no unpublished thoughts
If you are looking for four steps through discouragement, then you are going to be disappointed. This is not a prescriptive article. I don’t believe there is an exact formula for this sort of thing. I am offering an account of a difficult season in life and how God moved me through that season. Along … Continue reading 4 Ways God Helped Me Through a Discouraging Pastoral Season
If I asked you when your greatest moment of worship took place, what would your mind run to? Would you think of a particularly powerful moment in a song service when you felt your soul flooded with love for God? That wouldn’t be surprising, since “worship” in the western church is nearly synonymous with music. … Continue reading Your Greatest Moment of Worship
About seven years ago I started a new job in the lighting industry: I went to work for a rep firm. Until that point I had worked in a showroom and then as a sales manager at a local lighting distributor, so I had a background in the field. I was actually on my way … Continue reading What Every Pastor Should Want for Himself
What happens to your old sermon notes?
A follow-up post regarding the masculine virtues needed in the pastorate.
Thoughts on women being ordained to the pastorate in light of the SBC's decision to disassociate Saddleback Church
Over the last couple of years as ministry has changed for many churches, I find myself occasionally talking to a friend or colleague who left pastoral ministry and has found himself looking for employment in the secular world. Job interviews inevitably get around to asking about employment history, experience, and skill sets. How does a … Continue reading 2 Hats the Pastor Must Not Wear
Our family's first computer, purchased in 1995, used an MS-DOS operating system that required typing individual commands at a prompt. My dad purchased "DOS for Dummies" and was off to the races. Now, many many many years later, the complexity of those earlier code based systems has a simple interface that only requires users to … Continue reading A Simple Paradigm for Pastoral Ministry
There are two issues that make this a pertinent question to ask: 1) the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer, and 2) the egalitarianism of our culture. The priesthood of the believer states that all believers share a priestly status so that no mediator outside of Christ is necessary. The protestant Reformation broke from … Continue reading Why Are Elders Held to A Higher Standard?
Book recommendations for laymen in the church.
