I’ve been thinking about this because there is a trend amongst theological educators to talk about the need to emphasise spiritual formation as much as theological training for potential pastors. However, when you look at what the Bible says about the qualifications of an elder in 1 Timothy 3, it says that they are to… Continue reading What really are the qualifications of an elder/pastor?
Tag: pastors
A little proposal, what if we got rid of the distinction between elders conpletely?
My friend Steve Kneale recently wrote in praise of unpaid elders. He began by talking. about the problems with different descriptions for paid and unpaid elders. I agree 100 percent with him. In fact the one thing I’d want to do is make explicitly clear that there is no Biblical foundation for the presbyterian distinction… Continue reading A little proposal, what if we got rid of the distinction between elders conpletely?
When a leader falls, is their past teaching still valid?”
This was the title of Tom Forryan’s article in Evangelicals Now, part of a series of articles on Jude. Disappointingly, the article doesn’t answer the question, although it poses it in the text as well as the headline. Maybe that is due to the crucial section got cut in editing. The article’s focus is more… Continue reading When a leader falls, is their past teaching still valid?”
What do we value more, the theologian or the pastor? …and is it possible to be a great pastor but a poor theologian
There have been a few recent articles examining the relationship between two significant puritan figures, John Owen and Richard Baxter. John Steven’s recently commented on Facebook about their falling out and described them as “puritan greats”. This led to one person challenging whether or not we could describe Baxter as “a great”, his assessment was… Continue reading What do we value more, the theologian or the pastor? …and is it possible to be a great pastor but a poor theologian
Cities need walls but they need more than walls
The other Sunday I was preaching on Nehemiah 11. It struck me that there was a crucial link between what was happening here and what the situation was described as back in Nehemiah 7 where we are told: 4 Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had… Continue reading Cities need walls but they need more than walls
How to listen to sermons
Here is another little e-book. Partly this arose because there is perhaps a need for training to listen to as well as to preach sermons. Partly it’s because thinking about how we should listen to sermons affects how we think about preaching them too. this short book covers different types of sermon including expository, topical… Continue reading How to listen to sermons
If we are looking for Healthy Theological Training we should not underestimate the place of long term experience of ordinary church life
Following my article last Saturday about whether we need healthy theological colleges, I’ve been developing some further thoughts. I thought first of all, that it might be helpful to say something about my own theological training and pathway into Gospel ministry. It’s fair to say that I didn’t completely follow the current primary pipeline exactly,… Continue reading If we are looking for Healthy Theological Training we should not underestimate the place of long term experience of ordinary church life
Calling a new pastor -how do you get to know the right person?
So far in terms of the steps we’ve talked about, we’ve looked at things that we might classifiy as the traditional formal elements of recruitment, interviews and preaching. We’ve also looked at how you can do a bit more of a deep dive to research a person’s gifting, theological outlook etc through online research. However,… Continue reading Calling a new pastor -how do you get to know the right person?
Nostalgia and jars of stones
Steve Kneale wrote recently in Evangelicals Now about the danger of nostalgia. He was responding to a recent spate of articles letters and blogs which seem to harp back to some golden era in the life of the church when churches held three teaching meetings a week and the pastor led all of them. David… Continue reading Nostalgia and jars of stones
Recruiting a new pastor: What to look for when listening to them preach
Some jobs give the candidate opportunity to demonstrate one of the core skills. Whilst it is very difficult to observe a counsellor or engineer in action, you can observe a teacher at work and you can check out whether or not a potential pastor can preach. Of course there is always the risk that the… Continue reading Recruiting a new pastor: What to look for when listening to them preach
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