Thom Rainer is a great writer and a tireless researcher. In Effective Evangelistic Churches, he has once again proven his salt. The downside for those of you outside of the Southern Baptist Convention, is that this book focuses solely on the Southern Baptist Convention. In an attempt to find a homogenous group with easily identifiable …
A couple of years ago I was introduced to Sermon Jams. Essentially, Sermon Jams are portions of sermons set to a beat, usually a hip-hop beat. Since then, I have become a huge fan. The guys with this ministry now have five volumes of Sermon Jams available for free download at http://www.1031sermonjams.com (I would reccommend volume …
I want to be and remain in the church and among the little flock in which there are timid, weak, and ailing people who recognize and feel their sin, plight, and misery, who sincerely sigh and cry to God without ceasing for comfort and help, and who believe in the forgiveness of sins and are …
How can we help our people be more satisfied in God? I recently ran across an article written by John Piper that answers that very question. Here are the first two suggestions from “Advice to Pastors: How to Help Your People Be More Satisfied in God.” Love God will all your heart and soul and …
This is interesting. A free e-book edited by Steve Hayes and James Anderson: “Love the Lord with Heart and Mind.” It chronicling the answers of Christian intellectuals (including Darrell Bock, John Frame and Douglas Groothuis) to the following questions. 1. Have you been a Christian from childhood? 2. Did you convert to the faith? If …
I recently got a copy of Brian Croft’s book that is entitled Visit the sick: Ministering God’s grace in times of illness. The book is in the Ministering the Master’s Way series, published by Day One Publications. Brian, a pastor himself, has written a concise, gospel centered book, that is both theologically rich and practically …
Let us cleave to Christ more closely, love him more heartily, live to him more thoroughly, copy him more exactly, confess him more boldly, follow him more fully. Religion like this will always bring its own reward. Worldly people may laugh at it. Weak brethren may think it extreme. But it will wear well. At …
“Some pastors and preachers are lazy and no good. They do not pray; they do not read; they do not search the Scripture… The call is: watch, study, attend to reading. In truth you cannot read too much in Scriptures; and what you read you cannot read too carefully, and what you read carefully you …
“The preacher who stands before his people and roundly denounces the sins of others, and yet fails to confront his hearers with their own greed, lust, hard-heartedness, and pride, is not bold, no matter how loudly he may thunder. It is relatively easy for a preacher to let fly the salvos of Scripture against the …
As pastors, we must take seriously our call to speak from God’s Word to God’s people every Sunday. All preachers have a method that they use for preparing sermons, and it is always helpful to learn from others in this important task. I recently ran across this over at Unashamed Workman. Below is an outline …