http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/ The Cross: One Man... One Tree... One Friday | A BRAND-NEW BOOK by Pastor Rod Parsley en-us Fri, 17 Apr 2026 05:37:09 +0000 Copyright 2026, Breakthrough with Rod Parsley. All Rights Reserved. 2026-04-17T05:37:09+00:00 Rod Parsley webmaster@rodparsley.com The Cross http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/assets/images/site/logo-noreflection.png http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/ http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/44-leading-with-passion http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/44-leading-with-passion Pastor Rod Parsley 2015-01-16T12:00:00-00:00 0 Valor Christian College. It’s called Influential Leadership 120, and it’s a sequel of sorts to a lecture series I presented to our local congregation and our ministerial alliance last fall. I am speaking for eight Sunday nights on various leadership topics, and those lectures are being incorporated in an online Valor class this semester, as well as in a class presented on our campus.

The response I’ve received from both series has been gratifying, and I’m enjoying the presentations – and the entire process –immensely. This week I came across a news story featuring someone who, I’d like to think, could have benefitted from one or both of these lecture series – or any basic training in leadership. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/43-the-command-to-rest http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/43-the-command-to-rest Pastor Rod Parsley 2015-01-09T14:00:00-00:00 0
“Rest” in this context doesn’t necessarily mean that the Body of Christ is supposed to take it easy in 2014 – far from it. Instead, it means that we are to be free from worry, free from anxiety and confident that God has provided all that we need.

But I’ve become more and more aware that on God’s calendar, this is a shmittah year coming before a year of jubilee. At our recent New Year’s Eve service I declared, “He (God) has never been more serious about Sabbath than in 2015.” The question I have for you is, are you serious about Sabbath? Or don’t you prioritize obeying God? Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/42-staying-in-the-house http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/42-staying-in-the-house Pastor Rod Parsley 2014-11-06T10:00:00-00:00 0
But I am starting to see in this parable something I’ve never seen before: a cautionary tale for those in the Church who would leave its covering. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/41-what-happens-when-the-church-is-silent http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/41-what-happens-when-the-church-is-silent Pastor Rod Parsley 2014-10-22T11:00:00-00:00 0
Mayor Parker is charged with serving the citizens of her city. Instead, she and her staff have blatantly violated the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and freedom of religious expression, in an unconstitutional assertion of authority. It’s difficult to imagine a judge with any credibility doing anything but shutting down these shenanigans, but the mayor has already made her mindset clear: she sees orthodox Christian doctrine as a threat to her administration, and she’ll trample the Constitution to stifle that threat.

The great shame of this story is that the Church could have stopped this from happening a long time ago, and did nothing. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/40-leaders-are-like-clay-pots http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/40-leaders-are-like-clay-pots Pastor Rod Parsley 2014-10-02T15:00:00-00:00 0
I’ve greatly enjoyed the time I’ve spent the past several Sunday nights sharing leadership insights with our ministry leaders at World Harvest Church. One of the best insights I’ve come across recently comes in John MacArthur’s seminal book on the subject, The Book on Leadership. It’s a study of the leadership characteristics of the apostle Paul, and one of MacArthur’s greatest gleanings from Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth is this: a leader is resilient. Like a clay pot. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/39-filling-gods-vacuum http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/39-filling-gods-vacuum Pastor Rod Parsley 2014-09-24T15:00:00-00:00 0
In 10 days – known as the 10 Days of Awe – Joni and I will lead a special Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur to the Jews) service on our campus. It will be streamed live on our website (7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4), and I hope you will choose to join us in person or online. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/38-god-makes-all-types http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/38-god-makes-all-types Pastor Rod Parsley 2014-09-04T15:00:00-00:00 0 Wired That Way by Marita Littauer.

“So that's why I am the way I am!,” some people seemed to be saying. “So that's why my spouse is the way he/she is!,” was the implied response of others. It's clear this is a neglected subject in the context of ministry.

