HOW TO TREAT SPIRITUAL DEPRESSION IN MINISTRY? By Andrew Davis Spiritual Depression Temporary fits of spiritual depression have engulfed some of the choicest servants of the Lord throughout church history. It is amazing to read the list of those who confessed to feeling dark despair crowd into their souls at critical moments: Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Adoniram Judson, …
Follow Our Lead on Church Plans for Your Retirement Needs By Stephen Osborne, Senior Relationship Manager in Retirement Solutions Ministers and ministries are unique — both in mission and in operations. As a minister, you received an inspirational calling from God and most likely pursued theological training to prepare for your vocation. But did your seminary offer you a class …
In this episode of our B21 Podcast, we interview Matt Smethurst, managing editor of The Gospel Coalition, a church planter, and author of a new book for 9Marks on Deacons. In part 1, we get to know Matt better and discuss some of the key questions relating to the diaconate and healthy ecclesiology. In part 2, we discuss church planting …
By Dr. Aaron Meraz, Director of Mission:Dignity at GuideStone Having pastored and shepherded young pastors, I am reminded often of the faithful servants who led my own family, friends and even me to Christ. These ministers and their wives dedicated most of their lives to churches that could not contribute to their retirement savings, but they kept serving anyway. After …
B21 invites all Southern Baptists to set aside June 1st as a day of prayer for our upcoming annual meeting. To coincide with this day, there will be a virtual prayer meeting beginning at 2pm EST led by various Southern Baptist leaders. Although we are in contentious times, the Lord is still doing much through Southern Baptists for the propagation …
As a voice for Southern Baptists, one of our goals for this current season is to interview all 4 SBC Presidential Candidates prior to the annual meeting later this June. In our first interview, we sat down with Dr. Litton to hear why he is running for SBC President, what he hopes to accomplish if elected, along with more information …
By John Murphy, Director of GuideStone Property and Casualty® 2020 produced many challenges for pastors and churches as we moved online or outdoors and reset our ministry expectations. Many churches went back to the basics of what it means to be the Church — with a capital “C” — finding this to be a refreshing time of allowing God to …
Pastor Clint Darst, a church planter from King’s Cross Church in Greensboro, NC, was our latest guest on the podcast. Topics discussed include encouraging/discouraging aspects of the SBC, Clint’s journey into the ministry, and lessons learned through leading a growing, multi-ethnic/multi-generational church. New episodes of our podcast go live every Tuesday. Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to stay up-to-date with the …
Pastor, author, professor, and church planter, Dr. Phil Newton, was our recent guest on the B21 Podcast. Dr. Newton has a wide breadth of experience in ministry and raising up future leaders. During our two part discussion, we spent much of our time together conversing on plurality in leadership, pastoring, complementarianism, the church, and more. As an author, Dr. Newton …
By Branton Burleson Several years ago a pastor friend from a nearby Baptist church invited me to share with his congregation some biblical teaching on plural elder leadership. As I waited for the service to begin that evening, a display in the church’s foyer caught my attention. It was the original minutes from the founding meeting of the church in …
