Before You Quit

It was AW Tozer who wrote that “what we think about God, is the most important thing about us.” Paul in 1 Timothy 4:16 tells Timothy to, “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” What we believe, matters. What we believe about doctrine and theology determines how we live. I had the joy of sitting down with Pastor John W. Fogal to talk about this from his new booklet, Work Out Your Salvation, Because it is God Working in You. We often think of doctrine as mere ascent, stuff we adhere to, teach about and preach on. But, have you considered how without doctrine, we would not know how to live? Thankfully, we have been given by Jesus direction on how to live this life for him and his glory. He is the one working his life in and through us. What an exciting thing, or as John says, IT’S A BIG DEAL! And it is. I know by listening to this podcast you will be motivated to cling to Jesus, by understanding better this great salvation he has given us and the implication to our very lives.

John W. Fogal lives in Ft. Wayne, IN. He pastored for twenty years and served as a district superintendent with the Christian and Missionary Alliance for 18 years. He has also served as a coach for pastors and churches. John is also the author of Living The Beatitudes.

To order his book, WORK OUT YOUR SALVATION click here.

To order his book, LIVING THE BEATITUDES, click here.

The post Podcast Ep.122: Working Out Your Salvation, what it really means (Rev. John Fogal) appeared first on Before You Quit.

Pastoring is one of the hardest jobs around. Just ask any of us. The expectations and pressures can at times become nearly unbearable. Having said that, putting the two words, PASTORING and PTSD (okay, that’s an abbreviation, not a word, but I regress) is a surprising combination of realities. But it’s all two real; many pastors do experience something short of PTSD. My interview with Sean Nemecek opened my eyes to the deep, sometimes unbearable pressures pastors face. He also helped me understand how it can be avoided, and how it can be treated. If you are a pastor, and you’ve experienced burnout, this podcast will give you fresh perspective and offer you hope. If. you are not a pastor, but love your pastor and love your church, this podcast will provide you with the resources on how best to encourage your pastor. The role the church has in providing a supporting context for the pastor is great. We hope you will take advantage of this conversation, and look at how your church can be a healthy community not just for you and others, but also for your pastor.

Here is what Sean says about himself and his work: I work to bring new hope and health to hurting pastors and their families. During my 18 years as a pastor, I went through serious ministry burnout. To recover I needed help but didn’t know where to turn. So, I built a team of people to help me— a friend, a mentor, a coach, a spiritual director, and a counselor. This approach was expensive and time-consuming, but it worked.

Now, I provide the support to other pastors that wasn’t readily available to me. Since joining PIR Ministries in January of 2020, I’ve helped many pastors and their spouses navigate burnout, forced exit, or other ministry stress. My first goal is to be a friend — someone provides a safe space for pastors to be themselves without asking anything from them. If these pastors choose, I also offer clergy coaching, ministry assessments, or mentoring.

My book, The Weary Leader’s Guide to Burnout, comes out of my own experience and coaching other pastors through burnout. It takes Christian leaders on a journey from burnout through recovery and on to spiritual transformation. 

By understanding the causes and symptoms of their burnout these leaders will be ready to take practical, actionable steps toward recovery. Then, if they choose, they will be poised to do the inner work of spiritual transformation by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the end, these leaders will emerge from burnout more confident in Christ, more connected with others, and with greater purpose, courage, and grace in their leadership.

PIR Ministries is faith-based, nonprofit, para-clergy ministry. We each raise our own financial support so that we can help pastors at minimal cost to them. It’s always a challenge to raise enough support to keep going. If you would like to learn more this ministry, please visit the PIR Ministries website, contact me, or you can make a special or recurring donation here.

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BYQ has tackled the subject of the Alliance decision to ordain women on several podcasts. While a number of Alliance churches have left over the decision, some desire to remain and by remaining, seek to influence change. In this BYQ podcast, Pastor Jeremy Muncy and I discuss the formation of 1:9 Alliance and its purpose. 1:9 Alliance comes out of Titus 1:9. “He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” I love how 1:9 Alliance seeks to go beyond just the topic of complementarianism versus egalitarianism, but to also “help God’s people value, interpret, proclaim, and apply the Word of God in fulfillment of the Great Commission.”

There are eight core commitments in 1:9 Alliance. 1. Scripture 2. Hermeneutics 3. Expository preaching 4 Christ-centeredness 5. Holy Spirit dependance 6. The Great Commission 7. Complimentary design 8. Church leadership. You can find the breakdown of these core commitments and tap resources as well as join as an affiliate on the 1:9 Alliance website here.

For resources and podcasts go here.

About Jeremy: Jeremy Muncy loves Jesus, his wife, his children, and his church.  He pastors at Westwood Alliance Church in Mansfield, OH where he has served for the past eleven years. 

The post Podcast Ep.120: The Alliance; Changing From the Inside (Pastor Jeremy Muncy) appeared first on Before You Quit.

We rarely ask for donations on these podcasts, and probably won’t for a while. But if you are interested in supporting FVM, please go to our support page here.

The post Podcast Ep. 119: What is Fruitful Vine Ministry (Mitch and Dan) appeared first on Before You Quit.

I’ve interviewed Ken Sande twice before on his ministry of Peacemaking. Here, in this podcast, Ken shares the most wonderful story of how Jesus proved himself to be the great Peacemaker, when Ken’s own father, a judge, embrace the gospel, (or was embraced by the gospel) moments before he died. Ken and I talk about his life, his home and how all this was used by Jesus to make the gospel irresistible to his father. We also discuss the encouragement this provides for those of us who live with the burden of a lost loved one.

