Blog

Pastoral terms are too short.  The average tenure of three to five years1 is not working well for anyone. There are, of course, no Bible verses that say that this is too short, for the pastorate as we know it today was not yet commonly practiced when the New Testament was completed. So I’m not […]

Pastor abuse is a serious problem, but there’s nothing new about it. Old Testament prophets – spokespersons for God – and even Old Testament-era Jewish kings, who were shepherds (“pastors,” in Latin) of God’s people, endured harsh treatment at the hands of those who should have respected them. Mocked, thrown in pits, beaten, stoned and […]

I’ve mentioned before that my wife and I are fans of airline disaster podcasts, particularly, the Mentour Pilot, Petter Hornfeldt.  Petter’s great stories have frequently highlighted the importance of the monitoring pilot. Before they get into the cockpit, the commercial airliner’s captain and co-captain make a decision regarding which one of them, on this particular […]

Over the past three weeks I’ve shared fourteen ways in which we might move towards solving our pastor shortage in the evangelical world. While I’ve done some bemoaning of our situation, your responses have been encouraging.  I have not felt like a “voice crying in the wilderness.” I’ve found that many of you share my […]

Over the past three weeks I’ve shared fourteen ways in which we might move towards solving our pastor shortage in the evangelical world. While I’ve done some bemoaning of our situation, your responses have been encouraging.  I have not felt like a “voice crying in the wilderness.” I’ve found that many of you share my […]

For the past two weeks (see 15 Ways To Solve Our Pastor Shortage, Part One and 15 Ways To Solve Our Pastor Shortage, Part Two) I’ve been bemoaning our evangelical pastor shortage.  Like most of my readers, I didn’t much care about theologically liberal churches suffering their pastor shortage, but now that it’s closer to […]

The idea of a “pastor shortage” is a perplexing and troubling concept for us evangelicals.  We don’t mind the idea of a pastor shortage among the other varieties of Christians; after all, they’re wrong (to varying degrees) and deserve to have pastor shortages!  But it shouldn’t be happening in our camp. And I agree.  It […]

The pastor shortage has become a serious matter in the evangelical world.  A friend just told me that in his region of his evangelical (“Bible-believing”) denomination they will be losing one third of their pastors within the next few months.  One third! My own thoughts about how we got to this point will become apparent […]

This will probably be the simplest post I’ve written for a long time.  Not “simplistic” I hope, but simple, and maybe even short. I was talking to a pastor a few weeks ago about his excellent church. And it really is. It’s united, growing spiritually, growing by way of new converts to Christ and joyful. […]

My wife and I have been learning about spatial disorientation by listening to airline disaster podcasts.  The phenomenon occurs when pilots, unable to see the ground because of darkness or bad weather (pilots call it “goo”), become unable to determine their aircraft’s true position relative to the ground. Their senses tell them, for instance, that […]

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it”           Psalm 81:10 Sorry pastor, I’m not offering restaurant gift cards today, but I want to talk to you about your hunger for a revitalized church and I do […]

“I feel like a man without a country” – Recently retired pastor I’ve been writing about the challenges faced by soon-to-retire or newly retired pastors. Here’s a slightly amended paragraph from my posts: Lame Ducks Can Still Fly: Twelve Projects Retiring Pastors Can Work On and Twenty Ways To Redeem Your Pastoral Retirement. No other […]