Shepherding Like a Prophet, Priest, and King
Welcome to Eric McKiddie's blog about doing the work of a pastor with theological rigor and practical efficiency. Find out more.
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Many pastors have written and spoken concerning the ways expository preaching benefits your congregation, but few talk about how it benefits the soul of you, the preacher. I say this as one who sometimes loses sight of the blessings of expository preaching because of the exhaustion of week-in, week-out teaching ministry. Pastors can succumb to [...]
Prophet Links 8 Reasons We Preach There are so many factors involved. I don’t want to ponder issues of pay (many preachers receive less than minimum wage for what they are doing). I don’t want to dwell on inappropriate motivations, even if they are significant for some. I will just mention some of them in passing. Let’s [...]
A commenter raised a good question in my previous post on doing both edification and evangelism in your small group. It was one of those comments that bloggers really appreciate. He engaged with a point I was actually trying to make, and he presented his counter point with sincerity. As I typed out my answer in [...]
Many churches believe their small groups must choose either an edification focus or an evangelistic focus. This argument goes that for small groups to be a place where mature Christians grow there needs to be deep theological conversation and regular accountability. These both require time and trust, which are hard to come by if new [...]
Prophet Links 12 Types of Sermon Introductions A quick video from David Murray that is sure to help you avoid getting stuck early in your sermon writing. Beware These Preaching Shortcuts From Erik Raymond “We like shortcuts assuming that they get us to where we are trying to go. If they do not then they [...]
Hello, everyone! I’m excited to let you know that I will be making a transition in pastoral roles this April. After almost five years of serving as Jr. High Pastor at College Church, I will be taking on the role of Pastor for Gospel Community at Chapel Hill Bible Church in North Carolina. By God’s [...]
I’ve got a busy weekend, so I’m posting titles sans previews. But trust me, these are links you are going to want to click. Prophet Links Top 200 Preaching Resources Awesome collection from David Murray (longtime readers of this blog will recognize several!). We MUST Be Theologians 7 Ways to Do a Bad Word Study [...]
Many preachers are like a light switch when it comes to passion, it’s either flipped on or off, either talking or yelling. To more effectively use passion in your preaching, think of it as a dimmer switch with various levels of passion and smooth transitions from one to the other. Calvin Miller, in his book Preaching: [...]
Prophet Links Why the Afterlife Bores Us From Russell Moore: “We’re glad we’re not going to hell or to oblivion. But most of our songs and sermon mentions are about that first few moments in heaven: when we see Jesus, when we’re reunited with our loved ones, and so on. It’s like the happy ending [...]
Prophet Links Why Study Church History? Getting Beyond American-Evangelical Amnesia From Don Sweeting: “Our culture disposes us to a short term memory. We’re a relatively young nation. We are present-oriented. And when it comes to the past, we have amnesia. Sadly, American Evangelicalism does not escape these trends. So what’s the benefit of studying history? It’s [...]
Part of what makes suffering in ministry hard is the loneliness you feel in the midst of the difficulty. For this reason, I am comforted by the New Testament passages that show our suffering in ministry is not apart from Christ, but in unity with him. According to the New Testament, Jesus suffers with his [...]
Prophet Links 5 Reasons Why Christians Need to Hear the Gospel From David Murray: “In his opening chapter of Preaching Christ from the Old Testament, Sidney Greidanus lists five reasons for preaching Christ today.” Preaching to the Collective Heart From Tim Keller: “Recently, a couple of books and websites have referenced me as a good example [...]
Since pastors know ministry is full of surprises, there’s no excuse for being caught off guard when a need arises. Just like superheroes wear their costume under their normal clothes, we always need to be ready to serve our people (not that we are superheroes). Some pastors feel interrupted by congregational needs. “I didn’t get [...]
I immediately ordered The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership that Matters by Albert Mohler after reading this review. I was barely able to to put it down. Mohler’s book is full of leadership insights that I have not read anywhere else. Let these snippets inspire you to buy it and read it yourself. 1. [...]
Prophet Links On the Necessity of Theological Courage From Owen Strachan and Andrew Walker: “Theological courage, you might say, is God’s truth addressed not only to the academy, but the public world. This includes the central gathering place of this world, where ideas are debated and strategies for change vie for adoption: the public square. But [...]
Prophet Links Chapter Outlines and Summaries on Greg Beale’s “A New Testament Biblical Theology” 5 Ways of Understanding Biblical Theology 5 Factors in the Rise of Reformed Theology Among African Americans Priest Links Ten Things Church Members Desire in a Pastor How Do We Know if God Is Disciplining Us? 5 Necessary Elements for an Evangelism [...]
I started a series on the book of Esther this past Sunday with my jr. high students. Karen Jobes, in her NIV Application Commentary on Esther, insightfully captures the Christian significance of the fact that God is never mentioned in the book: “The great paradox of Esther is that God is omnipotently present even where God [...]
I recently came across the short ebook Multisite is Multiplying by Warren Bird and Kristin Walters, of Leadership Network. It contains many interesting stats about the current trends (as of 2010) of multisite churches. Topics covered include: How many churches have launched multisite campuses? Does multisite church ministry hurt church planting? What is the success rate of a multisite [...]
Prophet Links 50% off Westminster Book Store’s Best Sellers of 2012 Several great picks here. I’m glad I haven’t picked up Dangerous Calling, A Puritan Theology, or When Helping Hurts yet! (Though, now I have.) How to Preach the Gospel from Every Part of the Bible The author points out five types of “gospel” passages: 1) explicitly gospel-shaped, 2) [...]
I read Tim Keller’s Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City toward the end of 2012, and found it extremely formative in regard to philosophy of ministry. Out of my 132 Kindle highlights, here are my top 12. 1. On the inescapability of contextualization If we never deliberately think through ways to rightly contextualize [...]
How can a pastor come up with captivating illustrations on a weekly basis? What does it take to think up applications that actually lead toward change in your congregation? Where does that creativity come from? These topics are common in my sermon coaching conversations. Interpreting the passage accurately is hard enough. But it is only [...]
Prophet Links The Writing Pastor: An Essay on Spiritual Formation From the latest edition of Themelios: “None of us will likely have the influence of Augustine or Luther or Bonhoeffer. But our writing still matters. It matters because it can help us to make progress in our own hearts and minds. So as an exercise in [...]
This is a guest post by Josh Stringer (@revjoshstringer). Josh is a pastoral resident at College Church, and will be graduating from our program in July 2013. If your church is looking for a pastor I highly recommend you consider Josh. You can contact him via email at jstringerATcollege-churchDOTorg. Is one of your New Years [...]
This is a pure King Links edition of of Shepherd Links. I’ve come across several helpful articles on leadership and productivity – an unsurprisingly popular topic as we change calendars. I hope they help you get your new year off to a solid start. King Links Why Leaders Need Managers From Barnabas Piper: “A false dichotomy [...]
I’ve seen a lot of growth in the blog during 2012, so to all of you who have read, shared, linked to, and emailed my posts this year: thank you! In case you missed them – or would like to reread them – here is a list of the top ten articles at Pastoralized in [...]
