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Ministry

8 Things to do to Prepare for a Life in Ministry

A common question I get asked as a professor and pastor is what someone should do if they feel called into ministry. I usually give the same advice, so here it is: Eight things to do to prepare yourself for a life of ministry.  1. Commit yourself to love God and love others. Of course, this is the call for all Christians. But if you want to lead other Christians into loving God and others, then you yourself need to be loving God and others. Being a ministry leader or pastor is primarily about who you are rather than what...

Jon Cleland

Sharing Without Shipwrecks

Andrew VanderPloeg

Shipwrecks. Mobs. Imprisonment. When we think about evangelism, naturally, the Apostle Paul comes to mind. The apostle was a committed missionary whose journeys stretched across the Roman world, from Antioch to Philippi to Ephesus. His experience of sharing the gospel was harrowing. He faced hostile crowds (Acts 14), cold prison floors (Acts 16), and literal shipwrecks (Acts 27). For good reason, his life should inspire and instruct us, but we should not expect that sharing our faith will inevitably lead to disaster. Still, reluctance to share the gospel remains widespread. And one of the biggest reasons for that is that...

Where the Gospel Still Costs Everything

Steve Lambert

A few years ago, two Brazilian women showed up at the church I pastor and asked to look at our archives because they were writing a book about a missionary who was sent out by our church in the 1930s. This young woman, named Ernestine Horne, sailed to Brazil in 1934. The next year, she started a training school for women that has since grown into a global ministry called Betel Brasileiro. The small training school for women grew into a Bible college and seminary for training pastors and missionaries. They have trained thousands of students in more than twenty...

Should I Stay or Should I Go? T.T. Shields, Benjamin Beddome, and Pastoral Transitions

Scott Hurst

There can be a strange vibe of secrecy surrounding a pastor’s move to a different church. I am not speaking from statistics, but from my experience in the evangelical Baptist world. A pastor’s current congregation, minus a select few, is often unaware of and not involved in the process until the day they hear their beloved pastor announce his resignation and intent to move. I wonder if there is a better way? Recently, I read Leslie Tarr’s biography of T. T. Shields, Shields of Canada, and the recently published book, Long May Thy Servant Feed Thy Sheep, by Yuta Seki,...

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