Quotes of Note: God’s Grand Vision for His Church

The following “Quotes of Note” are from the Introduction and Chapter One of Equipping Counselors for Your Church. This section of the book focuses on God’s grand vision for His church.

• If pastors fail to focus on equipping, then we selfishly treat God’s people like children who have never grown up spiritually.

• When pastors focus on equipping, we leave an other-centered legacy of loving leaders.

• My goal is the promotion of a congregation-saturated mindset of every-member ministry with an entire congregation passionate about and equipped to make disciples.

• Pastoral care is not just what the pastor does, but what every member is equipped to offer to one another.

• Biblical counseling is not simply a ministry of a few in one corner of the church, but a mindset of an entire congregation that the Bible is sufficient for every life issue.

• Biblical counseling is focused one-another ministry designed to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

• Gospel-centered biblical counseling involves communicating Gospel truth about grace-focused sanctification in word, thought, and action through one-another relationships that have integrity, genuineness, authenticity, transparency, and reliability, done in love to promote the unity and maturity of the Body of Christ for the ultimate purpose of displaying the glory of Christ’s grace.

• God’s end goal is for every member to be a disciple-maker who speaks and lives Gospel truth in love to help one another to grow in Christ.

• We don’t want to create the ministry mindset where the only way people can relate to one another is by discussing their problems. The goal is to move people forward in Christlikeness whether or not they are facing specific crisis problems.

• If pastoral search committees desired in a pastor what Christ desires, they would throw out every résumé that failed to emphasize experience in and passion for equipping the saints.

• Christ’s grand plan for His Church is for pastors/teachers to focus on equipping every member to do the work of the ministry.

• These eight words must be every church leader’s reason for existence: “To prepare God’s people for works of service.”

• The leader’s calling is to help God’s people to fulfill their calling.

• Christ’s grand plan for His Church is for every member to be a disciple-maker by speaking and living Gospel truth to one another in love.

• Sadly, in far too many churches, the people of God are second-class citizens when it comes to the work of the ministry.

• Pastors and teachers serve the people so God’s people can serve the congregation and community.

• The normal agenda and priority of every Christian is to make disciple-makers.

• Christ’s training strategy for disciple-making involves pastors and teachers equipping every member to embody the truth in love through the personal ministry of the Word—biblical counseling.

Join the Conversation 

Which quote about God’s vision for His church resonates with you the most? Why?

Tags: Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Equipping, Pastoral Ministry, Quotes

Sixteen Pastoral Ministry Blogs That You Should Bookmark

Note: You’re reading Part Two in a three part blog mini-series on recommended blogs. In Part One, I highlighted Sixteen Biblical Counseling Blogs That You Should Bookmark.

As with Part One, I wish I could mention every excellent pastoral ministry blog. The pastoral ministry blogs I regularly read have some combination of: a.) frequency of posts, b.) self-identified as focused on pastoral ministry (pastoring, shepherding, the local church), c.) relatively high traffic/hits, and, frankly, d.) people I know or know of.

Many pastors and para-church groups provide excellent blogs that I regularly read. However, they tend to focus more on “Christian living” than on pastoral ministry/local church per se. I’ll highlight those blogs tomorrow. They will include pastors such as Tullian Tchividjian, Ray Ortlund, Kevin DeYoung, Josh Harris, John Piper, C. J. Mahaney, etc.; and ministry leaders/educators/groups such as Al Mohler, Tim Challies, Trevin Wax, TGC’s Voices, Russell Moore, Justin Taylor, R. C. Sproul, etc.

Drum Roll, Please

Here are the pastoral ministry blogs that I regularly read, listed in alphabetical order. Of course, I don’t agree with everything every one of these bloggers post. Still, these blogs stretch my thinking as iron sharpens iron.

• The 9Marks Blog from the ministry of Pastor Mark Dever and a team of pastoral leaders is a “don’t miss” blog filled with practical biblical wisdom for church life.

• The Acts 29 Blog focuses on church planting by church planters.

• Baptist 21 exists to present a Southern Baptist perspective on church life and Kingdom effectiveness.

• Blogs at the Village by the staff of The Village Church shares their biblical philosophy of ministry.

• The Faith Baptist Church Blog by the staff of Faith Baptist in Lafayette, IN shares insights for church life and Christian living.

• The Gospel-Driven Church Blog by Jared Wilson offers his take on gospel-centered pastoral ministry.

• Greg’s Blog by Pastor Greg Laurie provides insights for pastoral life and ministry.

• Ordinary Pastor by Erik Raymond shares a fresh perspective of daily life of the typical pastor.

• Practical Shepherding is the blog home of Brian Croft. His blog is fast becoming an indispensible source for pastoral wisdom.

• Pure Church, the blog home of Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile, presents gospel-centered wisdom for pastoral life and ministry.

• Reformation 21 is the blog ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals designed to challenge Christians to think and grow biblically.

• Reformed Spirituality and Missional Church is the blog home of church planter and author, Tim Chester.

• The Resurgence Blog is presented by Justin Holcomb and a team of ministry leaders and focuses on Christian leadership.

• Steven Furtick, lead pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC blogs regularly about pastoral life and ministry at Steven Furtick.com.

• The Travel Blog of Sojourner Church in Louisville, KY offers daily insights for church life.

• The Vertical Church Blog by Pastor James MacDonald of Harvest Bible presents insights for Christ-centered pastoral ministry and Christian living.

The Rest of the Story

In Part Three of this mini-series, I’ll share links to blogs I read that focus on Christian living.

Join the Conversation

What excellent blogs do you read that focus on pastoral ministry and church life?

