-
01/06/2013Tending the Weeds in Your Ministry Relationships
For your ministry relationships to be healthy, you must have destructive and constructive zeal. I know that this sounds funny, but for these relationships to be what they were designed to be, there are things that need to be destroyed.
4 comments - 12/23/2012
Forgiveness: The Key to Pastoral Unity
One thing you can know for sure pastor, is that in the course of your ministry you'll be sinned against. You'll be misunderstood, falsely accused, and unfairly judged. You can taste the sad harvest of relational détente that so many church staffs live in, or you can plant better seeds and celebrate a much better harvest. The harvest of forgiveness, rooted in God's forgiveness of you, is the kind of ministry relationship everyone wants.
3 comments - 12/16/2012
Your Pastoral Calling: The Destiny Hermeneutic
This interpretive function is called hermeneutics. You and everyone you pastor carry around a personal life hermeneutic – that is, a particular way of making sense out of life. Our functional hermeneutic is what gives sense to our behavior.
1 comments - 12/09/2012
5 Signs Waiting Has Weakened Your Faith
Waiting for the Lord isn't about God forgetting you, forsaking you, abandoning the ministry he's called you to, or being unfaithful to his promises. It's actually God giving you time to consider his glory, grow stronger in faith, and grow in courage for ministry. Remember, waiting isn't just about what you're hoping for at the end of the wait, but also about what you'll become as you wait.
20 comments - 12/02/2012
Desire: Friend of the Devil, Grace of God
Desire is your biggest problem and one of God's sweetest graces. There's one thing for sure: your life and your ministry is always shaped by desire.
28 comments - 11/25/2012
When You Lose the Awe for God
Now, this is where the problem lies: I'm convinced that many of us live and do ministry day after day without any awe whatsoever. We live days, maybe even weeks, without wonder and amazement even in gospel ministry. What should stun us doesn't stun us anymore. What should leave us in silent, amazed worship has become so familiar it barely gets our attention in the clutter of all the other things in ministry that command our attention.
37 comments - 11/18/2012
4 Ways Location Matters Spiritually
The experts say that there are only three things to consider when buying a piece of property: location, location, location. The same could be said about life. When you understand location, you live and minister in a radically different way. Confused? Let me point you to four ways in which location matters.
11 comments - 11/11/2012
Godly Character Is Formed in the Little Moments
The little moments of life are profoundly important because they are little. Little moments are the ones we live in every day. The character and course of a person's life isn't set in three or four grand, significant moments. No, the character of a person's life is shaped in 10,000 little moments. You carry the character formed in the mundane into those rare consequential moments of life.
12 comments - 11/04/2012
Being a Pastor Is More Than Preaching, It's About ...
Life in this fallen world is hard. It's easy, at the end of a long day of ministry, to try to numb or distract yourself by whatever temporary pleasure lies within reach. But it's important for you to remember that life and ministry in the fallen world are hard, not only for you, but also for everyone in your care.
- 10/28/2012
To Pastors: Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Self
Pastor, many things nip away at your attention and schedule. You know many people who love you and have a wonderful plan for your life. You know that many conflicting motivations, thoughts, and desires give shape to your life and ministry. Sometimes you lose sight of why you're doing what you're doing. So this question is vital: do you live with singleness of focus? Is your life and ministry shaped, structured, and directed by the pursuit of one glorious, fulfilling, heart-satisfying thing?
- 10/21/2012
How to Know Sin When It Masquerades as Good
In order for sin to do its evil work, it must present itself as something that is anything but evil. Lust masquerades as a love for beauty. Gossip lives in the costume of concern and prayer. Craving for power and control wears the mask of biblical leadership. Fear of man gets dressed up as being a peacemaker or having a servant heart. Pride in always being right masquerades as a love for biblical wisdom.
81 comments - 09/12/2012
Anger Is a Calling?
Suffering must not, cannot be okay with us. Injustice must not, cannot be okay with us. The immorality of the culture around us must not, cannot be okay with us. The deceit of the atheistic worldview – the philosophical paradigm of many culture-shaping institutions – must not, cannot be okay with us. Righteous anger should yank us out of selfish passivity. Righteous anger should call us to join God's revolution of grace.
20 comments - 09/02/2012
If God Weren't Angry...
Called to represent God's work of grace in the lives of others, many of us in ministry need to reevaluate how we think about the anger of God. Sometimes we can treat God's anger like the embarrassing uncle in our extended family. It's as if we're working hard to keep this attribute of God away from public exposure.
101 comments - 08/26/2012
Why Anger Is Essential
In a world that has been terribly broken by sin, where nothing operates as was intended, and where evil often has more immediate influence than good, it would be wrong not to be angry.
60 comments - 08/19/2012
How to Be Good and Angry
Tom and Jim are two angry men whose lives are radically different, and whose angers produce radically different results. Tom is angry because he wants to be God, so he has reduced everything in his life down to the size of his little kingdom of one. His anger is leaving a legacy of fear, hurt, and separation. But Jim's anger honors God by putting God and his kingdom in their rightful place. Jim's anger is leaving a ministry legacy of love, compassion, provision, and healing.
10 comments
Edition:
MORE
PARTNERS
