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Category Archives: Pastoral Ministry
Every pastor should have a story like this: Beware church visitors bearing gifts
I still chuckle every time I think about this. Several years ago, two sisters visited the church where I serve as pastor. After the service they spent twenty minutes telling me how I should have preached the text and pointed … Continue reading
Is it the person or is it the organization?
Any church can have a pastor or pastoral staff member who fails morally. This is simply a sad reality. But when a church or religious organization has person after person in leadership positions with moral failures (some of them repeated … Continue reading
Reinterpreting the Church’s Mission
Donald Bloesch points out that the rise of new theologies has brought about a drastic reinterpretation of the church’s mission: Whereas traditional theology envisions the church’s mission as the proclamation of the good news of redemption through the cross and … Continue reading
P. T. Forsyth on preaching as “the most distinctive institution in Christianity”
Please note that I have added the paragraph breaks to make it easier to read. This was all one paragraph in the original. Preaching (I have said), is the most distinctive institution in Christianity. It is quite different from oratory. … Continue reading
Posted in Pastoral Ministry, preaching
Tagged P. T. Forsyth, pastoral ministry, preaching
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Church (Membership) Covenants, Power Structures, and Shepherding the Flock of God
The church where I serve has a church covenant. It is available on our website and along with it is a document with my own commentary on the church covenant, what the sections mean and how we live it out … Continue reading
Posted in Pastoral Ministry
Tagged church covenant, membership covenant, pastoral care, pastoral ministry
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Pastor, You’re Not Too Busy
Pastors often talk as if they are the busiest people in the world. This is not true. Even the secular world realizes what Eugene Peterson wrote to us pastors in his book The Contemplative Pastor: We shouldn’t strive to be … Continue reading
Posted in Pastoral Ministry
Tagged integrity, pastoral ministry, prayer, reading, study
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Some Practical Thoughts from the Front Lines on Ministry-Family Balance
I have spent Thanksgiving visiting dying people in the hospital. A few years ago I did a funeral on Christmas Eve. There have been occasions I’ve had to shift family things around to accommodate church matters. My son has a difficult … Continue reading
Preaching the text versus preaching from the text
I’ve heard many sermons in my day that made important, truthful, relevant points from the text of Scripture but that I would still say fell short of actually preaching the text. What I mean is that the text was the … Continue reading
Posted in Pastoral Ministry, preaching
Tagged exposition, pastoral ministry, preaching
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Overcoming Emotional Blockages to your Preaching
God has made us each with an emotional aspect to our personalities. Some react more based on their emotions while others may respond more based on reason. (Contrary to popular belief, the gender stereotypes are not correct here because this … Continue reading
Posted in Pastoral Ministry, preaching
Tagged pastoral care, pastoral ministry, preaching
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Three Types of Newcomers the Pastor has to Watch Out For
We all want new people to come to our church. While we would prefer they be unbelievers with whom we can share the Gospel, truth is, we often have people from other churches who are looking for something different (for … Continue reading
What Does the Text Say? 