
Preaching The Word
with John W. Herbst, PhD
John Herbst, our Scholar-in-Residence, offers pastors and church leaders insights into the Bible and Christian thought. These posts are designed to help preachers and teachers craft sermons and Bible studies.
Why We Disagree: Insights from Moral Psychology
August 17th, 2025
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt. ...
The Danger of Certainty
August 11th, 2025
In 2025, the personal convictions of Christians, especially pastors and church leaders, are frequently dangerous and often damaging. And the danger increases as we become more educated. We like to think that our education and smarts, combined with our spirituality, give us a superior understanding of God’s desire for us, but in fact many of our beliefs and views originate with our human “gut."...
Evangelicalism and the Bible
January 12th, 2023
This is the first of two posts I’m going to write about the Bible. Part of the reason for two posts is my lifelong love for and fascination with the Bible: God’s Word will always have central place in my heart. Growing up, I was always part of churches that help the Bible in highest regard, claiming the Bible as our authority for everything we do and believe. And while my life has had its share o...
Evangelism: Becoming Part of the Kingdom of God
November 14th, 2022
This is my second post in a series on modern evangelicalism. The term “evangelical” has been so casually used and misused over the past twenty years that many of us have only a vague sense of what it means, except perhaps for its connection to Republican politics. Yet in 2022, the term “Evangelical” as it was understood in the twentieth century can and should describe both Republicans and Democrat...