What resources would you recommend to ministry leaders? – Madison Grace

By / Mar 11

Ftc.co asks Madison Grace ‘What resources would you recommend to ministry leaders?’.



Pastoral Ministry and Christian Progress

By / Mar 5

Our Struggle with Progress

I’m coming up on two years in pastoral ministry. Although I’ve not spent much time in pastoral ministry, I’ve come to realize something—there is importance in progress. Waiting patiently for God to do His work in His people is more important than seeing someone change overnight. Looking for a quick fix will not produce the obedience we desire in our sheep. Rather, we must trust the Lord’s plan of lifelong discipleship, knowing that He will produce obedience in the lives of our sheep.

Let me give some examples of situations we may encounter in our churches. You meet with a few men each week to discuss Scripture. Every week, the men seem to get off track as they love to tell stories about their life that have nothing to do with this passage, or they riff off one word they read. They just can’t seem to come to focus on the passage and attempt to understand what the passage means to the original audience, how Christ is connected to the passage, and what we must do in light of these things.

Perhaps week by week you meet with the same guy struggling to let go of his sin. You’re unsure if he even comprehends the severity of his sin. After months, there seems to be some progress, but you wish he’d just be done with that sin by now. If only he could defeat it.

Someone riddled with anxiety comes to your office every few months to talk. Last month they were looking for counsel because some conspiracy theory post on social media got them going. This time they are looking for counsel because they fear a fellow church member is avoiding them even though there is no evidence for this. There’s just always something wrong for this one.

These situations can cause some doubts within the pastor. Doubts come about whether your people are listening to you or not. Sometimes, you may even begin to doubt a church member’s salvation. It feels like they just don’t understand the hope we have in Christ. Maybe you begin to doubt your ability to teach or to counsel. In the end, it just doesn’t feel like these people are making any progress in the faith.

Scriptural Progress

If you’re feeling like Moses leading the Israelites in the desert, then you probably know what I’m talking about. It’s here that I’d like to remind you that a pastor practices patience because a pastor recognizes that progress is the goal of ministry. Hear these words from Paul: “I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). Paul understood that the gospel work in our hearts is completed at Christ’s return. We too should expect that our people’s progress will not be complete until His return.

The book of 1 John is helpful for us to understand how God is working in us. 1 John 1:5–6 can be summed up by saying that God is pure light and no darkness dwells in Him; therefore, anyone who claims they have fellowship with God but walks in darkness does not walk with God. We are to understand that sin is darkness and that by participating in sin we walk in darkness. Our problem of sin causes us to remain in darkness; however, God has provided a way. Through Jesus, we are taken from the realm of darkness and into God’s glorious light. Living in the light, then, is exposing ourselves to God’s light, His purity, and His holiness. That is why 1 John 1:9 gives us the hope that by the confession of our sin—that is, the exposure of our sin—we are forgiven by the faithful and righteous God.

We can say this then, that progress in our spiritual lives is exposing ourselves to God’s light which reveals our darkness. This is our main concern when seeking the progress of the saints. Are they being made more like Christ over time? Some days will be better than others, but do they look more like Christ this year over last year? By God’s grace and work, they should. Our exposure to the knowledge of the beauty and radiance of God will produce changes in our minds that extend to changes in our hearts and work their way out through our hands. The exposure of our sin to the glory of God fuels us to grow and be more like Christ in our knowledge, affections, and actions.

Making Progress with Progress

Okay, so the goal is making progress by being more like Christ. Got it. But what does that have to do with people who are missing the point in Bible study, or that guy still struggling with that one sin, or that person who seems led by fear more than faith? Well, change takes a while. The very fact that we won’t be complete until we are in the presence of the come-again Christ is evidence that we will be consistently changing throughout our life. Change takes time.

Pastors, practice patience with your flock. You didn’t come to the place you are quickly, but the Lord had to mold you and make you into a qualified man over time. Patiently shepherd the flock for their long-term growth, not short-term. For the men that don’t get the main point of the text, be patient with them and help them see how to find it. Show them how to faithfully apply Christ to those texts. Expose them to the glory of God’s inexhaustible light in Christ through the study of Scripture. For the guy still struggling with that one sin, teach him of the delight and satisfaction found in Christ alone. Help him get his eyes focused on Christ and prepare for when distractions would call his attention away from Christ. For the person led by fear, call them to trust the Lord in a way that recognizes their fear but doesn’t allow them to continue living in it. And when a new fear arises, do the same thing again.

