Stephen Witmer Photo

Stephen Witmer

Stephen Witmer is the pastor of Pepperell Christian Fellowship in Pepperell, Massachusetts, and Adjunct Professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is the cofounder of Small Town Summits, an organization that serves rural churches and pastors, and has written A Big Gospel in Small Places. He and his wife, Emma, have three children.

Will I Be Single Forever?

Will I Be Single Forever?

Singleness sometimes comes with long periods of waiting. One key to waiting well is to fix our eyes on the stunning future ahead of us with Jesus.

Kindness Changes Everything

Kindness Changes Everything

Kindness is no small thing. It yields marvelous fruit both in our lives and the lives of those around us.

How to Lose the Things You Love

How to Lose the Things You Love

The best way to enjoy food, sex, music, money, influence, entertainment is to enjoy them less than God. Put the gift before God and you’ll lose both.

The Honest Truth About Passive-Aggressiveness

The Honest Truth About Passive-Aggressiveness

Passive-aggressiveness pretends to spare us conflict and save us from any personal responsibility.

Parents, You Can’t Build Heaven Here

Parents, You Can’t Build Heaven Here

Some of us expect our children to be heaven for us. Others expect to build heaven for them. We’re called to parent our children toward eternity.

Unless You Stop Loving Sin: The Heart of Repentance

Unless You Stop Loving Sin

The Heart of Repentance

“Repent” means more than “stop sinning, and start behaving.” It means “stop loving sin, and start loving God.”

Questions to Ask Before We Gossip

Questions to Ask Before We Gossip

Gossip is one of the most pervasive and destructive sins in the church today, but it’s also one of the hardest to define — and easiest to justify.

Love Them More, Need Them Less: How to Serve One Another Better

Love Them More, Need Them Less

How to Serve One Another Better

One insight may unlock deeper reservoirs for your ministry to others: to truly love people well, we must need their love less.

Unless God Works, We Work in Vain

Unless God Works, We Work in Vain

How Grace Levels Laziness and Pride

Some of us are tempted to work as if God does nothing and we do everything. Others act as if he does everything and we do nothing. Grace unlocks a better way.

The Secret Small Churches Know Best

The Secret Small Churches Know Best

Small churches may not have the best musicians, children’s ministry, or website. But they have a unique gift from God.

Seven Strategies for Fighting Envy

Seven Strategies for Fighting Envy

Envy questions God’s plans, choices, and goodness. Envy is rebellion. Here are seven effective ways to fight it.

What Really Matters in 2017

What Really Matters in 2017

Reality is infinitely more precious than appearance. Our desire simply to look good should remind us of the surpassing value of real good.

The Lost We Love the Most: Evangelism to Friends and Family

The Lost We Love the Most

Evangelism to Friends and Family

Often the hardest lost people to pursue are the ones we have known and loved the longest.

Are You a Superstitious Calvinist?

Are You a Superstitious Calvinist?

John Calvin uses a surprising term to describe our neglect of the doctrine of God’s providence in the course of our everyday lives. He calls it superstition. Superstitious people wrongly attribute supernatural power to things that do not actually possess…

What Keeps Couples Apart? How to Pursue Marital Intimacy

What Keeps Couples Apart?

How to Pursue Marital Intimacy

If you want to deepen your marital intimacy, then cultivate a deeper desire for intimacy, pray for intimacy, and pursue intimacy with Jesus at the center.

When Shame Keeps You Away

When Shame Keeps You Away

Whatever is keeping you from a closer relationship with God, bring it to Jesus and let him deal with it.

Give Us God: My Open Letter to Pastors

Give Us God

My Open Letter to Pastors

What churches and pastors need more than anything else is a great big vision of a great big God.

Sunday Morning Is Not About Me: The Joy of Self-Forgetfulness

Sunday Morning Is Not About Me

The Joy of Self-Forgetfulness

As we look away from ourselves in worship, to gaze upon God, we will find the gift and treasure of Psalm 33 — true, lasting joy.

Jesus Between the Criminals

Jesus Between the Criminals

Crucifixion in the ancient world was intended to take as long as possible. No vital organs were damaged, so it took two or three days to die, often from shock or asphyxiation, as muscles used for breathing grew weak. Luke…

To the Next Generation of Church Leaders

To the Next Generation of Church Leaders

Three Reasons to Think Bigger Than Big

If you think your life would be wasted in a small church, in a small town, your God is not big enough yet.

To Us a Child Is Born

To Us a Child Is Born

To a people waiting in darkness, enslaved to sin, in need of rescue, a child is born.

Will I Ever Change? Fresh Hope for the Spiritually Stuck

Will I Ever Change?

Fresh Hope for the Spiritually Stuck

Anyone who has battled sin has been tempted to ask, Will I ever change? If you are in Christ, you are not as stuck as you feel.

Do Not Hope in Kings

Do Not Hope in Kings

Are you wondering how Jesus would respond to this election cycle? Pay close attention to how he acted toward the ruling authorities of his own day.

You Are Welcome Here

You Are Welcome Here

What Your Church Says to the World

You don’t need gorgeous buildings, or state-of-the-art ministries, or phenomenal music to bring glory to God.

Meal Above All Meals: Five Reasons We Enjoy Eating with Jesus

Meal Above All Meals

Five Reasons We Enjoy Eating with Jesus

Has the Lord’s Supper become humdrum for you, something you do mindlessly, something you’ve simply done for years?

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