"Edwards’s theology of joy sustained him in ministry because he put joy at the center of his ministry. It’s the thread that’s woven through all of his theology." - TGC
"I often say that I have the spiritual gift of brevity, the ability to reduce 15 hours of sermon preparation into a 10-minute devotional. For that reason I have written out, word for word, my sermons for 25 years." - TGC
“I would say churches that do that are taking a step beyond what Scripture permits, what Scripture calls us to and they’re choosing to operate in a way that is contrary to 1 Timothy 3” - Christian Post
"Some people are openly arrogant. Even if they don’t always recognize it, others quickly see it in them....many of us struggle privately with ego. To help you determine if that’s the case for you, here are some signs honest, vulnerable pastors have shared with me over the years." - Church Leaders
"...when pastors were asked about their qualifications for handling sexual problems, less than a third of them reported that they felt 'very qualified' to address 15 of the 18 sexual issues in the survey." - C. Post
#1: The Solo Pastor... #2: The Silo Pastor... #3: The Super Pastor...#4: The Pragmatic Pastor... - 9 Marks
"If you’re a small church pastor who’s been frustrated with your inability to gain control of the church, stop trying. There's a better way." - CToday
This post begins a five-part series we first ran here in 2014. The series consists of one of C.H. Spurgeon’s lectures to his students. The idea came from a pastor friend contacted me with a link to the lecture and remarked that it was encouraging to know Spurgeon was dealing with all the same kinds of problems back then that pastors face regularly today. He suggested it would be good content for SharperIron, and I couldn’t agree more.
Depending on what collection you look at, this is Lecture 9 in Volume 3, or possibly Chapter 22, or even Lecture 22. (I believe I also saw it as Lecture 10 in one collection.) The text is available in multiple locations on the Web (such as cblibrary.net, monergism.com and reformationtheology.com), and is apparently in the public domain.
