Christians are people of the Word, men and women who live their lives according to its every precept. The Bible is the revelation of God to display his character and to show what it means to live in conformity to him. It is an inestimable privilege to have access to the mind and will of God. Yet while many people pay homage to the Bible, few love it. How can you know if your love for the Bible goes beyond a mere passing fancy?

We are all familiar with lying. Each of us has told a lie. But what is the motivation behind lying? A recent article in National Geographic looks at the scientists attempting to study the reason we lie. Roughly 8 percent of those who lie can be deemed pathological or malicious. Only 2 percent of the cases of lying are categorized as social or polite lies. Things like telling your grandmother the rumpled hat looks pretty on her. But more than 75 percent of the reasons why we lie are to protect ourselves from justified harm or to gain something not our own.

I’m arguing that there is a type of robust faith that sits upon the ash heap of one like Job. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, was not a poor witness. Nor was King David and the other Psalmists of whom God used to give us a song book filled with lament. These are not miserable witnesses or poor recommendations of the gospel but beacons—though shrouded in darkness—of the redeeming Christ.

Ultimately, the transgender question is about more than just sex. It’s about what it means to be human. Poet Wendell Berry responded to techno-utopian scientism with the observation that civilization must decide whether we see persons as creatures or as machines. If we are creatures, then we have purpose and meaning, but also limits. But if we see ourselves—and the world around us—as machines, then we believe the Faustian myth of our own limitless power to recreate ourselves.

The vast majority of Christians in the West have bought into the lie that "busy is best," and "loud and proud" has become our slogan. We have forgotten how to be quiet. We have long abandoned the notion of developing stillness as a way of life. These joint disciplines have somehow slipped from grace and tumbled into the dark closet of the past.

When it comes to the next generation, I’m sure of two things: 1) We aren’t too effective today at reaching (or keeping) the next generation. 2) The Gospel still works powerfully in any generation. How do we share Christ effectively to a generation not impressed by the Church today? Here are five ideas.

The New Testament is filled with instruction on discipling believers generally. But now and then it also focuses on raising up church leaders in particular. For instance, Paul tells Titus, “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you” (Titus 1:5). In the same way, I’d like to offer counsel on how I’ve personally worked to find, encourage, and raise up other leaders in my church, whether to serve in my church or eventually in other churches.

In the church I’ve learned about the value of pro-life candidates, fundraising for local pregnancy centers, and the national sin of abortion and God’s impending judgment. But I haven’t learned much about positive, practical efforts to cultivate a culture of life within the congregation. And I’m not the only one.

In this episode of Signposts I sit down with Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska. We talk how perpetual adolescence hurts the church and about his new book, The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis–and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance.

“DID I JOIN THE WRONG CHURCH?” The problem with this question is that it assumes church life shouldn’t be hard. It assumes the “honeymoon stage” should continue in perpetuity or that something has gone awry if we experience significant disappointment or hurt from our relationships with other members or the church’s leadership.