I was being guided around Edinburgh by a friend who was intending to spend the afternoon in the public library. I had a note with me from an email friend who had written his Ph.D. dissertation on John Angell James while he was at the University of Edinburgh. In the card catalog of the library […]
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Tag: Ministry / Leadership
Essentials and Nonessentials
Most things in life could be categorized into essential or nonessential, depending on the priorities at hand. The basic necessities of life are essential if we want to stay alive. Food is essential to life but ice cream may be a nonessential when your budget is on a shoe string. Many of the things that […]
A Minister’s Evaluation
With a little time to reflect on my pastoral ministry of eighteen years, I find myself doing constant self-evaluation. I think I am pretty hard on myself, though I cannot accept the common evaluations of many pundits. Theirs seems to be a typical crying of “so many are struggling emotionally in the ministry. . . […]
The Sin of This Generation
By Joe Shrader, PhD East Carolina University Note: Dr. Joe Shrader is the editor’s brother. He received his Ph.D from Michigan State University and is an associate professor at ECU in Greenville, North Carolina. The sin of this generation is selfishness. It manifests itself by the disrespect shown the church elders. The arrogance of this […]
Feed My Sheep
The subtitle is: “A Passionate Plea For Preaching.” Eleven authors, mostly of a Reformed persuasion, contributed to this book (Mohler, Boice, Sproul, Piper, MacArthur). I enjoyed the book (and quoted it in this month’s article) and was encouraged in many areas of my own preaching and pastoring. Because these men are mostly Reformed and I […]
Finney On Revival
I have a curious interest in Charles Finney and his ministry. First because there is no doubting his huge impact on American revivalism. Second, his name constantly appears as a primary cause of today’s misuse of methodology, invitations and easy believism. Third, I wish I had half his power in preaching. I was disappointed with […]
Day By Day with the Early Church Fathers
Every year I have one or two “day by day” books to read. This one is unique because it is difficult for most of us to read the church fathers extensively. The editors footnote every entry so that you may go to the original source if you choose. There are readings from 39 church fathers […]
Giving Thanks: For the Church of the Chr...
I look forward to my regular reading of Revelation 1-3 as much as any portion of Scripture. The description of The Lord Jesus Christ in chapter one ought to become familiar to any believer who is waiting for His return—for that is how He will appear when we see Him. And we ought to desire […]
Escape From Church, Inc.
Wagner, pastor of Calvary Church in Charlotte, NC and former Promise Keepers employee, is speaking out against the CEO style pastor and for the Shepherd style pastor. I enjoyed his statements against using current business and leadership techniques to build churches, including daring to question evangelical gurus such as George Barna (whom I have often […]
The Call
Guinness is arguing for a return to what he sees as the original Protestant and Puritan idea of calling: “the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion, dynamism, and direction lived out as a response to […]