Pastor Resources Podcast

I think I used to see God working in my life very linearly. I kind of saw God as someone who coached me along my journey, and if I screwed up too badly, he would replace me with someone better. Then one day, while reading Lewis’s Mere Christianity, I realized God is timeless. God was not just going through life linearly with me, God also saw my life from above the timeline. God had chosen to walk with me, even though he knew I would mess it all up at various points along the way. I think I saw God as someone I had to keep going up the mountain to find. Then I realized God, seeing all of my timeline, had already chosen to come down the mountain to me. I saw God as angry, or at least someone willing to get angry quickly if you didn’t keep him happy. I didn’t realize God is accessible. God seeks, God finds, and God knocks. You don’t have to find God because the story is God find...

Adapted from It’s Not Your Turn by Heather Thompson Day. Copyright (c) 2021 by Heather Thompson Day. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. - Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT)

Have you ever stopped to think about WHY the Psalmist had to ask God to search his heart and thoughts; to point out anything that offends?  I mean, they are his thoughts after all, so why would he – or any of us – need God search to our hearts and minds?

Let me explain it with an example...

Picture a tiger trap, like in the old “Tarzan” movies.  You dig a pit, line it with spikes, and you’re all set, right?  Not exactly!  You have a hole filled with painful things, but you need to cover it!  So, you grab sticks and leaves, whatever you can find, to cover the hole and make it unrecognizable!  It LOOKS the same as everything else around it, but it’s not!

Now, how many of you would volunteer to run down the path and over the trap?  Not many, right?  When the covering gives way, what’s underneath is going to hurt...very, very badly…

But what does this have to do with the verses in Psalms?  A lot of us have pain in our past; trauma or critical events that have ripped painful holes in our lives.  When this happens, we have two choices:

Barry Rudesill is a Pastor, speaker, and co-creator of The Trek. (www.thetrek.org)

Regular church maintenance is important for keeping your facilities in working order. Beyond annual cleaning and repairs, it’s also nice to spruce up your building with occasional renovations. 

Maybe your budget is a little tight right now, but you’d still like to make some updates to your church. Here are five low-cost projects that will make a big impact for your members and visitors.

1. Update Paint Colors

When was the last time you painted your church interior? Do the colors even fit in with your current branding? Adding a new coat of paint or changing the paint color is an inexpensive project that goes a long way. To save even more money, get volunteers to help rather than hiring professional painters.

2. Install New Flooring

Flooring can become stained, faded, and outdated over the years. Switch things up with a new style. Take it a step further by changing the flooring material. For example, if you have carpet in your sanctuary, try out a spill-resistant tile instead. Coordinate the style with the wall colors and sanctuary accessories for a unified look.

Dr. Tom McElheny has served as an elder and director of Christian education for three Sarasota, Florida, churches, holds advanced degrees in business and education, and is CEO of his church seating company, ChurchPlaza.

Outrage. Perhaps no other word better captures the spirit of our times, the wildfire in society that keeps roaring back with more and more fuel. It can deplete all our energy for quieter work, draw us away from the still small voice of God, and seem impossible to overcome. It spreads from social conflict to interpersonal relationships, disrupting community in the home, church, and workplace. How can pastors help their congregations reimagine a way forward, one that hammers their swords into plowshares (Isaiah 2:4, nlt) and leads to lasting unity?

Eugene Peterson translates those Isaiah verses further by stating, “He will show us the way he works so we can live the way we’re made (The Message).” The way we’re made. Yes—we are designed to heal, not to fester in our wounds. We are meant to be made whole through Christ and his church. One way God shows us how he works is in the way he created our physical selves. Our bodies have simple yet elegant systems in place to promote restoration and recovery, rather than rupture and limitation, when we are wounded. Can we live the way we’re made by following the example of the body, made in the image of God? Might this be particularly appropriate for Christian community as we are called the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27, nlt)?