I'm convinced that if leaders in the Church understood that we fall within a range of personality types and that one size does not fit all when it comes to opportunities for ministry, it would revolutionize the way we did things. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/37-mind-games http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/37-mind-games Pastor Rod Parsley 2014-08-20T14:00:00-00:00 0
Two things I believe about being a pastor are that: 1) there's a better person in everyone God brings me to care for; and 2) if I can help those persons find a better self by challenging them, that's exactly what I should do! Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/55-responding-to-the-darkness-as-children-of-lig http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/55-responding-to-the-darkness-as-children-of-lig Pastor Rod Parsley 2015-07-10T13:00:00-00:00 0
A family bakery in Oregon has been fined $135,000 and slapped with a gag order (what First Amendment?) because it declined to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple that the family knew, liked, and considered valuable customers. I agree with David French who noted in National Review Online that two people who claim to suffer mental anguish because they had to use their second choice of a bakery for a wedding cake need counseling rather than damages.

In our home state of Ohio, a municipal court judge is facing calls for his impeachment because he declined to officiate a same-sex wedding. Never mind that another judge officiated their wedding – the “offending” judge must pay for his slight to the couple with his job, in the minds of some.

What you’re seeing in both of the above situations and countless others is an effort by people of faith to opt out of a situation they can’t support, and the culture imposing their views of morality on them. It’s almost exactly what the secular left has long (falsely) accused values voters of doing for many years. It’s natural for fair-minded Christian believers, and values voters of all faiths, to get angry over this turn of events.

It’s tempting to fight back. I’m not suggesting we don’t respond with efforts to preserve the rights of religious freedom the Constitution grants to us. But how we fight makes a great deal of difference to the God we claim to know and serve. If we’re His, let’s act like it. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/54-grace-and-truth-in-a-post-marriage-culture http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/54-grace-and-truth-in-a-post-marriage-culture Pastor Rod Parsley 2015-07-02T17:00:00-00:00 0 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling. You don’t have to be a legal scholar to realize the majority is guilty of a classic example of judicial activism, devoid of sound reasoning. The members of the court’s majority – the liberal wing of Steven Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, joined by moderate Anthony Kennedy – didn’t have a valid constitutional argument to validate same-sex marriage, so they simply made one up. It’s a power play, pure and simple, and you have every right to be angry about that.

Every instance of judicial activism reaps adverse consequences that can’t be adequately estimated at the time it’s committed. The Roe v. Wade decision, which invented a right to abortion in 1973 and made it legal throughout of pregnancy, has resulted in an estimated 50 million lives lost in the past 42 years. So what happens when five judges, accountable to nobody, invent a right to same-sex marriage that can’t be found in the Constitution? There’s no way to know today what ill effects we’ll experience as a result of Obergefell v. Hodges. We can only surmise that in 40 years the state of the family and the nation will be vastly different than it is today, and not for the better.

So what are we, meaning the Church, to do in the face of such a grievous decision? I think the answer lies in the words grace and truth. We must balance both while overemphasizing neither in the days and weeks ahead. Our challenge is to find a way to champion orthodox Christian belief without ruining our witness. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/53-charlestons-best-lesson http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/53-charlestons-best-lesson Pastor Rod Parsley 2015-06-25T11:00:00-00:00 0
I’m sure there will be ample opportunity to discuss the proper response to gun violence, the appropriateness of the death penalty and the presence of the Confederate flag in what used to be the Confederacy. There always is. I’m just not sure that doing so before the victims of the terror attack are buried is the smartest approach. A quote from Aesop, the philosopher of ancient Greece, comes to mind here: “When all is said and done, more is said than done.”

For me the indelible image and sounds of Charleston came as Roof was arraigned. A parade of family members spoke with him via a video hookup, urging him to seek God and forgiving him for taking their loved ones from them. Their actions were widely praised as remarkable – and that is to the Church’s shame, because that type of forgiveness should be commonplace for men and women of faith. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/52-the-freedom-we-dare-not-ignore http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/52-the-freedom-we-dare-not-ignore Pastor Rod Parsley 2015-06-05T11:00:00-00:00 0
You can be sure, however, that I will speak out when issues that impact the fundamental role of the Church are at stake. I cherish the First Amendment freedoms we all enjoy as Americans, and will do whatever I can to defend and uphold them.

