Pastors and sometimes ‘clergy’ in general

A Pastor Is an Elder Is a Bishop

By Filings on

“I want to make a case from Scripture for why we should understand that these three terms refer to the same office. My argument moves along three steps.” - 9 Marks

Help for New Expositors: How to Find the Main Idea for Preaching (Part 2)

By Richard Bargas on

In my last post, I walked through my method for becoming more familiar with the biblical text through the process of reading, translating, and diagramming. Although at this point much progress has been made, there is still more work to do before we can confidently say we know the main idea of the text. Up to this point the study has been with the Bible alone—no commentaries should have been used thus far. This is important because we want to hear from God what His word says to us without the contamination of outside voices.

Help for New Expositors: How to Find the Main Idea for Preaching (Part 1)

By Richard Bargas on

Whether you call it the “main idea,” “big idea,” “propositional statement,” or something else, we are going to be looking at how to make sure you preach the main idea of a section of Scripture so that you are not preaching about an ancillary idea or worse, force your own idea upon the passage. In this post I will be walking through a process I have developed for myself. To help myself with this, I have made a worksheet. In a previous post, I shared it on this blog. You can see it and download it here: https://always-reforming.com/2014/07/24/a-simplified-sermon-preparation…

Five Questions Pastors Should Ask Before Using AI

By Filings on

“In just the three years since ChatGPT launched, it’s estimated that there are nearly 800 million monthly active users. Google Maps took around 7 years to reach that milestone, and ChatGPT is now just one of many popular AI chatbots.” - CToday

At a Glance: The Strengths and Struggles of Today’s Pastors

By Filings on

“Pastors ages 50+ score notably higher in overall flourishing (78) compared to their younger counterparts (74), with particularly pronounced differences in vocational satisfaction and well-being. Similarly, pastors of color report higher levels of faith flourishing and overall flourishing compared to their white colleagues.” - C.Leaders

Embracing Vulnerability as a Christian Leader

By Richard Bargas on

“Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. And it was the Mary who anointed the Lord with perfume, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick” (John 11:1–3, LSB).

Rural church pastors face obstacles with optimism, survey shows

By Filings on

“Since most rural communities are not growing, it’s harder for churches there to increase attendance. Yet 3 in 4 pastors still aim for attendance growth….Even more rural pastors aim for success in the spiritual growth of their congregations evidenced by their focus on salvations, care, forgiveness and serving.” - Baptist Press

Balancing Toughness and Tenderness in Pastoral Care

By Richard Bargas on

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he brings all his own out, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they will never follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers” (John 10:1–5, LSB).