The following articles have been selected because they are informative, instructive, entertaining, or simply interesting. Articles appearing in Your Friday Five do not represent an endorsement.

Long Hollow revival steeped in prayer sees 1,000 baptisms since December, By Scott Barkley

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (BP) – These days at Long Hollow Baptist Church, interruptions aren’t considered bad. The plan isn’t as crucial as the response. Things flow from a position of prayer, ultimately pointing toward Christ.

The Ideals and Idols of the Pastor Theologian, By Paul Morrison

There is nothing new under the sun. This includes the pastor theologian, and the work of ecclesial theology is as good as it is old. Every generation of the church has reaped the benefits of those who worked faithfully to serve the fellowship in their preaching, teaching, and writing. The pattern of these pastor theologians is often typified in Calvin or Aquinas, Augustine or Irenaeus, but the office also has a sure biblical foundation.[1] I do not mean the letters of Paul or Peter, though they would obviously apply––instead how fitting it is to find ecclesial theology in the book bearing the name of the gathering of God’s people

Penal Substitution in the Early Church, By Brian Arnold

When a single ray of light shines into a prism, it refracts into the colors of the rainbow. No one color is more prominent than the others, but each contributes to the beauty of light.

4 Great Commission Questions Every Pastor Must Ask, By Daryl Crouch

How are things going at church? Pastors often get that question. Sometimes we like answering it, and at other times, we don’t.

Actually, the answer to that question depends on what things you’re asking about. The Great Commission is a disciple-making mandate, and disciple making is a multi-step process.

First-Person: Lighting an evangelistic passion in any church, By Kie Bowman

AUSTIN, Texas (BP) — My first pastorate, on a back road through the tobacco fields of Kentucky, had a church building with room for about 12 pews, four Sunday School classrooms and an old graveyard beside the church.