In his recent article for Evangelicals Now, Matt Paterson challenges pastors for what he refers to as “visionary dreaming.” Matt seems to have in his sights a mechanicalistic approach to church growth, particular that associated with US pastor Rick Warren. Now, I’m familiar with pragmatic church growth theories and I’ve heard some of the things… Continue reading Is the church meant to grow and if so, who is responsible?
Category: Leadership
Ministry Nuts and Bolts: What does the pastor need to know about employment and HR?
A pastor is first of all likely to be an employee if they are paid by the church. Traditionally, this was not always considered the case, rather they were defined as office holders and considered to work directly for God. However, many will have an explicit employment contract now and the courts, tribunals and Inland… Continue reading Ministry Nuts and Bolts: What does the pastor need to know about employment and HR?
ministry nuts and bolts: What does the pastor need to know about the law?
Guest Post from Richard Pennington I’m grateful to Dave Williams for letting me contribute to his series of articles about ministry nuts and bolts, although this a a very general note as the detail would run to too many pages! I write as a retired solicitor and I dealt in my career of over 30… Continue reading ministry nuts and bolts: What does the pastor need to know about the law?
Ministry nuts and bolts: What the pastor needs to know about asylum and immigration
This will vary depending on context but if you are serving in an urban context, then the issue of immigration is likely to play a significant part in your ministry. What are the kinds of things you need to be aware of and thinking about? First of all, I think it will help you to… Continue reading Ministry nuts and bolts: What the pastor needs to know about asylum and immigration
Ministry nuts and bolts: What the pastor needs to know about safeguarding
Most churches are reasonably aware of the requirement for Safeguarding policies and DBS checks now. However, it’s not something that you are going to get detailed training on in seminary and how churches engage with those requirements varies with some being fantastic and others a little chaotic. Also, I still hear people complain that such… Continue reading Ministry nuts and bolts: What the pastor needs to know about safeguarding
Ministry Nuts and Bolts: What does the pastor need to know
I’ve recently wrote about things that church leaders need to know about and be trained in beyond the narrower limits of theological and even pastoral care education and training. I followed this up with a specific article about finances. This prompted some feedback asking for further articles looking at practical aspects of leadership from safeguarding… Continue reading Ministry Nuts and Bolts: What does the pastor need to know
What competencies should we be training pastors for?
I’ve been arguing for a while that we need to change how we train people for Gospel ministry. Traditionally, we’ve started out with inputs. We’ve thought about the different subjects that we believe a potential pastor should be taught about. At it’s best that does give a systematic and comprehensive curriculum because people have thought… Continue reading What competencies should we be training pastors for?
Why we need to break out of our theological colleges
I’ve been arguing for some time that we need to make some step changes in terms of how we train and equip people for church leadership and paid Gospel ministry. I’ve argued that our methods of identifying potential leaders, pastors and planters exclude far too many and that particularly the traditional seminary route puts up… Continue reading Why we need to break out of our theological colleges
Recycling and making it hard for people to do what we expect of them
Apparently, Birmingham has the dubious honour of being ranked at the bottom of the recycling table with only 22.5% of waste being recycled. Having lived here for a month, I’m not surprised. Our recycling centre (what we used to call the Tip) is closed currently and our recycling is collected fortnightly. At least we know… Continue reading Recycling and making it hard for people to do what we expect of them
Ministry Nuts and Bolts – managing the church finances
Yesterday I shared some thoughts on the need for leaders to be trained and equipped beyond their responsibilities to offer pastoral care, preach or teach and do the work of the evangelist. Today I want to share some thoughts on the specific issue that Steve Kneale’s original blogpost raised, the question of church finances. If… Continue reading Ministry Nuts and Bolts – managing the church finances
