Tag Archives: church ministry

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

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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

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Christ’s Church is more than you and bigger than your wants

I ran into a former church member a while back. (Maybe I should be honest and say “disgruntled former church member.”) They recited a litany of things they had “heard” about our church. It was almost humorous because everything they … Continue reading

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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

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Pastoral Ministry has no “Career Path”

In James Strock’s excellent book Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership, he recounts TR (as he was known then and now) as saying that a person has to be careful about ambition. Early in his political career. As a twenty-three-year-old alderman, TR … Continue reading

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Some Thoughts on Today’s Differing Perspectives of the Church

Some of the problems in Christianity today stem from confusion about the church itself. Different groups, that are often at odds with one another, tend to view the church differently and this difference of perspective has a profound effect on … Continue reading

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The Problem with the Church in the World Today

Read this quote and see if it doesn’t sound like the church today: The trouble with us today is not only that the Church’s message has become poisoned with modern thought and has therefore little to say to the modern … Continue reading

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Some Thoughts on Paul’s Missionary Method, Church Growth, and Small Churches

Acts 16:9-15 records that on the first Sabbath after Paul arrives in Macedonia, he goes out to the river presumably because there is no synagogue there (he always began his ministry preaching to the Jews in the synagogue) and he … Continue reading

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Some Thoughts on the Church at Philippi and Small Churches

Acts 16:9-15 represents the first record we have of the Gospel going to a new continent. (It had undoubtedly made it to Europe, and perhaps other continents, before this, but this is the first record we have of it). The … Continue reading

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An Overview of the Scriptural teaching on Elders in Baptist Churches

This is the outline of a study for the church where I serve. I realize that in many traditions this is old hat but in some Baptist circles the question of whether a church should have elders is disputed. As … Continue reading

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