March 1st, 2016
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In our culture there are many things that society tells us makes a man—can he earn a healthy salary? Does he own a house? Drive a truck? Wear stylish clothes? Popular with women? Bench press 250? You get the idea.
February 23rd, 2016
At times I find myself swimming against the tide of popular trends. In particular, one such trend where I find myself out of place is in the desire to read biographies of great Christians. In general, I’m not opposed to learning about the lives of famous Christians, but I do have two concerns.
February 16th, 2016
I think when people imagine what it’s like to receive pastoral counseling, they envision their pastor or elder giving them wonderful advice. And, to a certain extent, this is true. When you have a problem and need advice, your pastor or elder should be able to give you sound counsel.
February 9th, 2016
One of the things that the pastorate can do is take a toll on your body. Perhaps it’s because the pastorate is conducive to a sedentary lifestyle—you sit at your desk and study for hours, then you meet someone for lunch, show up to a church social and eat a stack of cookies piled high on your tiny cocktail napkin, and then meet someone at your local coffee shop and, why not, go ahead and grab a scone.
February 2nd, 2016
As a pastor you will meet a lot of different people throughout the course of your ministry. I have met fighter pilots, professional athletes, contractors, school teachers, stay-at-home moms, accountants, politicians, musicians, children, students, and the like.
January 26th, 2016
I’m not sure why, but pastors often fail miserably at performing funerals. I can remember sitting in a funeral service where the pastor stood before a very large congregation and admitted he was at a loss for words—he did not know what to say. Ok, fair enough.
January 19th, 2016
All you have to do is read the headlines on the interweb to know that we live in some crazy times. It seems like people are all to willing to use violence as a means of promoting their agenda.
January 12th, 2016
One of the biggest surprises in my ministry was the opposition to the gospel that arose within my own church. I always assumed there would be opposition to the gospel from outside the church, from the unbelieving world.
May 6th, 2014
When I was regularly preparing my weekly sermons I often wondered whether I would make any type of impact upon my church. After all, a pastor will pour anywhere between 10-20 hours of preparation to preach for 30 minutes, give or take.
March 5th, 2014
“Before the WDP [Women’s Discipleship Program], we were like dry branches. Now, we are full of leaves.”
February 19th, 2014
I did not go to seminary to marry a pastor. In fact, I was pretty scared of the possibility.
February 12th, 2014
As I considered the flux and uncertainty of life, the sharp contrast of the character of the Lord came to mind.
February 11th, 2014
During my days in seminary I had a number of summer internships where I learned a some invaluable lessons. One that stands out prominently in my mind was the importance of maintaining a strong work ethic.
February 5th, 2014
I scanned the recesses of my brain. What had seminary taught me about demonic activity?
January 29th, 2014
This innocent question has rendered many a female student at a complementarian seminary catatonic.
January 22nd, 2014
Today launches a new series on the blog that addresses many interesting questions asked of our female students.
February 14th, 2013
Seminary has been one of the best experiences for our family. Nick began attending Westminster Seminary California three months before we got married and has a year and a half left.
August 15th, 2012
Back in 2005 America’s new “pastor,” Rick Warren, said, “The first Reformation was about doctrine; the second one needs to be about behavior.
August 8th, 2012
A quick web search reveals surveys that show as many as 97% of Americans professing to believe in God. Impressive, isn’t it? But do 97% of Americans actually believe in the God who says, “You shall have no other gods before me?” (Ex. 20:3) What does it mean to say that 97% of Americans believe in “God?”
June 13th, 2012
As a pastor, over the years I had my fair share of people approach me to find out if we were a “courtship” church or a “dating” church. The people invariably would tell me that their approach was “the biblical way.” I eventually become leery of such claims given that the Bible does not say much about how to find a wife, or does it?
