Pastoral Leadership

"I (Matt Smethurst) recently read Jonathan Leeman and Andy Naselli’s helpful new booklet, How Can I Love Church Members with Different Politics? (Crossway, 2020). It’s an ideal resource for church leaders to recommend and give away to their congregations during a contentious election season. The following 20 quotes caught my attention." - TGC

"It’s too early to know exactly how vaccinations are going to play out in the church, but I don’t think you have to be an inveterate skeptic to imagine it’s more likely to bring division than unity. There will be some people who consider accepting the vaccination little better than accepting the mark of the beast and other people who believe the unvaccinated should not be permitted to pass through the doors of the church." - Challies

"More than a week after at least 51 members of Calvary Chapel of San Antonio in Texas got infected with COVID-19 since the congregation started meeting in person, the church’s pastor says he takes full responsibility. ... adding, 'We kept all of the rules to the letter of the law.'" - CPost

"If we’re going to help our people, we pastors must cultivate humility. We need to grow in our Christlikeness to help others do the same. So how do we do it? Here are a few ways to cultivate humility in ministry." - 9 Marks

"We must not misunderstand the injunction against being quarrelsome. Clearly, by both precept and example, Paul did not envision the ideal pastor as a nice, soft, somewhat passive, universally liked, vaguely spiritual chaplain. After all, in the very sentence in which he enjoins Timothy not to be quarrelsome, he also emphasizes that there is evil in the world and that the pastor must correct his opponents." - DeYoung

"Left unguarded, feelings of uselessness can easily replace the busy schedule that used to typify each week. A loss of identity can also result if once-filled hours aren’t replaced by other significant investments. As the Lord redirects my focus toward fresh avenues of service, I often rehearse several prompts to help clarify my ministry objectives." - TGC

"Rhyne Putman’s new book, When Doctrine Divides the People of God, surprisingly helps us answer why fellow pastors might disagree about [shepherding] matters. I say “surprisingly” because the book analyzes doctrinal disagreements, not disagreements over matters of shepherding." - Andy Naselli

"In these moments, we would do well to remember the words of James 1:19 when he calls Christians to 'Be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.'" - F&T