Category Archives: Pastoral Ministry

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Book to Look For: The Imperfect Pastor

9781433549335Zack Eswine is a pastor and author with a style all his own (could we call it “contemplative?”) and a unique experience in the academy and ministry. He is someone worth listening to.

His previous books related to ordinary ministry are:

Eswine’s latest book is The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus.

The Imperfect Pastor

Crossway says,

Pastors aren’t superheroes—they have fears and limitations just like everyone else. Zack Eswine knows this from personal experience and has a wealth of wisdom to offer those who feel like they don’t measure up. Written in a compelling memoir style, The Imperfect Pastor is full of insightful stories and theological truths that show how God works unexpectedly through flawed people. By talking honestly about the failure, burnout, pain, and complexities that come along with church ministry, Eswine helps pastors accept their human limitations and experience the freedom of trusting God’s plan for their church and life.

The Imperfect Pastor lands, Lord willing, September 30th.

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Media for Ordinary Pastors

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Every TGC National Conference churns out an astonishing amount of useful media for pastors, church leaders, and church members. I’ve worked through much of the media from this year’s conference and here are a five workshops I think will be of unusual benefit for ordinary pastors:

  • Tim Keller on “Preaching to the Heart”: In this workshop we will discuss how you can ensure your sermons are neither a lecture nor a rant, but rather how preaching can change people on the spot during the sermon.
  • 9Marks panel on “Church Polity? Really?”: There is no shortage of books and conferences and blogs and even movements on the church. But how often do we hear talk of church polity? If anything, many avoid the topic. After all, church government is said to divide Christians, not unite them. Why pay any heed to it at all? Is it that important for the average Christian and for Christian discipleship? If so, how? Does the Bible speak decisively in this area? And if we think it does, how firmly should we hold our convictions when other Christians disagree?
  • Ray Ortland on “How to Grow a Gospel Culture in Your Church”: Every church will be more convincing as a witness for Jesus if its doctrine and its culture converge as one. But without a gospel culture, even with glorious gospel doctrine, people will not listen. So much is at stake in the culture and relationships and feel and vibe of our churches! This seminar will equip pastors and church leaders for building this vital dimension in their churches.
  • Erik Raymond on “Everyday Evangelism”: As Christians we are commissioned by Jesus to reach our neighbors and the nations with the gospel. We also know that heaven will be populated with a great multitude of people from every nation. In view of the commission and the promise, how do we develop a culture of evangelism in our churches that zealously and faithfully pursue the lost? This session will highlight some practical ways to cultivate and sustain effective evangelism in the church.  
  • Michael Kruger on “How Do We Know the Bible is God’s Word? Recovering the Doctrine of a Self-Authenticating Scripture”: There are few questions more fundamental to the intellectual integrity of Christianity than the question of how we know whether the Bible is really God’s Word. Many answers have been given to this question, ranging from historical evidences to the testimony of the church. However, often overlooked in such discussions is the answer given by the Reformers themselves: that the Scriptures testify to their own divine origins. This workshop will explore the forgotten doctrine of a self-authenticating Scripture.
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Give Them Heroes

Heroes

In Philippians 3:17 Paul makes an altogether stunning command when he writes, “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.” What’s so stunning about that?

In 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul says to imitate him as he imitates Christ, but Philippians 3:17 expands the to command by calling Christians to pay attention to anyone who walks according to the apostolic example in spirit and truth. Here then is a principle for life: wherever you see a life lived in the ­power of Christ, according to the word of Christ, for the glory of Christ, keep your eyes on that life.

I believe with all my heart that we are a people not only made to imitate, but also to admire—we are made to have heroes. The question is will your heroes or heroines lead you to deeper imitation of Jesus? It seems to me that one great unspoken labor of pastoral ministry is helping our people have godly heroes.

Helping Them Find Christ-Honoring Heroes

Over the last few years I’ve thought often how to best go about this work. So far, I’ve come up with four ordinary ways pastors and church leaders can shepherd unto appropriate, biblical imitation of heroes.

