Mark Clifton, Mark Hallock, and Dan Hurst talk about why churches should consider moving back toward traditional Sunday School.

Some Highlights:

1. To grow in biblical knowledge
2. To develop teachers
3. To foster deeper community
4. To engage the city better
5. To embrace the role of the church

Resources Related to This Episode:

• “5 Reasons We Switched from Small Groups to Sunday School” by Jim Davis

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Mark Clifton, Mark Hallock, and Dan Hurst share some insights for small groups and Sunday School from Chuck Lawless.

Some Highlights:

1. The small group’s purpose must be clear.
2. Intentional organization matters.
3. Workers must be trained.
4. Concern must be focused on the lost.
5. Pastoral care via the small group must be organized.
6. The goal of the Sunday School class is to multiply, to “plant” another class from the current class.
7. Space matters.
8. The class must “go after” the lost.

Resources Related to This Episode:

• “10 Small Group Lessons from Old-Fashioned Sunday School” by Chuck Lawless
• “Recapturing Flake’s Formula for Groups” by Ken Braddy

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Mark Clifton, Mark Hallock, and Dan Hurst discuss how to minister to toxic people in your church.

Some Highlights:

1. The Gossip/Talker
2. The Exploder
3. The Passive-Aggressive
4. The Cynic

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Mark Clifton, Mark Hallock, and Dan Hurst discuss an article from Garrett Kell, on the topic of dangerous signs in the life of a pastor.

Some Highlights:

1. Entitlement
2. Greed
3. Control
4. Callousness
5. Tribalism
6. Unbalanced Gospel

Resources Related to This Episode:

• “When to Distrust Your Pastor” by Garrett Kell

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Mark Clifton, Mark Hallock, and Dan Hurst discuss an article from Garrett Kell, discussing the danger signs in the life of a pastor.

Some Highlights:

1. Isolation
2. Lack of accountability
3. Defensiveness

Resources Related to This Episode:

• “When to Distrust Your Pastor” by Garrett Kell

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Mark Clifton, Mark Hallock, and Dan Hurst discuss an article from Gavin Ortlund on some ways that pastors unintentionally hurt those who are already suffering.

Some Highlights:

1. Appeal too quickly to God’s sovereignty
2. Launch into a story of how God used your suffering
3. Minimize the wrongdoing that caused the suffering
4. Emphasize character formation while neglecting comfort and compassion

Resources Related to This Episode:

• “How Not to Help a Sufferer” by Gavin Ortlund

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Mark Clifton, Mark Hallock, and Dan Hurst discuss some ways to help inject new life into the weekly worship gathering.

Some Highlights:

1. Make sure the gathering is truly God-centered, not man-centered.
2. Help people feel the weight and joy of worshiping God, not shallow and joyless.
3. Let theological conviction shape every component, not pragmatism.
4. Preach the Word with precision, passion, and application, not sloppy, dull, and impractical.
5. Celebrate the Lord’s Supper consistently with intentionality, not as an afterthought.
6. Do what you can with excellence, not what you can’t and not half-way.
7. Keep it simple, not unnecessarily complex.
8. Choose songs that are singable and sound in doctrine, not simply what is popular.
9. Encourage congregational singing, not disengaged observing.
10. Make sacrificial giving a worship opportunity, not something to be avoided.
11. Regularly cast vision for how our worship of God must fuel the mission of God to make disciples, never assuming people drift toward the mission.

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Mark Clifton, Mark Hallock, and Dan Hurst discuss some of the benefits and pitfalls of using artificial intelligence in sermon preparation.

Potential Benefits:

• Time efficiency
• Access to a large amount of research and language resources

Potential Pitfalls:

• Risk of shallow theology
• Pastoral integrity
• Laziness

Resources Related to This Episode:

• John Piper’s AI Prayer

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Mark Clifton, Mark Hallock, and Dan Hurst discuss different ways to effectively preach with a manuscript.

Some Highlights:

• Two cons of manuscript preaching:
  • Your delivery can be too wooden.
  • You can miss what the Spirit is doing in the worship gathering
• A manuscript can provide clarity and coherence.
• Even in a manuscript, leave room for what Hallock calls “rant time.”

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Mark Clifton, Mark Hallock, and Dan Hurst discuss how to effectively preach without notes.

Some Highlights:

• No notes DOES NOT mean no study
• Some of the potential pitfalls of preaching with no notes
• The importance of thinking through your introduction and closing
• You must know how you’re going to “land the plane”

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