If you are going through a difficult circumstance, take heart. Wait on the Lord, he will be good and provide you with everything you need. He can turn your situation around for his good and glory.

Every week, you study the Scriptures, analyzing a narrative’s movements or the structure of an epistle’s argument. You prayerfully consider each text’s meaning and application. Then you put pen to paper (or at least your fingers on a keyboard) and write what you’ll say to your congregation on Sunday. As editors who regularly work with pastors, we’re sometimes asked if writing an article differs from writing a sermon. Yes, it’s different, but most men already recognize that when they ask. As editors who regularly work with pastors, we’re sometimes asked if writing an article differs from writing a sermon. It’s really different. After all, in ministry, you don’t just write sermons. In a given week, you may write an email update for your elders and staff, a reflection for the church newsletter, and an encouraging note for a dedicated volunteer. You know intuitively that your writing style changes based on what you’re writing and whom you’re writing to. A sermon is more personal (and less formal) than a seminary paper. And a well-written thank-you note is more personal than a sermon. But what if you want to turn your sermon into an article or Substack blog post? Here are 10 tips to keep in mind if you want to do this well. Some are ways you should write like you preach, and others are ways you shouldn’t. Write like You Preach 1. Employ your best hook. Just as you want to grab your congregation at the beginning of a sermon, you also want to grab your readers at the beginning of an article. If you opened your sermon with a story, a counterintuitive fact, or something that happened in the news yesterday, that hook will likely work for your article too. No one is required to read what you’ve written, so use an opening that will make them want to. 2. Choose one clear point. The best sermons have one clear, main point. Bryan Chapell suggests finding the “fallen-condition focus” in the passage you’re expositing—the ways the people in the text need the good news—and then going on to explain how the gospel addresses that problem. You should do the same in an article. Find a fallen-condition problem in everyday life and explain how the gospel addresses it. 3. Develop that main point with clear subpoints. The main point of a good sermon is supported with a few easily identifiable subpoints. Do the same when writing, and mark them with subheads. For example, Nathan Sloan’s article about ordinary faithfulness presents a problem and then offers one gospel solution with several practical implications. Another approach, seen in an article from Davy Ellison, is to present a clear idea then illustrate it with several biblical examples. 4. Show. Don’t tell. Pastors use stories to illustrate their sermon points. Follow the same approach with an article, only make the stories short and punchy because you’re working in a smaller space. 5. Stick the landing. Sermon conclusions shouldn’t trail off randomly, introduce a new idea, or ramble on forever. Sometimes they swing back around to reference the introduction. Other times they repeat a truth from Scripture or give a final word of encouragement. Articles also need a clean ending. And yes, you can swing around to reference the introduction, repeat a truth from Scripture, or encourage. You shouldn’t trail off, chase rabbits, or ramble on. Close well. Don’t Write like You Preach 6. Lose the roadmap. In a sermon or an academic paper (or in a book), you lay out the roadmap by projecting where you’re headed at the beginning of the journey: “My three points for today are . . .” An article isn’t a journey; it’s more like a quick walk down the street. You don’t need a map. There’s no need to list your points in the introduction. Just get directly to your point. 7. Know that your audience is broader than your church. When you preach on Sundays, you’re addressing one local congregation in a specific cultural context (yours!). If you write for the general public in a Substack or through an outlet like The Gospel Coalition, you’re addressing a global body, most of whom aren’t under your direct care. So you can’t assume they heard the first three sermons in your four-part series, or that they share your church’s and denomination’s theological emphases. You’ll have to lean into explaining your assumptions and make the specific details about your context explicit when referencing it. You also may need to think more broadly when offering concrete applications. 8. Adjust the length. Some pastors prepare outlines, and some create a manuscript for their sermon. Articles are somewhere in between. If you’re used to outlining, you’ll probably need to add more connections and explanations to get a full-length article. If you’re used to writing manuscripts, you’ll need to cut your sermon down to what may feel like just the bones. 