In Designed to Heal, we encounter the persistent, orderly stages of physical wound healing. Clotting, inflammation, new growth, and return to function—even if through scarring—are portrayed through poignant patient stories illustrating each phase of healing. Chapters reflect how a particular aspect of physical healing can be a model for relational healing. 

Inflammation, it turns out, is a necessary and helpful process. After clotting comes to the rescue, inflammatory cells get to work cleaning up the wound site. Just the right amount of pressure is applied by their work to prevent further damage. They identify debris that doesn’t belong and swallow it up. But then they get out of the way so new growth can begin. If the inflammatory stage goes awry and those cells don’t get a clear signal to stop their work, good tissue gets hurt. Healing stops.

 Jennie A. McLaurin is a writer and physician with degrees in medicine, public health, and theology. Her book, Designed to Heal: What the Body Shows Us about Healing Wounds, Repairing Relationships, and Restoring Community (coauthored with Cymbeline T. Culiat), releases in August 2021.

THE BIBLE REMAINS the bestselling book of all time. You may well have one hidden away somewhere in your house yourself. But while the Bible continues to sell incredibly well, it is often not read.

In many cases, this is not for lack of trying. Begin at the beginning— which sounds perfectly logical—and you may soon become bogged down in the laws of Exodus and Leviticus, the second and third books of the Bible, wondering what on earth they have to do with your life today. And so the Bible returns to its shelf, leaving you discouraged and feeling like you could never understand this strange book, as much as you would like to.

Why then read the Bible? To some the Bible is the basis for the largest religion in the world, Christianity, while for others it has been so influential historically that we need to be aware of it as literature if we are to understand our history. Still others seek to understand God and his relationship to the world. They wonder if God could possibly know or care about what is happening on earth and in our lives. To still others it is the book they meditate on to be instructed by and addressed by God, who has revealed himself particularly in Jesus Christ.

Adapted from The 30-Minute Bible by Craig G. Bartholomew and Paige P. Vanosky. Copyright (c) 2021 by Paige P. Vanosky and Craig G. Bartholomew. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com

The term "lockdown," is now associated with the attempt to slow or stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus.  The virus is real, the risks are real, and the lessons learned from the lockdowns are real.  

Some of the lessons learned were intended, others were not.  There is legitimate debate about the efficacy of the lockdown, the wearing of masks, and social distancing.  One thing is not debatable, the lessons learned are real, but many of the unintended lessons may be the most real, and the most unsettling.

For example, we have learned that:

Infants and small children have difficulty processing emotions and perceptions without the benefit of full facial expressions,

Children deprived of diverse social interactions do not develop as healthy interpersonal skills as children participating in actual group settings,

A virtual world is a flat-screen world without the depth of experience filled with the normal nuances of human life,

Personal isolation can quickly morph into feelings of distress, distrust, and fear with real harmful psychological and physiological consequences,

People can be divided into two classes, those who comply, and those who do not.  Those who comply care about others, and those  who do not are a threat,

The elderly, infirm and otherwise physically vulnerable can be protected from friends, and family for their so-called "own good," to the point that they live and even die essentially in isolation from the very thing they need most - the presence of the ones they love,

When people die, there is no obligation for a full funeral.  A small group of essential personnel can perform a truncated (or online) service, 

Cremation is a cost-saving, and efficient way to dispose of the body,

n the years leading up to the turn of the century (1996-1999), several publications ran “Man of the Millennium” features, presenting various candidates for the title. TIME Magazine featured extensive reports on various candidates, Einstein, Newton, etc. Theirs was perhaps the most closely watched process, and when the winner was revealed (as “Person of the Millennium”), the TIME Magazine laureate was Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1400-1468), inventor of the moveable-type printing press. It was to be expected, I suppose, that media people would choose someone who enabled their craft in a remarkable way. And truly, modern literature, scholarship, reporting, propaganda, advertising, and spam all owe a great debt to Gutenberg’s invention.

