Sterling Griggs

" This February 27th, join us and other Freedom Fighters from around the world as we SHINE A LIGHT ON SLAVERY. Draw a RED X on your hand. Tell your world that slavery still exists and YOU WON’T STAND FOR IT. Just use your influence any way you can to help us carry the message of FREEDOM so even more people know. Let’s make this SHINE A LIGHT ON SLAVERY DAY even brighter than ever ." This is the premise behind the End It Movement , a group dedicated to highlighting the reality of modern day slavery and the need for our world leaders to wake up to an issue that is largely being ignored and needs to be shut down. Right now, 27 million men, women, and children around the world are trapped in slavery ranging anywhere from sex trafficking to forced labor. Because of that reality, I happily drew a red X on my hand and even sent my kids to school with X's on their hands. No, awareness alone is not enough to stop slavery, but without awareness  the issue of slavery will...

If you've only listened to Christian radio for 15 minutes in your entire life, you have undoubtedly heard the song by Casting Crowns entitle The voice of Truth:   Oh what I would do to have the kind of faith it takes to climb out of this boat I'm in, onto the crashing waves. It is one of an encyclopedic number of songs that laud the faith that it must have taken for Peter to step out of the boat and walk on water toward Jesus when a storm was raging all around him. Sure, when he took his eyes off of Jesus, Peter began to sink but it was Jesus who gripped him by the hand and allowed him to stand in the midst of the storm. ( Matthew 14:22-33 ) Not only is this story recounted in music but I've also heard it preach countless times in sermons. If we could just have enough faith to get out of the boat and trust Jesus, our faith would be stronger and our lives would be richer. So what about the other 11 guys that stayed in the boat? Were they just a bunch of weak dude...

"Everything is permissible for me," but not everything is helpful. "Everything is permissible for me," but I will not be brought under the control of anything... Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ?...  Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:12, 15, 19-20) Do you have a few minutes for me to list for you all of the things that you should not be taking into your body as a Christian? Let's start with pornography. No one that I know would doubt that pornography is incredibly harmful and that it has no benefit at all to the human heart or mind. I know of not one marriage that has benefited from pornography. Oddly enough, I don't hear these words very often from pulpits across America. Instead, we prefer to pick and choose which sexual sins offend us the mo...

The Dixie Classic Fair used to be the one event that I anxiously anticipated every year. It's not nearly as big as the State Fair in Raleigh, NC, but when the Dixie Classic rolled into Winston-Salem every fall, I made sure that I had saved up a little bit of cash and had purged my system with a semi-fast so that I could indulge in as much fried decadence as my body could take. No one had to tell me to go the fair - I knew it was coming and it was where I wanted to be. When the fair came to town, one thing I did not expect to see was the fair workers at my front door. I mean, they were busy getting the rides ready and their tents and booths set up. Why would they come to my house to see me? I knew where the big show was going to be so it was up to me to make the time to go. They were the attraction, I was the spectator. Oh my, did I just describe many churches today? Let me preface my remarks by saying that I think it is great that we have so many different modes of worship e...

Resistance is futile. If you troll social media sites for only 5 minutes a day you will see them. These pithy articles written by well-educated and well-meaning men and women who genuinely are concerned about the church and therefore blog about the church with endless lists of reasons why this generation or that generation is no longer going to church and what the church can do to fix the church. Don't get me wrong - I, too, have a burden for God's church and I see a lot that I find distasteful and counterproductive - but I don't know if I can handle reading another blog post about it. So I guess it's time to write one of my own. Before I begin, let me preface my remarks this way - I am no expert on the church. My experience in local churches has spanned decades now but in no way am I a guru on all things church. I have not read most of the books written on the church that are out there and I miss out on most of the church growth conference and seminars that come to ...