The Pastor's Justification

An open heart is much preferable to what the world considers an “open mind.” The point of an open mind, like an open mouth—paraphrasing G. K. Chesterton here—is to shut it again on something solid. Or, if you prefer Steve Taylor, don’t be so open-minded that your brain leaks out. If your mind is closed in the right way, shut on the solid things of

Perhaps it’s not the big wins we ought to be swinging for, pastor. Perhaps it is not pastoral glory upon glory we ought to be jumping to. Instead, even in forsaken places, we’re going for the dam break. We just keep picking away, inch by inch. Some days we knock out larger pieces than others. We are stronger some days than others. But we keep picki

When God calls a man, he calls him to come lose himself, and so it is no wonder that the most eager of those called tend to already know what it is like to lose. The Beatitudes help us see the upside-down ethos of the kingdom of God. To preach the good news of his kingdom and build legacies of faith, Jesus is looking primarily for losers.

Here it is, a tremendous word of welcome, extended to Jew and Gentile alike, to come on in and worship, not in the holiest place of the human tabernacle, but into the Holy of Holies in heaven itself “by the blood of Jesus.” This, pastor, this! This is our theme, this is our song, this is our proclamation! This is our vision. This is what we welcome

And this is from a pastor’s blog (I kid you not): It’s the elite, the excellers, the achievers, the succeeders, and those who raise their game to a level of “must” who end up with the money, power, and satisfaction. It will cause you tension, aggravation, and sleepless nights. It will wear you out and push you down the road. But that’s what you wer

Watch Out for Apostasy Heresy is false teaching brought into the church by wolves. Apostasy is the abandonment of the church by those led astray by heresy. Apostates may be true believers exercising a dangerous lapse of belief, or they may be false converts showing their real god. How we handle these cases will take great courage, great wisdom, and

Some seek to measure how they are growing creatively or in the subjective realm of “excellence.” When we make these our benchmarks, we start doing stupider and stupider things, as anyone who’s seen the promotional videos from the church that hosted a fart-themed sermon series can attest. One pastor sleeps on the roof of his church with his wife to

The content of our message can absolutely include what the message is not but if the shape of our message is what it is not (or what we hate or who we’re against, etc.), we triumphantly and enthusiastically shoot ourselves in the foot over and over again. It will be a frustrating—and ultimately failing—endeavor, attempting to maintain forward missi

Wife and family first; church second. This means that pastors are first charged with pastoring their family. Indeed, one cannot even be allowed to pastor a church if he cannot or will not pastor his family.

One thing we must remember is that difficulty doesn’t indicate a lack of calling. I can’t think of any notion more antithetical to the biblical template for gospel ministry. The idea that God’s calling is sure only when a minister is comfortable, prosperous, and happy is not a scriptural one. So pastor, don’t confuse a difficult season in your mini