Some pastors are extraordinary gifts to the church—Al Mohler, Mark Dever, Lig Duncan, R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, John Piper, and Thabiti Anyabwile among them. It is a privilege to listen to and learn from these men. When I think about these men, I often think of the PGA tour motto: “These guys are good.” These guys are smart. These guys are unusually gifted. (Although that certainly isn’t how they see themselves.) Chances are, if you’re a pastor, you think of…
“The average person suffers from three delusions…” That got my attention. “The average person suffers from three delusions,” writes Steven Sample in his book The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, “(1) that he is a good driver, (2) that he has a good sense of humor, and (3) that he is a good listener. Most people, however, including many leaders, are terrible listeners; they actually think talking is more important than listening.”¹ Many centuries ago, James seems to have been keenly…
We tend to overlook the “ordinary” things in life. We don’t watch a keynote speech live online to see the unveiling of a new model of an ordinary mobile phone. We don’t buy expensive stadium tickets to watch ordinary athletes compete. And ordinary YouTube videos never “go viral.” The common, the everyday, the routine, the uneventful, the garden-variety…none of it grabs headlines or our attention. We notice the extra-ordinary, and when it comes we will watch it, buy it, and…
As we lead our churches to grow in the fellowship of the Spirit, we must remember that the Holy Spirit always glorifies the Son. The primary role of the Holy Spirit is to reveal the Savior and to testify to the gospel. Our pneumatology must never take precedence over—and in fact cannot be understood apart from—the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s avoid adopting the Corinthians’ erroneous definition of spirituality. They equated maturity with giftedness, spirituality with the spectacular. They thought…
James is a divinely-inspired, discerning pastor who cares for those to whom he writes. And his little letter—what we now call the book of James—is full of surprising wisdom for the serious trials of life in this fallen world. This past Sunday, we looked at James 1:13–18 and there we discovered the kindness of God in the pastoral care and wisdom of James. It is pastoral care that simply reflects the Good Shepherd himself. James wants his readers—and us—to be careful…