Friday 18 September 2015

The pastor's most besetting temptations

The pastor’s most besetting temptations are anxiety and pride Anxiety determines the lives of many pastors. A family blows up over here; another member is terminally ill; the finances are looking weak: Every moment has its crisis, and the anxiety-driven pastor spends his time and energies responding to the crises. It’s draining because every encounter is a painful one; it induces cynicism, because pastors end up spending much of their time with the 15% of members whose lives are chaotic and very little time with the 85% who live healthy, harmonious, fruitful lives.

Pride is the other temptation, and is linked to anxiety. Pastors feel anxiety over the various challenges of ministry because they think they need to fix the church. If there’s a problem, the pastor is the all-purpose saviour.

So what's the solution? Find out here

Monday 14 September 2015

The Bible is not a book for the faint-hearted

The Bible is not a book for the faint of heart -- it is a book full of all the greed and glory and violence and tenderness and sex and betrayal that benefits mankind. It is not the collection of pretty little anecdotes mouthed by pious little church mice -- it does not so much nibble at our shoe leather as it cuts to the heart and splits the marrow from the bone. It does not give us answers fitted to our small-minded questions, but truth that goes beyond what we even know to ask.

- Rich Mullins