Eventually, those in Christ will produce fruit. Fruit production isn’t quick. The seed takes time to take root, sprout, and then grow into a fruit-bearing tree. Then we must wait for the fruit to be ready to eat. In a similar way, when we push for progress instead of complete change in a person, we are allowing the fruit to grow with best results. If we demand someone to produce fruit upon our first talking to them, then the truth we speak may not take root in them. Plant the truth that needs to be said, and let it take root in their mind, sprout in their heart, and then produce fruit from their hands. Gospel change looks to the process of being conformed to the truth, not forced into a mold. Let us be patient and witness the life-changing work of God. Let us watch as God does His work and brings His people to completion.



Episode 305: FTC Mailbag

By / Mar 5

It’s a new mailbag installment of the podcast, where Jared and Ross answer listener-submitted questions. On this episode, the guys weigh in on: first steps for newly appointed lay elders, pastors running for political office, cultivating healthy desires in a church, “fencing the table,” navigating differences of opinion on alcohol, and more.



Advice for urban pastors – Aaron Lumpkin

By / Mar 4

Ftc.co asks Aaron Lumpkin ‘What advice would you give for urban pastors?’.



The Shadow of the Son

By / Mar 3

Life begins with light.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Gen. 1:1–5).

Scripture’s central message is God’s salvation of humankind through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son. Scripture unveils this dazzling mystery by its unfolding proclamation of who God is and what He does. And the first of His works that it records is this: He created light.

If God gave us His Word to reveal Himself and to guide us to Him for eternal life, then what does He show us about Himself by starting off the story telling us that He created light?

He Is Supremely Powerful.

Light is the first created thing, and it obeys God immediately. In fact, its obedience is inseparable from its coming into existence. When God commands light to be, it does.

Existence follows His command. His words give reality and being, bringing to life what did not previously exist. No one else has this power.

Light’s obedience to God’s command reveals the magnitude of His authority. His command brings effect. At His command, light comes to be at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. In the first instant of history, God creates, and what He creates obeys Him, magnificently displaying His power, deity, and indisputable worthiness of all the obedience and honor in the universe.

He Marks the Bounds of History.

It’s been said that the first three days of God’s creative work could be broadly described as His creating spaces, while the last few days could be broadly described as His filling those spaces.[1]

In His first act of creation, God creates the space for time by creating light. By light’s presence and absence—day and night—He separates time from time and marks the space which history has filled, and will fill, from the first day to the last. Such governance reveals that He is eternal. Light and dark, the rising and setting of the sun, the changing of days, the passage of time—all depend on His existence before them.

He Intends to Be Known by His Creatures.

Light reveals. By it, we see everything else that God made. Moreover, many of the things that God made depend on light for their life: “plants yielding seed” and “trees bearing fruit” and the array of living creatures who depend on these for food.[2]

God’s Word says, “His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Rom. 1:20).

It is impossible for the human eye to see without light. The fact that light existed before any human eye shows God’s desire to be known. He wanted to be perceived by His image-bearers in the things that He would make. From the instant God breathed life into Adam and the man’s eyes opened upon the trees of the garden and the livestock of the fields, he was perceiving the eternal power of the One who made them all.

He Is the True Light.

As a created thing, light reveals God’s attributes. Opening the story of history as the first of God’s creations, it shines a spotlight on the One whom the whole story is about.

Jesus.

The One who brought all creation into existence and “upholds the universe by the word of His power.”[3]

The One who existed before all time.[4]

The One who reveals every one of God’s attributes, for He is God Himself, “the image of the invisible God” and “the exact imprint of His nature.”[5]

In becoming man, this Light obeyed God, His Father, perfectly.

This Light is the first and last, the center and border of history, who reigned before the beginning and whose glory will replace lamp and sun on the final Day, dissolving night and dark.[6]

This Light revealed the fullness of God’s eternal power and divine attributes in His sinless life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection for the salvation of sinners.

If you see Him, you see God.[7]

Created light—in all it reveals—is but a shadow of the Son.

Grace Upon Grace

“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God….from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:9–12, 16). 

