Over several years, an aspiring young pastor sat through weekly staff meetings at three very different churches. One was a multisite megachurch with thousands of members, a large staff, and a multimillion-dollar budget. Another was a mid-sized church with a small staff, a handful of programs, two weekly services, around 300 attendees, and a yearly […]

Sometimes you can do the right things for the wrong reasons. For example, you might want to preach so you become famous, lead worship to display your passion for God, or pursue a leadership role so people must listen to you. None of those opportunities are wrong, but they can be idolized if the end […]

Christian ministry can be glorious. But let’s face it—ministry can also be hard. If you’re not careful, a challenging season of ministry can take a serious emotional, relational, and spiritual toll on your life. Some of us spend so much of ourselves trying to be “on” at church that when we get home at the […]

“Jesus could have done it alone, but he didn’t.” Our conference speaker, Dave Busby, had my attention. “Jesus asked Peter, John, and James to go with him to pray in the garden of Gethsemane. How much more will you need ‘garden friends’ in your darkest hours of life and ministry?” A seed was planted that […]

The “Small Things” of Pastoral Care If you asked a pastor or elder to describe how he tends the flock, he’d likely mention phone calls, coffee conversations, prayers, hospital visits, text messages—a lot of small, ordinary things.[1] The simplicity of these activities sometimes calls into question their effectiveness, and the repetition of doing them year […]

The Power and Pitfalls of Women’s Groups There’s something about groups of women that can be incredibly empowering, but on the other side, deeply destructive. I’ve experienced both. Some groups are healthy and life-giving; others are toxic and draining. And for women, I think this issue begins young. The stereotype of the “mean girl” didn’t […]

Ten years ago, I was working at a job I thought was meaningless. I was twenty-three, engaged, and hoping to enter pastoral ministry. The Lord led me to become a member of a healthy church in my college town. I aspired to be a pastor but wanted to serve faithfully as a church member while […]

How does a church create a healthy, biblical culture? No church wakes up one morning known for evangelism or its thriving young adult program. Some aspects of a church’s culture depend on its context—the urban church will have a different makeup than the rural church. But much of a church’s culture is shaped by what […]

The Overlooked Art of Delivery Delivering a sermon is an aspect of preaching that often receives insufficient attention. Much of this stems from the reality that pastors rightly do not wish to focus on entertaining their congregation. Rather, a pastor seeks to glorify the Lord, who uses the “foolishness of preaching” (1 Cor. 1:21) to […]

I once stumbled upon an old well that was about 30 feet from an old farmhouse and 100 feet from a creek bottom. It seemed about 20 feet deep and 10 feet wide with brick walls and a brick opening. At the time, it had about two feet of crystal-clear water in the bottom, but […]