Our Latest Thinking
Faithful Presence offers a growing library of resources designed to help pastors, leaders, and thoughtful Christians engage Scripture, culture, and ministry with depth and clarity. Whether through weekly devotional reflections, timely pastoral insight, or long-form theological essays, each resource is created to encourage faithful presence in everyday life and leadership. Explore The Presence Weekly for Scripture-centered devotionals, The Pastor’s Briefing for practical and cultural insight for ministry leaders, and The Journal for curated collections of essays centered around a single important theme.
Presence Weekly
Scripture-centered devotionals to ground your week in the presence of Christ.
Presence Weekly 8/25/26: The Paradox of Persecution
As we continue through the Sermon on the Mount, this week’s devotional passage is entitled The Paradox of Persecution and focuses on the final three verses of the Beatitudes.
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Presence Weekly 8/18/26: The Work of Peacemaking
As we continue through the Sermon on the Mount, this week’s devotional passage is entitled The Work of Peacemaking and focuses on “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. In the essay, we examine the connection between peacemaking and disarming landmines in the public square, the church, relationships, and, ultimately, with God.
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Presence Weekly 8/11/26: The Agenda of a Pure Heart
This week, we return to the Sermon on the Mount and explore what Jesus intended by “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
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Our Podcast
Conversations on faith, culture, and leadership for those living out their calling in the public square.
Special Edition: Discipleship for the Public Square
Michael’s June 16 Workshop at the EPC General Assembly Greetings and welcome to a special edition of the Faithful Presence Podcast! This is an audio recording of our founder Rev. Michael Langer’s workshop at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church’s annual assembly in Denver, Colorado. In this hour and a half long session, Michael goes into detail […]
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Podcast: Steve Taylor on Faith, Music, and Saying What Others Won’t
A Deep Dive into Christian Music and the Journey Towards Faith Greetings and welcome to another edition of the Faithful Presence Podcast! Faithful Presence is moving out and moving up. This podcast recording with multi-genre-award-winning musical artist, producer, and director, Steve Taylor, is our last on Substack. It is certainly the cherry on top of […]
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Podcast: Dr. Anthony Bradley on "Holistic Discipleship"
What it means to hold foot-on-the-ground theology and what we can learn from the book of Exodus about trauma and anxiety, and care for those who experience these things. The Faithful Presence Podcast is honored to host Dr. Anthony Bradley. Dr Bradley is a distinguished scholar, theologian, and public intellectual whose work spans theology, ethics, […]
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Presence Journal
Practical and cultural insight to equip ministry leaders for the week ahead.
Narcissism in Leadership
by Rev. Michael Coggin Rev. Michael Coggin Note: This essay is from the author’s forthcoming book, On Spiritual Abuse, and this excerpt was was given to Faithful Presence for pre-publication use in this edition of the Presence journal. Over the last few years, followers of Christ and those outside of the church have come to […]
Narcissism in Leadership
by Rev. Michael Coggin Rev. Michael Coggin Note: This essay is from the author’s forthcoming book, On Spiritual Abuse, and this excerpt was was given to Faithful Presence for pre-publication use in this edition of the Presence journal. Over the last few years, followers of Christ and those outside of the church have come to […]
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The Important Contrast of Our Values
Lessons on Faithful Presence from 1 Peter Rev. Michael Langer My son-in-law is all about Texas. He loves Texas. He grew up on a ranch in Texas. He went to Texas A&M (which I think is a cult). He holds Texas in high regard and always wants to see Texas succeed. Now, he is celebrating […]
The Important Contrast of Our Values
Lessons on Faithful Presence from 1 Peter Rev. Michael Langer My son-in-law is all about Texas. He loves Texas. He grew up on a ranch in Texas. He went to Texas A&M (which I think is a cult). He holds Texas in high regard and always wants to see Texas succeed. Now, he is celebrating […]
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Excellent Leadership: The 4C Profile
Dr. Charlie Self One glance at the headlines and we see a global crisis of leadership. In addition to the (alas, the almost expected) personal and institutional corruption and oppression, we are experiencing the consequences of two generations of separating personal and professional ethics, and the displacement of personal agency with the Leviathan of control […]
Excellent Leadership: The 4C Profile
Dr. Charlie Self One glance at the headlines and we see a global crisis of leadership. In addition to the (alas, the almost expected) personal and institutional corruption and oppression, we are experiencing the consequences of two generations of separating personal and professional ethics, and the displacement of personal agency with the Leviathan of control […]
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Pastor’s Briefing
Helping you get from Policy to the Pulpit without Partisanship.
Capitalism: A Discussion of Markets, Responsibility, and Worship
Shareholder Capitalism Most free-market fans are aware of Milton Friedman’s 1970 statement regarding the responsibility of business owners, “there is one and only one social responsibility of business — to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits…” However, those with more knowledge of economics would quickly point to a more […]
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Pastor's Briefing: Foreign Aid
Reflecting on the Moral Imperative of Loving our Neighbor and State Sovereignty Summary If there is a moral imperative for government officials to ensure that the State is properly fulfilling its role as an“authority…instituted by God,” then Christians serving and leading in government must consider their responsibility to restrain evil from occurring to their neighbors. […]
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Pastor's Briefing: The Abortion Debate
Why deep experience, deep thought, and deep conviction matter to how we answer the four questions of faithful presence. Much has been written on the nature and importance of the historically orthodox Christian church’s response on the issue of abortion. Any article that deals with this topic runs the risk of having the conversation ended […]
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