Leadership in the Church

Today in my Pastoral Ministry class we will be discussing 1 Thess 5:12-13, which is a significant passage on the duties of pastors to congregation and congregation to pastors. Some seek to evade the language of authority in this text, but that is misguided. I think it reveals our discomfort with the idea of authority- …

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Anthony Esolen on Masculinity and Pastoral Ministry

Anthony Esolen is a particularly gifted writer. If he wrote a phone book it would be interesting and quotable. His 2003 Touchstone essay “What Sports Illustrate: The Obvious Truth About Young Men & Religion” is an insightful discussion of culture, masculinity, sports and pastoral ministry. His introduction alone is full of valuable truths, but as …

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“Strive to Be Ordinary”

In my Pastoral Ministry class today B. J. Maxwell, pastor of Unity Baptist in Millington, TN, gave a lecture titled, “Strive to Be Ordinary.” It was an excellent exhortation to pursue faithful ministry to people rather than the trappings of success. I attempted to record it but was unsuccessful. The manuscript should be available soon, …

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Trueman on Leadership and Making Difficult Decisions

Carl Trueman has another insightful article this time on leadership. Trueman discusses the tendency today to avoid any decision which will cause any offense. This, he argues, is not an option for those in real leadership positions. Pastors are leaders and we ought to know the reality of Trueman’s statements. If we are going to …

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Leadership Equals Teaching

I have recently been sent the following quote from Great Leader, Great Teacher: Recovering the Biblical Vision for Leadership by Gary Bredfeldt: “We have been hoodwinked. We have come to accept a standard for leadership that actually robs the church of great leaders. The standing-status-success standard is not a biblical standard: it is the world’s …

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