Pastoring is a hard job. There are unique challenges that come both personally and professionally. The Focused Pastor exists to come alongside pastors, their families, and the church with resources to encourage and equip them personally and to do their ministry more effectively. With biblically based content that is informed by pastoral research, we create resources that address these unique topics. The Focused Pastor seeks to encourage pastors and church leaders to be spiritually healthy and effective in their homes and in their roles.
When you are anxious about the evaluation of your ministry, rest in the truth that the Lord knows your heart and that the Spirit quietly commends your ministry through the changed lives of those who receive the gospel that you faithfully proclaim.
This article is part 7 in a series about pastors and their practice of the personal spiritual disciplines. While the practice of family worship involves at least one other person, it usually relies primarily on the discipline of one individual for it to happen. Pastor, in your home, this would be you.
Following the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, pastors need to remember their calling to follow Him year-round. Let’s not just return to the mundane or comfortable but remember our ultimate mission of drawing near to God.
Christians often overlook that Isaiah 53 describes the death of the Messiah and his return to life! Isaiah 53:10 affirms, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him, he has put him to grief.” Could anyone write a clearer presentation of the Gospel than this? And to think that it was written over 700 years before Jesus died and rose again in AD 30.
We are coming up to Easter, undoubtedly one of the busiest weeks of the year for a pastor. How are you to manage your duties so that your family, especially your kids, don’t get church fatigue or, even worse, church resentment?
The day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday offers powerful spiritual lessons for believers. When disaster strikes and our hopes are dashed, we must be patient and wait for God because He can bring good out of evil in his own good timing.
The crowds that gathered around Jesus during Holy Week had two different motives. The first came to worship. The second to mock. The two different crowds represent the two most basic postures of the heart. As we examine the events of Holy Week, it is worth reflecting on what crowd represents you best.
Two millennia of Christian believers have championed the great prophecy of Isaiah 53. They see it rightly as portraying the death of the Messiah. But this marvelous chapter also contains something that even Christians often overlook.
Golgotha was an ugly place, and Jesus was crucified between two ugly criminals. I remind the reader of the contrast between Jesus’ transfiguration and his crucifixion. That foretaste of His glory stood in stark contrast to the portrait of His suffering on Golgotha.
Pastors, don’t let this opportunity pass you by this Easter! Deliberately address the lost by appealing to their will to live. We have what this world desperately wants—immortality. We have everlasting life in Jesus Christ. If the world knew that, it would plead with us to share the gospel.
Being a pastor means wearing many hats, weathering lots of pressure, and bearing great responsibility. Let H. B. Charles be a trusted advisor as you do the serious work of shepherding a flock of God.
