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I’m Tom Nicholas — a pastor, teacher, and community builder living in Billings, Montana. My life and ministry flow from one heartbeat: to see the Church alive — Spirit-filled, rooted in Scripture, and moving with Jesus into the world. I serve as a pastor, chaplain, and mentor, helping people grow in faith, leadership, and everyday discipleship. Whether around a campfire, in a coffee shop, or through digital spaces, I believe the gospel belongs where life happens — in the field, among the people, and around the table. Through The Church Alive, I write about biblical leadership, spiritual formation, and building vibrant, missional communities that reflect the love and courage of Christ.

Author: Tom Nicholas

  • Learning to Keep Pace Together

    Last Sabbath, we did not try to resolve everything.We listened. We slowed our speech, our expectations, and our urgency long enough to sit attentively before the Word and before one another. For some, that space felt grounding. For others, it felt unsettling. For many, it was both at the same time. That mixture is important…

  • #6. When Awe Is Present: Sabbath as Shared Life Before God

    When the fear of the Lord is present, Sabbath does not need to be made sacred.It is recognized as sacred. This is an important distinction. Throughout this week we have seen that awe cannot be scheduled, produced, or enforced. It arrives when God is allowed to be God again—weighty, interruptive, and good. And when that awe is…

  • #5. Where Awe Leads: A People Turned Outward in Love and Truth

    When awe returns, life is reordered.When life is reordered, it does not turn inward for long. This is an important clarification. The fear of the Lord does not produce withdrawal from the world. It does not create spiritual isolation or inward piety detached from ordinary life. Scripture consistently shows the opposite. Where awe takes root,…

  • #4: What Awe Produces: A Life Reordered Around God

    When awe returns, life does not become louder.It becomes clearer. This is one of the great misunderstandings about the fear of the Lord. We imagine fear producing intensity, emotionalism, or instability. Scripture presents something very different. Where awe is restored, wisdom begins to take shape. Life starts to organize itself around what truly matters. The fear…

  • #3: How Awe Is Restored: Letting God Interrupt Our Lives Again

    If awe has been lost, the natural question follows:How is it restored? Not by trying harder.Not by increasing intensity.Not by returning to stricter rules or looser boundaries. Awe is not something we manufacture. It is something that happens to us when God is once again allowed to be God. Scripture never commands us to feel awe. It invites us…

  • 2. When Awe Is Lost: How Life Shrinks and Control Takes Over

    When the fear of the Lord fades, faith does not suddenly disappear.More often, life simply grows smaller. God remains part of our language. We still speak of Him with respect. We still pray, still read Scripture, still gather. But somewhere along the way, God stops being weighty enough to interrupt us. He becomes someone we consult…

  • 1. The Fear of the Lord: Recovering the Weight of God

    There are phrases in Scripture that make modern readers uneasy.The fear of the Lord is one of them. We are far more comfortable speaking about love, grace, mercy, and belonging. Those words feel warm. They feel safe. Fear, by contrast, feels harsh—out of step with the gospel, even threatening to it. And yet Scripture places fear…

  • When Bread Teaches You What You Don’t Yet Know

    Over Thanksgiving, I baked two kinds of bread: dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls. Both came from the same kitchen. Both were shaped by the same hands. Both were guided by the same instincts I’ve relied on for years—watching, listening, smelling, feeling. And yet, one turned out better than the other. The dinner rolls were light,…

  • REDEEMING CULTURE WITHOUT LOSING CHRIST: (Article #7)

    PRACTICING ANTHROPOLOGICAL MISSIOLOGY AS WE APPROACH 2026 If anthropological missiology remained only a theory, it would be little more than an academic exercise. But the God we have traced throughout this series is not abstract. He speaks, covenants, shapes, reveals, redeems—and then sends. Scripture always presses outward, from understanding into obedience, from theology into life. We…

  • WHEN CONTEXT BECOMES COMPROMISE:

    THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ANTHROPOLOGICAL MISSIOLOGY AND SYNCRETISM (Article #6) Up to this point in our journey we have traced the way God speaks human language, enters cultural worlds, reshapes identity through covenant, forms worship patterns through familiar symbols, and even reveals Christ through imaginative apocalyptic imagery. In Article Five, we watched anthropological missiology unfold in…