9. Don’t just exposit; persuade. In an expository sermon, the outline is derived from the text. You either follow a passage’s narrative arc or let the grammar and logic of an epistle drive your points. But in an article—even if it’s explaining a tricky Bible passage—you have to assume readers don’t have Bibles open on their laps. They haven’t spent the morning preparing their hearts for worship and the Word. Your job isn’t merely to exposit a text for a Sunday morning gathering, but to equip Christians who may be reading your article on their phone during their lunch break. As a pastor, you are a writer, and your writing skill is worth sharpening. It’s worth investing in. Why? Because God is a writer too. You must design your article’s tone and flow so it logically persuades. This may mean thinking more about your transitions. You can get away with fewer formal transitions in your sermons because your tone, a beat of silence, your body language, or even your slides signal to your congregation that you’re moving to a new point. In written content for public consumption, you typically need words to do that. It can be as easy as “Thankfully . . .” or “To understand that, we must . . . ” or “Because that’s true . . .” A good Pauline “Therefore” goes a long way when you’re working with the written word. To be clear, many sermons do seek to persuade. And many good articles are largely expositional (see Justin Dillehay’s piece on Mephibosheth for example), but as a general principle, it’s more necessary for persuasion to be front and center in written content. 10. Tone it down. It’s difficult to convey humor, sarcasm, or a hushed tone over an email or text message to friends. It’s nearly impossible to convey those tones in an article read by people who don’t know your personality at all. In your sermon, your personality does the work of connecting with your audience and giving life to your words. With the written word, your personality can be confusing and even offensive. Use it more sparingly. Instead, overbalance with gentleness and charity. Skill Worth Sharpening As a pastor, you’re a writer, and your writing skill is worth sharpening. It’s worth investing in. Why? Because God is a writer too. He’s written his glory into creation. Before time began, he wrote the story of redemption in his heavenly book. And in these last days, he’s spoken to us by his written word and by his Son, the Word. When a leader like you uses and develops your God-given writing talents, when you think of your gifts as part of your pastoral vocation, you can write in a way that both glorifies God and serves your neighbor. We hope you will.

Nonprofits have a long and storied history in the United States. When Alexis de Tocqueville visited this country in the 19th century, he intended to study its prisons. Instead, he wrote one of the most perceptive analyses of American political life. Among his many insights was an observation about what we now sometimes call “the third sector.” In France, citizens who encountered social problems tended to look to the government for solutions. Americans, Tocqueville noticed, were different. Rather than waiting for official action, they organized themselves. They had a talent for self-government. What Tocqueville observed has implications for the nonprofit sector today. Greg Berman warns about the evolution (or devolution) of the nonprofit sector from those Tocquevillian beginnings in The Nonprofit Crisis: Leadership Through the Culture Wars. But it’s also a book about liberalism, the political philosophy developed alongside the American republic. Liberalism here doesn’t mean left-wing politics; it refers to the pursuit of liberty itself. Limited government, consent of the governed, and freedoms of religion, speech, and the press are core liberal commitments. For Americans, these principles have been as invisible as water to a fish. Nonprofits play a straightforward role in such a system. Because liberal governments restrain themselves in the name of freedom, space opens for voluntary institutions to meet social needs in entrepreneurial and creative ways. That space has historically been filled by nonprofits in local communities, many born out of local churches. Berman, a longtime nonprofit executive with the Center for Court Innovation, shows that this role is now threatened. Writing from within the liberal tradition, he observes the weakening consensus, which has shifted the nonprofit sector’s center of gravity. In America’s past, nonprofits belonged to what sociologist William Swatos called the community “lifeworld.” Now, they increasingly resemble the bureaucratic “system” of government and corporations—a change with serious implications for society and potentially churches too. Changing Culture Berman highlights a generational change in the people who serve nonprofits. Nonprofits have always attracted young people who hope to bring change and prepare for leadership. Berman observes that over time, younger employees were arriving with less willingness to defer to age and experience. More importantly, perhaps, many young people also want to see the organizations of which they’re part reflecting a strong, left-wing social and political agenda. As one newly graduated and recently hired nonprofit worker declared, “There’s only one thing wrong with the criminal justice system and that’s systematic racism” (36). Such simplistic perspectives often lead to intolerance toward other views, which makes cooperation toward a common goal difficult. Simplistic perspectives often lead to intolerance toward other views, which makes cooperation toward a common goal difficult. This intolerance is illustrated in Berman’s story of a 90-year-old woman, who had served for decades with a multiple sclerosis charity, being forced out as a volunteer because she asked questions about the use of pronouns in the organization’s materials. No amount of faithful history could compensate for heterodoxy on