In an age when the weight of science is held in the balance and the natural order is often held in conflict with biblical belief, the church needs both a robust doctrine of creation and the tools necessary to navigate toward sympathetic conversations. This is the goal of the Henry Center’s Stott Award for Pastoral…

We had a video call with the three pastors whose books were featured in this symposium on the rural church. Our conversation highlighted themes that arose in the series, things like: misconceptions of rural society, the nature of abiding, success in ministry, and the gifts that the rural church can offer to the wider church….

Well, this is a very encouraging development for small-town ministry and for all who long to enliven, enrichen, and extend it through reflection and discussion about its theology and praxis. When did you last see a book on rural ministry (let alone two books on rural ministry) receiving extended critique from top-notch practitioners and scholars?…

Right off the bat, let me acknowledge that Stephen’s book was immensely helpful to me as I reflected on, and revisited, many past experiences I had as I was being forged in the fires of rural Kenya. In addition, his book currently holds the distinction of being the most “marked up book” on my shelf….

Stephen Witmer’s first paragraph in A Big Gospel in Small Places underscores the seriousness of the agenda at hand, as he seeks “to address a massive reality and urgent need” regarding the small-town church (p. 5). His argument: the gospel is not only the message for small towns, it is also the motivation for going…

Sometime toward the end of my tenure at our little rural church in eastern Washington, a neighbor offered to take me on a tour north of town. There was nothing much to see, just some sagebrush and weeds near the interstate overpass. I leaned into the wind while he kicked around at a row of…

I deeply appreciate Koch’s and Cotherman’s and Witmer’s generous and generative probing questions. I will share that they didn’t touch on what I consider the greatest weaknesses of God’s Country (I’ll keep those to myself!). I was struck that each of them raised the substantial question that comes up around abiding: How do we weigh…

“And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for…

Deerfield, IL — The 2020–21 recipients of the John Stott Award for Pastoral Engagement are Steve Froehlich, Thiago Guerra, Daniel Houck, Matt O’Reilly, Joey Sherrard, and Brad Swope. This year, the Creation Project is focusing upon the goodness of creation, and these churches will be engaging the topic in ways that attend to the intersection…

In comparison to many modern exegetes, the Reformers had a broader hermeneutical lens when reading the Old Testament, and were more open to finding types, figures, and applications for their particular contexts in the Old Testament. This can be seen in the interpretation of Ezekiel 34:1-31, where Lutheran theologian Martin Chemnitz (1522-1586), like many of…

This third year of the Creation Project is focused upon theological anthropology, with consideration given to questions of the origin, nature, and ultimate purposes of human life. In his 1993 award-winning book, The Contemporary Christian, John Stott writes: Millions of people do not know who they are, nor that they have any significance or worth. Hence…

The final chapter of John Stott’s classic text, Between Two Worlds, is devoted to two personal characteristics which he judged to be essential to the task of Christian preaching: courage and humility. It is through the balance of these two traits that Christian preachers can faithfully execute their stewardship as ministers of the Gospel. He writes,…