Archive for December, 2007
Happy New Year!
We serve a God of fresh starts and new beginnings. I’m praying that 2008 will find you growing in the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ! I’m pressing on the upward way New heights I’m gaining every day Still praying as I onward bound, “Lord, plant my feet on higher ground!” Lord, lift [...]
Category: General
Make Sure You’re Supposed to Be Here, part three
In part two, we looked at the first characteristic of those with a genuine divine calling: their inner confidence in their call. Today we look at the second: 2. Other believers who observe their lives will see the calling on their lives and affirm it. I once knew a pastor who thought he was called [...]
Category: Calling
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas, everyone. My prayers are with you all for a restful holiday with your families. I also pray that you’ll take long moments of reflection and wonder at the mysterious and miraculous incarnation of Christ our Savior, true light of true light, very God of very God. Let all mortal flesh keep silence And [...]
Category: General
Make Sure You’re Supposed to Be Here, part two
So how do you know if you’re called by God? Good question. People who are genuinely called by God to ministry have two things that are true of them. Today we’ll address the first. 1. They are certain of their own calling. There is a bit of mystery to how this works. God speaks and [...]
Category: Calling
Make Sure You’re Supposed To Be Here, part one
This post begins a four-part series on calling to ministry. Not everyone is supposed to be in ministry. Not everyone is supposed to be in seminary. This may seem a little insulting as a starting point, but hang with me for a bit. Your true fitness for a life of ministry will be tested. It’s [...]
Category: Calling
And we’re off!!
I’m happy to announce the public roll-out today of SeminarySurvivalGuide.com. Welcome to all of you who are being referred here by friends or other blogs. We’ve been live for a week or so now. I waited on the launch to get my web stuff configured right, and also to put enough posts up for you [...]
Category: General
Knowledge Is Not Life
One of the dangers of seminary to your spiritual life is that so much emphasis and time is spent on the expansion of your knowledge base. Hidden within the academic environment is the deadly assumption that knowledge is what qualifies you for ministry. It’s not. What qualifies you for ministry is the life of God [...]
Category: Spiritual life
Seminary DOES prepare you for ministry
Let’s start by stating the obvious. If you go to seminary you should learn the Bible, Christian doctrine, ethics, church history, Greek and Hebrew. This is really important work, the very heart of ministry preparation. There are things people serving in ministry need to know, and know well. Ignorant Christians in leadership are an embarrassment [...]
Category: Time Management
Seminary does not prepare you for ministry
Ok, time for an ugly reality check. Seminary does not prepare you for ministry. Or, at least, it does not prepare you in all the important ways you need to be prepared. How many times have you heard pastors remark about some issue they’re facing, “They didn’t teach us that in seminary?” You’ll be saying [...]
Category: General
You must learn triage
Triage (`tree-ozh), from French, “to sort.” 1. A process for sorting injured people into groups based on their need for or likely benefit from immediate medical treatment. Triage is used in hospital emergency rooms, on battlefields, and at disaster sites when limited medical resources must be allocated. 2. A system used to allocate a scarce [...]
Category: Time Management
