J. Ellsworth Kalas gives some advice to pastors regarding congregations and learning. Basically he says that just because something isn’t commonly known in the culture (Like “Here I raise mine Ebenezer” from “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”) doesn’t mean we simply skip those things. Instead, he says it is an opportunity to teach. In…
Tag: pastoring
Sleeping in Church
I came across this in John Cassian’s “The Institutes” in the section on the spirit of gluttony. “This same old man declared, based on the following indications, that the devil has ever been the promoter of foolish tales and the enemy of spiritual conferences. For when he was talking with some of the brothers about…
Pastors and Expectations
Someone once told me that a pastor is the only person who has two hundred bosses. That is…if you serve a church with two hundred members. The larger the church, the more ‘bosses’ you have. Of course I chuckled at that. It isn’t nearly that bad, but one of the pressures of being of pastor…
On Pastoral Work
Okay. I’ll admit it. I’m a pastor. It is what I do. It is who I am. I can’t get away from it. Every Monday morning I get up and I start the week doing the work of a pastor. I know I’m not alone. There are a lot of pastors out there. Perhaps you…
Cluster Headaches
Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a fan of the new cluster model being introduced in my conference. On the surface it seems a positive move, but I believe in practice it will not be as beneficial as believed. Why? Geography. The idea is that United Methodist churches will ‘cluster’ together to…