By Brad Walker
Did I kill my sending church? This is a complicated question, one that can hardly be answered in a quick yes or no. Before I attempt to answer that and provide some lessons that we’ve learned, a little background.
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By Brad Bell
Right now there is a buzz about churches and sending. Although missions involvement over the past few decades for many churches has simply looked like donating money, things are starting to move in an exciting way. Pastors and churches are recognizing there’s more to God’s mission than “Pay, pray, and stay out of the way.” It’s an exciting twist in the narrative of the church and missions.
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By Brian Croft
Pastors and aspiring pastors, a church not having folks your age in the church generally should not be a deal breaker. In fact, you and your faithful energetic ministry may be exactly what God uses to turn the church around. But, make no mistake, it is hard, hard work.
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By Brian Croft
How does a fast work? The simplest way to explain it is to say that the moments we inevitably feel unfulfilled hunger pains of food should instead move us to pray. We translate our natural hunger for food, which is necessary for life, into prayer. Our physical yearnings are transferred into spiritual hunger for God, for the life we have in him, and for him to do what only he can do.
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By Matthew Spandler-Davison
There are two key factors that often lead to a pastor’s short tenure: loneliness and a feeling of ineffectiveness. As our association was revitalized, pastors began to pray for each other. We’d meet, often informally, for lunch or breakfast, simply to check in with one another.
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The antidote to much pastoral discouragement can be found in deliberate and purposeful fellowship with other pastors. Not just any pastors, but likeminded pastors. Fostering this kind of fellowship was our aim when 3 other pastor friends and I started a pastoral fellowship eight years ago, which we now call the Pastoral Fellowship for Practical Theology. In this article I will explain how we started this fellowship, who we intend to bring together, what we hope to accomplish, what our meetings consist of, and the fruit we’ve seen so far.
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Picture four pastors from America traveling to the southern Philippines together, working with persecuted pastors and spending a week in the jungle teaching biblical theology and equipping the local saints for ministry. Two of these men have never before traveled overseas and serve in churches that have never engaged in international missions. It can, does, and should happen. How, then, does a small church in a small town develop a commitment to the nations?
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It is a common scenario. You move to a new area. You get settled at your new residence and job. You get the kids settled in school. Where you settle in a local church often times becomes a longer, more drawn out task. After checking out all the churches you desire to visit, here are 4 questions to ask yourself as you narrow the search to make a decision.
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A simple and straightforward answer to this question…yes. There are no caveats and no disclaimers. Just, yes. Take a day off each week. Here are a few reasons I feel so strongly about this.
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I recently realized that I have come to use the term “revitalization” as a means of insulating myself from failure and isolating myself from my flock’s imperfections. This realization has brought me face-to-face with my own failures and imperfections. What happens when your ministry philosophies fail to be the magic bullet you had imagined? What happens when you employ best practices and wise council with fruitless and even adverse results? What happens when you have to face your own inabilities and short comings?
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You may begin reading this post with the idea that I will suggest how many weeks of vacation you should be given by your church, or how much you should advocate to give your pastor. Instead, I intend to answer this question a bit differently. My concern is not about how much vacation time a pastor is given, but how he uses (or doesn’t use) what he is given. In light of this being a common time where vacation time is used, I thought this post would be well-timed for many of you.
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Some pastors go way over the top, while others do nothing trying to make a statement about how church is not a place to celebrate your country, but worship God. Regardless where you find yourself on this spectrum, most churches have men and women who have served in the military who are present on Sunday. How does a pastor encourage these members in his church?
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A widow is a unique lady who, now that her husband is gone, not only has this once very special day (wedding day)transformed into a very painful day, but has also added another anniversary to her annual calendar—the anniversary of her husband’s death. Both become very painful days, days which pastors and the church need to be aware are coming in the lives of the widows in their care
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It is safe to say the Reformers never had to tackle this question. However, it is certainly one we face now and has important implications to the fruitfulness of a pastor’s ministry today. As this question has forced its way on the scene as a result of our growing technological advances, so have strong opinions on this matter. Many of these opinions are nothing more than preferences.
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I have had the honor of knowing an amazing lady in my church. Tillie Roberts, affectionately known to most of us as “Ms. Tillie,” was 106 years old when she died, just 3 month shy of her 107th birthday. Although she died a few years ago, I am often reminded of what an amazing lady she was and what the Lord had graciously taught me through her life and example. Here are a few of those lessons learned.
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“Then came a mother’s prayer, and some of the words of that prayer we shall never forget, even when our hair is grey. I remember, on one occasion, her praying thus: “Now, Lord if my children go on in their sins, it will not be from ignorance that they perish, and my soul must bear a swift witness against them at the day of judgment if they lay not hold of Christ.”- Charles Spurgeon
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Sometimes our sermons won’t just be bad, but a disaster! When a sermon doesn’t go well, most of us get very discouraged and if the despair is great enough, it might cause us to question whether we should continue to preach at all. I bet no one can top the disaster of John Newton’s first sermon.
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Anxious to reopen your church and gather together again? Me too. We all are. I believe the most important principle that every church will have to consider is how to honor the social distancing principles provided by the CDC and recommended by state and government officials. For any church to gather again on a Sunday morning, each church will need to start here and gradually lift these restrictions as circumstances allow.
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When we as pastors are attacked or criticized by those in the church, we have the option to defend ourselves. We can fight back. We can argue our case. In most cases, it is a “lose-lose” battle any time a pastor’s wife embraces the task to defend her husband. Therefore, what is she to do? Here are 3 suggestions.
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How do you teach a group of 4-6 year old kids what a pastor is and does? This is something any pastor should be able to do, so pastor, how would you go about this? This article represents my efforts to explain a pastor’s task in the form of props I brought with me to class for the kids to see, touch, and ask questions.
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