What Is Pastoral Burnout, and What Contributes to It?
Part of the modeling of a pastor is to say, “Here’s how you exist as a human. You have limitations. You are human.”
I think another thing that really contributes to pastoral burnout is practical questions like, Are we sleeping well? Are we exercising and getting outside? Are we eating things that are actually good for our body? Embodiment is very crucial to understanding how to be a good pastor. A lot of times pastors sort of see... Continue Reading
The Power of Habit in Teaching Our Children About God
Continue to be steadfast in your efforts to point the hearts and lives of your children toward Him.
The fact is that taking our children to church each Sunday to worship the living God—rain or shine, good attitudes or bad—is shaping their hearts and minds about what is important. Maybe we hear the whole sermon or only a couple of lines. Either way, God blesses us for our obedience to him. Our kids... Continue Reading
“The Church Is Not Tired”
Evangelical pastors in Ukraine say that despite the war, congregations are flourishing.
In Ukraine, an evangelical minority living in the shadow of the Orthodox Church is now blooming in the fog of war. After 2½ years the conflict grinds on, with more than 90,000 Ukrainian troops and civilians killed so far, hundreds of thousands wounded, and millions internally displaced. But interviews with local pastors suggest the good... Continue Reading
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Points Christ’s Church Forward
One hundred thirty-two years after Charles Spurgeon’s death, the Metropolitan Tabernacle continues pointing Christ’s church forward.
Speaking with two of the elders after the evening service, they told me that the Metropolitan Tabernacle made a conscious determination that the way to advance the gospel forward was to go back to the old, straightforward paths. Christ’s kingdom does not advance through gimmicks or man-centered worship but by proclaiming the pure word of... Continue Reading
A Surprising Generational Rift in the Christian Reformed Church
In their denominations and elsewhere in the church, some progressive Baby Boomers have been caught by surprise at younger people not sharing their cultural values. But should they have been surprised at this generational rift in the church? Looking at how different generations have been formed morally, socially, and culturally may help address this question.
Throughout church history, comments like these (made at the most recent CRC synod meeting) would be seen as ordinary and unremarkable. In this case, though, there was indeed something striking about them. For the two speakers mentioned were not among the wizened heads at the denominational meeting: they were both relatively young pastors. In the... Continue Reading
A Change in Ecclesial Affiliation for the Ecclesial Calvinist!
A change was in order and faced with the impending dissolution of my own ARP Presbytery, I applied for reception as a retired minister by Foothills Presbytery of the PC(USA).
The reality is that liberal and conservative Christians need each other, and the sad polarization we see in American Christianity today began in earnest when liberals and conservatives largely stopped talking to each other and ceased to learn from one another. Apart from those needful conversations, Protestant liberals often lose touch with the tradition and... Continue Reading
Charles Spurgeon and “the Army of God”
Our calling is to be faithful to His Word and to so serve that church that she might fulfill her calling as the army of God.
By Spurgeon’s death in 1892, the Metropolitan Tabernacle had a membership of over 5300. This is remarkable given how plain their services were, how rigorous their membership process was, and how careful they were to maintain accurate rolls. They weren’t large because of modern attractional gimmicks. These weren’t inflated numbers due to sloppy membership practices.... Continue Reading
How Do Pastors ‘Count It All Joy’?
When God loves us with his saving love and gives us saving faith, he commits, because he cares for us, to inject our lives with various trials to train, grow, sweeten, strengthen, and mature what matters most in us.
When he lovingly brings pastoral trials into our lives — and he does so lovingly — he is working for us and in us, one of the greatest goods imaginable. When He tests us, he is taking action to keep us. And He keeps us not just by protecting our present level of faith and... Continue Reading
Who Are ‘The Least of These’?
Matthew 25 equates caring for Jesus’s spiritual family with caring for Jesus.
It makes more sense to think Jesus is comparing service to fellow believers with service to him, rather than to hear him saying, “You should see my image in the faces of the poor.” Granted, Jesus was a “man of sorrows,” so other sufferers may be able to identify with Jesus in a special way.... Continue Reading
Good Leaders Come and Go
The church simply needs leaders who will boldly and gladly embrace sacrificial responsibility for the good of their community.
Friend, you are not Moses. You are not the last guy. God never meant you to be. Honor your predecessor not by being a better version of him but by building on whatever good foundation he left behind. We are all interim. I have often reminded myself of this fact in recent years. When... Continue Reading
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