Faith and Family

Faith and Family

Scott McConnell from the LifeWay Research team co-authored the recently published book, The Parent Adventure. It reveals how the church can help moms and dads break the cycle of destructive parenting practices by focusing on the authority of God’s Word. The book...

Baptism as an Evangelistic Opportunity

The latest update from LifeWay Research contains one of the more encouraging stats I’ve seen this year. The heading of the release reads “Nearly all Americans would attend a friend’s baptism…if invited.” The report included this statistic: 87 percent of...

The Rise of the Non-Religious

The release of the American Religious Identification Survey has caused a flood of media and blog activity. Researchers at the Trinity College in Hartford, CT surveyed more than 54,461 people between February and November 2008. They found that the percentage of...

The Tragic Death of Pastor Fred Winters

As many of you may know, Pastor Fred Winters of First Baptist Church Maryville, IL, was shot to death during the 8:15AM service while he was preaching. My father, Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay, has asked to utilize my blog to release a statement he...

The Power of Multiplying Groups

My good friend and partner in ministry, Chad Keck, has put together a video of our campus that demonstrates how one small group within a church can create a culture multiplication. As you will see, I’m blessed to serve at the Ranch (what we call our campus). Small...
Killing Sermon Cockroaches

Killing Sermon Cockroaches

Tony Morgan (NewSpring Church Chief Strategic Officer) has given us a great new collection of leadership insights in his new book Killing Cockroaches. It took me forever to read it – not because of his writing style, but rather because of the page flip animation...