Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 11101 This question generates more anxiety in Christian circles than it should. Some believers feel guilty for taking medication, as though reliance on a prescription is a failure of faith. Others have been told, sometimes by well-meaning pastors and sometimes by manipulative ones, that true Christians should trust God for healing and that taking…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09095 The question of how large or small a church should be generates strong opinions on every side. Megachurch advocates point to growth as evidence of God’s blessing. House-church advocates insist that anything beyond a living room has lost the New Testament pattern. Both claims deserve to be tested against what Scripture actually says,…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09103 Disagreements over women’s ministry roles are among the most emotionally charged and practically consequential disputes a local church can face. They touch on deeply held convictions about Scripture, gender, authority, and calling. They can divide friendships, fracture leaderships, and leave entire congregations wounded. How a church navigates this disagreement matters as much as…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 60112 When someone we love suffers, the instinct to help is immediate and strong — but so is the sense of helplessness. What do you say to the person whose child has died, whose diagnosis is terminal, whose marriage has collapsed, whose life has been shattered by tragedy? The temptation is either to say…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 60061 This is a question that deserves to be answered with honesty rather than defensiveness. The record of institutional abuse within churches, from the Roman Catholic scandals involving thousands of clergy, to cases within Protestant denominations, independent churches, and parachurch organisations, is genuinely appalling. Victims have been betrayed by the very people who were…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08057 Sleep paralysis is a deeply unsettling experience. The person wakes, or appears to wake, but finds themselves completely unable to move or speak. The episode is often accompanied by a crushing pressure on the chest, a sense of a malevolent presence in the room, and vivid, frightening hallucinations. Accounts of this experience are…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08052 When Christians talk about demonic activity, terms like “possession,” “oppression,” and “influence” are used regularly, sometimes interchangeably and often without much precision. Understanding what Scripture actually describes, and what distinctions are warranted by the biblical text, matters enormously for pastoral care. A person struggling with spiritual attack needs accurate diagnosis, not borrowed terminology…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08097 This is one of the most pastorally sensitive questions in the entire area of spiritual warfare, and getting it wrong in either direction causes real harm. The person who attributes every psychological struggle to demonic activity risks neglecting legitimate medical and therapeutic help that God has made available. The person who dismisses any…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 11090 Few pastoral questions produce more confusion, guilt, and genuine suffering than this one. The Christian who has wrestled with an addictive or compulsive pattern of sin — whether that involves alcohol, pornography, drugs, food, gambling, or any other form — frequently encounters competing frameworks. Some Christian traditions treat it as purely spiritual: a…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10167 The desire to know whether our departed loved ones can see us is one of the most deeply felt questions in the Christian life. It is asked at funerals, in hospital rooms, and in the quiet grief of ordinary days. The answer requires a careful handling of what Scripture says, what it does…