One of the young men at our church, Mike Evans, is serving as an intern this summer at Central Baptist Church in Harare, Zimbabwe and is chronicling his experience at a blog, “Entrusted With the Gospel.” I am finding his reflections encouraging and challenging so I wanted to pass it along. The following is from …
There has been a lot of conversation about the revelation that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford had been having an affair. I think one of the most important thing those of us at a distance should do in these situations is to take them as warnings to ourselves. The most recent newsletter from Shepherd Press …
As I mentioned in the previous post, we had the privilege of launching a new church, ordaining two new pastors, installing a third to serve with them this past weekend. I had the opportunity to give the charge to these men, and thought I would share it with you as well. I love ordinations where …
Since college I have appreciated the writings of Larry Crabb. Today I read a note from a friend in which he included an excerpt from Crabb’s book, Inside Out. I have pasted in below a smaller portion of the excerpt where Crabb makes the point that exposition alone is not enough for our pastoral work. …
Continue reading ‘Crabb on the need for involvement in people’s lives’ »
I have recently read Julia Duin’s Quitting Church: Why the Faithful are Fleeing and What to Do about It and I hope to post some thoughts from it. For now, I wanted to post this quote from Eugene Peterson. As usual, when talking about pastoral ministry, he is so good! In a day when hard-edged …
I am currently preparing for the Founders’ Day Address at Union this Friday where my topic will be Charles Bray Williams who taught at Union from 1926 to 1939. He had previously served as founding professor of Biblical Greek at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1905-1919), President of Howard College (now Samford; 1919-1921) and Professor of …
I recently came across this “Pastor Self-Evaluation Questionnaire” thanks to a link from Steve McCoy. The questionnaire was written by Tim Keller and David Powlison. I have only looked it over so far, but it is a wonderful, searching tool. It opens citing 1 Timothy 4:16 where Paul calls Timothy to pay close attention to …
I subscribed to this journal about a year ago and have enjoyed it. I admit that “modern” does not typically bring positive connotations to me when connected to ministry, but this journal, edited by Jay Adams, is devoted to exploring various aspects of day to day ministry from the perspective of absolute confidence in scripture. …
Visit the Sick: Ministering God’s Grace in Times of Illness, by Brian Croft (Day One Publications, 2008), pb., 92 pp. I was very pleased recently to receive a copy of this book and to see that it was now available. It was my privilege to read a pre-publication copy of it and to write a …
This is long but well worth reading to note what was considered to be a good pastor in Chaucer’s day. Note that this man is not merely a speaker but a shepherd visiting all of his flock. Note also the point about not always travelling elsewhere to “get enrolled” in a “brotherhood.” Rather, “He stayed …