My church has two primary ways for dealing with members who have had a moral default- a serious sin. (Adultry, lawsuits against another member, an unbiblical divorce, abuse, swindling, teaching heretical things, sowing discord between members, etc) We first investigate then meet with a member to tell them what has been reported and discovered to give them a chance to explain, or refute the allegations. From there it generally goes one of two ways; A. They deny the allegations which requires...

A decade ago I received a call from a local pastor I knew about his 25 year old daughter. “Clare, Jane (not her real name) just told us she’s not sure she believes everything we believe the Bible teaches. Which of course makes us sad and afraid for her salvation. Any ideas? So, a week later we’re all sitting together at a coffee shop. I’d never met Jane so I began as I usually do with asking her to take 15-20 minutes to share a bit about her life and dreams and of course her faith journey....

There are two topics most people agree you should never talk about at large family gatherings, Religion and Politics. Generally that’s good advice. If I had a brother who was not a Christian, trying to convince him otherwise at a Thanksgiving dinner would be unwise because he’d be forced to defend his position once again to everyone present and probably be angry at me for putting him on the spot. Those conversations are best done thoughtfully after much prayer one on one. But what about...