By creating light on the first day, God revealed His glory in multi-faceted brilliance to every atom of creation. His intention to be seen is good news. For, as the other five days of creation display in full color, every good thing comes from Him. If anything in creation is good, how much better must its source be? How much more sublime to know Him?

Because He is so good, He cannot accept our sin. Because He is so good, He gave His Son to atone for our sin. Though we rebelled against Him, He shone in our darkness, and into our very hearts gives “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”[8]

May we open our eyes to this Light and live.

Author’s note: I am thankful for the women of Liberty Baptist Church with whom I first enjoyed these reflections during our spring 2024 discipleship group.

__________

[1] See Jen Wilkin, “Week Three: Six Days and a Rest,” God of Creation: A Study of Genesis 1–11 (Brentwood, TN: Lifeway Press, 2017). Wilkin addresses this point in the week 3 teaching video (www.lifeway.com/godofcreation). I also heard this observation from others before I encountered it in Wilkin’s study.

[2] Gen. 1:11–12, 24–30.

[3] Heb. 1:3; cf. Col. 1:16.

[4] Jude 25.

[5] Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3.

[6] Rev. 22:5, 13.

[7] John 14:9.

[8] 2 Cor. 4:6.



Leading a Church Without Losing Your Soul

By / Feb 27

A few years into ministry, I read these words from a famous pastor: “I had become a full-time minister and a part-time Christian.”

Even as a twenty-something still fresh with the excitement of my first pastoral assignment, I could relate.

Prior to ministry, you imagine that the inertia of pastoral life will drive you joyfully into deep communion with Jesus. But it doesn’t take long to realize how wrong that idealism is. 

Hebrews 2:1 tells us, “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” Every Christian faces the temptation and inclination to drift.

Even—or perhaps, especially—pastors. 

Do you mainly use Scripture for preparing studies or providing answers for other people? Is prayer a routine way to open or close meetings? Are memories of passionate pursuit of Christ in the distant past? Is the sin of others more disappointing than your own sin? Do you feel like a full-time pastor but a part-time Christian? 

Questions like these can help diagnose whether your soul is adrift. 

The good news is that it’s possible to plant a church or lead a dynamic ministry without losing your soul. But it will take intentional focus and good habits. 

Now, more than 20 years into pastoral leadership, I’m more committed than ever to not losing my soul. Below are some strategies to help any pastor who wants to keep his soul.

  1. Connect Regularly with God | Before you were a pastor, you were a Christian. Something about Jesus electrified you. You’d joyfully linger in His presence, amazed by His grace. This relationship you had with God made you want to serve Him even more. So keep cultivating your relationship with God—not only to be a good pastor, but to be a joyful Christian.
  2. Prioritize Solitude | My favorite definition of solitude is from Cal Newport: “time spent free from the input of other minds.” In other words, if you’re alone but listening to a podcast, it’s not solitude. Solitude gives you space to relax in God’s presence and tune your heart to His grace.
  3. Rigorously Practice Weekly Sabbath | The seasons where I’ve sensed the beginning of burnout or cynicism have one thing in common: a failure of practicing sabbath. Take one day a week where you rest to pray, play, and intentionally lay down any striving or performance.
  4. Spend Time with Friends | In ministry, all your circles overlap. Your workplace, faith community, and friends frequently end up involving the same people. Do what you can to cultivate friendships with people who don’t need you as their pastor. It will be freeing to your soul.
  5. Identify Your Personal Warning Signs and Invite Input | When the dashboard warning lights of life ding, what shows up? Though each of us is different, those who are close to us can see our warning signs. So be on the lookout for these signs of danger, and give trusted people permission to point out areas of concern.
  6. Invest in Counseling | Life and leadership are filled with limits, losses, and emotional wear-and-tear. Having an experienced counselor with some distance from your ministry can help you process these challenges in a healthy way.
  7. Use Every Minute of Vacation | Just like you need a weekly sabbath from ministry, you need some annual breaks and vacation. It’s not lazy to use the time you are given to rest and recalibrate.
  8. Develop Healthy Pressure Release Valves | The pressure of life will come out one way or another, so intentionally decide for it to come out in good ways. Hobbies, time with friends, and exercise are healthy examples of release valves.
  9. Create Sweet Personal and Family Practices for Christmas and Easter | Every Good Friday, I go with my family to a specific park to read the passion story and pray together. On a weekend of intense public ministry, it reminds me that I’m a Christian first.
  10. Don’t Let Other People Decide What Is an “Emergency” | Many pastors exhaust themselves allowing everyone else to control their time and energy. But just because it’s an emergency to somebody else doesn’t mean it should be to you.
  11. Regularly Practice Retreat Days | Every few months, set aside a day or half-day to zoom out, take inventory on your life and ministry, and invest in your soul. These days provide an opportunity to break the cycle of reacting and, instead, lead yourself intentionally.
  12. Create a Folder of Ministry Implosion Stories | Sadly, many pastors fall. Stories of sin and scandal abound. When these stories happen, take note. When the fallen pastor writes a letter of resignation or an elder board issues a statement, copy and paste it into a file on your computer. Read these every year as a way to warn yourself of the dangers of losing your soul.
  13. Develop a Plan for Intentional Sabbaticals | Sabbaticals are a long-held best-practice for long-term sustainable ministry. Done well, sabbaticals cultivate health for you, your family, and your church.
  14. Structure Your Week with Margin | You can’t keep your soul if you constantly drive your engine at the red-line limit. Healthy pastors must build weekly rhythms and schedule that contain margin so that when inevitable surprises and crises come, they can handle them.
  15. Put “Developing Leaders” on Your Job Description | To build a church ministry that isn’t resting on your shoulders alone, you must develop and empower other leaders. As Jethro rebuked Moses, “You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone” (Exod. 18:18). Pouring into leaders is essential for sustainable ministry.

