Articles

The Pastor’s Health

Pastor, how are you doing? If you’re like me, when people ask how you’re doing, you have a ready-made, default answer along the lines of, “Pretty good…just hanging in there.” But how are you really doing? How are you feeling physically? How are you doing mentally and emotionally? What about your spiritual health? How long has it been since you assessed how healthy you are?

Philip Crouse Jr.

7 Helpful Takeaways from the 2022 Christ-Centered Exposition Workshop

I had the privilege of attending the 2022 Christ-Centered Exposition Workshop last week with some men from my church. We attended the workshop to better understand the overall message of the Book of Revelation and how I, as a pastor, and our other attendees as lay leaders, can better handle Revelation in our teaching and preaching. Our expectations were exceeded as we were immensely blessed by the teaching of Drs. Benjamin Merkle, Ken Keathley, Dwayne Milioni, and Professor Ronjour Locke. The following are seven helpful takeaways we received from the workshop.

Jordon Willard

Dealing With the Unique Stress of Pastoral Ministry

At the time this article was written, the music video for the song “Stressed Out” by the band […]

Quentin Self

15 Reasons People Walk Away From the Church

Most, if not all, of us know someone who attended church but then simply walked away from God’s people. The pandemic, I believe, has only increased that number. Based on my work with churches and the unchurched, here are some of the reasons I’ve heard:

Chuck Lawless

6 Reasons All of Us, No Matter How Old We Are, Need an Older Mentor

The older I get, the more I recognize that accomplishing what this title suggests is not easy. Eventually, we become one of the very old—and the number of faithful Christ-followers older than we are becomes increasingly hard to find. Nevertheless, I think we should try.

Chuck Lawless

5 Ways Your Church Can Support a Theologically-Driven Student Ministry

Students are often capable of far more than we expect of them. They are used to studying challenging topics in school like Algebra, Trig, and British Literature. Yet, student pastors are frequently critiqued for not being theologically deep enough. These critiques often prove true. But many student pastors are hesitant to adopt a theologically-driven model of ministry because the environment they were hired into is not willing to sustain a discipleship-focused, Bible-driven student ministry.

Will Standridge

Leading Your Church Through Change

If you have ever been whitewater rafting, you know how important the role of the guide is. The responsibility for getting the rafters through the rapids safely falls to the guide. A rafting guide must know the river well, aware of the shallow and dangerous sections that might stop the rafts or even cause them to flip.

Philip Crouse Jr.

Bold or Broken?

On October 19, 1856, Charles Spurgeon was preaching to an overflow crowd of several thousand people at the Surrey Garden Music Hall in London when he experienced perhaps the greatest tragedy of his life. As thousands crowded into the building with thousands more waiting outside, someone shouted that there was a fire and the balconies were collapsing.

Andrew Hébert

What Can Pastors Learn From Nick Saban?

Pastoring is a lot like coaching. I am not sure if you have noticed the similarities or heard others talk about them, but I know for sure that pastoring is a lot like coaching. In coaching, you must help people come together around a common mission, you must help people find their role in that mission, and you must continually help them see the bigger picture of that mission.

Cody Evans

Guarding Your Joy in Ministry

According to the Barna Group, 38% of pastors in the United States have considered walking away from ministry in the past year.[1] Maybe this number should surprise me, but it does not. I have heard firsthand about the sadness, grief, and disappointment from friends in ministry. To a certain degree, I have even experienced these emotions myself. But as I reflected on my conversations with other pastors and my own experiences, I began to see that it is not just the difficulties driving pastors to quit—difficulty is a part of ministry. Instead, it is how the difficulties and frustrations steal our joy that causes us to throw in the towel.

Philip Crouse Jr.

Pastoral Ministry and Persons with Disabilities

“Shepherd the flock of God among you,” says Peter to pastors (1 Pet. 5:2). Similarly, Paul exhorts those in ministry to “Equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” (Eph. 4:12). If we pastors want to be faithful in shepherding the flock and equipping the saints, we must know our people...including those not like us.

Nathaniel Martin

For Pastors: A Unique Seat in the Audience of Your Life

Every Sunday, you stand on a stage to share God’s message to people who are engaged, indifferent, or not physically present. You walk through the audience shaking hands, listening with concern, and loving those who may not love you back. You hear heart-wrenching stories of loss, life-changing sin, and gossip from angry people who have forgotten the mission and vision of the gospel. You may not complain, but sometimes you wonder if what you do makes a difference.

Melanie Ratcliffe

Preaching After a Rough Week

An airplane cuts through some clouds without the slightest jostle. Other clouds jolt the plane with such turbulence that people lift out of seats as in a school bus barreling over railroad tracks at 60 miles per hour. Like clouds, the trials that generate a rough week come in all shapes and sizes.

Quentin Self

The Long Road of Discipleship

Our world has developed an obsession with speed and efficiency, and at times, it seems as if everything in life has been affected in one way or another. Major League Baseball instituted an assortment of rules aimed at speeding up games. Fast-food restaurant chains compete to get customers their food as quickly as possible. Businesses regularly push workers to maximize efficiency by completing the same amount of work in less time.

Philip Crouse Jr.

Preaching to Short Attention Spans

In a world of endless distractions, it can seem that attention spans are getting shorter. We see how digital media is designed to cater to short attention spans by feeding people with snack-sized news stories, tweets, and videos, in order to keep their gaze captivated for as long as possible before they get bored and move on.

Mark Young