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31Oct 20263 Nov 2026

Salt & Light 2029, First Baptist Church Muncie: five practices of renewal. 1 Make Room, 2 Remember Forward, 3 One Clear Path, 4 All of Us, 5 Celebrate What God Counts. Matthew 5:13-14.

One Email To Rule Them All (At Least, For the Copy + Paste Tasks): More thoughts on limited AI use for “Ad-ministry”

“Should pastors use AI?” I get some truly awful emails advertising what appear to me to be large language model-assisted…

28Apr 202613 May 2026

Pentecost 2026 Family Update

Welcome to our Family Update Letter for 2026! Printable version available at bottom of this post. Click links under “contents”…

13Mar 202625 Jul 2026

A.I. That Doesn’t Steal Your Soul?

It was an hour drive from my friend Tyler’s house to the Ascent Summit this past week. We made that…

Preaching for Special Occasions

15 Jun 201913 Mar 2026

Sometimes in Preaching class you pretend to officiate the wedding of two empty chairs. In Spring 2019, I took a class on Preaching for Special Occasions. I grew in love…

“Enduring Forever. Present Today.” Youth Sunday 2019 Sermon

30 Apr 201915 Aug 2019

“Enduring Forever. Present Today” | Psalm 118:14-29 | John 20:19-31 | Acts 5:27-32 | Revelation 1:4-8 This sermon tries to answer the questions: Why do the Gospels see Jesus in…

“Earth Shattering Good News”

13 Jan 20192 Aug 2019

All right, kids! It's time we had a talk about "Law and Gospel!" A MidWinter 2019 retreat sermon by Jonathan Balmer, delivered January 12th, 2019. Video of the sermon from…

7th & James Youth Mission Trip 2018

5 Sep 201810 May 2020

The context: Hurricane Harvey was the second costliest storm in United States History. In Houston, America’s most diverse city, thousands upon thousands of people faced flood damage, and grave uncertainty…

“More than we thought we wanted”

5 Aug 201828 Oct 2020

What we want is not what always what God gives. That is good news. A sermon delivered at 7th & James Baptist Church. Waco, TX. “More than we thought we…

Tara Beth Leach “Emboldened” (IVP Press, ’17) REVIEW

6 Apr 201827 Sep 2020

This is not a book about how to interpret the passages used to prevent women from seeking ordination. If you're looking for a theological / scriptural argument, the best free…

“Compelled to proclaim freely” – 1 Corinthians 9

4 Feb 201829 May 2018

Audio recording of sermon available on SoundCloud here: https://soundcloud.com/jonathan-balmer/feb042018_sermon_jonathanbalmer “Compelled to proclaim freely” ♦ 5th Sunday After Epiphany ♦ 2.4.18 ♦ 7th & James Baptist Church ♦ Jonathan Balmer 1…

“So Abraham Went” Sermon 500th anniversary of the Reformation

31 Oct 20175 Sep 2018

Truett seminary hosted a preaching conference. All the sermons were to find their basis in Genesis. I preached earlier today, which happens to be Halloween (All Saints Day Eve), and…

Where does Truett seminary stand Theologically? A description by Dean Todd Still

25 Aug 201717 Jul 2019

The entire opening convocation was a wonderful way to begin my second year of seminary. We all gathered together as a seminary, faculty and students, new and old, worshipped God,…

Fleming Rutledge on Justification

19 Dec 201617 Jul 2019

"God is using you in spite of yourself. We aren't responsible for making progress. Whatever progress is made will be the gift of God. Jesus said, "Fear not, little flock.…