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David Mathis

David Mathis is executive editor for Desiring God and pastor at Cities Church. He is a husband, father of four, and author of A Little Theology of Exercise: Enjoying Christ in Body and Soul (2025). Read more about David.

Church, Make Room for Young Leaders

What some aging Christians need from the younger generation is an invitation to lean into the local church, and not retreat or retire. But others from the older generation need a different challenge — a summons to lay aside…

A Better Country for Old Men

A Better Country for Old Men

This is a plea from the younger generation to the older. We desperately need you. Please don’t phone it in just when the King’s about to call. Don’t retire on the world’s terms and abandon your long-time local church. As…

The Reformation: Trick or Treat?

The Reformation: Trick or Treat?

It’s no accident that October 31 is both Halloween and the day remembered for the start of the Reformation.

When Jesus Haunts Your Halloween

When Jesus Haunts Your Halloween

Jesus came to conquer fear, to truly haunt whatever haunts us. We have no need to fear this night. This is our night now.

What the Church Can Learn from Chick-fil-A

What the Church Can Learn from Chick-fil-A

The church doesn’t need Chick-fil-A, but when we can glean a few pointers from another body reading our Book, we might as well take notice.

A Reason to Be Really Offended

A Reason to Be Really Offended

Our message is not you can do it. It’s not you’re good enough, smart enough, and people like you. What we preach is that you are a glorious creature gone tragically bad, that you have rebelled against the…

It’s Just Complicated — And Very Simple

The Christian life can be so complex — and oh so very simple. That we would use such a fancy word as sanctification betrays the complexity. But that defining such a big word could be so easy hints at the…

Acting the Miracle

Acting the Miracle

God’s Work and Ours in the Mystery of Sanctification

In this little book, John Piper, David Mathis, and other theologians set out to help us see and savor God’s holiness that we might strive to be holy.

Panel Discussion

Panel Discussion

2013 National Conference

C.S. Lewis is a great example of defending truth in a relativistic age, and he also can aid us in bringing our head and heart together as we follow Christ.

Fed Up with Life and Ready to Write

Ink is the great cure for all human ills. So wrote a young C.S. Lewis to a childhood friend. Lewis was only seventeen years old when he penned such a claim, but he has proved wise beyond his years. Here’s…

Conference Message

Fed up with Life and Ready to Write

Small Talk — 2013 National Conference

C.S. Lewis’s life commends to us the motivation that each writer should practice both private and public writing.

Grace Gone Wild

Grace is on the loose. Contrary to our expectations, counter to our assumptions, frustrating our judicial sentiments, mocking our craving for control, the grace of God is turning the world upside down. He is shamelessly pouring out his lavish favor…

The X-Factor in Bible Reading

The X-Factor in Bible Reading

The Bible is no magic book. But saying it that way might give the wrong impression.

Tapestry: A Vision for Trans-Cultural Church

Leonce Crump describes the vision as “trans-cultural.” Not multi-cultural, but trans-cultural. Crump pastors Renovation Church in Atlanta and has found the image of a tapestry to be helpful. The individual pieces are essential, but the whole is more beautiful than…

Keeping King’s Dream Alive

It truly was the dream speech. Fifty years ago today — on August 28, 1963 — Martin Luther King, Jr. rose to a podium on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered one of the most important addresses in…

Why We Won’t Back Down

Why We Won’t Back Down

What if Tom Petty wrote the anthem for twenty-first-century evangelicals?

Twelve Gospel Passages to Soak In

Twelve Gospel Passages to Soak In

Mere truth cannot save or sustain the soul; only the gospel can. Here are twelve gospel-rich passages to jump-start and drive your worship.

No Christian Suffering Is Meaningless

Everyone in the world wants this. Every person on the planet aches for real hope — to find the secret of real strength and joy and significance. Put another way, no one longs to lose heart. No one desires to…

Ten Gospel Verses to Keep Warm

Ten Gospel Verses to Keep Warm

When you memorize a gospel verse, you have the very point of the whole Bible and all of history hidden in your heart.

Keller and Piper Talk C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis claimed he was no theologian. At least that wasn’t his day job. But it didn’t stop him from seriously shaping some of today’s most influential theologians. Lewis was a world-class scholar of English literature, and a Christian layman…

Ten Passages for Pastors to Memorize Cold

Ten Passages for Pastors to Memorize Cold

These ten passages will prove especially useful for pastors and Christian leaders, but it’s a good list for all Christians as well.

Born Again on the Fourth of July

Born Again on the Fourth of July

While the Fourth’s flood of Americana is all-too-enticing for many, it can rub many others the wrong way.

Not by Sight: Marking 20 Years of Happy Service

Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. It was these words from Jesus in Luke 13 that the 42-year-old preacher took as his sermon title on June 5, 1988. Little did he know, a 22-year-old newly-wed was in…

A Christian Guide to the Zoo

A Christian Guide to the Zoo

Summer is in full swing in the Northern Hemisphere, and if you haven’t yet made a family visit to the zoo, perhaps it’s just around the corner. The zoo is a wonderful opportunity for the Christian — both for personal…

In and Out, In a Blaise of Glory

In and Out, In a Blaise of Glory

Few have written with such passion and economy of expression. Rarely does one turn such manifest angst to articulation and channel such blood-earnestness into precise words. Blaise Pascal burned with the kind of intensity and aggression uncharacteristic of those who…

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