Good pastor care
Al Gooderham asks some really important questions when it comes to how we are caring for our pastor. How many of these are you doing in your church?
When is an evangelical not an evangelical?
I have written on this broader question a number of times. Here, my friend – Stephen Watkinson – writes into a different context but addresses the same question.
What is lust?
This is a helpful one outlining exactly what lust is. In addressing lust, we have to have a workable approach that would apply to all examples of it.
Your personality test score doesn’t give you a pass on the fruit of the Spirit
This is a point we have made many times before. It also doesn’t give you a pass on the commands of Christ. Personality test scores can be helpful in understand our tendencies, they aren’t a get out of what the Bible says free card. They are at their best when they help us understand how to communicate most helpfully with others.
The problem of the ‘problem elder’
‘We might not want to say it too loudly, but we often hear of ‘that one elder’ who causes so many difficulties for his fellow pastor/elders. Such individuals have singlehandedly brought ministries to a painful end and shaken churches. What are we to do about it?’
Life-giving thankfulness for soul-crushing compliance admin
I think this is a good word for the many of us drowning in compliance, admin and a host of bureaucratic matters none of us got into pastoral ministry to do.
From the archive: The Lord hedges you in
‘I have always believed that the Lord knows exactly what it takes to get the people he wants to the places he wants them. He also knows what it’ll take to keep the people in the places he wants to keep them too. Sometimes the Lord hedges you in and other times he makes the option to do something such a no brainer that it seems like evidently the only thing you would countenance doing differently under the circumstances.’