Here are some good posts for those serving in a smaller church:
The Secret Small Churches Know Best -Stephen Witmer (DG)
Ministry in Small Towns: Worth a Lifetime Investment – Stephen Witmer (TGC)
The Dilemma of a Bi-vocational Pastor – Darryl Williamson (TGC)
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
Too Busy to Love My Neighbor – Ryan (A Small Work)
I noticed one unpleasant effect of this busyness. At least in me, busyness aggravates self-centeredness.
The Devil’s Glasses – Barry York (GR)
When you are being tempted, the devil sets on your nose a pair of false glasses. These glasses make the sin look so small that you view engaging in it as trivial….
10 Bible Reading Habits I’ve Learned from My Pastor’s Sermons – Colin Smith
Here are 10 habits I have picked up from my pastor’s weekly sermons….
Seven Key Lessons in Diversity from Grace Fellowship Church – Tim Challies
Over a few hours (and some pretty tasty soup and sandwiches) we discussed diversity and arrived at a number of keys to our experience. Here, from Grace Fellowship Church, are seven lessons on finding unity in diversity.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church!
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
He Will Restore Your Soul – Jon Bloom (DG)
Do you feel forsaken by God? Jesus understands. He truly understands more than you know. We can feel forsaken by God; Jesus was forsaken by God. We feel lonely; Jesus was, for a horrible moment, truly alone. As our Great High Priest, he is able to sympathize with us in all our weaknesses….
The Easiest Sin to Justify – Tim Challies
When we sin in anger, we tend to absolve ourselves of blame by pleading the circumstances around the anger….
One Simple Thought On MLK Day – Kevin DeYoung
Just one thought, and it is this: every human being—regardless of color, nationality, economic status, or intellect—has been created in the image of God and should be treated with dignity and respect.
4 Practical Threats to the Church Today – Jared Longshore (Founders)
If I were the devil, I would get Christians separated. I would convince them that one hour a week is plenty of time for them to spend together.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church worshiping our glorious God!
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
Why You Should Live in the Psalms – Scott Slayton (One Degree To Another)
The Psalms provide a welcome antidote to our craving for shallowness. The Psalms, which seem so easy to understand on the surface, invite us to deep study and contemplation. They show the blessing of cultivating a deep and abiding trust in the Lord and beckon us to leave behind our life of distraction so we can know and love God more deeply.
Learning to Say Hello Again – Douglas Groothuis (CT)
It seems like a small thing, but it really isn’t. How we greet—or fail to greet—others says much about our character. But in the power of the Holy Spirit, we may practice the presence of people by acknowledging and recognizing them for who they are: creatures made in God’s image.
Will Your Phone Dominate Your Life in 2018? (Crossway)
Technology use is an area with which many of us struggle to find balance. How much is too much? What is it good for? How can we encourage our families to hold it in its proper place?
How to Discourage Your Minister in the New Year – Paul Levy (reformation 21)
I want to give you 6 ways to discourage your minister in the New Year…
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
20 New Year’s Resolutions You Can Make (and Keep) Right Now – Kevin DeYoung
But this post isn’t about arduous resolutions. Well, not exactly. It’s about something simpler. It’s about your calendar and about making decisions now that will serve you later in the year.
Beginning of the Year Check-In Questions for Christians – David Qaoud (GR)
Don’t leave your spiritual growth up to spontaneity. Make a plan. Now that we’re in 2018, here are some questions to ask as you formulate ways to grow.
Watch Where You Walk in 2018 – Scott Hubbard (DG)
Until that day, 2018 is another year to “look carefully . . . how you walk” (Ephesians 5:15). Walk in love — go low to lift others up. Walk in light — drive the shadows from your soul. And walk in wisdom — seize your days from the devil’s hand. These are three roads that lead us to God’s city of joy, where our journey of ten million steps will finally end.
