The RenewaNation Blog

By Bryan Smith The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines work as “sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve an objective or result.” If that’s a good definition—and I think it is—then most of our lives are filled with work. We face obstacles and seek to achieve useful results in our jobs, Monday through Friday. But we do similar things at home in the evenings and all day long on Saturdays. At the moment, however, I’m not thinking primarily about the a

By Dr. Josh Mulvihill Ministry to families is more than training and resources; it must include the provision of hope and help to hurting families through care and counseling. God designed the family to be the source of our deepest loves, our most beloved relationships, and to provide care for the needs of its members. In a perfect world, we should associate the family with feelings of joy, the thought of home should bring to mind wonderful memories, and it should function as

By Dr. Josh Mulvihill As a pastor, few things brought me greater joy than to see a young person follow Jesus into the waters of baptism. It is a joyous occasion because the individual being baptized is publicly professing faith in Jesus Christ and wants everyone to know it! The desire to be baptized is noble and recognizes the biblical teaching that baptism is an important step of faith in a believer’s life. It should not be entered into lightly or without proper preparation.

By Ron Gordon The year was 1970. High school sweethearts from working-class families, they took the plunge to commit their lives to one another. They had no savings accounts, no college degrees, and no tangible assets. They jumped into a rental agreement for a small, rural home. Only 20 years old, he had secured a job delivering Coca-Cola products. Fresh out of high school and just 18 years old, she started working in a clerical position at a local hospital. Before they could

By Caleb Gordon “He also told them a parable: ‘Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher’” (Luke 6:39-40). Years ago, I wrote an article for The RenewaNation Review  called “Worldview Building.” I reflected on a gift that Christian education had given me—the gift to connect the world around me into a coherent, biblical framework that guided the way I

By Jeff Keaton Last May, our Executive Administrator, Judy Ralph, mentioned that a very nice office building was going up for auction just ten minutes away from our then-current office. It piqued my interest enough to drive by the building. Before the day was over, several of our team members had toured the building and sensed that we should look more deeply into this opportunity. We had recently hired a new employee and had to place her desk in a conference room due to a lac

By Amber Pike Children are naturally inquisitive. Whether you are a parent, grandparent, educator, or ministry leader, if you work with kids, you get asked a lot of questions. “Why?” is a particularly popular question, but children’s questions can range from “What’s for dinner?” to “Can you help me?”  to “How many types of cats are there?”  and everything in between. Sometimes the seemingly endless amount of questions can be exhausting, until a child’s question causes us to p

By Ron and Tonya Gordon “We follow a discipleship model of Christian education at our school.”  As I (Ron) heard these words from a...

The Discipleship Opportunities of Homeschooling By Amber Pike “Do we have to do school today?” Yes. Homeschooled children still whine for...

By Dr. Josh Mulvihill   There are many different children’s ministry curriculums to choose from, but many of them are Bible-lite,...

Gospel Invitations and Eternal Consequences By Amber Pike “We had the best day at church yesterday, and I just had to share it with the...

By Dr. Josh Mulvihill We all feel a mixture of emotions about the killing of Charlie Kirk. I have two college-aged sons, and his...