Josh Benner

Category: Church

  • Bring your fussy child to church day

    Christian comedian John Crist shared this photo on Instagram this weekend that’s gone viral. The photo is a card from a church, apparently meant to be distributed to parents of fussy children, instructing them that a “connection team member” would assist them in leaving the sanctuary during worship. It’s a sad commentary on the American…

  • Love, justice, and the heavenly way

    Originally published August 24, 2017 From the sermon Love, justice, and the heavenly way The gospel is offensive. God is perfect and righteous. And the only way for imperfect and unrighteous people to be with him was for Jesus to pay the price of sin. To absorb the wrath of God. And for some reason,…

  • No matter how terrible things seem, the gospel shows that there is always hope

    Andrew Stoecklein was pastor of a megachurch in California who took his life last week. I’ve seen many stories shared about this man this week. I’ve seen articles about social media posts his wife has made in the wake of the loss of her husband. It’s an incredibly sad story. Successful young pastor. Growing megachurch.…

  • The Greatest Commandment: the love of God

    You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might (Deuteronomy 6:5). We shouldn’t follow God’s ways because we think that will make him love us. That’s not the basis for God’s love for us. We shouldn’t follow God’s ways because we feel that…

  • Murderers, mobs, dictators and the gospel

    Originally posted March 7, 2016 In the gospel of Matthew, when Jesus was before the ruling Jewish council, he made a reference to his divine status. To the ruling council, this was taken as blasphemy. Within Rome, they didn’t have the authority to execute Jesus for his action, so they took him to Pontius Pilate, who…