhere. He has conquered the devil, died for your sins, and defeated...

It was a month or so after our second child was born, and my almost two-year-old decided he wanted to join the rest of the family and stop sleeping too. Fighting bedtime, skipping his...

The United States enjoys what is largely a free-market economy. Those entering and competing in the free-market economy vie for the attention of the consumer and do so, in part, with...