an unrelated cultural issue. The story is a one-off, but it shows how the clear and distinct purposes that once animated such work have sometimes been subsumed beneath broader social movements. Mission Drift The heart of Berman’s worry is that nonprofits are becoming overpoliticized. He argues this shift erodes public support and distracts organizations from their core missions. As groups become coded as left or right, they lose touch with experts and donors motivated to solve the problems the nonprofits were created to address. He illustrates this concern well with an episode from his time as executive director at the Center for Court Innovation, when he invited a high-ranking NYPD official for a conversation. Some staff objected, with one worker asking why the “Center [was] partnering with a racist institution” (53). The idea of “platforming” such a figure was treated as unacceptable. Polarization also creates difficulties when issues defy clear ideological alignment, a scenario likely familiar to many within mission-driven institutions. The recent conflict in Gaza, for example, has effectively divided supporters and staff from each other within many nonprofits, particularly on the left. For Berman, it’s a sign of dysfunction that division over Gaza and Israel could distract his organization, which focuses on domestic criminal justice reform. Berman makes it clear he’s no conservative. He writes with greater familiarity about the influence of progressive politics on nonprofits, but he’s equally concerned that conservative politics is beginning to dominate the groups within that orbit. Find a Way Back The pressure to adopt stronger political identities is moving nonprofits toward a more conventional political mission. The kind of wholesome activism Tocqueville observed is an endangered species. Nonprofits, once dominated by membership associations and small donors, are increasingly driven by major donors and foundations. “Many of the most influential nonprofits,” Berman notes, “do not have significant membership rolls” (63). As a consequence, they become less of an independent force to address the problems the government isn’t handling or can’t handle well. Unfortunately, they’re also becoming more deeply embroiled in the field of politics. As groups become coded as left or right, they lose touch with experts and donors motivated to solve the problems the nonprofits were created to address. These shifts parallel those in other fields, such as journalism. There’s less interest in the work itself and more interest in scoring points for a side. The value of the activities that fall below the ideological confrontation seems to diminish. Bearman’s analysis highlights the value of sociopolitical views advanced by figures like Abraham Kuyper and Jacques Maritain, though he does not write with those sources in view. Kuyper kept politics in its place by reserving space for the many other “spheres” of human life, such as church, family, the arts, the sciences, and schools. He warned against allowing politics to turn government into a kind of octopus ensnaring everything around it. Similarly, Maritain imagined a “body politic” that encompasses the rich variety of life activities and institutions with only a thin overseeing layer, the state. In both cases, the Christian thinkers (one Protestant and one Catholic) sought to hold the temptations of politics at bay. Both Kuyper and Maritain offer a potential pathway for a more organic nonprofit sector. The voluntary sector occupied by nonprofit organizations used to be a real American distinctive. Once a major asset to American life, the independence of nonprofits is being eroded by politics. Their effectiveness is ebbing. There may be a lesson for the church in that story as well. The Nonprofit Crisis offers valuable insight into what we’re losing as polarized politics takes over our culture.

Courtney and Melissa talk with Christine Hoover about why we need friends and how to make them. They discuss how to get over the awkwardness of walking into a room where you don’t know anyone, why our friendships may shift in different life stages, how our friends shape us, and how an idealized view of friendship (where your friends never disappoint you) runs counter to the gospel. Resource Mentioned: The Hard Work of Lifelong Friendships Related Resources: Want to Grow in Wisdom? You Need Gospel Friends. Why Ministry Partners Are Better than Instagram Friends How to Be the Friend You’ve Always Wanted Messy Beautiful Friendship by Christine Hoover Discussion Questions: 1. How has your experience of making friends changed in different seasons of your life? Which seasons have been most challenging, and why? 2. In what ways are your current friendships gospel-centered? Where do you sense room for growth? 3. Where has God placed you—at church, at work, at home, or in your community—to notice and include those who may feel overlooked or alone? 4. What qualities of a faithful, Christlike friend are you asking God to grow in you right now? 5. How does the gospel speak to the fears or expectations that hinder our friendships? 6. How are you intentionally prioritizing fellowship with Christ? How does your relationship with him shape what you offer in your friendships? 7. What next step is God calling you to take in your pursuit of gospel-centered friendship?

Spend the next 7 days letting God meet you in your anguish, teach your heart to hope again, and anchor your spirit in His truth.