By Brian Croft

I’ve spent most of my adult life hating silence—and didn’t know it. It was a major blind spot. I always dismissed my desire to be with people and avoid being alone as being an extrovert and loving people. I excused my talkative nature to my heightened relational instincts. These qualities also seemed to help my interactions with people as a pastor, so I thought nothing more of it. It wasn’t until I began my own counseling journey out of a personal crisis where I was confronted with this long-held deception in my life

By Jon Hawkins

“But I spoke hastily. We must not be hasty. I have become too hot. I must cool myself and think; for it is easier to shout stop! than to do it.” Heed the words of the wise Ent and don’t be hasty lest you have unintended consequences from acting in haste.

By Brian Croft

How does a fast work? The simplest way to explain it is to say that the moments we inevitably feel unfulfilled hunger pains of food should instead move us to pray. We translate our natural hunger for food, which is necessary for life, into prayer. Our physical yearnings are transferred into spiritual hunger for God, for the life we have in him, and for him to do what only he can do.

By Matthew Spandler-Davison

There are two key factors that often lead to a pastor’s short tenure: loneliness and a feeling of ineffectiveness. As our association was revitalized, pastors began to pray for each other. We’d meet, often informally, for lunch or breakfast, simply to check in with one another.

The antidote to much pastoral discouragement can be found in deliberate and purposeful fellowship with other pastors. Not just any pastors, but likeminded pastors. Fostering this kind of fellowship was our aim when 3 other pastor friends and I started a pastoral fellowship eight years ago, which we now call the Pastoral Fellowship for Practical Theology. In this article I will explain how we started this fellowship, who we intend to bring together, what we hope to accomplish, what our meetings consist of, and the fruit we’ve seen so far.

I recently realized that I have come to use the term “revitalization” as a means of insulating myself from failure and isolating myself from my flock’s imperfections. This realization has brought me face-to-face with my own failures and imperfections. What happens when your ministry philosophies fail to be the magic bullet you had imagined? What happens when you employ best practices and wise council with fruitless and even adverse results? What happens when you have to face your own inabilities and short comings?

When we as pastors are attacked or criticized by those in the church, we have the option to defend ourselves. We can fight back. We can argue our case. In most cases, it is a “lose-lose” battle any time a pastor’s wife embraces the task to defend her husband. Therefore, what is she to do? Here are 3 suggestions.

How does a pastor deal with not just the mud that is now on his face, but the one who threw the mud?

Charles Spurgeon is celebrated as one of the most gifted, dedicated, brilliant, and impacting preachers and pastors in history. This honorable distinction is given by most because of his piercing, articulate, Christ-centered, and Word-driven sermons that were heard and have been read by thousands all over the world. Because of the popularity that Spurgeon reached in his ministry, his faithfulness as a very young pastor is often overlooked.

Dear brothers, if you find yourself discouraged, angry, wondering why some of your people do and say what they do and you can’t take it any more…do not forget the debt to mercy you owe. It is a debt greater than you and I could ever payback. It is a debt that should weigh heavier on our joyful hearts than the most difficult person in our church.

God calls pastors not to be superman, but to be faithful. As pastors seek to be faithful every day in their ministries, God’s sovereign will is being accomplished. Why is that not enough? Because a pastor brings with him to his church his own brokenness, personal struggles, and unhealed scars deep in his soul where God’s grace in the gospel has yet to affect. Pastors struggle to find their true and full identity in Christ and when pastors fail to show up secure in Christ, they show up in these false ways

In light of this seven year anniversary, it has been helpful to revisit several of these posts I wrote to honor Jackson and in doing so, honor the Savior he so faithfully served while here. I re-read them with the hopes to strive to be as faithful as he was. I have been freshly reminded of the sovereign God Jackson preached so tirelessly that continues to give me hope as I still feel this loss.

In the tough, early years of my ministry, I thought I was the patient one. I was enduring through the criticisms, judgments, and actions to remove me. As the years have passed, I have realized that it was the other way around. These faithful saints, wounded by previous pastors for decades, were being patient with me.

I started along a broken and bumpy road on January 28. Frankly, I knew this road was on the horizon but never wanted to travel there. It came with a phone call. The voice was calm but the words came like an avalanche, throwing me into a state of shock and despair. My oldest daughter was dead. Her struggle with drug addiction, that had robbed her of so much, had taken her life. The news took my breath away.

Pastors, hold fast to what you know to be true and right.  Love those who love you as you love those who don’t–at least right now.  However, don’t be surprised when you wake up one day (years from now) and find that a church member who has been cold to you for years suddenly has warmed up.

Based on the emails, notes, and phone calls I continue to get, trust me…your pastor needs encouragement.  He needs to know that what he does week in and week out means something to God as well as those for whom he labors.

Have you ever tried to pick a favorite hymn or Scripture passage? Impossible! At least it is for me. I had similar feelings when my pastoral interns asked me to pick my top books every pastor should read. Nevertheless, they demanded this of me and I conceded.

The rigors of tri-vocational ministry had left me deeply weary with a fatigue that I realized would not be remedied by a few days off. I needed to step away completely for the purpose of rest and a needed “gut check” in several areas of my life. I took the entire month of July off.  Unplugged from all ministry, including all social media.

Through cleaning the bathrooms at my church the Lord, in His grace, taught me some of the most valuable lessons about humility, faithful pastoral ministry, and what it truly means to serve Christ and His church while cleaning toilets.  These are two of the more important lessons.