This article appeared in The Baptist Preacher, Mar/Apr, 1997. My Missouri grandmother used to say, “There’s not a pot so crooked but what there’s a lid to fit it.” She had a way of making all things find their proper place. The wisest man who ever lived warned, “A false balance is not good” (Proverbs […]
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Tag: Ministry / Leadership
A Response from No-Man’s Land
This article appeared in the September/October 2001 issue (Vol. 10, No. 5) of The Baptist Preacher. The original article is found in the September 2001 issue (Vol. 8 No. 9) of Aletheia under the title “Is There An Alternative Point Of View? (To The Traditional vs Progressive Debate)”. An ancient saint once said, “It is […]
Dancing and the Local Church
by Stephen R. Button This article is reprinted by permission from the October, 2003 issue of The Baptist Bulletin, the official organ of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches, published by Regular Baptist Press. For subscription information, visit The Baptist Bulletin web site, or e-mail at bbsubs@garbc.org. What’s wrong with dancing? Why not use […]
Who Stole My Church?
The sub-title is, “What to do when the church I love tries to enter the twenty-first century.” Though you may think this book is defending the traditional church in the face of contemporary changes, it is not. It is rather defending the contemporary church by making a caricature of conservative churches. MacDonald creates a hypothetical […]
The Contrarians Guide to Leadership
Church leaders are so quick to pick up on ideas from the business world but just on the cute phrases and gimmicks. They seem to have fallen in love with Collins’ ideas of putting people off the bus and offering to help them move to another that better suits their needs versus really being a […]
Boards that Make a Difference & Reinvent
Being on a college board, these books have been recommended for my reading. Carver’s first book came out in 1997 and the second in 2006. Carver’s unique approach to board make-up is termed “policy governance.” That is, the board exists on behalf of a larger group of persons who “own” the organization (the constituency) and […]
Pastors and Deacons
This handy book by Dr. Hartog was just printed, though it is an updated third edition. The sub-title is “Biblical qualifications, Scriptural roles, and right relationships.” Most of the book is given to a verse by verse study of the qualifications for both Biblical offices. The emphasis is on the pastor as shepherd, taking oversight […]
Transitioning: leading your church throu...
This book was written in 2000. Dan Southerland has been the pastor of Flamingo Road Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for over twenty years. He also has been a facilitator for Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven ministry of changing churches from traditional to contemporary. Warren writes the Forward and encourages all pastors to read the book […]
Preaching and Singing the Gospel
I just read an online article by a young man (by his own description) who went out of his way to criticize most gospel preaching and singing for the last two or three hundred years. He believes that once preaching and singing left the Puritan and/or Reformation tradition, it was down hill from there. Interestingly, […]
Concrete Examples
We all know that young children think literally and want literal answers. They learn by concrete examples until an age of theoretical knowledge is opened to them. My four year old grandson doesn’t understand the concept of The United States but he can point to a map and identify his home state of South Carolina […]