Frank Viola: Official Blog

There Really is More to the Christian Faith

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“Launch out into the deep …” Luke 5:4

“Deep calls unto deep ….” Psalm 42:7

Are you tired of the shallowness and superficiality that marks present-day Christianity?

Do you feel deep within your heart that there has to be more to the Christian faith?

Are you weary of both the evangelical right and the progressive left?

Do you desire to take your relationship with the Lord to the next level?

Join over 2 million readers and get plugged into The Deeper Journey.

Once you subscribe, you’ll get my weekly UNFILTERED articles which are emailed every Thursday.

You’ll also receive these two books as gifts as well as my Next Reformation audio seminar.

https://frankviola.org/2018/10/15/join/

The Insurgence Podcast is Live!

I’ve been waiting a year to unveil The Insurgence Podcast. The idea of the podcast has been brewing in me even before I launched the book, INSURGENCE: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom.

The podcast will feature a new episode every Tuesday.

I have two conversation partners for the podcast.

Partner A appears in the first two episodes.

Partner B will appear in episode 3.

Then each episode following will switch between partners A and B.

You can listen to the podcast through the following mediums. Be sure to subscribe as we cover the waterfront on the gospel of the kingdom — beyond what’s in the book and the Everlasting Domain Master Class.[Continue Reading…]

My Response to an Apostate

To those of you who skim emails, the heading of this post uses the word “apostate,” not “apostle.”

They aren’t the same. Cough.

An apostate is someone who follows Jesus for a time and then turns their back on Him forever. They are people who renounce the Lord and their faith in Him.

This is different from “backsliding” because a backslider rebels out of weakness or momentary deception, but then returns to the Lord. (Though there are always consequences to rebellion.)

After listening to my YouTube monologue – Can a Christian Lose Their Salvation? – a man who thought he may be an apostate wrote me the following email. I thought our discussion may be of help to others, hence why I’m sharing it.[Continue Reading…]

Why “Read Your Bible and Pray” is Inadequate

Before you have an apoplectic fit, let me clear the table by saying emphatically:

1. I consider the Bible to be God’s revelation, fully authoritative, fully inspired, and fully reliable. For that reason, I read the Scriptures regularly. I mediate on them, seek the Lord through them, and study them. And to the both of you who have read my newer books [cough], I expound the Bible, quote it, cite it, teach it, and seek to unveil it in those books.

2. I’m also a person of prayer. I pray daily in one form or another. (As I’ve shared elsewhere, there are different kinds of prayer mentioned in Scripture: supplication, intercession, thanksgiving, fellowship, etc.) For the Jesus-follower, prayer is like breathing.

Are we clear now?

Good (wipes forehead).[Continue Reading…]

What to Do When You’re Stuck in a Holding Pattern

When a plane is in mid air and cannot descend, it circles itself repeatedly until it’s given permission to land.

We call this a “holding pattern.”

Many of you are in a holding pattern right now with respect to one or more areas of your life: be it your spiritual life, your ministry, your business, your health, your career, and/or your relationships.

You’re in constant motion, circling ground you’ve seen before, but you’re making no progress.

In this article, I want to share a few insights I’ve discovered about how to react when you’re in a holding pattern.[Continue Reading…]

An Open Letter to Pastors & Teachers

For those of you who don’t know who I am, for over 30 years I’ve been involved in church planting, shepherding the Lord’s people, and training leaders internationally. I’m the author of over 12 published books, 8 of them bestsellers, published by Tyndale, Thomas Nelson, Baker, David C. Cook, and Destiny Image.

In all my years of working with fellow teachers, pastors, speakers, authors, and bloggers, I’ve come to the conclusion that most Christian leaders today are plagued with one of two kinds of ministry orientations.

The root of these orientations is similar, but they express themselves differently.

If you don’t read this entire article, I’m fairly certain you fit into one of these two ministry orientations. Skimming then bolting is another characteristic of each one. Reading this to the very end could change your life.

When I first put my hand to the plow of God’s work in my early 20s, I experienced both orientations at one time or another.[Continue Reading…]

Christians Are Behind the Ball Again

Sadly, the world often blazes past the Christian community, leaving it to cough up dust.

Eventually, the Christian community plays catch up.

It’s been this way with creativity. With music. With movies. And with other forms of art.

But the big dinosaur in the room right now is the economy.

“Well Frank, it’s about time you shared your opinion about Donald Trump’s plans for the US economy.”

Hold your fire: I don’t mean the financial economy. I mean the connection economy.[Continue Reading…]

8 Signs of a Modern-Day Pharisee

Even though it’s been “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” since Pharisees were running around in Century One causing trouble for God’s messengers, Pharisees and Pharisaism are still here.

They’re like the poor. They’ll always be with you.

While Pharisaism is in sharp decline today (experiencing advanced stages of rigor mortis), the pharisaic spirit still exists. And it’s the chief reason why so many non-Christians want nothing to do with Jesus.

When I was 18 years old, I spent a lot of time in a group that bred Pharisees like rabbits. And I will shamefully admit that I was one of them.[Continue Reading…]