Without a proper vision of who God is, we cannot cast God’s vision to God’s people. Gospel-centered leadership begins with an understanding of what is true. This prayer serves as a reminder that, ultimately, success is found in beholding God and the valley is where God is seen most clearly. As I lead each day,... Continue Reading

For centuries, Europe’s Roman Church attempted to exercise substantial control over the state and the state returned the favor. Sovereigns wanted everyone in their realm to adopt their religion and to belong to state churches that they controlled. English and Scottish Presbyterians attempted to correct that. The Westminster Confession of Faith specified that God ordained... Continue Reading

Dietrich Bonhoeffer warns what can happen when roe respond wrongly to hurt. “The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own laws, and judges the brethren and God himself accordingly.... Continue Reading

Being a biblically faithful church in rural Massachusetts was challenging.  Yet over two decades, the church grew in numbers, a Sunday School building was added, and the sanctuary was expanded as the 1950 red brick church proved insufficient to hold its people. Challenges to Biblical faithfulness from within slowly decreased even as opposition from without... Continue Reading

We should simultaneously love people where they are and work to bring them to greater maturity. As a parent, we love our children when they are childish but we also work to help them mature. Leadership in the church must look the same way. While we can easily get frustrated with childish Christians (Paul was),... Continue Reading

Encourage ambivalence toward his wife and children. Pastors’ families are easily put on unrealistic pedestals. People can equate the wife with a quasi-associate pastor or counselor, and the children can be made to live under constant scrutiny and feel like they have to share their parents with everyone. Their need to feel loved and embraced... Continue Reading

I didn’t make it.  All of the pent up pressure (much of it self-imposed), all of the uncertainties, the burn out I was feeling over ministry at the time – despite the best efforts of one of the best pastors I’ve ever worked with – pulled some sort of trigger somewhere and everything fell apart. ... Continue Reading

Over and over again, from Old Testament through New, we learn the foundational truth echoed by the Westminster divines, that “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” We make realized the 5th of the Reformational solas: Soli Deo Gloria, “to God alone be the glory.” A gospel-centered church makes that... Continue Reading

The minister must always remember that the dignity of his office adheres not in his person but in his office itself. He is not at all important, but his office is extremely important. Therefore he should take his work most seriously without taking himself seriously. He should preach the Word in season and out of... Continue Reading

Pastors aren’t immune to the rising suicide rates. More than half of pastors have counseled people who were later diagnosed with a mental illness (59 percent), and about a quarter say they’ve experienced some type of mental illness themselves (23 percent). According to LifeWay, 12 percent have been diagnosed with a mental health condition.   A few years before... Continue Reading