Devote your life to personal holiness . . . and so be worthy of imitation. I do think this is the place to start. The Bible seems to assume that pastors and elders will be worthy of imitation. 1 Peter 5:2-3 says, “Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.” The author to the Hebrews even commands it in 13:17, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” Faithfulness in ministry thus means being worthy of imitation—being heroic.

Preach biographical sermons on mighty figures in church history. One reason why I love chursh history so much is that godly heroes saturate its pages and await imitation if we would but look. Most of our people probably wont’ peruse the centuries gone by for personal heroes, so you can help them by every so often preaching a biographical sermon. Piper has modeled this kind of preaching for years at the Desiring God Pastors Conference. One of our traditions at IDC is to preach a biographical sermon to conclude Missions Month each year. Lord willing, this weekend I will preach on the great Hudson Taylor and, who knows, maybe someone will find Taylor heroic and worthy of imitation.

Talk about your personal heroes. Be wise one where and when to do this, but it’s helpful for your church to know that you have heroes. Maybe it’s a quote in a sermon or just part of casual conversation, don’t underestimate how many church members might do further investigation on your own heroes.

Have some great books on godly heroes in your church’s bookstore. Grab Dallimore’s short biography of Spurgeon, Marsden’s short life of Edwards, or the diary of Brainerd or M’Cheyne and pray they will stir souls in your church. We’ve sold several different titles in Reformation Trust’s Long Line of Godly Men series at our church. They are short and cheap—two characteristics loved by church members.

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Let It Be Said of Us

“Even more influential . . . was his personal religion, evinced especially in his famous Sunday afternoon conference addresses. He real and vital apprehension of the love of God in Christ, wrought his most characteristic work upon students.” – Said of Charles Hodges, quoted in Adam, Hearing God’s Words, 36.

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Old School Advice

iggiI’m at “The Institution”—The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary—all week doing some PhD work and one of the seminars is “Patristic & Celtic Spirituality” with Dr. Michael Haykin.

On Monday we spent some time with the letters of Ignatius, and his dispatch to Polycarp has some brilliant wisdom for pastors. He writes,

I urge you, by the grace with which you are clothed, to press on in your race and to exhort all people, so that they may be saved. Do justice to your office with constant care for both physical and spiritual concerns. Focus on unity, for there is nothing better. Bear with all people, even as the Lord bears with you; endure all in love, just as you now do. Devote yourself to unceasing prayers; ask for greater understanding than you have. Keep alert with an unresting spirit. Speak to the people individually, in accordance with God’s example. Bear the diseases of all, as a perfect athlete. Where there is more work, there is much gain.

If you love good disciples, it is no credit to you; rather with gentleness bring the more troublesome ones into submission.

— The Apostolic Fathers, 126.

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Mother’s Day is Coming

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“Amidst the joy, there is often great sadness.”

This coming Sunday is Mother’s Day and churches around the country will think of how they can bless moms. An oft-forgotten reality of Mother’s Day is those who have lost children or are unable to give birth. One way to grieve with those who grieve on this special day is through lament.

A Mother’s Day Lament

In his book Rhythms of Grace Mike Cosper talks about how for the last few years on Mother’s Day his church “has prayed a prayer of lament with those who long to be mothers but feel the pain of childlessness and loneliness.” I’ve regularly used this prayer on Mother’s Day and each year the response is somewhat overwhelming—in a wonderful way.

