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Biblical scholar Dru Johnson explains how churches and even the U.S. criminal justice system might be different if more people who identify as Christian were more familiar with the whole of Scripture.

Singing for Our Lives is a hymn festival to reimagine the ancient imprecatory psalms—those fierce, unflinching cries for justice—as a sacred invitation to transformation and community resilience.

Worship planning assumes that a calendar is used. The assumption in worship planning is that we anticipate future worship.

The service of Lessons and Carols from 2016 highlights the importance of angels in the drama of the Christmas gospel, startling us to focus our awareness on how the angels enlarge our perception of the beauty and glory of the triune God through their nearness and through their mysterious, wonder-filled transcendence.

Both church planters and established congregations can explore spiritual histories of their church neighborhoods. This helps them better communicate the gospel in the places where God calls them to serve.

Church retreats, church governance meetings, and church small groups require honesty, vulnerability, and transparency to collectively draw closer to God. Psychologist Keith M. Douds explains how and when to step in with grace and preserve safety so that everyone has a chance to share and be listened to.

A service plan from the Lord's Prayer focused on protection and deliverance that we seek from God from our fears and the threats surrounding us in a series on prayer as explained in the Heidelberg Catechism.

A service for the first Sunday after Epiphany built around Luke 2:39-40.

A service plan built around 1 Corinthians 4. Not only is the message of the cross foolishness to the world, but those of us who serve Christ are also viewed as "fools for the sake of Christ." Still, we must resist the temptation to soften our distinctiveness to minimize the cost to us.

John F. Hobbins is passionate about biblical languages and Bible translations. He pastors First United Methodist Church in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and teaches in the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s religious studies department. He blogs on Ancient Hebrew Poetry. In this edited email conversation he talks about choosing Bible translations and maintaining the communion of the saints.