Doing Church Away from Church isn’t Church – Eric Davis (Cripplegate)
In short, my hike or a Bible open in my living room with the kids is not church. Here are a few reasons why doing church away from church isn’t church.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church!
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
The Main Ingredient in Personal Growth – David Mathis (DG)
Grow in grace. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better three-word caption for the Christian life.
20 Quotes from Erik Raymond’s New Book on Contentment – Matt Smethurst (TGC)
“If you are having a hard time being content, make a list of everything you have that you don’t deserve, and then make a list of everything you deserve that you don’t have.” (62)
Running from “the Black Dog” – Scott Slayton
During the late fall and winter months, I fight with what Winston Churchill called “the black dog.” Depression nips at my heels from the first week in November through the end of February….By God’s grace, I’ve learned how to stay one step ahead of the black dog….
You, Yes You, Are a Minister! – Tim Challies
Instructing one another is a hundred different ways of simply bringing God’s truth to bear. Sometimes this is done by a pastor preaching a sermon that calls people away from wrong behavior and toward right behavior. Far more often, though, it happens in the context of normal life, of one Christian interacting with another one. It happens when a friend encourages a friend to just carry on, to keep practicing the spiritual disciplines. It happens when a church member speaks up to tell what God has been teaching her from his Word. It happens when a brother sits with a brother to encourage him with a passage of Scripture.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day ministering to one another in your local church!
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
8 Signs Your Christianity Is Too Comfortable – Brett McCracken (TGC)
But comfort-seeking is our default mode in a consumerist society, so we often find ourselves in “comfortable Christianity” without even knowing it. What are some indicators that our Christianity has become too cozy, more like a pleasant bottle of port than the uncomfortable, sharpening faith the New Testament envisions? Here are eight signs that your Christianity might be too comfortable.
The Stupidity of Sin – Kevin DeYoung
Everyone who knows the Bible, knows people, or knows his own heart, knows this to be true: sin makes us stupid.
5 Common Evangelism Excuses – Mark Dever (Crossway)
…even at the time you’re not witnessing, you’re busy spinning, justifying, rationalizing, and explaining to your conscience why it was really wise and faithful and kind and obedient not to share the gospel with a particular person at that time and in that situation.
A Category You Won’t Find in the Bible: The Churchless Christian – Thabiti Anyabwile (Crossway) It is vital for Christian witness, vital for Christian growth and discipleship, and vital for the health of our local congregations that every Christian find a healthy church that they’re able to be a part of, and serve their gladly.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church!
Here are some good posts for pastors (and others too) about burnout:
What Is Burnout and Why Is It So Dangerous? – David Murray (Crossway)
Preventing Pastoral Burnout – David Murray (Crossway)
How to Stay in Ministry Over the Long Haul – David Murray (Crossway)
4 Cultural Factors That Contribute to Our Epidemic of Burnout – David Murray (Crossway)
I believe that every Christian ought to be joined to some visible Church—that is his plain duty according to the Scriptures. God’s people are not dogs, otherwise they might go about one by one. They are sheep and, therefore, they should be in flocks.
– Charles Spurgeon
Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:
The Joy of Walking with God – Tim Challies
The Christian’s walk is one of close fellowship with God and earnest obedience to God. Here are some of the joys we receive in this walk.
The Nail in the Coffin of Our Hearts: Five Hundred Years of Fighting Idolatry – Tony Reinke (DG) Shallow thinking about God always replaces God, and sets in his place a fraudulent idol of security or sex or wealth or power or even of religion.
Sanctification Is a Direction – David Powlison
We must have a vision for a long process (lifelong), with a glorious end (the last day), that is actually going somewhere (today).
Sunday Morning Is Not About Me: The Joy of Self-Forgetfulness – Stephen Witmer (DG)
As we see our Lord for who he is, as we look away from ourselves to gaze upon him again, we will find true, lasting joy and contentment.
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day walking with, thinking about, and gazing upon God!
Brian J. Mikul 