The section in italics is an introduction to the prayer to be read by a pastor, and the following prayer is one the congregation can read together:

We recognize on a day like today that everything in God’s creation isn’t as it should be. Sin has broken families and caused deep pain and heartache, and suffering in creation has led to suffering in the flesh—some who long to be parents are unable to experience that joy. Let’s pray together, knowing that God hears us in our pain and sadness:

Lord, on this Mother’s Day
we lift up the aching hearts
of all those who long to be mothers,
but mourn the absence of new life within them;
who have conceived,
but suffered loss through miscarriage or abortion;
who have given birth,
but endured the tragedy of burying a child.
Their grief is often hidden from us
or neglected on this day of celebration of motherhood.
We pray that they may experience healing in this church family.
How long, O Lord, must death get its way at the outset of new life?
How long must joy be deferred or interrupted by such cruel sorrow?
Risen Lord of life, grant them comfort and peace,
breathe in us all the breath of new life.
Through Jesus Christ,

who defeated death,
Amen.

For the Hurting and Joyfully Distracted

Cosper goes on to say, “Not only does such a prayer speak to specific and deep pain; it helps the congregation share the burden of that pain. Many on a day like Mother’s Day are joyfully distracted by their own celebrations, and those who suffer do so in isolation. A prayer like this softens the hearts of those who are joyful, and embraces those who are cold.”

As you plan for this Sunday, don’t forget about the sadness that will surely be present amidst the joy.

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Is Church Polity Relevant Today?

On April 22nd Westminster Theological Seminary and Banner of Truth hosted an “Evening Discussion on The Bride of Christ” in honor of Banner’s new edition of James Bannerman’s classic The Church of Christ. Watch the videos below and then go buy a copy of the book.

“Bannerman’s Church of Christ: A Tract for Our Times” by Rev. Dr. Carl Trueman

“Does the Bible Speak to Church Government?” by Dr. Jonathan Leeman

“Why Read Bannerman? Polity, Presbytery, and a Cautionary Tale” by Mr. Nathan Sasser

Panel Discussion on the Bride of Christ, with Garner, Trueman, Leeman, and Sasser

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A Simple Encouragement

A Singing Church Slider

Pastoral ministry is one of maturing the members (cf. Col. 1:28). Christian maturity depends on teaching (Matt. 28:20), but we also know that much discipling work is more frequently caught than taught. One thing a faithful pastor should want his members to catch from his model is the joy of singing.

Needed: Singing People

Few threads of Christian experience are as woven through all of Scripture as the role of singing. It’s a consistent command (cf Ps. 96:1), the immediate response to redemption (Ex. 15), a mark of a Spirit-filled life (Eph. 5:19), and one of the glories of heaven (Rev. 4-5). Our God is a singing God (Zeph. 3:17) who commands and creates a singing people.

Our churches thus need pastors who visibly and audibly exemplify this singing life. Here are two simple ways you can do this.

They’re Watching and Listening

Sing passionately during your church’s gathered worship. This is quite simple for we one-service-only churches, and it’s a bit more tricky for multiple-service churches. Here’s why: if you have multiple services you might be tempted to join in the singing during only one service while skipping out on the others. For years I’ve seen pastors sit in “the green room” during the singing portion of corporate worship, only coming into the room to preach. I used to be on staff at a church where this was the usual practice. If you’re in the green room as much—or more—than you are out among the congregation during the church’s songs know that you’ve missed out on a sweet opportunity. Not just an opportunity to join in the joy of singing, but to model that joy before your people.

There is something powerful in a pastor sitting at the front of the room and singing with passion. It’s surely true that many church members take occasional, maybe even regular, glances at the pastor during worship to see what he’s doing. Oh, I pray when they look they don’t see a pastor fixated on his sermon notes. I pray they don’t see a pastor seemingly indifferent to the glory of song. I pray they don’t see a pastor talking with staff members or church members more than he sings. What does all that communicate to watching eyes? Singing is not of much value to the pastor. And if it’s not much value for him, why should it be for Mr. Church Member?

What’s better, much better, is for the congregation to see her pastor or pastors singing with passion. Passionate singing means praising God in spirit and truth with volume, expression, joy, and knowledge.

