Bible Teacher. Pastor.Educator.

I love Pastor Gene Appel Powerful Christian Message Service........I love this Church......Wowww.http://media.aspireone.com/mediaplayer/eastside/

THANK YOU NORTH MASON BIBLE CHURCH!!!!

 

Some wise but simple thoughts for Pastors ( Parents of Teenagers) or Leaders......Welcome to the Wall | The Resurgence

This I do believe by James Owolabi.............

1. I believe in getting 6 - 8 hours of sleep everyday.
2. I believe in getting a 40 minute "handsome nap" everyday.
3. I believe in excercising one hour six days a week when I am not traveling. 
4. I believe in connecting with a friend in ministry once a week.
5. I believe in having lunch with a vetrean in ministry once a month.
6. I love food so watching my diet is hard but thank you Pastor Mark.......

Thank you for these wise words......from Pastor Mark Driscoll.........

Get your sleep. If you don’t, you will get sick and it only gets worse. 

 

Watch your diet. You will be tempted to self-medicate with junk food, caffeine, and energy drinks. Don’t. 

 

Watch your alcohol, if you drink at all. Since it is a depressant, increasing your alcohol intake when you are slouching toward depression and exhaustion is a big mistake.

 

Watch your temptation. The more fatigued you get, the more easily tempted you become. Take more precautionary measures during this season of the year to safeguard your holiness.

 

Watch your anger. Whereas women internalize their depression and manifest it with emotion, men externalize their depression as anger and manifest it with explosion. 

 

Get some exercise. It helps you work out your frustration, aids sleep, and is good for your health.

 

You really need your day off, especially during trying seasons. Guard it. If you don’t take a voluntary Sabbath you will take an involuntary one for counseling and/or hospitalization. 

 

Keep going by the grace of God,

Pastor Mark

 

via theresurgence.com

I rewrote part of this article for Youth Pastors: Favorite Article of the Month: Who is the most dangerous guy at your church? | Ordinary Pastor

This is the guy who seems to have a lot of biblical knowledge. He can drop the 30 lb. words and effectively argue his point. Very often he is quite involved and appears to have things together. However, he is dangerous because of the reason you would not think, he is unteachable.

Let me give you some reasons why and how he is dangerous:

(1) He is Gospel-Eclipsing: The great commission has learning embedded in it (Matthew 28.18-20). This means that being a disciple is one who is always learning. Therefore, to have it all figured out is to deny who you are. As Christians we have to be people who are learning, this includes everyone from pastors to children.

(2) He is Critical: If this guy is not being moved by the ministry of the word he is likely gathering bullets to shoot at leaders. He sits quietly during the sermons and teachings only to pick apart everything like a Monday morning quarterback. His unteachability looks the exact opposite of what James 1 teaches:

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1.20-21)

(Please note this is not a repudiation of constructive criticism. This is desperately needed. There is a difference between constructive and destructive criticism however.)

(3) He is Divisive: This is dangerous for the church in that it invariably brings division (Titus 3.10). This type of boiling pot eventually spills over and when he does he hurts unity and people.

In my experience, division in the church usually is a result of somebody being unteachable. This type of thing has a long legacy. Consider how Diotrephes liked to put himself first and stir up division. How did he do this? He did not submit to the teaching of the apostles (3 John vv. 9-10).  He was unteachable.

This is obviously dangerous for his own soul but also the church. Just like Diotrephes had influence in that congregation so too the unteachable guy no doubt has influence in your local assembly. The influence of an unteachable guy is a vehicle for division.

(4) He is Joy-Robbing: A church that is teachable brings its leaders joy. A church or church member who is not robs them of joy. It’s that simple (Hebrews 13.7, 10). I can attest to the fact that this is very true.

