Tag Archives: pastor

The denomination, the pastor and the work of gospel ministry

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Denominations can be a mixed blessing for the pastor: when they work well, they give your ministry wings; when they don’t, they can feel like a straitjacket. In this Pastor’s brief, we look at how you can work with church structures to ensure that gospel ministry prospers.

A wise colleague once told me that regardless of the nature of any particular form of church government, good people will make it work and sinful people will endeavour to corrupt it to their own ends. In other words, while some structures may be better than others, none are ideal, for none can guarantee our freedom to do the work of gospel ministry.

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A truly reformed pastor

Interchange

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In Briefing #365, Gavin Perkins wrote an Up Front piece which argued that “the good pastor is actually primarily an evangelist”. He argued for this on the basis that Jesus’ parable in Luke 15 talks about a shepherd who leaves the 99 in order to find the one who is lost, and on the basis that Jesus saw the helpless crowds in Matthew 9 as “sheep without a shepherd”. He also reminded us of the example of our hero Richard Baxter in this regard (author of The Reformed Pastor). (more…)

A truly reformed pastor

Up front

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The word ‘pastor’ comes from the word ‘shepherd’. Someone is considered a good ‘pastor’ if they are skilled and compassionate in dealing with the issues facing Christian believers. That is, the job of the pastor is primarily to care for Christians. (more…)

More Anglican fuss

Couldn't Help Noticing

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Gene Robinson is apparently upset that he has not been invited to attend the Bishops’ conference at Lambeth this year.1 The theological differences between Bishop Robinson and evangelical Anglicans over homosexuality are well-known and well-traversed. But what I find interesting is what this report reveals about the different way he views Anglican polity. He refers to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, as his “chief pastor and shepherd”. I seriously doubt you’d ever hear Peter Jensen or any evangelical bishops from around the world referring to Rowan Williams as their “chief pastor and shepherd”. For a start, that’s not how they would understand the official relationship between their church and Canterbury. But secondly and more importantly, I think they’d probably think that there is someone better qualified to be their chief pastor and shepherd—someone who sits on a heavenly throne, not a throne in Canterbury. Where might they get suchan idea? Well, one place would be The Book of Common Prayer service for the consecration of a Bishop where Jesus is referred to as the “chief Shepherd”. They’d also get it from the Bible (e.g. Ezek 34:15, John 10:11). (more…)

The Hard Ask: Disagreeing with your pastor

Life

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“When I have disagreements with my pastor, how can I deal with them in a godly way?”

This question is a subset of the question “What do I do when I disagree with any brother or sister in Christ”? Since the Bible is for realists and not romantics, it gives us guidelines for action. God knows that we are sinful people and he doesn’t pretend that such events won’t happen.

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