Preaching is the pastor's indispensable task, his most paramount duty, and his most consequential and urgent job assignment. For the pastor, preaching is priority number one.​

Most of the pastors I know garner my trust and respect and deserve my prayers and support. 

It seems as though the designation “man of God” has gone the way of the bus ministry and the youth choir—a largely passé referent to a bygone era of church life.

The biblical expectations are high, and the nonbiblical ones held by many churches are higher still. 

The preacher does not preach from the text or on the text, he preaches the text—thus limiting the sermon’s application to the point of the passage preached.

What does it mean for a preacher to be faithful? How does one even measure a preacher’s faithfulness?

Ministry is increasingly complex. We live in a zany world. The culture is imploding, ethical quandaries abound, our church members need, and will need, more from their ministers, not less.

 To pursue ministry but not having a passion for the gospel and fulfilling the Great Commission is like pursuing medicine, but not liking patients.

When you stand before God’s people with Bible in hand, "the tide goes out." It is in those moments, when you attempt to speak on behalf of God, that all will see the veracity of your calling.

God's providence is always good, beyond improvement. Thus, he crafted your story, including your past, for his own, optimum glory.  

God has indeed made us, by gifting and by calling, for certain tasks.

The Bible itself describes our lives as vapors that vanish quickly. We must recognize today that we are not promised tomorrow.

May we be content to fulfill what God has called us unto—nothing less, but nothing more— and then rest in his goodness.

The sparkling reality of the Christian life is that God not only meets our needs but often far surpasses them. 

If God has called you to be His preacher, never stoop to be a king of men.

Our attempts to improve Christian worship may, in fact, distract from it. Often, less actually is more. There can be a beauty in simplicity.

God’s people must not settle for only a rudimentary knowledge of God’s saving message.

He who lives in light of the five solas will experience a more fulfilled and fruitful Christian life. 

Simply put, a sermon’s authority is derived from Holy Scripture’s authority.

Should the sermon conclude with an invitation?

The church’s attention to Jesus’ return seems to be seasonal, with interest rising and falling based upon a host of issues, most especially current geo-political events. The need of the hour is not for more end-times speculation, but an impact upon how we live the Christian life every day.

As Christians, we are called to share our faith, but we are also called to keep it.

As pastors, we don’t want our ministry pursuit to become a weighty expectation for our family where they are more actors than people, living in a legalistic bubble of religious decorum.

Worship is not a condiment, meant merely to flavor the Christian life.

As the preacher exegetes his text and his times, he sees how the two intersect, or do not intersect with his congregation.

“Preaching the word” is marked by these three essentials . . .

This call is not merely a nudge toward a more polished homiletical delivery; rather it comes with the weighty knowledge that the message of a crucified and risen Christ alone saves. 

Most Christians have an undeveloped, insufficiently informed understanding of what it means to be called to the ministry. Consider these ten questions, which serve as indicators God has indeed called you to ministry.

There is no such thing as a pastor who knows only the burden of leadership or only the sweat of service.

The fact that God calls and gifts some in extra measure does not absolve every Christian, and especially every minister, from doing the work of an evangelist.

Given the neediness of the church, the cultural pressures we face, and the general social upheaval of our times, how we preach has never been more important.

God may well use you in spite of a lack of formal training, but if you have accessibility to theological education, why find out?

In ministry, we must protect our families, but we need not sequester them. Balance is hard to find, but perhaps these five principles will help.

The modern mind may well be adverse to authority and disinclined to trust the “sage on the stage.” Nonetheless, where there is no authority, there is no true preaching.

While on vacation, I reflect on my life in every dimension, seek to identify personal weaknesses, and strive to strengthen them. 

It is better get an ‘A’ at home and a ‘C’ in the classroom, than an ‘A’ in the classroom and a ‘C’ at home.

There is something far worse than not having a crisis to engage. It is having a crisis but not engaging it. Faithfulness in our generation requires the church, and the pastors that lead it, to do our duty of preserving the faith and supporting the church. 

I can overlook an essential element to the preaching process if I don’t intentionally pause and reflect upon the task at hand. These seven questions help me do just that.