Problems In Ministry

One of the battles which I think a Minister / Pastor has to constantly fight is that of busyness. Too easily can our schedules and life can become overwhelmed with things which we think are important but that actually push out the truly important things like family time, rest, perspective and sleep.

Busyness is not a badge of honor. I have even heard people say “oh, ask him to speak – he must be good – he is really busy!” This is not healthy, neither for us,  for those we serve and for our relationship with God.

Two recent articles (well actually one is a blog post) have reinforced this. Check out David Murray’s intensely personal, but wise post HERE. David feels that God has been on his case for a while about slowing down. In that post David refers to another article called The Danger of “Fruitfulness” Without Purity by Michael Oh.

Ministers, please, read, mark and learn!

A Perfectionist?

Doug Wilson, in an article on Time Management wrote these wise words:

Perfectionism paralyzes. Chesterton once wonderfully observed that anything worth doing is worth doing badly. The sign of a fruitful worker is that he understands the critical difference between “that won’t cut it” and “that is just fine.”

If only some perfectionists would just listen to that!

Boating and Swimming

Last weekend a friend of mine took Sam, Jem and myself on his speed boat for some fun – I put pictures and small videos on here over the coming days. This is Sam at my friends house (he has a dock at the end of his yard) – jumping off for a swim.

 

The Preachers Most Important Task…

The preacher’s first and the most important task is to prepare himself, not his sermon. Any man who has been any length in the ministry will agree wholeheartedly with me concerning this. It is something that one has to learn by experience. At first one tends to think that the great thing is to prepare the sermon – and the sermon, as I have been saying, does need most careful preparation. But altogether more important is the preparation of the preacher himself.

Martin Lloyd-Jones: Preaching and Preachers

Preaching Cannot Be Taught…

[Preaching] cannot be taught. That is impossible. Preachers are born, not made. This is an absolute. You will never teach a man to be a preacher if he is not already one. All your books such as The ABC of Preaching or Preaching Made easy should be thrown  in to the fire as soon as possible. But if a man is a born preacher you can help him a little – but not much. He can perhaps be improved a little here and there.

How can that be done? Here I am probably going to be somewhat controversial. I would say: Not in a sermon class, not be having a student to preach a sermon to other students who then proceed to criticise matter and manner. I prohibit that. Why? Because the sermon in such circumstances is being preached with a wrong object in view; and the people who are listening to it are listening in a wrong way. The message of the Bible should never be listened to in that way. It is always the word of God, and no one should ever listen to it except in a spirit of reverence and godly expectation of receiving a message.

Martin Lloyd-Jones: Preaching and Preachers

Is The Modern Church View On Tithing Biblical? No!

Thislamp has a GREAT post on tithing and on how it is not really used in a biblical way by churches today. Here is an excerpt from it:

Most of the churches with which I’m most familiar  would quickly tell their members and the community at large that they preach the grace of Jesus Christ. Yet beyond this grace are little pockets of works and legalism. If it’s promoted that good standing equals a tithe, this is legalism, plain and simple. If taking on a responsibility within the church such as teaching or some committee position or a role like deacon requires giving at least 10% of one’s income, this is legalism by its very definition. And yet these same churches supposedly believe they promote God’s grace in all areas. Sadly, they do not.

Of course thislamp agrees utterly with giving and the support of the church ministry. I have long held that what is known as stewardship season is really the church coercing someone into ‘tithing’ which is not biblical and goes expressly against 2 Corinthians 9:7.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE

Resources For Ministering to Your kids

Having three kids between 14 months and 8 years old we have picked up many resources for getting across the Jesus / Biblical message to them. Below, in no particular order, are some of the resources which we have read to our children at various ages.