Two quotes from pastors came to my mind. Alexander MacLaren said when he was invited to lecture in the prestigious Yale Lecture series on preaching, that he turned it down. He turned it down because it would have taken him away from his preaching ministry at Union Chapel in Manchester. MacLaren put forty hours a week into the one sermon he preached. That means he said “No” frequently. Because of his dedication to preaching to his flock, we still read his sermons today in Expositions of Holy Scripture.
Read moreReview of Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor (Part One)
How to help the dying face death!
Kent R. Hughes related the following story about a pastor who helped a thirty-eight-old mother of four to die.
In the late 1970s, Margie, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of four, was hooked up to a ventilator. Unlike most other patients, she was not heavily sedated. She and her husband had just been told that she had only a few days to live because of the total respiratory failure she had experienced that very morning. Young Margie took a writing pad and asked her pastor, Dr. Darryl Bodie, the bare question “How do you die?”
Read moreProphets for Profit (Numbers 22-25)
J. Vernon McGee told of a preacher who came to his wife and said, “I’ve just gotten a call to the church in the next town. It’s a larger town. It’s a much better church. The people in it are more refined and cultured, and they do not cause the trouble they do here, and they’ve offered me a higher salary. I’m going upstairs and pray about this to see if it’s the Lord’s will for me to go.” His wife says, “Fine, I’ll go up and pray with you.” And he says, “Oh, my, no. You stay down here and pack up.”
Read moreChurch Discipline
“One of the most neglected doctrines of the Word of God is church discipline” (Paul Jackson, The Doctrine and Administration of the Church, 75). “The attitude which accompanies the work of discipline is vital” (Ibid., 76). This post is a quick review of Paul Jackson’s chapter on Church Discipline. There are great resources at 9marks on church discipline (click to view).
Read morePastoral Hospital Visitations by Aldine Gibson
Darrell L. Bock is a Senior Research Professor in New Testament Studies and Executive Director of Culture Engagement at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas Texas and is the author of the theological journal “The Table Briefing: Ministering to Hospital Patients” with assistance from Mike Del Rosario the cultural engagement assistance at the Dallas Seminary. Bock begins this journal with the passage of Scripture from Matthew 25:36-40, “Naked, and you clothed me: I was sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying Lord, when saw we you hunger, and fed you? Or thirsty, and gave you drink? When saw we you a stranger, and took you in? Or naked, and clothed you? Or saw we you sick, or in prison, and came unto you? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (KJV).
Read moreTen Steps for Calling a Pastor to Your Church
When a church has need of a pastor they should go courting a potential candidate. Here are some brief suggested guidelines that certainly can be modified according to the need and policy of the church.
Read moreHow can Pastors Follow the Example of Nehemiah by Tim Stallings
This is the second of two posts by two of my D.Min. students’ Discussion Board responses to the question “How can Pastors Follow Nehemiah’s Example” that he set in Nehemiah Five. The first was by Heath Faircloth and this post is by Tim Stallings.
As a pastor and leader in the church, we are constantly being observed in our approach to leadership. One of the areas to show unselfish leadership is to humbly be transparent and vulnerable about our own personal journey of faith. One of my favorite verses for ministry is 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us." I believe when a pastor/leader is transparent/vulnerable and shares about his own personal struggles and how he has received comfort, the congregation can see his humility and he can make a connection with the congregation.
In Chapter 5 Nehemiah was firm in his leadership but showed compassion and care for his people as they worked on the wall. He confronted the nobles and addressed their wrongdoings. He provided comfort and care for those who had been harmed.
Another area that a pastor/leader can be unselfish is by occasionally sharing his pulpit with others and allowing them to speak before the church. Personal testimonies from our congregation can be a powerful addition to our preaching. God uses these times greatly. Revelation 12 states that the enemy "is conquered by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony."
How can Pastors Follow Nehemiah's Example? by Heath Faircloth
The next two excellent posts are by two of my D.Min. students’ Discussion Board responses to the question “How can Pastors Follow Nehemiah’s Example” that he set in Nehemiah Five. The first is by Heath Faircloth and the following is by Tim Stallings.
