Tim Suffield writes here on the importance of training elders. I don’t really have much to add to what he has to say. I agree with him that we should train and equip all elders at a church, whether they are on staff or not. I agree with him that this is not first and… Continue reading Training Elders
Category: Leadership
Should a pastor blog?
Sinclair Ferguson doesn’t seem to think so. Recently a clip of an interview with him was circulated where he argued that the time spent writing your blog article could have been spent visiting an elderly lady in the congregation. I have an obvious interest to declare here because I write a blog and have done… Continue reading Should a pastor blog?
Can you be an effective pastor without being a reader?
This was a question shared on Twitter recently as a poll. The originator suggested that by being a “reader”, he meant beyond the bible and commentaries. Responses both in the voting and in comments suggested that most people assumed that wide reading was if not essential at least very important for pastoral ministry. Some people… Continue reading Can you be an effective pastor without being a reader?
Paying the pastor
John Benton’s latest article on the Pastor’s Academy site talks about the importance of looking after pastors well, particularly when it comes to pay. He references Martin Luther’s commentary on Galatians 6:6 in support of his point. Now, there’s some good points in the article. Whilst, elders in the church should not be greedy, lovers… Continue reading Paying the pastor
Wanted -church mothers
For some time, I’ve been arguing that both complementarians and egalitarians alike have been letting the church down by failing to give proper place to women in the church. For complementarians, the failure has perhaps been more obvious. The focus has been so much on saying “this is what women cannot do” that the result… Continue reading Wanted -church mothers
How do you support a church without a pastor?
This was a question raised by Tim Wilson, pastor of Wheelock Heath Baptist church on Twitter. For context, Tim is involved with the Rural Project which is about supporting churches, plants and revitalisations in rural contexts, so similar to the kind of work I’m involved with in urban contexts. Here are my thoughts. I’m assuming… Continue reading How do you support a church without a pastor?
The pastor’s role and the Christian Sabbath
I’ve been handling a couple of recurring themes over the past few weeks. First there has been the question of the Christian Sabbath and then there has been the question of whether or not pastors have jobs, whether they work or whether their role is leisure. The two issues dovetail neatly into another question that… Continue reading The pastor’s role and the Christian Sabbath
How should we talk about the pastor’s role?
I’ve written a couple of articles disagreeing with a particular description of pastoral ministry. First, in response to Tim Suffield, I said “Yes and no” to the statement that as a pastor you don’t have a job. I said both “yes and no” because I agree that there can be particularly unhelpful connotations if we… Continue reading How should we talk about the pastor’s role?
How we talk about the pastor’s role matters
Last week, I engaged with Tim Suffield on whether pastors have jobs or not. Someone who engaged more supportively with Tim was John Barach. He tweeted: My response was that this is all sounds very pleasant but isn’t how Scripture describes the call to pastoral ministry. He responded by saying: In our conversation he developed… Continue reading How we talk about the pastor’s role matters
Yes your pastor does have a job … and it matters
Tim Suffield has written this provocative piece about pastors not really having jobs. There’s much I would agree with here but I think there are a couple of things to push back against. So, first of all here’s why I agree with Tim. Yes, it is true that the pastor doesn’t have a job. Our… Continue reading Yes your pastor does have a job … and it matters
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