Book Review: The Life We’re Looking For, by Andy Crouch

Review by Samuel D. James | 07.21.2022

Andy Crouch’s book “The Life We’re Looking For” is a necessary and convicting work that represents precisely the kind of thinking about theology, humanity, society, and the gospel we need right now.

Help! I’ve Been Asked to Deliver the Announcements

By Dave Cook | 07.07.2022

Sunday morning announcements at church may be understated, but good ones set the tone for a worship service and keep the congregation informed. The time it takes to do them well is worth it.

Book Review: Saints, Suffers, and Sinners, by Michael Emlet

Review by Mark Redfern | 06.30.2022

All Christians—at one time or another—find themselves and those around them to be disheartened and in need of encouragement, idle and in need of warning, or weak and in need of help.

How Strong Trellises Promote Strong Vines

By Paul Alexander | 9Marks Journal: Pursuing Revival While Avoiding Revivalism | 06.14.2022

If you drape your vine over a simple trellis with structural integrity, then its fruit is far more likely to mature without bruising.

The Worship Set: Today’s Sawdust Trail

By Drew Hodge | 9Marks Journal: Pursuing Revival While Avoiding Revivalism | 06.14.2022

If God really doesn’t care what we do when we gather and it’s up to us to design a “worship experience,” then everything is on the table.

How Movements Can Undermine Churches and Hurt Their Own Cause

By Jonathan Leeman | 9Marks Journal: Pursuing Revival While Avoiding Revivalism | 06.14.2022

What pastors, missionaries, and campus leaders need is a vision for church-driven ministry, not movement-driven ministry. This is how we build for the long-run, not for the sprint.

“Finney with a Twist”: Elder Jacob Knapp and the Origins of Baptist Revivalism

By Caleb Morell | 9Marks Journal: Pursuing Revival While Avoiding Revivalism | 06.14.2022

Pastors need to understand that a change occurred among American Baptists in the nineteenth century. This change has shaped our intuitions about conversion, membership, baptism, and what it means to practice regenerate church membership.

Episode 202: On Expressive Individualism (with Carl Trueman)

By C. Trueman, J. Leeman, M. Dever | 04.05.2022

What is “expressive individualism”? Why does something so abstract matter for everyday pastors and normal local churches?

Expressive Individualism and the Church

By Carl Trueman | 9Marks Journal: Expressive Individualism in the Church | 03.18.2022

Like our sinful natures, expressive individualism is something that will inform our intuitions and our understanding until the day we die. So what do we do about it?

Are you Contending for the Truth or Quarrelsome?

By Paul Alexander | 9Marks Journal: Expressive Individualism in the Church | 03.18.2022

So how do we tell the difference between fighting the good fight and just argumentative?

How Do We Find Our Identity in Christ?

By Brian Rosner | 9Marks Journal: Expressive Individualism in the Church | 03.18.2022

The new self we are to put on is Jesus Christ, who represents God’s new humanity. It is not that we thereby lose our individuality. But who we are is brought to completion in him.

Pastoring Singles in the Age of Self

By Sam Allberry | 9Marks Journal: Expressive Individualism in the Church | 03.18.2022

Our context makes the Christian life of singleness all the more challenging, and the healthy pastoring of single people all the more urgent.

You’re a Pastor, Not a Therapist

By Jeremy Pierre | 9Marks Journal: Expressive Individualism in the Church | 03.18.2022

Pastor, you’re not a therapist. You hold a longer-term position in the lives of your people.

The Ordinances: A True and Better Identity Politics

By Bobby Jamieson | 9Marks Journal: Expressive Individualism in the Church | 03.18.2022

What can unearth and uproot and undermine the unbiblical assumptions that animate identity politics and threaten to tear apart what God has joined together? I would submit a simple, perhaps surprisingly obvious answer.

Raising Children in an Age of Expressive Individualism

By Abigail Dodds | 9Marks Journal: Expressive Individualism in the Church | 03.18.2022

The world is awash in self-identity and the need to express it far and wide. So what do parents do?