With a few Sundays in the pew recently, I’ve been greatly enjoying and profiting from my pastor, Foppe Vandwezwaag’s preaching. Here is last night’s, Walk Worthy, on Ephesians 4:17-32.
With a few Sundays in the pew recently, I’ve been greatly enjoying and profiting from my pastor, Foppe Vandwezwaag’s preaching. Here is last night’s, Walk Worthy, on Ephesians 4:17-32.
I’ve always been intrigued by mind-mapping. I’ve used mind-maps to learn and to teach. However, I had never been completely satisfied with any of the various software versions I tried. They were usually too complicated, too time-consuming, and too buggy. But, I think I’ve found Mind-map paradise with Popplet. I love the simple, clean design, and especially the ability to share. Here’s a Popplet I put together for the content of God’s Technology.
First thing you should do is click on the bottom right hand corner to make the map full screen (you’ll need Flash). You can zoom in and out using the control at the top of the map. Drag the image around by clicking and dragging. Click on the videos to play them.
Is Busyness Spirituality?
Dave Craft challenges leaders who do too much and work too long.
(HT Tim Challies)
Ministerial Burnout
Two burnt-out pastors have approached me just in the past week. Michael Horton provokes some thought on this subject here and here.
Pastoral Succession
Colin Hansen recommends very conscious and deliberate steps to ensure successful transition from one pastor to another. I know where Colin is coming from and sympathize with the motives and aims, of course…but I’m not convinced.
Facebook Ministry
Tim Challies on how to (and how not to) use Facebook for ministry.
Timing Pastoral Visits
Brian Croft on when to vist and how long to stay.
Carl Trueman posted a great article last week on the importance of pastors knowing the names of everyone in their congregation. In many ways it seems amazing that such an article needed to be written. But it did. And the problem of pastors not knowing the names of their sheep is not just confined to large congregations. Even pastors with small congregations can struggle to put names to faces. Sometimes it’s a lack of interest and concern. Most times it’s the lack of any practical strategy to learn and remember names.
Philip Guo at Lifehacker comes to our rescue with eight tips on how to remember people’s names. Even if you only read and do the first tip, you will multiply your name-remembering (and pastoring) ability tenfold.
Need further motivation? Here’s Guo again:Accurately remembering names is one of the simplest yet most important components of interacting with people, no matter in what capacity. A person’s own name is the single most important word to him/her; it is intimately tied to his/her identity as an individual. How you deal with people’s names can have a profound effect on their impressions of you: Think about the times you’ve felt special when someone you admired addressed you by your name in a sincere tone; or think about the times when you’ve felt belittled when someone negligently called you by the wrong name, or worse, maliciously made fun of your name in front of you.
Read the rest here.
I was privileged to be invited on to Christ the Center to talk about God’s Technology, the film just released by Head Heart Hand Media.
Click here to download and play or sign up for CTC podcasts on iTunes. I suppose I should listen to it myself first.Here’s another great post by Brian Croft on how to time pastoral visits.
The only thing I would emphasize is that although most illnesses are not as life-threatening today as they once were, I recommend that you always speak to a member of the family directly to find out how sick someone is. If you just rely on an elder’s or deacon’s report, the urgency of the situation may not be communicated, and then you get a call a day or two later telling you that the person has died. Not a happy phone call to take. And not a happy visit to make next. As Croft sums it up: ” In summary, always error on the shorter time…both in how long you stay and how long you wait to go.”