You don’t have to lose your soul. Fight to keep it. It will be worth it.



Episode 304: Glorification

By / Feb 26

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson visits with Cedarville University’s Dr. Jason Alligood about his new book Raised in Splendor and about the hope of glorification in our secular age.



What about ministry gives you joy? – Mat Alexander

By / Feb 25

Ftc.co asks Matt Alexander ‘What about Ministry gives you joy?’.



Praying Psalm 62 with Charles Spurgeon

By / Feb 25

“If God is real, I’m sure He’s too busy to care about the details of my life.” A friend said this to me years ago with exasperation and resignation in his voice. Perhaps you’ve heard some version of this yourself. Maybe you’ve even heard it inside the church. “You should only pray for really big things, like God’s glory among the nations—don’t pray for little things like a good parking spot.”

These statements reflect a deeper question: Can we really approach God with confidence? Can we actually bring Him our smallest, most earthly requests? There’s a Psalm just for these questions, and the 19th-century preacher Charles Spurgeon helps us discover its riches.

How to Pray from the Heart

There are many Psalms that invite us to bring ourselves honestly and completely before God. But in my opinion, Psalm 62 is the most powerful of them all.

David opens his song with a word of praise, as he often does: “Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him” (v. 1, NIV). As soon as he praises God like this, though, David reaches the purpose of his prayer. “How long will you assault me? Would all of you throw me down—this leaning wall, this tottering fence?” (v. 3).

What a vibrant illustration of David’s situation. His enemies are after him. They’re cursing him and intending to knock him down from his royal position. He feels like a leaning wall, a broken-down fence. At any moment, he could come collapsing down.

No doubt, you’ve felt like this before. You know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed with life. Work is too much, people are demanding, and someone seems out to get you. It feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, and you’re not sure if anyone can help you. Where do we go with all this pressure and fear?

David knows he can approach God with all this. It’s not too much for God. David can come directly to the Lord of Hosts with his immediate needs and urgent requests. He continues:

“Yes, my soul, find rest in God;

my hope comes from him.

Trust in him at all times, you people;

pour out your hearts to him,

for God is our refuge” (v. 8, emphasis added).

Here, the king vacillates between preaching to his own heart and calling Israel to trust in the Lord. “Rest in God!” he tells his own soul. “Trust in him at all times, you people!” he adds. And he speaks to us—all of us in our own desperate situations wondering if we can bring our grandest and most insignificant requests to an almighty God. David says, “Pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” Centuries after David, Jeremiah picks up his phrase, writing, “Pour out your hearts like water in the presence of the Lord,” in calling Israel to repentance in Lamentations 2:19.

Now, this is a beautiful phrase: Pour out your hearts to God. It’s not hard to understand, but if we can fully internalize its powerful invitation, it will truly transform our prayer lives. And there’s a sure guide to help us there.

