11/04/2013 — It’s been almost 10 years since Mel Gibson’s brilliant film “The Passion of the Christ” was released in theaters.

The movie was notable for many reasons. It showed Hollywood that films with faith-based themes could be moneymakers. “The Passion of the Christ” cost just $30 million to make but took in almost $84 million at the U.S. box office alone on its first weekend. No faith-based movie has been quite as successful since, but the quality of those films has improved greatly as producers realize a well-made film will attract men and women of faith.

“The Passion of the Christ” was important for another reason, as well: it was unflinching in the violence portrayed as Jesus was crucified. You may remember how difficult it was to watch a bloody Jesus hanging on the cross at Golgotha.

Critics recoiled at the realistic depiction of crucifixion. They said it was gratuitous. They said it was inflammatory. They even said it was anti-Semitic. What they could not say was that it was historically inaccurate, because it was not.Read More

---

10/28/2013 — In doing media interviews for my new book, "The Cross: One Man…One Tree…One Friday," many Christian journalists have pointed out to me that the subject matter is something of a departure for me.

My first thought in response is that anyone who makes that statement hasn't heard me preach very much. But on the surface, I suppose it's true that my trilogy on moral issues – "Silent No More," "Culturally Incorrect" and "Living On Our Heads" – seem to come from a different place than "The Cross."

There's one important connection shared by all four books, though, and it has to do with the aberrant worldview called postmodernism.Read More

---

10/21/2013 — Chances are if you’ve attended a wedding, church camp or youth rally at any time in the past three decades, you’ve sung or heard Bob Gillman’s song “Bind Us Together.” The refrain goes like this:


Scripture has a lot to say about believers being bound together by covenant and in community. I certainly believe in the importance of gathering together as bodies of believers for worship, prayer and fellowship. Our church has a small-group ministry, called LifeGroups, for precisely that reason.

In that sense, the cross – the central truth of the Christian faith – binds believers together. Look around a Christian community that you are a part of the next time you are together – what are the odds that the same group of people would gather together for any other reason than a common faith in Jesus Christ? Slim, I would guess.

In my research for my new book, “The Cross: One Man...One Tree...One Friday,” I learned about another sense in which the cross binds us together. Read More

---

10/14/2013 — When I was in my 20s, the world of contemporary Christian music was both smaller and more genre-inclusive than it is today. One of the more popular Christian artists at that time was Don Francisco, who brought a folk-music sensibility to Gospel narratives. He’s probably best known for “He’s Alive,” the story of the first Easter morning written in the voice of the apostle Peter.

Another essential Don Francisco song, “Too Small a Price,” has come to mind frequently since I began writing my new book, “The Cross: One Man…One Tree…One Friday.” The epic song (there’s a version here) is an account of the crucifixion told in the voice of one of the thieves who was executed at the same time as Jesus. Specifically, he was the one to whom Jesus said (in Francisco’s lyric), “Before the sun has set today, you'll be with Me in Paradise.”

Last words are important, aren’t they? Read More

---

10/07/2012 — Twice last week in the tabernacle of World Harvest Church – at our midweek service and the next day at Valor Christian College’s weekly chapel service – a dance team from Pastor Louis Reyes’s Church of Joy in Zion, Ill., ministered. The team had a great impact on our students and the staff and faculty alike. But the team’s ministry was clearly targeted specifically to the age group represented by the majority of Valor students – less so to those with bifocals and gray hair.

There’s no shame in that; the Gospel is expressed artistically in a multitude of ways. The only problem is when the old folks in the audience decide reflexively that a hip-hop song can’t be “of God,” or when younger people turn their noses up at a choral anthem, mistaking a lack of volume for a lack of passion.

There is one thing that our varied expressions of faith can, and should, unite around, however, and that is the cross of Calvary. Read More

---