(5) He is a Time-Waster: Let me be careful how I say this. I don’t mean that labor in the ministry is a waste of time. But what I do mean is that unteachable guy is one who continues to take up pastoral leadership’s time with arguments. He just keeps resetting the same issue over and over again. He can find anything to nitpick and be critical about. So in this sense he is a waste of time. Or, as Paul might say, the labor is in vain (Philippians 2.16; 2 Thessalonians 3.5).

So, what do you do with him?

Pray for him: Forbid it that pastors become callous and unmoved themselves! The desire is for growth in the gospel. Therefore, pray (Colossians 1.9-14; 2 Peter 3.18).

Minimize his influence: Pastors should always be careful about who is appointed unto leadership. In this case it would obviously make sense not to just put the Bible trivia champ in charge of teaching and leadership items. This is because the Bible trivia champ could also be a spiritual MMA champ on the side.

Watch him and the sheep: If this guy is a Christian then he must be cared for too. The pastor must do this while guarding and caring for the flock. This is the type of thing that keeps pastors up at night (s

via www.ordinarypastor.com

10 Reasons I Survived a Church Split | nakedpastor

But I would not have survived without the following:

1. SUPPORTIVE LEADERSHIP: Even though we lost one of our leaders in the split, the leadership team was strong and extremely supportive. We could rely on one another without question. Because of the leadership, I look back on those years as the golden years of my ministry even though they were also the worst.
2. FREQUENT AND OPEN COMMUNICATION: The leadership did its best to pass on all and every piece of information to each other. Nothing was unimportant. We also shared as much as we possibly could with the congregation as a whole without jeopardizing the health of the church. We met as often as twice a week and communicated at least once a day. Looking back, perhaps we could have shared more with the congregation, but under such a volatile state it felt too risky.
3. WITHHELD CRITICISM: We refused to publicly criticize those we believed were instrumental in the split. In fact, we felt a personal spiritual mandate to be as sheep to the shearers: silent. This infuriated those who would base their decision of who to support on fact, which I believed was impossible to untangle. One of our leaders insisted that the fruit of the Spirit and the works of the flesh were the only criteria by which to discern under these conditions.
4. SOUGHT HELP: We shared our struggles with those leaders outside of our congregation we felt could be trusted and who sympathized with us. We even brought in a professional counselor to provide several sessions of group counseling to the leadership team. We did not share information with the simply curious.
5. PARTIED: We would get together as a leadership team as well as with other sympathizers to party. We ate lots of food and drank some good wine. The lighthearted nature of these meetings was intentional. We knew these were gossiped about but they were essential moments of reparation. We were sometimes able to laugh at ourselves and our circumstances.
6. READ INTELLECTUAL WORKS: I made a point of reading over my head, of reading important books of depth in order to provide me with a larger perspective, the big picture. Thinkers like Luther, Barth, Stringfellow, Foucault, etc., gave me enormous comfort and perspective during those years.
7. HELD ON TO HOPE: Even though almost everyone around us, they later admitted, believed we were “dead in the water”, we almost always refused to believe we were going down. We constantly held on to the hope that one day the struggle would be over and we would enjoy respite. There were black days, but the next day hope would shine again.
8. DON’T DENY: One of the things we allowed to happen at leadership meetings as well as regular church meetings was the expression of sadness. What we were experiencing was like nothing we’d ever experienced before, and the pain was excruciating. I believed this had to be freely expressed in order to move closer to healing.
9. DON’T COMPROMISE: Most splits are caused by a political decision, and because we were certain our decision was a wise and necessary one, we felt it would go against conscience and truth to compromise it, even if it meant an alleviation of pain. We were constantly advised to compromise our beliefs or our position. We paid for our steadfastness or stubbornness… however you look at it… but my conscience is clear.
10. ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE: What perplexed me and the leadership from the beginning was that not only did we believe we were right, but those who were giving us difficulty also believed they were right. I believe this idea injected patience and wisdom into the leadership team’s attitude rather than an arrogant and autocratic one. Thi

via www.nakedpastor.com