Eight of the Most Significant Struggles Pastors Face

Before me are handwritten notes that I took over a few weeks from various social media interactions, emails, and a few phone calls. The total is nearly 200 separate communications to me. I kept a record of them for one simple reason: I wanted to identify the greatest pain points of pastors today.

In many ways, there are no surprises. Indeed, I doubt most of you will be surprised at my findings. If nothing else, it is a good reminder of how we can help our pastors, and how we can pray for them. Of course, you will quickly see that they are not mutually exclusive. They are listed in the order of frequency I noted.

1. Criticism and conflict. I do have a few observations about this number one issue. First, it seems to be growing, and pastors seem to be experiencing greater challenges. Second, most of the issues of conflict are not doctrinal issues. Indeed, most are trivial issues. Finally, very few pastors are equipped and trained to deal with the steady stream of critics and crises.    Continue at Thom Rainer

You Can Take Heart in Uncertainty

Uncertainty is a difficult thing to bear. We want to know where the provision is going to come from or if we’re going to die of this disease or how this child is going to turn out or if our job will still be there next month.

But as we see in Luke 9:57–58, Jesus makes it clear that his disciples must be able to bear uncertainty if they are to follow him.

“I will follow you wherever you go.”

I’m sure that whoever made this public declaration to Jesus was sincere. They likely had heard him preach and seen him perform amazing signs and wonders. 

As Jesus’s fame increased, so did the number of his would-be disciples.

What the person might not have known was that at that moment Jesus was homeless. Jesus and his cohort were traveling south from Galilee. He had set his face to go to Jerusalem, where his resolute purpose was to die. But to get there he had to travel through Samaria.

Getting the Context

Back then there was a lot of bad blood between Jews and Samaritans. More precisely, Samaritans had the bad blood. They were the result of centuries of intermarriage and religious syncretism between Jews and Israel’s former Gentile conquerors.   Continue at Jon Bloom

The Answer to Every Christian’s Identity Struggle

As believers in Jesus Christ it is easy to lose our bearings when we forget who we are. This is every Christian’s identity crisis. The answer is for us to recognize the false identities that have robbed us of our joy, peace, contentment, and security and replace them with what is already true of us because of being united with Christ by faith.

For the past year the Holy Spirit has been renewing my mind and refreshing my soul by directing my focus to portions of the Word of God that emphasize who I am in Christ.

The portion where my heart dwelt this morning is the first half of the book of Ephesians. The first three chapters of the apostle’s great theological treatise are filled with numerous realities that we need to consistently claim as already belonging to us. Along with me, reflect on these 42 truths:

1. I am a saint, a set-apart-one, set apart by God for God (1:1).
2. I am a child of God. God is my father (1:2)
3. I am a servant of God. Jesus is my Lord (1:2).
4. I am a recipient of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (1:3).
5. I am chosen by God in Christ (1:4).
6. I am predestined (1:5).
7. I am adopted as a son (1:5).
8. I am a recipient of God’s kindness (1:5).
9. I am an object of God’s grace (1:6).
10. I am in union with the Beloved One, Jesus (1:6).
11. I am redeemed through His blood (1:7).
12. I am forgiven of my sin (1:7).
13. I am a knower of God’s mystery, the mystery of His will in Christ (1:9).   Continue at Paul Tautges

7 Things a Pastor's Kid Needs from a Father

Pastors, your position is a demanding one, and those demands bring unique struggles on your family. A pastor's wife bears a great burden, but she usually enters into the ministry willingly. A pastor's children, though, are carried on the current of their parents' calling. It is often a life of singular struggle and uncommon needs. These struggles often stem from the failures of the father. This isn't to cast full blame on pastors for their children's problems. But it is to say that pastors need to work to be good dads.

My own father has worked hard at this. He had his blind spots and weaknesses, and they have been a source of tension between him and me. But to this day, in his 33rd and last year of pastoral ministry, he has never stopped trying to be a better father. As I wrote this I thought of his failures, yes, but I also thought of successes. Lots of them. I also thought of dozens of conversations with fellow PKs about such struggles and their own relationships with their fathers. So know that my writing does not stem from bitterness of heart or some jaded desire to expose a good man's faults. I love my dad. My desire is to see struggles avoided or defeated for other pastors and PKs.

So here are seven of the most significant ways a pastor can be a good father to his children. Pastors, your child needs . . .

1. A dad, not a pastor

Yes, you are called to pastor your family, but PKs want a dad---someone who plays with them, protects them, makes them laugh, loves their mom, gives hugs, pays attention, teaches them how to build a budget and change the oil and field a ground ball. We want committed love and warmth. We want a dad who's not a workaholic.   Continue at Barnabas Piper

Can You Risk Honesty in Church?

The church teaches, in fact demands, honesty. But in many instances church is not a place for honesty. Of course, I do not speak of the whole of the Christian church, only that which I know by observation and experience. (Let the reader understand.) The church’s response to honesty can reveal it is not well-equipped to handle full-disclosure honesty. While the church requires honesty, it may show it does not know quite what to do when there is transparent honesty.

Honesty is particularly dangerous when Christians admit to two struggles – struggles with doubt and struggles with sin.

I believe in truth – transcendent, timeless, universal, propositional truth. But, I also believe in doubt as a reality of human and Christian experience. Perhaps it is because the church believes in truth and certainty that it has so much trouble dealing with doubt – sometimes ignoring it, sometimes denying its existence, seldom inviting its expression. Doubt is an ugly step-child in the church.

There are those who know little, perhaps nothing, of doubt.  For them all things are clear and certain. God is there. He is good. The Bible is God’s Word. Jesus is their Savior. They are going to heaven when they die.

In some cases I think this certainty is a gift of temperament.  In other cases I believe it is a blessed gift of grace. But I know it is not a universal bestowal of nature or of grace. I also know that when such certainty walks through the valley of the shadow of prolonged illness, devastating defeat, severe depression, or death it sometimes stumbles. For others nothing daunts such faith. For some doubt grows into strong faith. For others doubt is a constant companion.These differences are aspects of the mysteries of human existence and God’s providence.   Continue at Christian Curmudgeon