Happy New Year!

Let me be among the first to welcome you to 2014. This year, God has plans and purposes for you, works he has long planned for you to do (Ephesians 2:10). I trust you will dedicate this new year to God and resolve to do life and ministry in his name, through the expected and the unexpected.

As I look ahead to a fresh year, I pause as usual to tell you which of ...

Have you been marred by the sin of adultery? Has your heart ever ached for a friend's or relative's marriage that has been battered by adultery? The church has ways to handle adultery, but do we handle it as Jesus did? Have you seen the church mishandle people affected by adultery? How do we extend mercy for such a despicable sin that disrupts so many marriages, homes, children, ...

After 30 years in the Mormon Church, I left my job, my home, my community, and my church—all because of an amazing encounter with the Jesus of the Bible. Coming to know the biblical Jesus changed my life in profound ways I feel inadequate to articulate. Going from a gospel of works in Mormonism to resting in the Jesus who did it all on the cross for me—a free gift available ...

Since Mitt Romney ran for president, many are curious about his Mormon faith, with good reason. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Mormons tend to be friendly, hard-working, conservative, moral people—model citizens who want to be accepted as part of the body of Christ. Their church culture is close-knit and family-oriented. But as one who spent ...

When I was asked to join the staff of a small church as the small-group coordinator, I was thrilled. I was also naïve. Being on staff meant that I was joining two men, one 10 years my senior, the other just a few years younger than my father. I moved from working with peers in a college ministry where I'd found that my gender rarely had an effect on what I could ...

It's not uncommon for my husband, Leif, and I to spend more than 200 days a year travelling for work. We bounce from airports to rental car terminals to hotels and back home on a regular basis, and along the way we've discovered a few tips to stretching our travel budget—enjoying better hotels, rental cars, and amenities for a fraction of the cost.

Need an example? We recently ...

Stomach in knots, throat tightened, and holding back waves of nausea…you might think I was battling a virus. Not so. In my mind, it was something far worse: confrontation. My body was reacting to my emotional turmoil as I sat across the conference table from another woman in leadership. And it was not just the two of us. The conflict had escalated to the point where our husbands ...

We all know those leaders: the bosses we've had who've made us think, "How did they get to be where they are?"

For more than 18 years, I worked for such leaders at two of Canada's largest advertising agencies. After my ad-agency career, I pastored for seven years alongside those bosses at one of the oldest Convention Baptist churches in Toronto, Ontario. And as I climbed the ...

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I am currently a student pursing a PhD in educational studies. I have a great passion for women in our churches, and I hope my research will one day serve them, so I love to share what I'm learning from time to time. Especially when I think it can help church leaders.

In recent months I have studied a phenomenon called stereotype threat. This term refers to the pressure ...

I slumped on the bench in my church's main hallway. The footsteps and voices all around me receded as I let the words that had just come to mind sink deep: "For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others (Romans 12:4-5, NIV).

Slumping ...