Pastoral Ministry

First Things

Submitted by James on Tue, 17/05/2011 - 21:39

A number of us heard an extremely helpful talk this morning from Hugh Palmer, rector of All Souls Langham Place in London. He reminded a group of us, all in church leadership or pastoral ministry of some kind, to keep first things first.

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William Still = Jones the Butcher?

Submitted by James on Wed, 09/02/2011 - 18:01

I've finally finished reading William Still's fine The Work of the Pastor. Perhaps a better heading for this post would be the need for perspective. Anyway, here's a word for our own day:

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The whole Bible

Submitted by James on Thu, 14/10/2010 - 15:13

"Once you are convinced that your people need — I say need — the whole Word of God, and you get over the shock to your indolent flesh that you are not in the ministry for an easy job, you simply roll up your sleeves, and having gathered, or being in process of gathering, the most helpful library of commentaries and reference books you can find, you get down to it: and book by book you give your people a balanced diet of the truth." (William Still, The Work of the Pastor, page 64)

King of Terrors: Death Still Not Nothing

Submitted by James on Tue, 20/01/2009 - 14:32

Since I posted on Henry Scott Holland's poem “Death is Nothing at all”, that blog post has overtaken my sermon on 1 Corinthians 13 as the most visited page on this site. Curiously, both the Scott Holland text and 1 Corinthians 13 are popular passages at funerals.

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Lectionaries

Submitted by James on Mon, 01/09/2008 - 08:00

Back in May, we had some great moments on our CME weekend on preaching, led by Pete Wilcox, Canon Chancellor at Lichfield Cathedral. I have been meaning to blog these thoughts on lectionaries for some time, but somehow never got around to it. Anyway, finally, …

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Death is not nothing

Submitted by James on Fri, 15/08/2008 - 09:22

I have huge respect for Christopher Idle. I love the hymns he writes. And he's a godly man with a wise, pastoral heart. I was searching for some of his hymns, when I found something rather different.

Doubtless, many readers of this will be familiar with Henry Scott Holland's poem Death is Nothing at all. For those who don't know it:

Death is nothing at all. It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as it was.
I am I, and you are you, and the old life

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The sober responsibility of pastoral ministry

Submitted by James on Wed, 13/08/2008 - 13:45

Leithart again:

Historically, a pastoral candidate’s desires often had little to do with the Church’s call to serve in pastoral office. Far from seeking out positions of leadership, the greatest of the church fathers resisted with all their strength.

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Personality Types

Submitted by James on Thu, 24/04/2008 - 08:19

Neil’s 8 biblical personality types offers a very helpful analysis of the kinds of people we find in the church and in the world at large. I, for one, find his Venn diagram most helpful to see the map at a glance.

He concludes with one of the right questions: “As a minister, the question is, how should God’s word be ministered and applied to each personality type?”

See also my earlier post on William Perkins’ categories of hearer

Others interact with Reformed is Not Enough

Submitted by James on Mon, 21/04/2008 - 08:17

Having finished reading Reformed is not Enough, I’ve done some reading of those who interact with the material.

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Reformed is not Enough - part V: Apostasy etc

Submitted by James on Thu, 17/04/2008 - 08:16

What’s going on in the passages (like those in Hebrews) that speak of Christians falling away? An extended quotation because it is so helpful:

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