Letters to a Young Pastor (1 Timothy 6) You know what the “prosperity gospel” is, don’t you? You may have heard it in this form: “Whatever you conceive and believe, you can do.” It sounds great, right? Just dream—and if you want it enough, it can be yours. The problem is, it’s not true. In fact, it can be downright sinful. Paul urges Timothy to stay away from those who try to make money from preaching and have strayed from the sound teachings of the gospel. To them, religion is nothing more t...

Letters to a Young Pastor (1 Timothy) As members of a Christian congregation, we are family. In chapter five, Paul reminds Timothy what that means. He urges the young pastor to treat everyone with respect—to treat older men and women as fathers and mothers, and younger men and women as brothers and sisters. Ministry is all about service; God has a ministry for every believer to perform. We need to apply that lesson to ourselves. What can I do to serve others in the Trinity family? Discussion ...

Letters to a Young Pastor (1 Timothy) As members of a Christian congregation, we are family. In chapter five, Paul reminds Timothy what that means. He urges the young pastor to treat everyone with respect—to treat older men and women as fathers and mothers, and younger men and women as brothers and sisters. Ministry is all about service; God has a ministry for every believer to perform. We need to apply that lesson to ourselves. What can I do to serve others in the Trinity family? Discu...

Letters to a Young Pastor To be a leader in the church is a heavy responsibility. You are dealing with more than just money, property, and livelihood; you’re dealing with souls. We must keep that in mind as we seek to call a new pastor and principal to serve our congregation. The church belongs to God. Church leaders should be elected, chosen, or called not because they are popular, but because they are faithful to him. Everything else takes second place. A called worker must be willing to s...

Letters to a Young Pastor How do you organize a church? How do you manage its worship services, Bible classes, and leadership? How do you handle prayers for government officials when church members have differing political views? What about the roles of men and women? These questions may be difficult for us, but at least we have some precedent to go on. Imagine how difficult it must have been for a young pastor when the Christian church was still in its infancy. You want to lay a good foundat...

Letters to a Young Pastor It’s an exciting time. Sometime—hopefully soon—we will be welcoming a new pastor. He’ll be coming in “fresh,” without any prior experience among us. Especially if he’s a young man, he’s going to need help and guidance. What kind of training and experience will our new pastor have? Where will his strengths and weaknesses lie? What kind of challenges can we expect him to face? What can we do to help? The apostle Paul wrote two letters to a young pastor named Timothy. ...

What does God say about suicide? It’s difficult for Christians to talk about. What do you say to someone who has lost a loved one to suicide? It can be hard to find the right words, but that doesn’t mean we have nothing to say. “The elephant is in the room and we can’t pretend it doesn’t exist,” writes Prof. John Schuetze. “But then let’s allow the gospel to shine forth.” What causes a person to take their own life? What comfort does the gospel offer? We will reflect on how to speak with conf...

Conflict in the Church? The church is holy, bought by Christ’s blood and cleansed in the waters of Baptism. Yet the church is also messy, filled with sinners and scarred by sin. We love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind. And yet the sinful flesh remains, and sometimes we experience conflict—even in the church. How should we handle it? This week, we’ll take a close look at the first church- wide meeting called to resolve a conflict, the Jerusalem council (Acts 15).

Questions Skeptics Ask Hurting people need God. Your friend might be open to Christianity but has questions. Or you sit next to someone on an airplane who is questioning the existence of God. You’d like to think you’re ready to give an answer, but that’s easier said than done. It’s hard to know what to say when the question is, “Why would God allow this [fill in the blank] to happen to me?” How do you deal with questions like this? How do you address the underlying concerns? What can you say ...

Does God Promise Never to Give Us More Than We Can Handle? "God will never give you more than you can handle." Have you ever heard anyone say that? It sounds great. But there are times when that saying collides with reality. We can't always handle our own troubles and tragedies. We can't always put an end to them or heal them or undo them. We can't always survive the loss or find the cure or fill the emptiness or dry the tear. God is good...and...he is love. Yet we still suffer heartache and...