Help for the Small-Church Pastor
In this “results” driven age of church growth seminars and attention grabbing methodology, it would seem that a small church pastorate might equate as failure in the eyes of many recent seminary graduates. However, as Steve Bierly helpfully points out in his short yet poignant work: Help for the Small-Church Pastor, even the smallest congregation can fulfill the biblical purpose for the local church and honor God in their ministry.
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Spirit of the Rainforest
Two worlds of vastly different fabrics radically collide in this provocative and emotionally gripping story. Worlds of spirit and spheres of tradition and culture clash with both violence and tranquility in this eye-opening perspective of the Yanomamo people of the Amazon.
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Bad Neighbors
“Michael! Duck below the window… now!” shouted my mom at the top of her lungs. I was probably the most scared eight-year-old on the planet as I hunched down into a corner of our living room.
She yelled out again, this time to my older sister, “Sarah, get down! Our crazy neighbor across the street is waving a shotgun around on his front porch and he just pointed it at our house!!”
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Construction Zone
Have you ever been forced into a detour only to find you’re heading in a totally different direction, away from the place you actually planned to go? Sometimes on the journey of life, God graciously interrupts our plans with a dramatically unexpected change in direction.
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Christianity on Steroids
As I approached the door to the basement, the noise grew louder. I heard a “swish” and a boom, then a grunt followed by a deep sigh. Finally I arrived where I found my brother sprawled out on a bench as he pumped hundreds of pounds of solid iron. Through the dim light of one bare light bulb one could easily see he was sweating profusely. His veins bulged from under his torn muscle shirt and his tendons seemed to twitch at every breath. He was the picture of physical strength and fitness.
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Good Christians, Good Husbands?
In our technological, philosophical, intellectual, and global society it is often inferred that we are somehow far wiser and smarter than our forebears. While this may be true to some degree, in many ways such an idea could not be further from the truth. Books on ministry mentoring, marital harmony, and life balancing seem to be more numerous than the sands of the seashore, yet serious problems in these sectors seem to be greater than ever before. Pastors are dropping out of the ministry due to a whole number of dreadful failures, just as many marriages are splintering inside the Church as are without, and balancing life seems like a three-ring circus of cell-phones, video conferencing, and instant messaging.
In all our swirling activity, are we any better off?
