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Posted on May 23, 2013, 6:50 am
It was the third evening in a row I had heard the steady hum of amplified music reverberating through the night air. In North America, I would have imagined the source to be a group of teenagers grinding out their favorite tunes in a garage. But in Nicaragua it is not teenagers who make the racket. “It’s the churches,” my host explained. “We’ve got five of them in this neighborhood. And they have services six nights a week.” Read more »
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Posted on July 26, 2012, 11:51 am | 2 comments
Evangelism, outreach, church planting, and mission can become a normal part of our congregation’s life. But, we must make a major shift in our thinking and begin to think like evangelists. We need to start thinking, living, and strategizing like missionaries to our local contexts.
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Posted on July 19, 2012, 10:49 am
All too often pastors, especially young pastors, try to act like they have all the answers; like they are the experts. Well technically they are. Unfortunately, what they are missing is the grace of God that comes through life.
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Posted on July 12, 2012, 11:56 am | 17 comments
One striking difference between pastoring and social work is the function and role of supervision. Professional supervision consists of a candid review and empowering of both the social worker’s practice and personhood in order to practice ethically and therapeutically and “do no harm” to the clients. I believe that pastors need a similar kind of supervision.
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Posted on July 5, 2012, 8:52 am | 3 comments
I don't believe I remember today's pastor ever raising his voice. He never pounded the Bible, even though it was forever in his hands as he preached, as if he were almost afraid of letting it go. He never shouted, never put a fist to the pulpit, never flailed those in front of him with anything more or less than love...
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Posted on June 28, 2012, 1:53 pm | 2 comments
Last month at youth group, I asked, "What is faith." I got some shallow answers and then one of my youth leaders commented, "You know, I just do not know for sure sometimes." That got me thinking. What difference does faith make in the small things in life?
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Posted on June 21, 2012, 10:22 am
Imagine being part of a church that grew from 120 to over 3000 people in a few weeks? It sounds thrilling and exciting until you begin to realize you now have a lot of discipleship, care, baptizing, and teaching to do. The question for us today is, if something like this were to happen in our churches, would we be ready?
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Posted on June 7, 2012, 11:16 am | 1 comment
“The church is full of hypocrites.” I regularly see Gandhi’s famous Christ quote on a bumper sticker at my child’s school. “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Fair enough. If you can’t find much of value in my tribe, I can appreciate...
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Posted on May 31, 2012, 9:34 am | 18 comments
It’s common to speak of Luke’s Gospel as showing that God has a special preference for the poor, but it’s worth noting that Jesus is not saying this to the greedy brother who won’t divide the inheritance. He’s saying it to the greedy brother who's comparatively poor. In my own experience, some of the greediest people I’ve met have been the poorest...
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Posted on May 24, 2012, 10:29 am | 7 comments
I am a pastor. According to statistics I am a sad breed. Pastors are the most depressed, lonely, burnt out, over worked, underpaid, fat, and unhealthy people on the planet. Our families are a mess. Our finances are a mess. It is hard to have friends. Our work is unseen and is seen as unnecessary to some.
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Posted on May 17, 2012, 9:19 am | 27 comments
In my tradition, twice was the norm. Growing up in the Christian Reformed Church, attending church twice every Sunday was a non-negotiable, a near creational given. ”Oncers” were deemed on a slippery slope to perdition, an accommodation to the ease of culture and all its entertainments ...
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Posted on May 10, 2012, 10:45 am
Jack Hayford writes about leadership from the biblical perspective of a shepherd and sheep. He affirms that pastors must lead like a shepherd. What does this mean? A shepherd feeds, protects, and cares for his sheep. If he does not do these basic tasks, he is a bad shepherd, a mere hired hand...
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Posted on May 3, 2012, 9:29 am
The past couple of months have shown me how important hope is in our lives. Without hope life becomes meaningless for many people; so meaningless that life can become optional or even undesirable to them. Paul tells us that there are 3 key things ... but the greatest of these is love. I'm not going to argue with Paul, but I'm seeing that without hope there is no
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Posted on April 23, 2012, 10:33 am | 10 comments
When I was a kid in Sunday school, I earned a little plastic plaque that read, "Prayer changes things." It glowed a sort of neon green in the dark and I remember waking up in the night and thinking it was cool. It took me a while longer to think that praying was even more cool then glowing in the dark. I have been slow in coming to love to pray.
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Posted on April 19, 2012, 12:37 pm | 6 comments
My take on the Genesis flood is a bit different. A very common, perhaps the MOST common world saving strategy is “reward and rescue the good people, marginalize or eliminate the bad people.” This strategy in fact I believe is read onto the Bible.
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Posted on April 17, 2012, 4:32 pm | 1 comment
Officiating at wedding ceremonies is a regular, and happy, part of a pastor's ministry. In Canada, not only do officiants represent the Church, they also function with the authority of the government. In order to officiate, the minister must have a license to do so. Those from outside the province must apply for a temporary license.
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