That is, in part, because I exercise those freedoms myself. But like the Founding Fathers, I am convinced our life as a nation requires the free expression of ideas, without government interference. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/51-a-perpetual-pentecost http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/51-a-perpetual-pentecost Pastor Rod Parsley 2015-05-22T15:00:00-00:00 0
To observe such a monumental event is the right thing for us to do. Without the Holy Ghost, the life of Jesus becomes just an historical event. But the arrival of the Spirit, to fill and empower believers on that day and every day since, is a fulfillment of prophecy that gives believers confidence that Jesus will return. The Holy Ghost provides “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,” in the words of the classic hymn.

But He also does much more than that, and that’s the reason Pentecost should be celebrated every day by all believers. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/50-still-living-on-our-heads http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/50-still-living-on-our-heads Pastor Rod Parsley 2015-04-03T14:00:00-00:00 0
One of the stories this one in The Washington Post by “social change reporter” Sandhya Somashekhar. It highlights a clinic in the well-to-do Friendship Heights neighborhood of Washington that looks like a spa, but is actually a place where you can get your unborn baby killed.

The ads the Carafem clinic prepared for the city’s transit system proclaimed, “Abortion. Yeah, we do that.” It’s part of an effort to “destigmatize” abortion – something that, quite frankly, shouldn’t happen on the Church’s watch. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/49-should-churches-be-safe-spaces http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/49-should-churches-be-safe-spaces Pastor Rod Parsley 2015-03-27T10:00:00-00:00 0 this one in The New York Times March 21.

The author, Judith Shulevitz, deserves credit for exploring a dynamic that even the nation’s unofficial journal of political correctness finds disturbing. Normally I read the Times strictly for comic relief or opposition research, but I’m glad they published this illuminating piece.

Shulevitz describes in great detail how many of today’s college students become easily traumatized by points of view that contradict their own. Increasingly, though, many students are making unusual demands on their institutions. They are calling upon their colleges to go to indulgent extremes to protect them from those points of view. That got me thinking about whether the Church does something similar – and, if it does, whether it should. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/48-recovering-christian-manhood http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/48-recovering-christian-manhood Pastor Rod Parsley 2015-02-19T15:00:00-00:00 0
But there are things my mother, my wife and my daughter should not be expected to do, or even attempt, because they are not men. Your Bible says that God created us male and female, clearly implying that He intended each gender to fulfill different functions. If we were all intended to be interchangeable, why did He bother to create two radically different types of humans?

That is expressly not to say that a man’s role is less important than a woman’s – far from it! But Christian men in particular should ignore the feminist lie that there is no functional difference between men and women, and intentionally fulfill the role for their families that God intended. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/47-to-lead-you-must-follow http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/47-to-lead-you-must-follow Pastor Rod Parsley 2015-02-12T15:00:00-00:00 0
Fortunately it’s possible – and vital – for people to lead at all levels of an organization. Most of us will lead and follow in our lifetimes. So it’s important to know how to follow if you really want to be an effective Christian leader. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/46-what-it-takes-to-lead http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/46-what-it-takes-to-lead Pastor Rod Parsley 2015-01-30T15:00:00-00:00 0 Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/45-how-to-act-when-youre-not-the-boss http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/45-how-to-act-when-youre-not-the-boss Pastor Rod Parsley 2015-01-23T13:00:00-00:00 0
Two stories from Daniel’s early life not only model that faithfulness, but also show how to demonstrate leadership skills when you’re not currently in a position of leadership. That’s important because, as my former Bible college instructor John Maxwell notes, there simply isn’t enough room at the top for everyone. But when opportunities for promotion arise, they’re far more likely to go to someone who acts like a leader than to someone who’s merely biding his or her time in a job. Read Full Article]]> http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/36-praise-in-the-crosshairs http://www.onemanonetreeonefriday.com/posts/36-praise-in-the-crosshairs Pastor Rod Parsley 2014-08-06T14:00:00-00:00 0
The thing I am coming to see about the Christian life is that every believer feels like that from time to time, and should feel like that. The Gospel is foolishness to those who do not yet believe, and frequently those who carry the Gospel will be targets of unbelievers' foolishness. Read Full Article]]>