I personally needed to read this post. J. Michael Thomas: Anne Lamott, in her book, “Traveling Mercies” retells an old story about a man getting drunk at a bar in Alaska. He’s telling the bartender how he recently lost whatever…
Thom Rainer: Responding to the Great Distraction
Churches that have a low standard for membership shouldn’t be surprised by grumbling. Thom Rainer: For years I assumed that criticisms of pastors and other church staff was just part of leadership. Indeed, no leader to my knowledge has ever…
Reviews of When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search
If you click over to the site for my recent book, When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search, you can see links to a review of the book and also an interview of me.
Is small talk worthless?
Like C.J. Mahaney, I tend to want to avoid small talk. I am often pressed for time. To my shame, at home especially, I often hurry conversations along. However, Dave Powlison recently challenged C.J. about the importance of “small talk.”…
Trevin Wax: “It’s a Big Thing to Know You Are Small”
Trevin Wax: During the Emerging Church conversation a few years ago, there was a lot of talk about mystery. What can we know? How can we know it? Should mystery be embraced? When it comes to God, the Bible seems…
Cal Thomas: 38 years and 50 million
Cal Thomas: On January 22, the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, think of it this way: 50 million branches of family trees cut off; 50 million regrets over what might have been; 50 million babies who could have brought…
What made King David great?
Kevin DeYoung: Everyone who knows the Bible knows that King David was a great man. And yet everyone familiar with the Bible will also recognize that David did a lot of not-so-great things. Of course, there was the sin with…
Logic that will lead to disappointment and disillusionment in church life
True or False: If we do everything right in our local church, the our people will be completely unified. I recently posted on how this statement is often misapplied to a pastoral search on the When the Word Leads Your…
Carl Trueman reflects on Ted Haggard’s new television show
Carl Trueman: A man who betrays his wife can be forgiven; but I am not sure he can be forgiven for making it an opportunity to further his career. When Haggard talks of acceptance and does it on a TV…
Where Spurgeon says the fight is won or lost
This post should help us know how to pray for our pastors. C. H. Spurgeon, as recorded in Lectures to My Students: Second Series (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1877), page 146: The pulpit is the Thermopylae of Christendom: there the…