This is a public forum to share ideas, ask questions, and reflect on being a pastor in the CRC.
Vibrant
Staci
Phillip 
Doug
MichaelWrite your own blog post to share your ministry experience with others.
Like all Christians, ministry leaders face daily challenges and difficulties. Spiritual direction can help us meet those challenges in the spirit of Psalm 139.
A regional pastor reflects on his experience at the recent Bi-vocational ministry gathering.
A review of Andy Crouch's book, "Strong and Weak." Part of a newsletter for Regional Pastors.
As I have been grading sermons these past days (about 25 of them since middle of last week with about 10 to go) I often find myself writing “Show, Don’t Tell.”
Faith formation cohorts promote faith nurture and help “shrink” the denomination in important ways. Find out more below!
Jesus' agenda is radical because it orients us to God in the first place so that our living is shaped by God's priorities, instead of our own.
Letter from John Bolt, Chief Financial Officer, CRCNA about the bi-vocational ministry gathering happening April 24-25 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Women clergy and seminarians respond to an invitation to a gathering in the Grand Rapids denominational office. Twenty women showed up ready to receive from each other and the Holy Spirit.
Missional pastoral care is care for the soul—ours and theirs. It is one soul speaking to another, one beggar showing another beggar where to find the Bread of Life.
I don't see coming to the table more often as a threat to our historic and enduring emphasis on the centrality of Scripture. If anything, I’d suspect this may actually help the congregation more deeply comprehend and embrace the Word.
I am a bivocational (BIVO) church planter, and it's the best decision I've ever made in my 30-year ministry career. Here's why.
What’s stopping us from inviting Jesus to open our eyes and speak to our hearts by gathering around the Lord’s Supper table more frequently?
I find that serving as a spiritual leader is an indescribable privilege. But I also find exercising this privilege frequently beats up my soul. Check out the "Pastors’ Spiritual Vitality Toolkit" for ideas on restoring your soul.
I poured so much energy into those hundreds (actually a few thousand) sermons, and so I was amazed to hear that the memorable touch of ministry was the few phone calls I made most days.
Even the best seminary degree represents little more than a priming of the pump for a lifetime of abiding learning. The wise church knows this and provides pastors with rich and ongoing opportunities to be led by the Spirit.
I recommend both these books to pastors, and particularly to Regional Pastors. They can provide a lens and language that could generate vital conversations in one-to-one or group conversations with pastors.
This post explores the challenge of navigating a life where the rhythm of family, spouse, and congregation are out of sync with the rhythm of a pastor's life.
A year into my seminary career, I'm still a rookie in the world of theological education. Even so, here are seven things I wish someone had told me before I entered seminary.
We preach in our churches but in the larger sense we are always preaching in public. We cannot bracket out the larger world when we preach.
Some recent conversations I've had with churches, pastors, and candidates prompt me to name a reality that exists and needs to be challenged. The reality is that there is a prejudice against two groups of pastors.
There is grief in the closing of a church — for the parishioners and for the pastor. Allow space for grief, allow space for loss, and allow freedom to let the pastor move forward in serving God’s kingdom.
Gratitude somehow builds up in us during the ordinary and good times of life so as to make us less likely to be defeated when the bottom falls out on us in this or that area of life.
What struggling Christians desperately need to hear is not merely that God affirms them, regardless of their sin. What struggling Christians desperately need to hear is that God empowers them toward life in the Spirit.
In many church circles, people are trying to move the church into becoming an Acts 2 kind of church. A church that reflects the church found in the Bible. But there's something missing here.
These Continuing Education pages are organized by the Five Callings that the CRC has adopted and are designed to assist pastors and councils make plans for ongoing learning.