Leadership
Succession by Death or Misadventure
Pastors die, get sick, have to leave town to look after infirm relatives, just as other people do. Sometimes their churches are not ready for their hasty departures. So what does a church do when they are left without a pastor? Perhaps these points should be made:- 1. Don’t panic. The Head of the Church, [...]
Succession by Transition
This is probably the best way to ensure a smooth, seamless transition of leadership in a church. When we moved to Cairns in February 2006, this is what we in fact witnessed. A long-time pastor handing over to his assistant of a couple of years. This was of course voted on and approved by the [...]
Dictators Breed Cowards
When a dictator rules, one of three things will happen to the courageous: The courageous will stand up to the dictator and be mowed down. The courageous will stand up to the dictator and escape/survive and will be hated and feared by the dictator. The courageous will do nothing and will slowly become cowards. Those [...]
Let No One Despise Your Youth
Paul chose Timothy to accompany him on his second missionary journey because of his shining example as a very young Christian. Scholars believe Timothy was in his teens or early twenties when he first travelled with Paul. This is because about 15 years later when he writes to Timothy in his first pastoral epistle, Paul [...]
Learn From A Swan
(I am traveling in the US until mid-February, so my initial posts will be based on books I’ve read recently.) The Legacy of Sovereign Joy is one of Piper’s biographical series, The Swans Are Not Silent. The series title comes from Augustine’s successor, Eraclius. Augustine was an excellent teacher, and Eraclius felt small and inadequate [...]
Sharing Your Reading: Passing On To Others the Best of What You Read
Well, here it is. My last article for a while. I want to give you some more tips on how to get the most out of your reading experience but even more importantly, what to do with the “good stuff” you’ve squeezed out. After reading certain books, I have gained a lot of benefit by [...]
Treasure Hunting: The Joys of Buying Used Books
A couple of weeks ago I came across this great quote: “The Christian Church possesses in its literature an abundant and incomparable treasure. But it is an inheritance that must be reclaimed by each generation.” That pretty much sums up why I’ve been writing these articles on the topic of reading. We have a great [...]
The Friction of Fiction
Everyone loves a good story. The art of telling or writing a good story is a great skill that can be used for great good. Unfortunately, many Christians have an unbalanced aversion to reading fiction. I’d like to point out some of the pros and cons of reading fiction and then give some of my [...]
My Year on an A6 Card
ots of people have Christmas traditions but do you have any New Year’s traditions? Of course there’s always the old stay-up-til-midnight routine, but besides that. My New Year’s tradition For the last several years I’ve made a habit of sitting down sometime around the New Year and summarising my whole year on an A6 card. [...]
Getting The Most From Your Christian Books – How to Mark Your Text
I must confess that when I first started to read seriously, I fell into the trap of worshipping my books. I wanted them to look perfect on my shelves. No dust was allowed to collect on them. No pages were permitted to be “dog-eared”. I even had trouble writing my name in them – let [...]
The Dangers of Reading Christian Books
There are some real dangers that I want to inform you about if you purposefully read on a regular basis Christian books. First of all you might learn something. I know it can be scary so I want to warn you about it now. Reading could lead to discovery. Now to be fair, you need [...]
Why Read Christian Books: An Attempt at a Philosophy of Reading
Stewart Custer wrote: “Once in a while one hears a sincere but self-assured preacher say, ‘I don’t need all those commentaries and books about the Bible. All I need is my Bible and God the Holy Spirit!’ …If it be true that we do not need anything but the Bible, then we do not need [...]
