Pastoral Ministry

“We couldn’t compete, so we didn’t try. We were just ourselves—faithful nobodies who wanted God to use them.” - Chuck Lawless

“…it makes sense to direct financial efforts to more than improving facilities or maintaining the general student population of our Christian schools. Increased assistance must be provided for students studying for ministry” - P&D

“Trust in pastors fell for the third straight year and reached an all-time low. Around 1 in 3 Americans (34%) rate the honesty and ethical standards of clergy as high or very high, according to the latest Gallup survey.” - Lifeway

“Majorities of both mainline (66%) and non-mainline Protestant pastors (53%) expressed concern that ‘Christians are more loyal to their political views than their faith.’” - CPost

“Most pastors have heard of deconstruction and some say they’ve seen it in their pews, but no one knows exactly what faith deconstruction means.” - Lifeway

“the first English Baptist confession, John Smyth’s (1609), lists ‘bishops and deacons.’ The First London Confession of 1644 lists ‘pastors, teachers, elders, deacons,’ while the Second London Confession of 1688 returns to two: ‘bishops or elders and deacons.’ In fact, nearly all Baptist confessions mention only two” - 9 Marks

Baxter (1615–1691), as the late J.I. Packer has described him, “usually called himself his people’s teacher, and teaching was to his mind the minister’s main task.” - Desiring God

“Maynard was president of the Fellowship of Missions since 2011. Previously he was state representative of the Michigan Association of Regular Baptist Churches from 1990 to 2006—the longest tenure of any MARBC representative” - GARBC

“Run the simulation on a [pastor/elder] candidate: Would the most natural commendation, relative this particular man, be … ‘He’s able to teach—if you put a gun to his head?’ Or would it be … ‘He’s the kind of man who will hardly stop teaching—even if you put a gun to his head.’” - 9 Marks

“National research by the Barna Group indicates that pastors are discouraged, with 43 percent of pastors saying that they have given serious consideration to leaving vocational ministry.” - RNS