The world is in lockdown because of our public health crisis. Our main tool to fight this new, viral threat is social isolation. And so, we’re learning that the individualism we’ve pursued for so long isn’t all that great. Turns out, we need each other far more than we thought. God bless our pastors and
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O Come, Let Us Worship Him: Liturgy in Plague Time
I’ve been praying the sacred liturgy for seventy-some years, but it never struck me before as it did this morning—the first Sunday since coronavirus and its precautions have swept the nation. Before the service began, our pastor calmly and confidently introduced some changes in our practice to support our neighbors’ physical health in this time
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The Care of Souls Wins Multiple Book of the Year Awards
Since its release this summer, The Care of Souls has been praised by many. It’s more than a manual for church leadership or strategy, it’s a beautifully written treasury of pastoral wisdom born from years of experience. Michael A. G. Haykin calls it “an enormously helpful work,” and Matthew C. Harrison says it’s “an instant
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Sermons of a Scholar: An Interview with David deSilva
David deSilva brings his years of experience as a biblical scholar to the church in the form of sermons delivered to his home congregation. The reflections in In Season and Out will inform and inspire your understanding of Scripture. In this interview, we ask deSilva about his pastoral experiences and how his scholarship informs his
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Investment Strategies for Eternity
The investment strategies of our commercial banking industry and our capitalist economy are all about laying up for ourselves treasure on earth. Every investment planner with a shingle out there will help you lay up your treasure on earth wisely, to diversify your portfolio so as to achieve the right balance of risk and return
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Shaping the Preacher’s Heart: An Interview with Rick Reed
It takes more than a good speaker to preach. It takes a Spirit-filled person. In The Heart of the Preacher, Rick Reed focuses on the personal heart preparation required before any preacher is ready to preach. In this interview, we ask him about his experience teaching prospective preachers and how it inspired him to write
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Who Pastors the Pastors?
Who takes care of your soul? I’m just guessing that if you are like most of us you try and shrug off your own spiritual needs. After all, we’re trained theologians, aren’t we? We’ve been to seminary and that means we should have all the answers. We’re avid Bible students and we have soaked up
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The Preacher’s Hardest Task
When I was getting started as a preacher, the fact that preaching required hard work didn’t come as a major shock. My big surprise came when I realized the hardest work a preacher must do happens within the preacher’s own heart. I’ve found the most challenging part of a sustained preaching ministry is not the
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Cultivate the Preacher’s Heart during Pastor Appreciation Month
Ministry is an extraordinary calling, filled with great joys and difficult challenges. During Pastor Appreciation Month, we have the great privilege of honoring those who serve as shepherds of God’s flock. Many pastors want to preach better, but they don’t always know how to go about improvement. During October, we’re giving pastors the resources to
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How Does God Assess the Effectiveness of His Church?
Metrics. Every organization, it seems, has them now. I’m not talking about kilometers, kilograms, liters, and degrees centigrade. We tried all that here in America in the late 1970s, and it never really caught on. No, I’m talking about the numbers that fill in the blanks of reports, the numbers that are used to assess
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