Showing posts with label Pastoral Calling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pastoral Calling. Show all posts

Friday, May 13, 2016

A Shepherd's Heart: What's In a name? (AKA How the name came about.)

Throughout scripture and History as we know it, names are significant. Whether a force for good or evil, you and I recall names. 

For years I've wanted to share the story of how the name and ministry of A Shepherd's Heart came about and this post is a brief retelling of just that. 

For as long as I can remember, even through hard times of depression and insecurity, I've always been what they call a "people person".  I've been wired to seek out and help meet the needs of others. 

Many years ago the calling on my life became clear and that calling had much to do with shepherding others as a pastor, lay person...shepherding in and out of the church meeting place. Shepherding people helping meet the spiritual and physical needs of others. 

As I read the Bible and started walking more seriously with Christ I learned that God wants shepherds to, as silly as it may sound as it should be a given, shepherd His flock and take it seriously.  It's not always a given today because many have missed or ignored what a call to shepherding is.

Another thing I recognized is that many staff pastors have a very tough job, put in long hours and often need pastoral care themselves however for various reasons, they weren't receiving it. I also recognized that many non-staff people were also hurting and need someone to reach out and care for them as Jesus modeled for us. 


Thursday, June 07, 2012

The State of Preaching


Today, Tim Challies posted a summary of an article that Al Mohler wrote in 2006 regard The State of Preaching. He touched on the trends and the things that are lacking and amazingly or not so amazingly these things are still very relevant 6 years later in 2012!


Please take time to read it and then share your thoughts here. 

I'm reminded that one of the first things pastors are charged with is is to preach The Word!

Take a look at 2 Timothy 4:1-5 for the charge and calling!

This is something I actually put on my "ministry resume" as part of my "philosophy of ministry" and here are 9 things in this passage that we are called to do:

2 Timothy 4:1-5 (NASB or ESV):
1: Preach the Word
2: Be ready in season and out of season
3: Reprove
4: Rebuke
5: Exhort
6: Be sober Minded
7: Endure suffering
8: Evangelism
9: Fulfill the ministry


I share this in conjunction with the article for two reasons:

#1: Pastor please remember your calling!
#2: Church, pray for each other and your pastors and other leaders. Uphold them in prayer and be an encouragement to them as they seek to fulfill their calling in shepherding God's Flock! Pray that they'd exalt God and His Word!

If we're not preaching The Word as pastors and lay people, then what are we doing? 

According to The Word, Pastors are called to do many things to shepherd The Flock and correctly handling God's Word is Job One as everything else we do flows from The Word. 

So, if we're not handling it correctly by glossing over things or taking things out of context in order to "fit them" into "our" message then we are guilty of not fulfilling our call and we will lead people astray!  We need to repent of this and ask The Lord to help us do things His Way and not our own because it's ultimately Him that we're representing! We also need to affirm this with the congregation.

Furthermore,  if we aren't handling The Word properly then our doctrine, which flows from The Word, will be skewed as well in theory and in practice!

With this in mind, here are 5 key doctrinal commitments that I've become convinced that pastors should adopt and commit to:

Foundational Doctrine Commitment:
-A High View of God
-The Absolute Authority of Scripture
-Sound Doctrine
-Personal Holiness
-Spiritual Authority

These are one's I've grown committed to even more so over the last several years - especially when it seems that within the church these are starting to become less-and-less valued at times or in some circles of The Church.

I will share another post in the near future that will briefly expand on why these 5 are essential/vital to the The Church universal and individually as pastors and believers in general.

Have a great day and Live for Him!

In Christ,

rlk