Charles Spurgeon on True Prayer

In his majestic, three-volume Treasury of David, Charles Spurgeon meditates on this phrase for no small amount of time. What does it mean to pour out our hearts? And how can we know we can do this? Spurgeon writes:

You to whom his love is revealed, reveal yourselves to him. His heart is set on you, lay bare your hearts to him. Turn the vessel of your soul upside down in his secret presence, and let your inmost thoughts, desires, sorrows, and sins be poured out like water. Hide nothing from him, for you can hide nothing. To the Lord, unburden your soul… To keep our griefs to ourselves is to hoard up wretchedness. The stream will swell and rage if you dam it up; give it a clear course, and it leaps along and creates no alarm.[1]

The Psalms are God’s way of saying, “Don’t make sure you sanitize your prayers.” You can come to God just as you are. Your prayers can’t be too honest for God; He knows what’s going on in your heart already.

Give the Lord your everything; He can handle it. We don’t have to hold it all together and clean ourselves up. We don’t have to do this life in our own strength. God wants to give us His joy, peace, and strength. And He desires to pour these gifts into us through prayer. Our job is to empty ourselves first, so that we might have ample room to receive them.

But why do the psalmist and prophet call us to pour out our hearts like water? Spurgeon reflects:

Pour [your heart] out as water. Not as milk, whose color remains. Not as wine, whose savor remains. Not as honey, whose taste remains. But as water, of which, when it is poured out, nothing remains. So let sin be poured out of the heart, that no color of it may remain in external marks, no savor in our words, no taste in our affections.[2]

David and Jeremiah (and Spurgeon) want to show us something of the nature of our prayers. Rather than a slow, careful reciting of words, our prayers can be the natural, unfiltered overflow of our hearts and minds. When we are bursting at the seams with the worries and demands of this life, God has given us a release valve. When we are full, we can pour out.

We’re not just pouring out prayers though; we’re pouring out our very hearts. Our hearts can remain largely hidden from us. We barely understand why we do what we do and why certain things just poured out of our mouths. Prayer is a way of discovering our own hearts. As we give our hearts to God in prayer, we are giving Him the core and essence of our lives. We are giving ourselves completely to Him. Spurgeon adds:

If you fear lest there remain anything in your heart not poured forth, bring the whole heart, and cast it before the eyes of the Lord, and sacrifice it to him, that he may create a new heart in thee.[3]

This is the image God has chosen to give us for our praying lives. Just pour it out. Let it flow. Don’t hold back. Spills and messes will happen, and there will be days when you feel like a puddle on the floor. But God’s welcome is simple: Pour out your heart.

God Pours Out, Too

Beautifully, there’s another side to this. When we pour out, God pours out on us, too. God’s blessing also flows like water. He is the God of abundance and overflow. As the self-existent source and replenisher of life, our Father pours out His own goodness and peace, even as we pour out our hearts like water before Him.

Sound too good to be true? Romans 5:5 promises, “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by his Holy Spirit.”

God’s blessing being poured into us happens simultaneously to our pouring out our hearts in His presence. The weak pouring out anxiousness, confusion, and need, and the strong pouring out love, strength, and blessing in response—all like water.

Our hearts were made to be poured out. Your ever-loving Father waits for you to bring all your rants and ramblings to Him. Spurgeon concludes,

Sympathy we need, and if we unload our hearts at Jesus’ feet, we shall obtain a sympathy as practical as it is sincere, as consolatory as it is ennobling.[4]

This, Spurgeon knew, is the essence of prayer: Pour out your heart to God, and He will pour His joy, strength, and love back into you. Amen and amen.

__________

[1] Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David: Volume 2, 51.

[2] Spurgeon, 58.

[3] Spurgeon, 58.

[4] Spurgeon, 58.

Editor’s note: For more encouragement in prayer, see Jeremy Linneman’s forthcoming book Pour Out Your Heart: Discovering Joy, Strength, and Intimacy with God through Prayer, available this March from B&H Publishing.



The Strategic Value of Pastoral Hospitality

By / Feb 21

Editor’s note: This article is the final entry of a four-part series. Access the full series here.