Tags: 9Marks, Church Life, James MacDonald, Pastoral Ministry, Pastors

re-Focus: 2011 Moody Bible Pastors’ Conference 

Tuesday through Thursday, May 24-26, I will be speaking five times at the Moody Bible Pastors’ Conference. This year’s theme is re-Focus. 

I’d appreciate your prayers as I attempt to help pastors to re-Focus on: 

• Ministering to Grieving People: God’s Healing for Life’s Losses

• Equipping Their Church for One-Another Ministry: Leaving a Legacy of Loving Leaders

• Marriage Counseling: Building Oneness in a Christ-Centered Marriage

• Cultivating Christ-like Intercultural Ministries: A Theological Primer or “Why Bother?”

• Counseling Parishioners Struggling with Anxiety: The Anatomy of Anxiety

Later this week, check out the Free Resources section of the RPM website for free downloads of each of the five PowerPoint lessons. Look under Moody Bible Pastors’ Conference Documents (2011).

Join the Conversation

Which of the five topics would you want to re-Focus on?

Tags: Anxiety, Equipping, Marriage, Moody Bible Pastors' Conference, re-Focus, Speaking

Not Your Father’s Seminary: Reinventing Pastoral Training

The Gospel Coalition recently asked four well-known seminary professors and presidents, “What one thing would you change about seminary?” After a vigorous exchange of new ideas by Al Mohler, D. A. Carson, Jeff Louie, and Richard Pratt, the Gospel Coalition then posted a follow-up article by Ric Cannada, Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary.

Most of the ideas shared in these two posts pointed to the future. Few seminaries are currently doing the cutting-edge work envisioned by these five seminary leaders.

Faith Bible Seminary provides an intriguing exception. So I sat down with Rob Green, Pastor of Counseling and Seminary Ministries at Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette, Indiana, to learn more. Listen in on our conversation to travel “back to the future” to learn a new way to train pastors.

RPM Ministries: Rob, I know you read the recent blog posts on the GC site about changing seminary education. What were your thoughts and how does Faith Bible Seminary fit into the discussion?

Rob Green: While each scholar offered his own thoughts, many of the answers spoke of the importance of the local church and the practical ministry experience that many seminarians fail to get during their academic pursuit. You will not recognize us. We’re not a well-established seminary with hundreds of students, nor do we have nationally known professors. But we do have a very different way of offering seminary training.  

RPM Ministries: Tell our readers about the paradigm shift you’ve initiated in seminary education.

Rob Green: Our paradigm shift began in 2007 when our Sr. Pastor, Steve Viars, and our congregation began a revised version of seminary training. Our church wanted to minimize three basic challenges with the current seminary structure.

• The high cost of seminary training resulting in some students graduating with significant debt.

• A lack of practical ministry experience.

• The significant pressures on any wives or children due to the heavy seminary and job workload.

RPM Ministries: Those are significant issues. So what’s your new approach look like in action?

Rob Green: In order to minimize these weaknesses, Faith Bible Seminary created a three-year intern-based M.Div. program. Each student in the program must either be a pastor in full-time vocational ministry or a paid intern in a church. This requirement allows every student to be directly involved in various aspects of pastoral ministry during their entire training. Interns at our church are required to spend about 20 hours per week being part of the ministry (counseling, discipleship, teaching preparation, pastoral staff meeting, deacon meetings, etc.). Our classes meet one day per week with some one-week modules occasionally built into the system to allow students from surrounding communities to participate.

RPM Ministries: And how have you addressed the cost issues?

Rob Green: The cost challenge was minimized by providing the tuition free-of-charge for students involved in an internship at a local church. In our church’s view, since our partnering churches are providing paid internships for three years, it would have been very burdensome to expect them to pay tuition. Our church family covers the overhead costs with contributions and graciously allowing our pastors, who either have terminal degrees or are candidates for terminal degrees, to dedicate their time to training students.

RPM Ministries: How have these changes impacted your course offerings compared to the “traditional” seminary?

Rob Green: This model also allows a very structured curriculum to develop. Instead of students taking classes that most easily fit into their schedules, the entire three-year curriculum, semester-by-semester, is already set by the institution. The advantage to the structured curriculum is that both biblical languages can be taught in the first year allowing for more opportunities to focus on the original languages in both exegesis and biblical theology classes.

RPM Ministries: You’ve been at this a few years now Rob, what are some of the results you’ve experienced?

Rob Green: In 2007, Faith Bible Seminary enrolled 14 men and in 2010, ten of those men graduated. Of the 10 men who received their diplomas this June, 8 are placed in full-time vocational ministry including one serving in as a pastor in England, one in the church planting network with Harvest Bible Chapel, one in pastoral ministry in Brazil, one working for a Christian school, and four others in pastoral ministry in the States. Our 2010 class began this week with 19 students.

RPM Ministries: What final thoughts do you have about seminary education?

Rob Green: FBS does not have a long track record, nor thousands of graduates like the larger schools. Time will tell whether this system is sustainable for the long term. In addition, this model has weaknesses and challenges of its own. Maybe, however, it can be an encouragement to other churches that have been challenged by articles such as the one published by The Gospel Coalition or by their own convictions to help strengthen seminary education. Finally, it may be that in the scope of seminary training there might be several models that can seek to help prepare men to glorify God by serving in the church of Jesus Christ.

Join the Conversation

What is your vision for the seminary preparation of pastors?

Note: For Rob’s first-hand thoughts on this issue, visit his post Attempting a Paradigm Shift in Seminary Education.

Pastor Rob Green

Tags: Al Mohler, D. A. Carson, Faith Bible Seminary, Gospel Coalition, Pastoral Training, Rob Green, Seminary Education