mgpcpastor's blog

On a new year’s theme Kevin DeYoung provides 10 questions pastors can ask themselves throughout the year.

1. Am I spending time slowly reading God’s word and memorizing Scripture?
2. Am I having consistent, focused, extended times of prayer, including interceding for others?
3. Am I disciplined in my use of technology, in particular not getting distracted by emails and blogging in the evening and on my day off?
4. Am I going to bed on time?
5. Am I eating too much?
6. Have I exercised in the last week?
7. Am I patient with my kids or am I angry with them when they disobey or behave in childish ways?
8. When at home, am I “fully present” for my wife and family or are my mind and energy elsewhere?
9. Am I making sermon preparation a priority in my week or am I doing other less important things first?
10. Have I done anything out of the ordinary to cherish and help my wife?

If you didn’t read my New Year’s advice roundup, you can check out Jonathan Edwards resolutions.

Justin Taylor provides Graham Goldsworthy’s breakdown of the Bible’s story of redemption, along with summaries of each section. These are from Goldsworthy’s book ‘According To Plan’. If you don’t know it, you should.

At 9Marks Deepak Raju offers some “More Thoughts On Funerals”, following up from an earlier post that I linked to last week.
Among Raju’s thoughts: ‘I’ve often heard from widows that the hardest part of the whole process is not the funeral (when you are surrounded by loved ones and church friends), but after the funeral, when everyone has left and you are all by yourself for the first time. Pastors – visiting or calling a few days or so after the funeral is a good time for follow-up (especially if the person left behind is a widow).’

I didn’t really know whether to put this here, or in the New Year Round-Up, but Darryl Hart marks New Year by posting a quote from J. Gresham Machen, who died on January 1, 1937.
I liked the whole tone of the quote, which is taken from ‘Christianity And Liberalism’. Pastors and church leaders can only resonate with Machen’s sentiment:
‘Is there no refuge from strife? Is there no place of refreshing where a man can prepare for the battle of life? Is there no place where two or three can gather in Jesus’ name, to forget for the moment all those things that divide nation from nation and race from race, to forget human pride, to forget the passions of war, to forget the puzzling problems of industrial strife, and to unite in overflowing gratitude at the foot of the Cross? If there be such a place, then that is the house of God and that the gate of heaven. And from under the threshold of that house will go forth a river that will revive the weary world.’

David Murray offers an observation about “Pastoring Clever People (or Herding Cats)” on the Gospel Coalition blog.
The tenor of the article provides a few thoughts about providing leadership to people who can think very well for themselves. (And better than you in some areas.)

Tim Chester gives an overview of Transformissional Coaching.
If you’ve liked the look of Matthias Media’s ‘Trellis And The Vine’ then this is a fine complement to that philosophy of ministry.