In this final entry in this series, I wish to note the strategic value of pastoral hospitality for the contemporary local church. I suggest that the pastoral ministry of hospitality has excellent potential for improving the local church’s health. My argument here rests on my analysis of New Testament passages in the previous post and my personal experience as a pastor and seminary professor. I have served as the teaching pastor at The Master’s Community Church (SBC) for 25 years. I have taught New Testament and Greek at Midwestern Seminary for nearly a decade, serving as Dean of Graduate Studies for five years. From my vantage point, pastoral hospitality is strategic for enhancing the local church’s health for at least three reasons.

Pastoral Hospitality to the Needy Models God’s Benevolence and Defends the Gospel

Hospitality is love for strangers and outsiders, of whom the contemporary world is not short on supply. Wars and family crises have resulted in no small increase in the number of refugees and displaced children. A healthy local church knows that the world needs to see us caring for the vulnerable. It is hard to imagine a more at-risk demographic than children in the foster care system, many of whom await adoption. I know of no more difficult ministry. I likewise know of no ministry that more acutely objectifies God’s care for the needy and shuts the mouths of those who accuse the Church of selfishness and hypocrisy.

But orphans are not the only demographic the pastor might host. God is drawing many refugees in the United States to Himself, and pastors have the unique position to disciple and train them for church planting. One of the most invigorating ministries my church and Midwestern Seminary students have engaged in over the last three years has been with Afghan refugees who have been placed in Kansas City. We have cooperated to serve these families in job placement, language learning, medical assistance, driving lessons, and the gospel. Some of the families were believers when they arrived. I have had the great joy of hosting them and being in their homes for ministry planning and leadership development.

Pastoral Hospitality Cultivates Fellowship and Leadership Development

One metric for gauging a local church’s health is how diverse demographics in the church interact with one another. When my wife and I host, I try to gather people who are not naturally connected. I invite new attendees or church members to join us and include more seasoned members in the invitation. If we are hosting students, I ask non-students, even retirees, to join us as well. Pastoral hospitality creates a natural structure for Paul’s directive that older believers should teach younger ones and younger ones should learn from those more mature in the faith (Titus 2:1–5). I hope never to forget when I was hosting an age-diverse small group and overheard an older couple offer to rent a large home and property at a very reduced price to a younger couple so the young couple could leave their small apartment and begin doing foster care ministry, or when a retiree shared over brunch how a younger couple could participate in the children’s ministry of our church.

Pastoral hospitality also provides a relational environment to develop leaders for ministry. This was true for me. A pastor asked my wife and me to join him and his wife for dinner one cold January evening in 1997. While I was employed as an elementary teacher in a local school, my evenings and weekends were busy with church ministry, leading a small group and a Sunday School class. We had just sat down to dinner when the pastor asked if I had ever sensed a call to pastoral ministry. When we got up to leave, my life had changed. I have used that same practice of asking deeper-level, calling kinds of questions while my wife and I host potential leaders and students, casting vision for ministry as the conversation unfolds.

Pastoral Hospitality Allows the Pastor to Model Christian Family Life and Family Worship

Authenticity is a buzzword in contemporary ministry. Church health is displayed by gospel authenticity in relationships. When pastors are hospitable, people see God’s glory in the everyday stuff of our lives. If people are in my home long enough, usually not very long, they will see foibles and failures and hear apologies. At some point, they will see a husband loving his wife like Christ does the Church and a wife submitting to her husband as the Church does to Christ. They will see parents training their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They will hear issues of the day discussed from a Christian worldview.

As we serve dessert, guests will be invited to join us as we read Scripture, pray, and sing. I have found that most men in my church and students in my classes do not learn how to lead family worship by reading books about it but by seeing me lead my family as we enjoy brownie sundaes and coffee. When meeting with that man individually after having his family in my home, I can follow up and fill in the gaps.

Pastoral Hospitality as Preventive Medicine

People will often ask me, “How’s your church?” After 25 years of serving in the same congregation, one would think that I could have a better answer. “I hope things are going well…” I often quip. Truth is, even the most hospitable and relational pastor knows only a portion of what God is doing in his flock. And those who have been in ministry for a season or two know how rapidly a church can change. God allows cancer, sin, economic pressures, and a host of other situations upon His people, and pastors are called to guide God’s people through them. Pastoral hospitality deepens relational roots so that when storms come upon the flock, the needy and vulnerable sheep will have every reason to heed the voice of their undershepherds. The devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour weak sheep (1 Pet. 5:8). Pastoral hospitality establishes relational structures that prevent the devil from succeeding.