pastoring

A renewed focus on what matters most

It started, really, with some of the work I did on my thesis. It began to crystalize with a sermon I heard late last year preached by a pastor in Charlotte who had

Fad-driven ministry

I’ve been pastoring long enough to have remembered many of the fads that hit the church. I have the evidence: I have books that belong to the time that certain fads were

A farewell sermon

My uncle, Dr. John Crocker, has served as pastor of First Evangelical Free Church in Rockford, Illinois  for the past 15 years. He preached his last sermon there last Sunday. “I decided that

What is lost when pastors deliver shortcuts

David Hansen’s book The Art of Pastoring has a chapter on temptations, based on the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. There’s some really good stuff in there. On ambition: “There