The Way Home Podcast: Mark Dance on Pastoral and Vocational Ministry

Today, we have Mark Dance joining us on The Way Home podcast. Mark Dance is the Director of Pastoral Wellness for Guidestone Financial Resources (SBC). He was a lead pastor and planter for 27 years before becoming an associate vice president at Lifeway, the director of pastoral development for Oklahoma Baptists, and the co-founder/leader of […]

The Way Home Podcast: Chad Poe on Preaching, Teaching, and Writing

Today, we have Chad Poe joining us on The Way Home podcast. Chad Poe is a pastor at Grace Bible Church, as well as the founder of the Throughline Cohort, helping individuals with their teaching and preaching. Today, we discuss speaking, writing, and pastoring, as well as his new book Esther: The Time is Now. If […]

The Way Home: Dean Inserra on preaching on Easter

In this episode of the special Easter series in conjunction with my book “The Characters of Easter,” I am joined by my friend Dean Inserra, founder and senior pastor of City Church in Tallahassee. In this conversation, we talk about what it’s like to preach on Easter. He talks about the importance of not shaming […]

Preaching and Baseball

In an article for Leadership Journal, I compare ministry to baseball. Pastors have a tendency to “swing for the fences” with every sermon, but we’re better off working hard on the little things of preaching in order to give our people a lifetime of good spiritual food: Ministry is very much like baseball in this way. […]

What Pastors Owe Their People

If you are a pastor, you cannot escape the unmistakeable call of spiritual leaders, in the New Testament to “feed the flock of God”: Jesus commissioned Peter to do “feed my sheep”, no less than three times, in that famous scene on the shores of Galilee (John 21:15-19) Jesus commissioned the disciples, in the Great […]

Preaching as a Craft to Be Cultivated.

I love preaching. I love the act of preaching and I love listening to preaching. There is something wild and mysterious and beautiful about God’s Word flowing through a flawed man empowered by the Holy Spirit as a primary delivery method for spiritual change. This week I had the chance to interview Matt Woodley, managing […]

Why You Need Your Church Every Week

We live in an age when, increasingly, people are asking the question, “Do we need to gather on Sunday mornings for worship anymore?” It’s a valid question. After all, isn’t there a plethora of good sermon content online? Aren’t there churches that actually offer online services? And isn’t it possible to read your Bible, pray, […]

3 Reasons Your Pastor Probably Doesn’t Preach Politics

I’ve written on this issue before, but it’s probably worth revisiting in an election season. And new research has been released by Lifeway that affirms what I’ve always believed: generally Bible-believing pastors shy away from overt political endorsements and preaching politics in the pulpit. I wrote a piece for Relevant not long ago on this subject in […]

Les Lofquist on Leadership and Preaching

I especially loved this piece by Les Lofquist on how to respond to a criticism of preaching: I think the only way is to be determined to be prayed up and studied up the next time you’re in the pulpit. Resolve to get up early each day the next week and pray as a man […]

5 Ways Pastors Can Encourage Working Men and Women

Yesterday America celebrated Labor Day, the holiday reserved as a tribute to American workers. This is a good time to discuss ways pastors and vocational ministry leaders can encourage working men and women in their congregations. This is an oft-neglected, but essential part of ministry, because most Christians who attend church on Sunday don’t draw […]

Five Resolutions for a Christian Communicator

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the calling of a Christian communicator. This could be your duties as a writer, wither blogs or books or articles. Or it could be your task as a preacher or teacher, whither in small group, pulpit ministry, or classroom. To communicate the truth of the good news of […]

Preaching is Not Mere Communication

As a preacher I am solicited, more often than not, for services that will help me preach better. As a young, green pastor I’m grateful for many of these ministries. I increasingly want to be sharpened in my ability to deliver God’s Word to God’s people. However, there are some that seem, perhaps unintentionally, to […]