Leadership

Reverberations from a pastors theological roundtable continue as Christian leaders share their thoughts on the Elephant Room held more than a week ago – some saying the event resulted in harmful side effects.

While co-host Pastor Mark Driscoll wrote this week that he believes he learned more about leadership during his "24 hours in Chicago for the Elephant Room than any other experience" of his life, other pastors, such as Tim Raymond, state the event lifted "up men with minimal theological commitments as examples to pastors."

Raymond, who is the pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Muncie, Ind., wrote in his post published on the Credo Magazine Website on Wednesday, that although he did not want to evaluate the "gospel according to [Bishop TD] Jakes" (one of the pastors participating in the Elephant Room), he wanted to warn Christians of the danger from the event's inclusivity. more >>

A 3-day pastors conference hosted by the Desiring God ministry designed to illuminate what the Bible says about male leadership turned to the subject of what the role for women should be in the Christian community during a panel discussion on the last day of the event.

On Wednesday, evangelist John Piper and other conference guest speakers were asked to tackle the question, "What is biblical femininity?" Piper had declared a day earlier that God's intention for Christianity is for it to have a "masculine feel."

What is viewed by society as traditional male and female attributes are a "cultural thing, not a Bible thing," said panelist Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey in Saint Louis, Mo. "So, we have adopted that and then kind of spit that out as masculinity and femininity." more >>

Regina Brett, a New York Times bestselling author for her book, God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life's Little Detours, has just released another book, Be the Miracle: 50 Lessons for Making the Impossible Possible and is using her stories to inspire and empower readers all across the world to make a difference in someone's life.

Brett is a columnist and radio personality in addition to her work as a book author. Brett told The Christian Post the main difference between writing a book and column is the personal investment.

"When you write a book you are asking someone to make an investment in their time and money. A column can come and go as the weeks pass, but a book needs to be timeless," she said. more >>

God's intention for Christianity is for it to have a "masculine feel," evangelist John Piper declared on Tuesday.

"God revealed Himself in the Bible pervasively as king not queen; father not mother," Piper said at this year's annual pastors conference hosted by the Desiring God ministry. "Second person of the Trinity is revealed as the eternal Son not daughter; the Father and the Son create man and woman in His image and give them the name man, the name of the male."

He continued, "God appoints all the priests in the Old Testament to be men; the Son of God came into the world to be a man; He chose 12 men to be His apostles; the apostles appointed that the overseers of the Church be men; and when it came to marriage they taught that the husband should be the head." more >>

Men are the head of their wives despite what some in the church and those outside of it argue, Mark Driscoll recently affirmed during his latest "Real Marriage" sermon series based on his controversial book.

Speaking to the men in his congregation, the Mars Hill Church pastor declared, "You are the head of your wife as Christ is the head of the Church. It's not a not. It's an is."

"We get into a lot of trouble when God says we are something and then we debate as to whether or not we should be," he said, referring to the many debates people have had over the years because of the very question, which is to him, simply a biblical fact. more >>

Good church leadership begins at home, the first speaker of this year's annual pastors conference hosted by the Desiring God ministry at the Minneapolis Convention Center said Monday.

"The apostle Paul considers the fruit of a man's behavior in his home as one of the central qualifications for pastoral office," Pastor Doug Wilson of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, told those in attendance and an online viewing audience.

"He says that if a man does not know how to manage his household well, then how will he know how to care for the church of God as he says in 1 Timothy 3-5? From this we learn that fatherhood in the home and pastoral care in the church are analogous activities." more >>