This Sunday, just before we left for church, my daughter stopped me as I passed through the living room.

"Look," she said. "The shepherds are headed home."

I followed her waved out, game-show-hostess arm and saw what she was talking about: the nativity. In our house—as in many—the crèche in our living room gets a lot of action ...

Have you ever thought about exactly what the angels said when they proclaimed Jesus' birth? Of all the words that could have been said or sung, they chose to proclaim this good news:

"…a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).

That one statement proclaims the answer to three questions of the human heart:

Can I be rescued? ...

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Last week in Part I of this post, I asked, "In light of the often high-running emotions of a women's small group, how do we hold them in check? How can a leader strike a balance between saturating women with the truth of God's Word, but also providing them with the emotional support they need?"

Many of you offered wonderful suggestions. No, as promised, here ...

Image: Pogonici/Getty

It all began with a seemingly innocent question: "Does anyone have any prayer requests?"

An hour later, the prayer requests were still going strong.

For many women's small groups, this is a common occurrence. Prayer requests and even Bible study time can often turn into long-running therapy sessions in which women unload the anxieties and worries of their weeks ...

One of the ways I lead within my church is to teach a spiritual class for women. For ten years, I have taught a weekly class, often taking a group of 50 to 60 women through a spiritually challenging book. We dive in deep, spending several months going through chapter by chapter, taking time to discuss, to reflect in solitude, to learn.

The best thing about this class, ...

This fall I've been through one of the biggest transitions in my career, and it's not just the job responsibilities. After spending seven years in working almost exclusively with women, I now spend the majority of my time with men.

And I love it.

For a woman as "pro-women" as I am, it's a little hard to write that sentence. I have a stake in promoting ...

It seems that everywhere I look, I see an example of bad leadership. And it's not just in the realm of business or politics, either. I've seen pastors and Christian leaders make poor decisions, or make good ones and implement them badly. It's not a problem limited to our day, either. Reading the Sermon on the Mount, it's clear that Jesus doesn't mince ...

Last month, at a benefit for Breakthrough Urban Ministries, my friend Arloa Sutter—its founder and executive director as well as author of The Invisible: What the Church Can Do to Find and Serve the Least of These—said their ministry goals stretched beyond feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, finding jobs for the jobless and giving hope to the hopeless. ...

Kathryn Stockett's The Help has been one of my recently treasured reads. An intricate tale of racism in Jackson, Mississippi, that I found myself both enthralled and appalled with as I turned her pages.

Sotckett, anticipating this judgment on her home state said, "Mississippi is like my mother. I am allowed to complain about her all I want, but God help the person ...