Ken Sande is the founder of Peacemaker Ministries and president of a new ministry, Relational Wisdom 360. Trained as a mechanical engineer and lawyer, Ken is passionate about bringing the life-changing power of the gospel into the lives of Christians and their churches. He has used biblical peacemaking principles to minister to parties in hundreds of conflicts, ranging from simple personal disputes to complex legal conflicts.

He is the author of “The Peacemaker”, which has been translated into 15 languages, and has written numerous books, articles, and training resources on biblical conflict resolution and relational wisdom.   He is a certified Christian conciliator, an editorial advisor for Christianity Today International’s church management team, and a certified emotional intelligence instructor. He and his wife, Corlette, are delighted to be grandparents and love to hike with their family in the mountains near their home in Montana.

For Ken’s testimony about his father, click here. 

To order a copy of the Transformed pamphlet click here.

To check out more resources about Ken’s ministry of Peacemaking and Relationship Wisdom, go here.

The post Podcast Ep.118: FINDING JESUS AT THE MOMENT OF DEATH (Ken Sande) appeared first on Before You Quit.

“Youth and children’s ministries have become professionalized to the point where parents feel ill-equipped to disciple their children. Our culture has become so fast-paced and loud that children and youth are finding it difficult to find their own voice.  My book, VOICES, helps parents and those working with children and youth take a look at the various voices speaking into and forming the developing worldview of our youth. Dr. Griffith encourages us to look at these various through the lenses of TIME, TRANSPARENCY and TRUST.” – (Dr. Rich Griffith)

In this podcast I sit down with Dr. Rich Griffith and two students, Jeremiah Cambell and Joshua Lang to discuss the subject of what voices this generation listens to, and to help them hear the right voices. 

To order book click on book cover below

For more on my novels check my authors page here, or click on book below for my latest novel.

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We’ve covered a number of podcasts about how important it is for the pastor to preach well. Several podcasts back my cohost, Dan Stegeman and I, talked about how important solid, biblical Christ-centered preaching is to the life of the church. Today we discuss your role, the listener in the whole experience of preaching. What should we, the listener, do, before, during and following the Sunday sermon?

Consider this from the The Westminster Larger Catechism Q160: What is required of those that hear the word preached?
It is required of those that hear the word preached, that they attend upon it with diligence, preparation, and prayer examine: What they hear by the scriptures; receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind, as the word of God; meditate, and confer of it; hide it in their hearts, and bring forth the fruit of it in their lives.

We hope, from this podcast, to elevate your responsibility to the pastor’s sermon as your way of helping deepen his commitment to bring each Sunday the deep experience of meeting the Living God through the exposition of the Word.

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This past summer, the Christian and Missionary Alliance council voted for the ordination of women to the pastorate. While the Alliance has held to a Complementarian stance throughout its history, this move allowed churches the freedom to ordain women and the freedom for other churches not to ordain women. In summary, the decision is up the local church. Women will not be permitted to serve as elders, nor as lead or solo pastors.

This did not come without controversy. There are those that find it challenging to continue to associate with the C&MA due to their biblical and theological convictions. 

District leadership have taken different approaches to this issue. In most districts, to leave the Alliance has forced congregations to lose their buildings and finances. One district has allowed those churches who leave to keep their property and funds. Many in the Alliance who are burdened with the decision to ordain women, remain in the Alliance and have joined a network called 1:9 ALLIANCE, based on Titus 1:9, “He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” The hope of this network is to influence from the inside. You can check out that network here and we do encourage you to join. 

For the Alliance to arrive at this position, the leadership held a three year national conversation. We believe that conversation should continue. We do this podcast to encourage those pastors who don’t know what to do, or perhaps fear the risks of speaking out. We also want to encourage those who have left and encourage those who stay to love, pray for and support one another. 

Here in this BYQ podcast, my co-host Dan Stegeman and I interview one such pastor who was deeply impacted by the decision to ordain women. His name is Paul Taylor, and if you happened to watch the open mic time at council, Paul is now famous as that guy with a baseball cap. He even wore that same hat during the interview. We appreciate so much Paul’s candor, honesty and the gentle way he addressed this issue. It was our prayerful desire to conduct the podcast in a gracious spirit, not to attack or oppose, but simply unpack this decision the Alliance has made. 

About Paul Taylor: Paul has served 25 years as a pastor in Los Angeles California and Missoula Montana. He grew up on the corner of his grandfather’s orange orchard in central California. He and his wife, Kelly, have five children. Paul enjoys time with family and fly fishing in the mornings at sunrise among the beautiful rivers of Montana. Presently he serves as a pastor/elder of Redeemer Bible Church in Missoula MT.  “My greatest desire in all of life, is that the gospel of Jesus is declared to all the world for the glory of God!”

OTHER RESOURCES:The World And Everything In It Podcast (from World Magazine) featured the Alliance decision in this daily update. Begin at min.13. Check it out here.

For Dan Stegeman’s paper on AB Simpson’s view on women pastors, (Is the C&MA Really More Simpsonian?) check here.

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The pressures on pastors, particularly for church planters, is not just in ministry, but also in the home. I had the wonderful privilege of interviewing pastor, Bryan Halferty and his wife, Kandice, for this BYQ podcast. Bryan and Kandice live with their family in Tacoma, Washington. Additionally Bryan regularly breaks his body skateboarding, works closely with church planters, and serves as the Lead Pastor of Anchor Church (C&MA). You can find him on both Instagram and Substack at @bryanhalferty. Kandice is a photographer and is completing studies in counseling and spiritual direction.

You can check out Bryan’s church here.

For the article in reference during this podcast, THE LION AND THE PIT go here.

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