Spencer Taylor, upcoming Emmanuel Christian Seminary graduate, has spent his time in seminary ministering to the youth at Central Holston Christian Church. In his work, Spencer often returns to the wisdom of Andrew Root. Root writes, “ministry is about connection, one…
I have a confession: I’m not a big fan of the term “New Testament Church.” Many Christian Churches today use this title as a self-descriptor. These churches have good intentions of displaying their efforts to embody the ideals of the First Century Church and to declare the good…
Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact But maybe everything that dies someday comes back – Bruce Springsteen, “Atlantic City” It turns out that Easter is on a Sunday this year, so we should probably start talking about what we’re…
Emmanuel Christian Seminary at Milligan enjoys a strong reputation in good preaching and teaching from scripture. Words have always mattered to this community. We believe that proclaiming God’s truth from scripture changes lives, heals wounds, liberates the oppressed, and restores communities. The collection below of published sermons from…
In undergrad I took a reading course on Church history. Our reading list involved a great variety of texts from early Christian primary sources to comprehensive histories of the crusades, Reformation, and more. Yet in the thousands of pages of Church history, the name Sanders never crossed my…
“Giving their lives in the same direction.” These were the words my friend and fellow ECS alum Nathan Cachiaris said to me as we talked about the subject of mentoring several weeks ago. I’d told Nathan I was writing an article for the Ministry Resource Center on mentoring. Toward the…
My steps have been captured by the slogan, “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things love.” And this slogan is only worth saying if my essentials list is short. If I decide that all my convictions are essentials, then it would be simpler if I just didn’t use the slogan. Colloquially, I say, “If we can arrive in eternity to find out which of us was right, then our disagreement might have been important, but it clearly wasn’t essential.”
As a federal holiday approaches when we will recognize the birthday of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it is important to remember that he is the first and only clergy person to be so honored. Most of us are familiar with some, if not all of his…
“In this book I argue that we should acknowledge a through line that stretches from the positive portrayal of female disciples in the Gospels to the work of female disciples in our own contexts. We should invite these stories into our conversations and allow them to inform our…
There are no perfect churches, no perfect church leaders, and no perfect church leadership bodies. I guess I knew that on some level, over 30 years ago, when Christ’s vocational ministry through me began. Nonetheless my excitement for ministry and lack of experience allowed…
