Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash If you were to ask ten pastors the question of what constitutes success in ministry you would undoubtedly get ten different answers. Each response may have some similarities with other responses but I imagine that the thrust of what each person said would be distinctly different. Is success in ministry proportionate to…
How do you get to this point? That was the question my wife and I asked ourselves one night. We were just married, had just began ministry in the church and everything was fresh and new and exciting. Yet we were also experiencing at that time a close-up view of several pastors who had either…
On Tuesday, Nathan wrote a post on how he has learned to be thankful, rather than jealous and grouchy, about other churches in his city. But what about when we feel we have cause to be grouchy? Maybe we hear that those churches are watering down the gospel, obscuring it by majoring on preferences/tradition, or…
Photo by Alexandra Kirr on Unsplash Reset: Living A Grace-Paced Life In A Burnout Culture by David Murray. I believe rest or margin is an indispensable discipline if a pastor is going to run the race in a way that pleases Jesus. Too many pastors keep to a schedule where they incessantly get up crazy early and stay up…
Most churches keep their members so busy they don’t have time to do ministry. Indeed, I spoke to a lay elder of a church recently who told me he simply did not have time to get to know his neighbors because he was so busy in his church — Thom Rainer Read this post here.
Are you an effective preacher? This is a helpful list that Dave Harvey provides in his book Am I Called? The Summons To Pastoral Ministry. The gospel factor: Does the man’s preaching move people toward the gospel? The Bible factor: Does he haven an aptitude for doctrine? Does he exegete Scripture competently? The eagerness…
Here’s a quote from Charles Bridges’ book The Christian Ministry that addresses both the external and internal call to ministry. Bridges writes, The external call is a commission received from and recognized by the Church…not indeed qualifying the Minister, but accrediting him, whom God had internally and suitably qualified. This call communicates therefore only official authority.…
Literally every ministry in the history of the Church has had trouble raising up good leadership. Jesus himself founded his church on twelve highly flawed men (Eph 3:20-21). And with all of our weaknesses and shortcomings we have a commission to complete (Matt 28:18-20). So the question is how do we raise up people, specifically…
Theology Along the Way 