By Dave Russell Last week I had the privilege of attending our SBC Annual Meeting in Birmingham. This was my fourth convention and I left my time there encouraged and thankful to be a part of the SBC. In reflecting on my time at our Annual Meeting, I offer four areas of strength and one area for improvement. FOUR AREAS …
In the fall of 2017, Good Hope Baptist Church in Youngsville, NC needed a change. Despite a 200-year legacy of preaching, evangelism, and service, Good Hope was on a trajectory of joining the 1,000 SBC churches that close their doors every year. With hope for the future of their church, Good Hope started conversations with the Pillar Network about replanting. After …
Dr. James K. Dew Jr. has been nominated to become the ninth president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS). For those who do not know Dr. Dew (Jamie) let me give a quick introduction to my friend, colleague, and fellow pastor. Let me also tell you why NOBTS has made an excellent choice for their next president. I first …
Harnessing the Power of Experience by Lyla Curtis “Life is a classroom. Only those who are willing to be lifelong learners will move to the head of the class.” Zig Ziglar’s words continue to ring true. No matter what your age, gender, or learning style, we can all agree that learning and growing is an indicator of life, while refusing …
The Pastor and Depression by Chris Dilley Admitting There is a Problem The role of the Christian pastor is a serious one. The Bible shows us just how serious in passages like Hebrews 13:17: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do …
Taking Training to the Next Level with Ministry Grid by Stuart Owens One of the biggest challenges we face as a church is how to train our people. We believe strongly that our role as pastors is to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry,” but we’ve found it increasingly difficult to get the saints in front of …
When I lose sight of my hope, I’m prone to believe lies. One lie I hear whispered frequently is that I’ll never change, that I can’t change. It’s a lie completely antithetical to the gospel – the good news that I could change, or rather that I could be changed. Why is it after more than twenty years after God …
When my neighbors celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, our cul-de-sac was full with their guests’ cars who had come to celebrate with them. The generations of their family that came to visit represented the legacy of love that they are passing down through their covenant of marriage. Several times a year, my church gets together for what we call our …
By Greg Love Having been a pastor myself and now serving churches at GuideStone®, I understand that ministers are unique in the financial world — especially when it comes to taxes. Think about it. Between the special tax considerations for ministers, reporting requirements of both active and retired pastors and the implications of housing allowance, ministers differ greatly from those not formally in …
We were sitting on cushions pushed up against the wall in the front room of her house built into the mountainside in Veles, Macedonia. We had brought her dad, a Roma man who lives in the community where we were ministering, to visit her. She took a slow sip from her coffee as she watched my two oldest children, …
