Category: Ministry
-
The Secret Love Life of the Passionate Pastor
In this wonderfully encouraging and clarifying article Michael Milton describes the perils and joys of pastoral ministry. Most succinctly Mike explores the three loves above all others that the true Christ-like pastor must have: Love for God Love for God’s Word Love for God’s People Amazingly, no mention is made about the 3 B’s most…
-
The Great Physician’s Assistants
The question still resounds in my mind; and resonates in my heart. An wise old pastor approached the table where I was lunching with my father-in-law and my pastor on the day I was to be examined for ordination. He sat easily in an open chair with a friendly grin and forewarned me that he…
-
When People Go
Let’s face it, it is one of the bummers of being in ministry – or for that matter, of being a part of a church. While death and taxes may be among life’s inevitables, sadly, if you are part of a church, so is periodically watching people go out the doors. With the Wal-Martization of…
-
10 Signs of Approaching Meltdown
Perry Noble reveals and responds to a stunning statistic: My counselor shared a statistic with me two years ago that floored me – 90% of the people entering ministry do not retire from ministry. They either quit or have some sort of moral/ethical failure that disqualifies them. Jesus did not call us to this or…
-
6 Foundation Points for the Church
According to Dann Spader and Gary Mayes there are six foundational aspects of ministry crucial to cultivate an environment for (healthy) church growth. While the culture has changed quite a bit in the twenty years since Spader & Mayes published their thoughts, their points are still valid. 1. Create an atmosphere of love Jesus’ insight,…
-
4 Ingredients for an Assimilation Recipe
It has been said: When people visit a church they are not so much looking for friendly people as they are looking for new friends. If all they wanted was friendliness they could go to almost any store in the mall and find it. I have always sensed that there is much truth in this…
-
5 Marks of Revived Churches
Ray Ortland proposes there are five constants in all historic instances of biblical revival. Awareness of God’s presence Responsiveness to God’s Word Sensitiveness to sin Liveliness in community Fruitfulness in testimony These are important features. To read Ortlands elaboration click: Revived
-
Drilling Down
I have greatly benefited from being introduced to Tri-Perspectivalism. While it is an odd sounding word, as a concept Tri-Perpectivalism is reasonably easy to grasp. It is a multi-facted perspective, or looking at things from three distinct perspectives, rooted in the personality and offices of Christ: Prophet, Priest, and King. John Frame was probably the first to touch upon this…
-
Mistakes
Steve Childers is Founder and President of Global Church Advancement. He is also professor of Practical Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary-Orlando. In a former life Steve was an effective pastor and church planter. A number of years ago I had the privilege of taking a doctoral class in church planting under Steve’s tutelage. I have…
-
5 Reasons Church Leaders Quit
Why do so many church leaders quit or go into early permanent retirement? This is epidemic these days. According to Pastor in Residence, a ministry aimed at restoring ministry casualties back to active duty, at any given time as many as 33% of American pastors consider throwing in the towel. And this is not a…
-
Shallow Small Groups
OK… This might make some folks cringe a little – especially some Small Group junkies… But this is just too funny!
-
Being a Transforming Presence
As followers of Jesus it is as imperative for us to fight every inclination toward dualism as it is to fight against legalism. While legalism is widely recognized as relating wrongly to the Law, the error of dualism is not as widely acknowledged in our Evangelical circles. Simply put, dualism is like split vision, seeing…