Sing often at other church gatherings. Don’t let the only time your church sings together be the weekend’s gathered worship service. Sing at men’s meeting, women’s meeting, members’ meeting, and prayer meetings. Encourage your small groups to sing one or two songs whenever they meet. I’ve recently been considering how to best incorporate singing into elders’ and deacons’ meetings. If we want to be a singing people we ought to be singing at every station of church life.

Preaching Pastors Should be Singing Pastors

My hope in this post is simple: to see more preaching pastors model the singing life before their people. Let us not relegate the joys of singing to those peculiarly gifted in voice or instrument. God’s given us a voice—however out of pitch it frequently may be—to sing praise to His name and model joy in song for out people.

Apply God’s word and grace wherever it’s needed on this issue. Then go sing with unusual heavenly joy before your people this weekend.

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Within the Crucible

When Suffering Strikes

Martin Luther said oratio, meditatio, and tentatio (prayer, meditation, and trial) are the indispensable ingredients for proper theological study.

For years I’ve labored as a pastor convinced of Luther’s laws, but to tell the truth, I’ve only experienced two of them with any regularity. Prayer and meditation have been faithful friends, yet trials has been something of a distant relative—until last fall. Tentatio knocked on my door around November and he seems to have taken up an extended residence in my life.

The Trials We’ve Faced

Our season of suffering arrived when one of our deacons found out his third child would likely not survive many hours outside the womb. God’s hand of providence took baby Eli home a few months before his due date and we wept together. Death struck again just ten days ago when a beloved church member’s heart unexpectedly failed in the middle of the night and his earthly pilgrimage came to an end.

In between we’ve watched another dear member waste away before our eyes as cancer ravages his body. We’ve counseled church members with immediate and extended family members passing away. We’ve walked through instances of secret sin seeking to steal souls and mar relationships. We’ve prayed with brothers and sisters in Christ whose bodies are failing. The storm clouds of suffering still hover overhead.

I’m thus getting a first sense of how trial teaches and shapes not only our theology, but our church’s life together. Tentatio is indeed a faithful tutor when it’s married to faith in Christ. Here are the sweet lessons we’ve feasted on these last few months.

What the Trials Teach

Suffering has brought us greater unity. Like soldiers fighting in a foxhole together creates unusually strong relationships, so too does suffering together bring peculiar unity to a church. Many relationships now have a strength from shared suffering that I doubt could have come in any other way. Intercessory prayer is more active. Concerns of mercy and benevolence, already large, seem to burst forth at every corner. It’s quite difficult to let petty differences and disputes reign when death is moving. Which leads to the second lesson . . .

Suffering has brought us joyful perspective. We’ve learned afresh that life is short, death is real, and pain is great. Yet, oh how kind God is to comfort us in grief! These are principles many of us have heard about and endured separately, but now have experienced them together. We’ve seen how God’s promises take on new significance when suffering strikes. The ministry of God’s word becomes ever sweeter. The songs of the saints rise with greater volume. The vaporous nature of life is more keenly felt. This renewed perspective is a means to what is the ordinary walk of a Christian this side of heaven: joy in suffering.

Suffering has taught us the unshakeable power of God’s word. Without the truth of Scripture, what meaning can we find in suffering? Without God’s self-revelation, how can we know how Christ relates to our pain? Without God’s word, where would we find hope and strength?

What I’ve seen—maybe most acutely—over these last few months is what happens when a church lives in, around, and under the Truth. The Word is everything to God’s people. Like Luther famously said in another place, “The word did it all.” God’s word is the ballast in the boat of our corporate life.

Seasons of suffering, like the one we’re in, are times when our corporate boat sails through storms of Satan’s fury and death’s wrath. Our enemies sling their greatest waves our way and mean to tip us over. What will we do? Grieve we will, but fall we won’t, for our Lord has conquered death. What is left for God’s people is to stand on the truth of God’s word and in the victory of God’s Son.

And so we sail towards the heavenly city with confidence and certainty in spite of the storm, for nothing can assail God’s power delivered through His ordinary means. This is what tentatio has taught us.