Contributor: VFT

I regularly run across statistics that say that thousands of pastors each year leave the ministry and cite burn out as a chief reason. While some have challenged the accuracy of these statistics, it doesn’t change the fact that burn out is a real problem for many pastors. They graduate…
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Sigmund Freud once famously opined that religion was merely the wishful projection of weak people who were looking for their lost father figure. Freud was echoing the earlier theory of Ludwig Feurbach, who made the same claim. In his book, Faith of the Fatherless: A Psychology of Atheism, Paul Vitz…
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Preachers often give thought to the question of how they will get the message of the gospel out to people who need to hear it. The church is, after all, supposed to evangelize the nations. While preachers are ready to preach God’s word, there is the practical question of what…
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I can’t help but wonder how many preachers and teachers spend a great deal of time in prayer before they undertake their sacred task. There is a story about Martin Luther King Jr. that illustrates my point. Rosa Parks, the woman who famously started the Montgomery, Alabama bus strike to…
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I’ve recently befriended a young man who is in the process of undergoing training for an elite military unit. I’m not only impressed by the challenges of the training but also by the young man’s quiet and humble spirit. He has followed his superiors’ instructions and does not divulge the…
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Within any decent-sized congregation there are bound to be some who are widows, usually those that are older, but in some cases, there might be younger widows. In the world outside the church, many might look upon widows as a regular part of life. Death is common and thus widows…
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I regularly receive notices of ministers who have served the church for decades but reach the end of their lives and die. As I read of such men I often wonder who they are and how many lives they impacted for the sake of Christ and his gospel. In the…
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Over the years I have had many students come into my office and ask me about pursuing doctoral studies. One of the first questions I ask them is, “Why?” I ask this question because many students don’t know that pursuing doctoral studies is a long, difficult, and burdensome path. Once…
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As Christians we commit ourselves to the truth of God’s word—we profess to worship and believe in the truth incarnate, Jesus Christ, and we devote ourselves to the study of God’s written truth, namely, his word. We regularly seek the truth of God’s word each and every Lord’s Day as…
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There are preachers and theologians to whom we listen and read. They fill our hearts with joy because they excel at pointing us to Christ. They move us to tears when we hear them preach, or they instill zeal in our hearts when we read their thunderous prose. We elevate…
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