Church leaders love them some ministry models. They love to read about and study what other churches do and how to replicate those models in their own church. They love to debate the merits of the model. But guess what? Ministry model doesn't matter. Just about any model can be successfully implemented in a church.…
No one is keeping track of when you clock into work or clock out. No boss is holding you accountable for how you spend your time. Sound like a fantasy world? Think again. It's the schedule of a pastor. The schedule of a pastor is almost infinitely flexible with no one really checking up on…
I love the book Deep Work by Cal Newport. It's probably been the most influential book on me in the last four years. You can find the series I did on the book here: one, two, three, four, five. But the book does raise a number of remaining questions that have to be worked through to develop…
In a previous post, I looked at some of the challenges of reaching men in suburban culture. The two issues I raised were "pragmatic" issues: busyness and scheduling. They are practical realities which affect (afflict?) men in my Northeastern suburban context, about 45 minutes outside of NYC. Today, I want to explore some further issues…
The church has a manhood problem. Or most of the statistics say so. Whether or not the statistics are true, the Christian publishing industry has certainly churned out many books speaking to the issue (For example, see Why Men Hate Going to Church). I think I can say that the anecdotal evidence at LBC may point in the…
I am inspired to write about doing pastoral ministry in the suburbs from a set of tweets by author/blogger Hannah Anderson, who was encouraging her husband to blog about pastoral ministry in rural VA, I believe. I also find that it can helpful to talk out my ideas (hopefully a few successes and probably a bunch of…
The establishment of God’s kingdom in Israel takes ten long chapters to describe (1 Kings 1-10). But it only takes one chapter for the kingdom to begin to fall apart; the crash and burn is inevitable (1 Kings 11). 1 Kings opens up following the exploits of David from 2 Samuel: David is clearly king,…
This is the second installment on a two-part series on our church structure. You can find the first part here. In the first post, I looked at what the Bible has to say concerning how a local church should be structured. I believe that the consistent pattern of Scripture is that local churches are lead…
This is Part One of a two-part series on our church structure. At Lincroft Bible Church, we have multiple pastors on staff as well as six other pastors. (The other pastors are also called "elders." The term is interchangeable in Scripture. To be an elder is to be a pastor and vice versa). Moreover, we…
Christ is the Good Shepherd. As the Good Shepherd, He is first and foremost our sacrificial Savior (John 10:11). But Christ is also an example to follow in learning how to care for God’s people. It is not surprising that pastors are commanded to “shepherd” God’s people, who are also liken to a “flock” of…