Pastoral Ministry

The enemy would love God’s people chasing abstract and far-fetched untruths rather than sharing the good news of the gospel with their neighbors.

Isolation and loneliness are common struggles for even the most extroverted pastors, and they remind us that those called to shepherd God’s flock need ministry too.

I hope my journey’s biblical, theological, historical, and practical reflections will serve pastors for years to come.

If you wouldn’t put the would-be missionary on your church staff—assuming you had the funds to do so—don’t put them on a plane.

We should all be Timothy and Paul. That is the Kingdom of God. Disciples making disciples and the faithful learning from the faithful.

The short answer is that it identifies only two offices and categorically limits the pastoral office to qualified men. The basis of this limitation is not arbitrary but based on God’s design as it is revealed in Scripture.

Discerning God’s call is often a difficult, and prayer-filled, endeavor.

Credit for the success of any church plant is a zero-sum game.

If you pastor for long, you’re going to doubt your calling. Don’t waste this opportunity for maturity. Let it drive you to your knees.

If we’re honest, every Christian would rather have a faithful preacher who occasionally mumbles words and gets lost in his notes than a shallow, captivating one.

And like Paul, you may fervently and repeatedly pray for removal from your circumstances, but God will not change them due to a larger—and infinitely more glorious plan—that you do not see.

God’s servants will suffer, but he will not let them go. He is demonstrating his awesome power through their astonishing powerlessness.

It is painful to watch shepherds fleece the flock they are leading, and so what follows is written with an eye to those churches who may be suffering from the effects of a narcissistic pastor.

The orality of preaching makes it a more powerful medium than writing.

How easily younger ministers can assume that newer is better. Yet younger pastors need the perspective of those who’ve gone before us.

Scripture certainly gives warrant to have heroes, to study and emulate men and women of the faith whose lives are so marked by humble, courageous Christ-honoring character and grace-enabled skill in living the Christian life.

This pursuit of silence takes the care of your soul to another level, for it exposes how much you need noise, people, busyness, and distraction.

I seriously doubt that I will ever see someone else complete the exposition of the New Testament in such a thorough way to one local church ever again. But I hope you’d consider making it your goal.