The trouble is, Gutenberg had nothing to say. The purpose of printing, after all, is to utter something of value (to someone) in an inexpensive and easily distributable way. Luther took great advantage of the printing press: at his death (1546), according to some estimates, over 700,000 copies of various of Luther’s writings were in circulation, having a profound effect on the Protestant Reformation. Since then, the printing press has accelerated literacy, scholarship, and cultural cohesion everywhere, and the story has not yet ended.

But from Gutenberg himself—silence. And from the printing press itself, also—silence. The printing press only has meaning if someone uses it to say something. Such inventions, no matter how clever, do not change societies—ideas do. So, it seems to me that the Man of the Millennium should be someone who proposed ideas that changed the society of the second millennium. Of course, you know all the popular candidates—Luther, Newton, Jefferson, Nietzsche, Einstein, etc. Let me propose one from a little earlier, one whose influence still resounds above all the others today: John Wycliffe (1320?-1384).

Robert McAnally Adams is a retired mathematician and curator of The Christian Quotation of the Day. See cqod.com

The ALL IN for FOSTER ADOPTION Challenge: The Goal and Strategies for Serving Waiting Kids

Today there are over 125,000 youth in the foster care system. Many have never known the security of a loving home and often must wait for over three years for permanency. While others are shuttled between a multitude of homes; the number of placements sometimes soaring into the double digits. One can only imagine what the lasting impact might be on a child who has never known the safety of a loving family. And what about the strain on our communities overall? Sex-traffickers that prey on these children, increased homelessness, and incarceration are seemingly inevitable due to lack of guidance and substantial gaps in education. These bleak, cultural realities stand in contrast to the mission of the church – to care for those in need.

What can the local church do? They can go “All IN.”

What’s at Stake?

When asked what’s at stake for kids who aren’t placed in permanent, loving homes, Alex Olson, an ALL IN for FOSTER ADOPTION Challenge Team Member whose own forever family fostered over 110 youth over time, said, “I had a friend in the system who took his own life at 11 years of age. And many young people I know have had similar experiences. It really is our lives that are at stake.”

Human lives made in the image of God are what’s at stake.

Is there anything that has not been written about biblical manhood? Books, articles, and videos abound with calls for men to demonstrate character, integrity, authenticity, and especially “servant leadership.” In an attempt to not write what has already been written over and over again, I present the following ideas.

First, the term servant leadership is an inaccurate and inadequate description of Paul’s instructions to men in the fifth chapter of Ephesians. A “servant leader” stoops to serve only when he chooses to do so; it is a very tidy role with a narrow focus on serving others. Yet it is already obvious to most Christian men that they need to avoid misinterpreting Scripture as a call to biblical de...

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Stephen Arterburn is the founder and chairman of New Life Ministries, the nation’s largest faith-based broadcast, counseling, and treatment ministry. He is also host of the New Life Live! radio program that airs on more than 180 radio stations, SiriusXM radio, and television. Steve is a nationally known public speaker and has been featured in media such as Oprah and Good Morning America. He is a teaching pastor at Northview Church in Indianapolis and resides with his family in Indiana.

Addressing church budgets starts with understanding the broader context of a church’s mission and purpose. If a budget represents the financial blueprint for carrying out a church’s ministry plan for a particular period of time, then logic would dictate that such a blueprint and its related ministry plan should be a function—a derivative—of the church’s mission and purpose. Many times, however, churches engage in elaborate budget development processes without first evaluating whether their activities are directly in furtherance of their mission and purpose. In some cases, churches operate without a well-defined expression of their mission and purpose. Ensuring that the church’s budget is a function of its mission and purpose will help church leaders avoid putting the cart before the horse, or for that matter, having the cart detached from the horse.

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Michael E. Batts is the president and managing partner of Batts Morrison Wales and Lee (nonprofitcpa.com), a national CPA firm dedicated exclusively to serving churches, ministries, and other nonprofit organizations across the United States.This article is excerpted from his book, Church Finance: The Church Leader’s Guide to Financial Operations.