Pastors are not ‘professionals.’ Or are we? When you consider that your average congregant now sees a specialist for everything from mental health to diet to career coaching, how do you think they approach the pastoral relationship? Apart from your preaching ministry,...
Lay Scripture Readers For anyone who has been mildly paying attention to the chatter in the PCA, it’s clear that a recent topic of intrigue centers around the Directory of Worship and the various worship practices in the PCA. Without going into great detail about the...
First Encounters The first time I encountered Dr. Will Thompson, it was as if a mythological Presbyterian Zeus had walked into the church with lightning bolts for eyes. At the time, I was a history Ph.D. student at the University of Mississippi and attending Christ...
Most of us deliberately avoid talking about the worst things that have happened to us, especially the grisly details. But in telling the story of Jesus, the Gospel writers go out of their way to linger with them. For the thirty years between Jesus’ infancy and his...
One of the significant developments in the Evangelical Church in the past several decades is the rise and expansion of church-planting movements in and alongside various denominations. One of the remarkable leaders of this movement was David Nicholas, the founding...
How many church leaders wake up every morning and plead with the Lord to save their ministry from themselves? Probably not many. That is likely because we tend to underestimate the pervasive, pernicious, and powerful presence of pride in our hearts and to...
“Be careful lest in fighting the dragon you become the dragon.” - Nietzsche Politics and elections really do matter. After all, if the wicked flourish, local communities can be devastated, nations can find themselves at war, and people can be denied hard-won freedoms,...
Before I became a pastor, I would not say I was estranged from a single soul. Almost 20 years in, the list is longer than I would have ever thought bearable. It includes some of my most intimate former friends and ministry partners: people whose names are etched on...
Have you ever had someone make an incorrect assumption about you? Maybe someone guessed you were younger than you really are, or maybe someone assumed you’d seen that super popular movie when you actually haven’t. Or perhaps you’ve experienced the more frustrating...
If you think back on your life, you will see that your story has been significantly shaped by words. Maybe your trajectory has been most deeply marked by that parent or mentor who spoke words of encouragement to you. Maybe the direction of your life shifted when a...
