We all need mentors. With so many voices telling us what to do, it’s vitally important that we have godly, thoughtful, experienced people showing us what to do. Preparing for a life in ministry is demanding work—and I’m not just talking about your seminary workload. You need real-life pastoral experience under the direction of a mentor. I serve as director of field education at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. Much of my work involves talking to students about their relationships with their pastoral mentors. Since 1987, I’ve mentored men preparing for ordination. While serving on Boston’s North Shore, I mentored many men in the Gordon-Conwell field education program. Before coming to RTS, I employed men pursuing ordination. Mentoring has been a key part…
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My first experience in a youth group was leading it. In 1981-82 I served as Youth Director at the Reformed Church in America congregation in Feasterville, Pennsylvania. I was a student at Princeton Theological Seminary. The learning curve was steep. While in high school, I did not attend a youth group. In fact, I was the only student in my Sunday School class back at my home church in Rock Island, Tennessee. Each week my teacher, Barbara Cornett, brought a carefully prepared lesson just for me. She was a model of diligent Christian service. I hope these students benefitted from what I learned from her.
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32 years ago I was the guest preacher at my Uncle John’s church in Water Valley, Mississippi. I cherish the memory of ministering the word of God with him.
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Reformed Preaching: Proclaiming God’s Word from the Heart of the Preacher to the Heart of His People, by Joel R. Beeke, Wheaton: Crossway, 2018, 504 pages, $23.29, cloth. If Reformed pastors enter the pulpit with a defective view of preaching, their efforts will fail. It’s not enough for us to study and prepare – our points may be logical, our attention to detail may be meticulous, and our precision unfolding the text may be exact – but all our labor is in vain if we don’t properly understand what a sermon is supposed to accomplish in the life of a congregation. When we are merely conveyers of information, our churches may grow in understanding of the scriptures, but they will not…
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Forty years ago this month, I began my pastoral ministry. In June 1980 I had just finished college and was on my way to Wales, Tennessee. The ten faithful members of Wales Presbyterian Church (PCUS) invited me to become their regular preacher. In August, I became their student pastor and also assisted one of my mentors, Harry Hassall, at three other rural Presbyterian churches. Everyone was patient with me, and I had a memorable and joyful year. The pay wasn’t much. A couple in the church, William Campbell and Ruth Morris, offered me room and board in exchange for slopping their hogs and working their tobacco field. They welcomed me into their home and treated me like family – I’ll never…
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The Christian and Technology, by John V. Fesko. Durham, UK: EP Books, 2020, xx + 104 pages, $8.99, paper. Winston Churchill observed, “We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.” The same is true of technology. In six crisp chapters John Fesko explains how six technological advancements have shaped Christian thinking and behavior, for better and for worse: Screens: computer, phone, tablets, TV, and jumbotron Social media The automobile The book: both the mass production of books for the past 500 years and the recent phenomenon of e-books Virtual reality Internet access both to helpful services and soul-defiling evil The theme throughout this book is this: You must learn to use technology, or technology will use you. The invention…
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I was delighted to offer an endorsement of Megan Hill’s new book, A Place to Belong: Learning to Love the Local Church. Her love for the church and her Savior shines on every page. She possesses an uncommon gift for engaging illustrations and applications. Her theology of the church is biblical, and her instruction winsome as she clarifies what it means for the church’s members to share in each other’s gifts and graces. Readers will find themselves thanking God for his gift of “a place to belong.”
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How to Care for Your Pastor: A Guide for Small Churches, by Kent Philpott. Webster, NY: Evangelical Press, 2008, xiii + 128 pages, $13.99, paper. Disappointment is a routine part of pastoral life and is especially acute in small churches where personal and financial resources are few and prospects for growth slim. Many pastors wonder if anyone in the congregation really cares about them. Pay is often meagre; expressions of concern for the pastor and his family’s well-being come infrequently or not at all. In some churches little energy is spent caring for anyone in the church. The hurt can be deep. Pastors would like to articulate their hurts to the church, but do not—they do not want to…
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Today my RTS office is in an attic. 46 years ago my bedroom was. On the evening of April 8, 1974, I sat at my desk doing homework. The radio was on, the volume low, and the Braves-Dodgers game in the background. In the second and the fourth inning, I turned up the volume when one of my boyhood heroes, “Hammerin’ Hank” Aaron, came to the plate. And it was in the fourth inning that he smashed his record setting 715th homer off Dodger Al Downing. Braves’ announcer Milo Hamilton called the historic shot. Of the hundreds of Braves games I listened to as a boy, that was by far the most memorable. I recorded the home run on my…
Read MoreThe Pastor’s Soul: The Call and Care of an Undershepherd, by Brian Croft and Jim Savastio. Welwyn Garden City, UK: EP Books, 2018, 160 pages, $11.99, paper. The good pastor lovingly looks after God’s sheep; it’s his duty, and he stands accountable to the Lord for those entrusted to his care. He finds satisfaction in his work as he becomes involved in the lives of his people. At times he rejoices with them—at other times, he weeps. He instructs the disciple, admonishes the erring, comforts the suffering, counsels the perplexed, and offers gospel hope to the despairing. Since God is for his elect people, the faithful pastor is for them, too. But even the most faithful pastor is in trouble…
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