The conversation goes like this, “I pray for you and every family in our church regularly and I wanted to know if there was anything that you would like for me to specifically pray about.” Write it down, pray for it, and ask them about it after a period of time. This will change the way that you pastor, but it will change the way that you preach as well.

Recently I watched a video at the Gospel Coalition from Tullian Tchividjian, Russ Moore, and Voddie Baucham. entitled “The Biggest Mistakes that Young Preachers Make.” They discussed the tendency that young preachers have to preach to impress people or to live up to the expectations of their seminary professors. Russ Moore pointed out that they don’t need to be overly sensitive to criticism and to take the “long view” in ministry There is much wisdom in their words and any young pastor will benefit from them greatly.. This subject connects well with young pastors because they know instinctively that they need to work hard on their preaching. Yet there are other areas of pastoral ministry that young preachers fail to think about deeply. There is one area in particular that is easily neglected.
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