Admittingly, this topic isn’t quite as easy as one might suggest. On the one hand, as a pastor, I desperately want to be an example for others to follow in my life, but, on the other hand, there is a fine line between wanting others to see Jesus in me and being prideful in what Jesus is doing through me. Pride is a dangerous sin. Pride has been the downfall of many men in ministry and in the business world. No one is immune from its evils. Augustine said that “Pride is the commencement of all sin.”[1] However, it is equally as prideful when I am more concerned about how others view me than I am in helping them become more like Jesus. Bloom has well stated, “However, if there is something in my life that is exemplary that might help you, but I don’t say anything because I’m more concerned with how you view me than with helping you increase your joy, that’s just pride borrowing humility’s clothes. I love me more than I love you.”[2] Therefore, as long as my heart is pure, I must help others by being an example.
One way I have challenged people in the pulpit is through sacrificial giving, specifically for special offerings like Lottie Moon. While I do not share the amount that my family gives, I will often give the parameters by which we base our giving: no one gets a single gift bigger than what we give Jesus during our Mission’s offering. For several years, we gave more to this particular offering than all other Christmas gifts combined.
Secondly, I can tell stories of how I am serving others. It could be my neighbors that do not know Jesus. It could be something that happened at a particular outreach event or service project, but remind people that you are there and allow your example to be a way of leadership in these areas.
Next, and this may not always be in the pulpit, but I am a firm believer that the pastor is the worship leader. He may not be the one leading the singing, but he needs to set the example of worship. If he does exemplify a spirit of worship, it is doubtful that those he leads will either.
Finally, I can be an unselfish example by confessing my sin in an open, transparent way when I mess up. I’m not advocating for every Sunday to be an open confessional time, but from time to time, I need to remind my people that I mess up and am in need of repenting of my own sin. Hopefully, this will be a reminder to them that they too need to repent when they mess up and be an avenue that will help them to take sin serious in their own hearts.
[1] “Sin of Pride,” All About God, accessed at https://www.allaboutgod.com/sin-of-pride.htm
[2] Jon Bloom, “Imitate Me: Laying Aside the Weight of False Humility,” Desiring God, September 22, 2017, accessed at https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/imitate-me
Review of Pastoral Preaching: Expository Preaching for Pastoral Work by Richard Caldwell
Richard Caldwell contends in his book “that these two subjects (preaching and pastoral work) must be joined in our thinking.” He calls this “pastoral preaching.”[1] Caldwell supports his thesis with a quote from Charles Jefferson who wisely observed “When the minister goes into the pulpit he is the shepherd in the act of feeding, and if every minister had borne this in mind many a sermon would have been other than it has been. The curse of the pulpit is the superstition that a sermon is a work of art and not a piece of bread or meat… Sermons, rightly understood, are primarily forms of food. They are articles of diet. They are meals served by the minister for the sustenance of spiritual life.”[2]
Read moreTen Vital Steps For Calling a Pastor to Your Church
Jack Hyles wrote an article entitled The Science of Calling a Pastor. In this article intended on instructing churches on how to call a pastor he wrote:
Choose someone who is not a Bible expositor. There is not one expository sermon in the Bible. All of them are topical. I am not fighting expository preaching, but that kind of preaching will destroy a great church. Do not be swayed by their suave teaching. The great soul-winning churches have been pastored by topical preaching. I am not talking about evangelistic churches; I mean soul-winning churches! If you want a soul-winning church, you must call a pastor who preaches topical sermons. Many of our once great soul-winning churches fell prey to the popular notion of expository preaching. They decided that they wanted more Bible, but when they got it, it cost them their effective soul winning.
Read moreThe Pastor/People Relationship
Billy Sunday once said, “I would rather preach than anything on earth. If President Harding should telegraph me tomorrow, and say, ‘Bill, will you change jobs with me?’ I’d say ‘Nothin doin, Warren.’”
Read moreShould Believers be Teetotalers?
John MacArthur, Norman Geisler, John Piper, and Charles Ryrie answer “Yes.” MacArthur states why he totally abstains from drinking: “In Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8, Paul warned against doing anything that would cause another believer to stumble. I am certain that if people thought I drank wine, they would say, ‘Since John MacArthur drinks wine, then certainly I can.’ Some of those people might lose control, do something irresponsible that hurts other people, or even become alcoholics. I do not want that to happen, and I do not want the fear of that weighing on my conscience” (Pastoral Ministry: How to Shepherd Biblically, p. 76).
Read moreWhat does "The husband of one wife" mean in 1 Timothy 3:2?
Robert C. Anderson writes, “For centuries it has been debated whether or not the biblical injunction that an elder or overseer be the ‘husband of one wife’ means that a divorced person may never have any place within the professional ministry” (The Effective Pastor: A Practical Guide to the Ministry. Chicago: Moody, 1985, 5).
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