Not Welcome Here

Who is welcome to church? We could glibly answer, “Everyone!” But we all know that’s not true. There is a group of people who will never be welcome to our church! This group consists of perfect people. Our church will never be for perfect people! We already have people who have done things they are ashamed of. We have former thieves in our church. We have former liars in our church. We have men who have betrayed their wives. We have wives who have betrayed their husbands. We have young people who have lost their innocence. We have business people who have cheated. We have formerly religious people who have perpetrated the most vile hypocrisies. Each of these people have found redemption after they were warmly welcomed to our church.  

My 5C Worth Of Leadership

What makes a good leader? At our last monthly leadership training night we explored this question. The answer is more critical than ever for any church. While many churches are facing all kinds of problems, the solution to them is bound up in the answer to our question. 

THE PASTOR AS A NEW WORSHIP LEADER

A few years ago I resigned. That is, I resigned from my pursuit of majoring on being a great preacher. I think my motives were noble in this pursuit. After all, the Scriptures declare that preaching is the means of grace for people to come to salvation. It was reasonable then for any pastor to see the pulpit as their main responsibility.  But as I studied the life and ministry of Dr. F.W. Boreham I increasingly grew more in love with the pastorate than the pulpit. I stopped preparing sermons to preach and began to prepare sermons to pastor. Instead of the pulpit being my platform, it has become my tool for pastoring people. Sure, preaching can move and stir people. But unless it  leads people into worship of God it is failing both people and our Lord. That’s why the best preaching is really worship-leading!

Pastoring Fully Devoted

Every believer is a disciple. Therefore, every believer needs to be discipled. Christ’s commissioning last command was to make disciples. This involves making believers then shaping believers into the likeness of Christ as He wants to be seen through them. Believers are taught to practice the disciplines of a Christ-like life – Scripture familiarisation, prayer, worship, witnessing, and spiritual gift development. Every believer is a disciple and benefits from people who care enough to disciple them. But every believer also needs pastoring. Pastoring involves protecting, nourishing, healing, restoring, tending, feeding, loving. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians as both a discipler and a pastor. Sometimes it’s difficult to decide which of the two important roles the great apostle fulfils – especially when he uses words like euparedron.

Unrecognisable Growth Moments

Unrecognisable Growth Moments

It’s how we handle the little moments which prepare us for the big ones. And it’s the little moments which tend to shape us more profoundly – for better or for worse. Being shaped for better by life’s moments means that we become more confident about dealing with life’s difficulties. It means we become more resilient to life’s setbacks. It means that we are less wasteful and therefore able to build more reserves in life consisting of finances, strength, time, and knowledge. Conversely, when life’s moments are allowed to shape us into someone worse, we become prickly, withdrawn, hard to get along with, discontent, and always in need. Perhaps if we could only recognise these little moments for what they are, we might respond to them quite differently.