Tip #1: Separate Your Identity from Your Vocation
Pastoring is your vocation, not your identity. You must not confuse the two. If you do, then being a pastor becomes more important than pastoring. And in that case, you are not serving God’s people; you are using them. It’s become about you, not them. You have become Saul, not David; Judas, not John.
Ten Tips for Becoming a Better Pastor
Some of the readers of this blog are pastors or aspiring pastors. In the interest of honing the pastoral craft, I wanted to offer ten tips for becoming a better pastor. Readers should not infer from this any hubris on my part. Like baseball, Christian ministry relies on the wisdom of experience. Even a minor-leaguer pitcher who’s still working out his own kinks can help the local Little-League star learn how to throw a curveball. If he doesn’t, he’s betraying the tradition...
What Does It Mean to REST?
from James K.A. Smith:...In our driven, accelerated culture of achievement and consumption, working might seem like a virtue. One might even be praised for having a "good work ethic" -- maybe even a good "Protestant" work ethic. So the fact that I can't seem to rest means that I do get a lot done. But there are some verses in Hebrews 4 that rather haunt me in this respect, forcing me to ask the question, What if we are created not for output, but for rest?
Redemption Stories: Lisa
One of our favorite projects is telling Redemption Stories - stories of real people who have been changed by Jesus. We do this both through video and through writing. Here's the story - in her own written words - of God's grace in the life of Lisa, who has been around Coram Deo for about four years now and recently became a church member along with her husband Ryan. During the services at Coram Deo, I remember I would look around and see people worshiping. I felt so out of place. It was scary to look next to me, to see changes happening in Ryan. I felt like I was being left behind. Ryan’s heart was starting to change. He developed a love for the homeless. He was no longer interested in going out drinking with me. He wanted to discuss how we were living sinful lives. For fear of an impending breakup, I started attending a small group through the church called a missional community (MC). Ryan had been attending and connecting with this group, and after all, I figured they were the lucky ones to have me. I could put on a good front, loving Jesus, loving others, while still living the same lifestyle.
Veggie Tales: "Morality, not Christianity"
VeggieTales “convinced kids to behave Christianly without actually teaching them Christianity.” So says founder Phil Vischer in a new interview.
VeggieTales was a rags-to-riches entrepreneurial success story. Vischer and his counterpart, Mike Nawrocki, left college to pursue their dream of making wildly creative children’s videos. At the height of their success in the late 1990s, VeggieTales videos sold 7 million copies in a single year and generated $40 million in revenue. Though primarily aimed at a Christian market, VeggieTales had a broader cultural influence, pushing forward the boundaries of computer animation and children’s programming.
Taking Language Itself In Vain
I am even more convinced of my own need for consistent silence and solitude after reading this penetrating insight from Harold Best:Mass culture is... marked by the demise of a reverence for words and for their careful placement within an idea and its articulation ... Everything that rises above a mere scratch on the experiential surface - everything from a pizza to an orgasm to God - is awesome, incredible, unique, spectacular, excellent, great.
Life Rhythms: Ten Principles for Work and Rest
1. Proactive Scheduling: either you run your life, or your life runs you. Most of the “burned out” people I talk to got that way because they started reacting to their life instead of being proactive about it.2. Hours Worked: you should aim for a 40-50 hour work week. I realize some jobs (first-year lawyers, medical residents, political campaign operatives, etc.) and some seasons in life require more than this – and if that’s the case, you must “do all things without grumbling” (Phil 2:14). But many people work more than 50 hours because they’re people-pleasers who are living for the boss’s approval, or because they’re achievement junkies who love their work more than their family or their health.
Marriage: The Covenant Sustains the Love, not Vice Versa
Lots of weddings are taking place this summer at Coram Deo. So for you newlyweds, and for the not-so-newlyweds, here are some wise thoughts from John Piper, Tim Keller, and Don Carson.
Piper, Carson, and Keller on Sustaining the Covenant of Marital Love from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.
A Story of Missional Community
We have been married 6 years and have been trying to have children for the past 2 years. We recently broke the news that we were expecting our first child and all was well. Today we found out that our child is dead, and my wife is painfully awaiting a miscarriage.
I am angry. I am sad. I do not understand why or how this is part of God’s plan. Part of me screams this is not fair. For so long I have been thankfully praying to God, and now I do not know what I should say to God. How can I be thankful, for what I see as almost cruelty?
The Only (Decent) Poem I've Ever Written
Today marks 14 years of marriage for my wife and me. A few years ago, on her 30th birthday, I wrote her a poem... which is to this day still the only halfway decent poem I've ever written. I share it today in honor of the occasion, as a small way of "calling her blessed" (Prov 31:28).