Episode 14: Pastors and Pastor Appreciation Month
In this special episode of Pastor Matters, Ronjour and Brandon honor the pastors who have made an impact on them and recognize the pastors who have been continuing to faithfully serve Christ and the church over the past few months. The guys will also be announcing the winner of their recent Pastor Appreciation Month giveaway.
Reclaim Your Meetings, Retain Your Time
As a pastor, your time is a hot commodity. One major time-taker is meetings. Many leaders dread meetings as a necessary evil, feeling a strong connection to Lencioni’s best-selling title, Death by Meeting. While meetings are an inevitable necessity in leadership, they can become time-consuming.
Episode 13: Pastors and Time Management
Time management is an essential skill for anyone, especially pastors. But, why is it important for pastors to practice good time management? What resources are available to help pastors steward their time well? How should pastors decide which ministry opportunities they should say “yes” to?
Leading with Bias
Our current world is talking constantly about bias. You can be sure that you reveal your biases to others as they watch, listen, and learn from you. While it is essential that we are aware of our biases, we must be careful not to throw out all bias. We likely cannot and arguably should not avoid all types of bias.
Brothers, We Are Not Rivals
Nothing beats a good rivalry. The athletics world is full of them. In my neck of the woods, one of the greatest rivalries is between two college football teams: The University of Georgia and the University of Florida (or truthfully, whoever UGA is playing at the time). The Bulldogs and the Gators fight it out on the field every year, gridlocked against each other. Rivalry also extends to other areas of life.
Episode 12: Pastors and Criticism
Whether it’s directed at their preaching, leadership decisions, or theological positions, at some point pastors will experience some form of criticism in their ministry. How should pastors respond to criticism? How do they prevent criticism from affecting the way they see their people?
4 Ways to Pray for Your Pastor During Pastor Appreciation Month
Time has seemingly scrapped by since quarantine swept over all of us back in March. But even with the days slowly marching by, we have finally landed in October. This month we celebrate the Reformation and our kids get to run around our neighborhoods (hopefully) to chase after the spoils of Trick or Treating. October is also the month that many churches have set aside to encourage and uplift their pastoral staff through Pastor Appreciation month.
Shepherding Families Who Lose a Child through Miscarriage
October 15th—Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day—is an important day for me and my family because of what happened to us on September 9th, 2015. My wife was pregnant with our second child.
Episode 11: Pastors and Equipping Women in the Church
In this episode, Dr. Julia Higgins (Assistant Professor of Ministry to Women at SEBTS) joins Ronjour and Brandon to discuss the importance of equipping and mobilizing women in the local church.
Book Review: Prayer (How Praying Together Shapes the Church), by John Onwuchekwa
In his book Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the Church, John Onwuchekwa addresses deficiencies of corporate prayer in an ecclesiastical context. In 2015 Onwuchekwa helped plant Cornerstone Church in Atlanta, Georgia where he currently serves as the lead pastor.
Episode 10: Pastors and Burnout (Part 2)
How has COVID-19 impacted pastors? Are pastors experiencing burnout quicker as a result of COVID?In this episode, Ronjour and Brandon continue the conversation from last week on pastoral burnout. However, this week they look at burnout in light of the COVID-19 crisis.
Faithfulness is Still the Goal
For years, I have heard other pastors, seminary professors, and popular conference speakers encourage pastors to pursue ministry faithfulness over “success.” This encouragement is needed because of the dangers of chasing arbitrary successes over trusting that our faithfulness is enough.
Episode 9: Pastors and Burnout (Part 1)
What is pastoral burnout and how does it start? How can churches protect their pastors from burning out quickly and for long periods of time? In this episode of Pastor Matters, Ronjour and Brandon discuss the challenges behind pastoral burnout and how pastors can get through these difficult seasons stronger than before.
Why Preach Through Exodus?
Exodus can be an intimidating book to preach through exegetically. It contains long narrative passages (the 10 plagues in Egypt cover 5 chapters) as well as discourses on law, ceremonial rites and routines and lengthy instructions for the construction of the Tabernacle and its components. Furthermore, the story that begins in Exodus does not conclude until Joshua leads the people of Israel into the Promised Land, which, of course, is described in the book of Joshua.
Escaping the Burden of Pastoral Work
Pastor, do you feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders? Do you toss and turn at night, restless over lagging attendance, non-existent baptisms, and deficient offerings? Do you stress and worry, half-present at the family dinner table because your mind is still at the office or the last deacon meeting?
Episode 8: Pastors and the “Big Idea”
What’s the big idea!!? Should pastors seek a connection in the details of the text, or should they be content to teach the "points" of the text instead? Is there a unity within a text's message?Join Ronjour Locke and Brandon Ward this week as they discuss the benefits (and challenges) to the big idea approach to preaching.
Episode 7: Pastors and Mentoring Future Pastors
Is it the responsibility of the pastor to mentor future pastors? What are some ways pastors can shepherd the guy(s) in their church who feel a desire towards the pastorate?Join Ronjour and Brandon this week as they discuss ways pastors can invest in the next generation of church leaders and why it’s important that they do.
Square Boards from Round Trees: The Challenge of Theological Preaching
When I was a kid my father owned a small lumber mill. As he explained it, the sawyer (i.e., the person who sawed the logs) faced a challenge. The main challenge for the sawyer was deciding the best way to produce square boards out of round logs.
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