"Here are five simple suggestions for keeping your church safe in this area" - SBC Voices
By David Gunn. Republished with permission from Baptist Bulletin © Regular Baptist Press. All rights reserved.
A professor once explained the evolution of social history in a novel way, using the concept of the voice of culture. It went something like this: During the Reformation the rallying cry of sola Scriptura transformed the entire societal landscape, and so the preacher became the voice of culture. As time passed, the ideals of the Enlightenment elevated reason and empiricism over revelation, and so during the modern era the scientist became the voice of culture. In response to modernism’s hubris, the postmodern impulse began, and so the philosopher became the voice of culture. Postmodernism died by its own hand—its defenders claimed that words have no meaning, then proceeded to write books about it! (Oops!) The result is our present confused and confusing society in which style is prized over substance and sound-bites over discourse.
"In a statement released Sunday (Nov. 3), the church elders found MacDonald was prone to anger, 'had a pattern of improperly exercising positional and spiritual authority over others to his own advantage,' and sought to profit from the church’s ministry." - RNS
"Earnestness is the demeanor that corresponds to the weight of the subject matter of preaching. The opposite of earnest is not joyful but trivial, flippant, frivolous, chipper." - John Piper
"Serving on a pastoral search committee is a tough assignment tasked to church members who may not have interview training or anything to go off other than their personal preferences for a new pastor. As such, most pastors have had their fair share of interesting search committee experiences." - Facts & Trends
"In the interpretation of the responses, the study authors articulated five things that contribute to stress and, one could argue, be correlated to mental illness in clergy." - Church Leaders
"The practice is more obvious when the message is not expository or the application is not plainly taught from the text. Preaching is used, not to expound the scripture, but to 'send a message' to a specific individual or group of individuals from the pulpit during the sermon." - Proclaim & Defend
"I received the below question, which is often asked concerning this issue: 'If a minister confides to leaders in his church that they are contemplating suicide, do you think their ministry is over?' I responded that it depends on the church. Unfortunately, we all know that would be disqualifying a lot of churches." - Christianity Today
