Pastors must resist the temptation to respond to the emotional and psychological stress of the ministry by being thin-skinned or hard-hearted. We can have thick skin and tender hearts by keeping our eyes focused on the Lord and his sacrificial love.
Church Leadership
As a pastor, it will always be a little awkward to advocate for your salary and benefits. Although it may feel self-serving, we are fulfilling our call by accepting the responsibility to manage our lives, family, and ministry. Here are five practical tips to negotiating your salary with search teams and personnel committees.
Amid turmoil, how can a pastor avoid joining the unusually high number of pastors voluntarily leaving the ministry? This final article in our series about personal spiritual disciplines speaks to perseverance in those disciplines to maintain in stressful times. It’s what the Barna Group referred to as “pastoral resilience.”
Even a faithful, experienced pastor can struggle to know what to say or do when suffering touches his family. For the pastor seeking to lead his wife through a difficult season of motherhood with gospel hope and comfort, here are six ways my husband—by God’s grace—has cared for me.
Our experience with foster care in our own family and encouraging and advocating for foster care and adoption in our church has taught us a few ways a pastor can help cultivate a heart for foster care in his church.
Pastors can find answers to questions of authority in the only document God has given us that reveals His authority, motivation, goal, and outcomes of His authority. These are vastly different from any of the motivations, goals, and outcomes stemming from human authority.
As we age and continue our pastoral calling, we commonly experience a decline in our zeal for evangelism. To overcome these obstacles, we must recognize the issue and consciously resist sin, focus on our calling, evaluate our priorities, and be intentional in our evangelistic efforts. How do you, my friend and fellow pastor, need to …
I asked my friend Dave, who has been a pastor for 70 years, what the secret of his longevity was. He answered, “The grace of God, the will of God, and the love of the people.” Over the years, I have learned many things from Pastor Dave. Here are six lessons.
In the American church context, we sometimes put pastors on pedestals, creating a ministry culture in which the pastor is the center of attention. The result is that the pastor forgets he also needs the same nourishment as those under his care. I want to share some thoughts on preventing a culture of pastoral idolatry …
Developing Godly leaders takes time and commitment. But as you are faithful to pour into the next generation, you will see fruit over time that will lead to some of your greatest joy in ministry.
Many valuable tools come with warning labels, such as “Handle with Care,” to highlight the dangers of misuse. As you plan your next short-term missions trip, consider these eight dangers and the tips we offer to minimize their impact on your trip.
Someone once said, “Bitterness is the poisonous pill we swallow, hoping it will kill someone else.” This statement has profoundly influenced me to battle bitterness because I have seen the potential for its destructive influence in my life and those I shepherd. So how do you battle bitterness biblically?
Church attendance numbers matter. But they don’t determine success. Faithfulness does. Let us be faithful, my fellow pastor, by His grace and for His glory. And let’s remind ourselves frequently that success is being a faithful steward of what God has entrusted to us, in good times and bad.
No preacher ever “arrives.” If a preacher ever believes he has mastered the craft and can push cruise control and glide along, he is in a dangerous place. I am confident, however, that you desire to improve your preaching and are earnest to do so. Here are 5 ways to strengthen your preaching.
Designed by God and gifted to mankind, the wonder and beauty of music is that it affords us some remarkable contrasts in corporate worship. May Christ give us the wisdom to match spiritual truths with the gift of music so that we might sing songs of biblical faithfulness and beauty for the good of His …
Dealing with other people’s expectations can be complicated, especially for a pastor or ministry leader’s wife. It’s important to consider how we handle the expectations of the people we serve.
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.
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.
