Minister's Toolbox

Pastors are called to the bedsides of people who are sick as a regular part of their ministry. Hospitals are opportunities for genuine ministry and leaders should not take this ministry lightly.

There seems to be an absence of training for ministers about how to do hospital visitation. You are God’s representative to the person who is ill. While other professionals bring medical options, the family brings support and sympathy. You are the person tasked with bringing the Kingdom of God to bear on an individual situation.

Most people I know are uncomfortable around sick people. They don’t what to say or they start to act funny.

BONUS: I mention the free download you can get here.

BONUS: I also mention my book, When A Good Church Goes Bad. Read the first three chapters here by clicking, Synopsis.

Purchase the book here or listen on Audiobook through their free 30-day trial here. Then search for When A Good Church Goes Bad. 

I’ve got to tell you that of all pastoral responsibilities, expectations, and duties, praying for the sick was my least favorite thing to do as a young pastor.

Theologically, my beliefs about healing were all over the map. The New Testament, on the other hand, is pretty aggressive on the subject. Jesus and his followers throughout Acts of the Apostles prayed for the sick and experienced extraordinary results. When I look around today, there is little evidence of physical healing taking place in churches irrespective of denominational background.

[ctt_author author="1547" name="Casey Sabella" template="2" link="dRHt4" via="yes" nofollow="yes"]I realized that I did not have a clear, biblical view of praying for sick people. [/ctt_author]

Leaders cannot pray the prayer of faith unless they believe God wants to heal the patient. The pastor or minister often plays a vital role in healing. If all you do when you visit the sick in hospitals is make people comfortable to die, that is nice, but not what James had in mind. I go more into depth about this during the podcast.

BONUS: I mentioned at the start of the show a tip to help your church be more visible on Facebook. I created a free cheat sheet to help you who are technologically challenged. All the tools I mention to use are also completely free and you can get them here or on the show notes page for episode 64 at ministerstoolbox.com

What is a loser’s limp? It is any excuse you use currently to avoid conflict.

Perhaps you need to have a discussion with your church board about your salary. Perhaps there is a deacon who is failing to fulfill their responsibilities. Maybe it is a member of your worship team who is engaging in questionable behavior.

Many times,  We often hope that the problem will just solve itself. Essentially and perhaps unknowingly, we develop a loser’s limp. During the podcast, I share some clear steps to overcoming this crippling habit.

For more reading on this subject, click here.

What is something that just about every minister knows is absolutely essential but finds 100 ways not to do? That is the subject of today's show.

Pastors want to do it but don’t. Why is that?

90% of churches throughout the world average out at 85 members.

Some build a theology out of this phenomenon and actually teach that God wants small churches.

We pastors do church work really well. We preach and teach. Pastors administrate and make decisions, counsel, strategize and do a hundred other things.

Your church needs to develop new leaders, but most of the time it is not a lack of potential leaders but something else.

We offer a special download with additional content here.

Every church leader pastors or shepherds the people of God. We call church leaders ministers, “reverend,” “priest” and “bishop,” but the most common title of identification is pastor.

As you already know, the term pastor is used only once in the New Testament. We find it in Ephesians 4:11-16. Pastor is listed among 5 ministry gifts Jesus imparted to his church after the resurrection. They are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

What if you really struggle with loving people when they exhibit un-Christlike behaviors? During the podcast, I address this and several other issues along with 3 tips that will help you improve.

During the show I mention a book entitled, The Minister as Shepherd. The author wrote this book more than a hundred years ago containing insights about past

I also mentioned a link you can access to learn more about body language. 

People in your church swing a hammer, go to executive meetings or manage children during the bulk of their working hours. They create houses, fix problems or train children. What do you do?

Your assigned task is to communicate with God and then tell people what you’ve heard.

People actually get up on their day off, come to our facility, sing a few songs and then settle in to see what God said to you. On top of that, they donate money to ensure you will do it again week after week after week.

With that as a backdrop, you would think that every church in the world would be packed with people seeking God, wouldn’t you? Yet, by and large, the opposite is true. During the podcast I lay out 3 ways leaders may be hindering their churches.

Here is a download of the main points we touched on today with some additional content. 

I mention MileIQ that helps you take accurate mileage effortlessly to save money at tax time. 

Here are 4 easy tweaks to help you create better teaching and preaching

One of the titles given to Christ in Isaiah chapter nine is Wonderful Counselor. What sort of counsel do you give?

Does counseling work, and is it an effective use of your time? Whether it works or not depends largely on two factors. First, the ground rules for the session. Second, the willingness of the counselee to be accountable.

Some of Jesus’s counsel was very short and oftentimes abrupt. Telling a potential follower, “let the dead bury the dead” is pretty direct.  During the podcast, we examine the strengths and weaknesses of modern day counseling and help you decided its importance to your individual ministry.

These are the links for Bob Newhart, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Celebrate Recovery.

We also are giving away a free download outlining guidelines for counseling here. 

Don't forget to visit our transcripts link if you'd like a written copy.

At first glance, it seems kind of absurd to think of accountability in a negative way, but there are pitfalls that can limit your effectiveness as a church leader.

Accountability is high on the priority list of Heaven. Jesus warned his followers that every word spoken on earth would be recorded and accountable on the Day of Judgment.

Sometimes, it becomes necessary for the good for the church to remove a pastor who refuses to answer questions over a period of time about things that matter to the church.

You as a leader are accountable first to God. I talk about biblical accountability and how false accountability nearly destroyed my ministry.

I put together a free download you can download it here.

 It is very easy to measure ministry success by the numbers. Membership increases by 20% each year, you are successful. If they decline, you are not. Biblically these measuring sticks are completely inaccurate.

According to John’s gospel, Jesus had a congregation of 5012 which everyone deemed successful. He preached one sermon and 5000 left.

Churches today that are business, as usual, will be out of business tomorrow.

Howard Johnsons became satisfied with its style, its menus its service and its identity. They kept on with business as usual until they went out of business. Many churches follow the same pattern.

During the podcast, I discuss the nuts and bolts of ministry success from God's point of view. I also offer a free download here.