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The apostle Paul’s solemn charge to Timothy was to “preach the Word.”
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. (2 Timothy 4:2)
Biblical preaching and teaching is the expounding of the Word of God to a world that needs to hear it. Of course, the gospel is our central message in preaching. But pastors are also to declare “all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) as the expound Scripture to their church family.
I have been preaching now for just over forty years. This is God’s calling on my life and is one of the great privileges of my ministry as a pastor as well as in training preachers at West Coast Baptist College.
In this episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, my son Larry and I discuss what biblical preaching is, how to rightly divide the Word of truth, and strategies for the practical implementation of study and delivery of messages. Whether you are a senior pastor, a Sunday school teacher, or a father sharing God’s Word with your children, I believe our discussion will provide scriptural context and relevant ideas for expounding the Word of God. -
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A few days ago, our church hosted our annual World Impact Missions Conference. One of our guests here for the conference was Dr. Kevin Folger, who is the North American Director for Spiritual Leadership Asia.
The Spiritual Leadership Asia initiative has grown as God has continued to open amazing doors of opportunity for ministry in some of the most spiritually-needy places of the world. In this short bonus episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, Dr. Folger and I discuss the three aspect of Spiritual Leadership Asia and share how you can pray for billions of souls in the 10/40 window who need the gospel.
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Pastors are surrounded by stress-inducing circumstances. Whether it be the uncivil culture in which we minister, family burdens, financial pressure, dealing with problems in the church, or any number of other factors, stress is a daily reality for pastors.
But if stress is a daily realty for pastors, the availability of God’s grace is too. Jesus told us, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
In this new episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, I share eight practical ways to appropriate God’s grace in dealing with pastoral stress. Whether you are a pastor or serve in ministry in any capacity, I pray this episode will be a help and an encouragement to you. -
In the process of leading a church family and building a congregation, there are times when you need a restart. Sometimes this needed reset is because the church has gone through a specific trial or need. Other times, it’s simply the process of a spiritual leader stepping back, renewing his own heart and focus, and then helping the church family reengage in the work of the Lord. In this episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, I share seven steps that have been helpful to me in this process.
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Every church has core values, but not every church has written them down. And actually, it wasn’t until several years ago that I and some of the other leaders in our church worked on writing our core values. Both the process and the product proved to be a helpful exercise and tool. Today, we have our core values visibly displayed and give them to each new member. They are a key way that we communicate the philosophy of ministry and goal for the body life of our church family.
Whether you are a church planter or have been pastoring for many decades, clarifying the core values of a church is beneficial at any stage. As ministries mature, sometimes clutter in purpose and goals builds. Creating a written list of core values can be an aligning tool that helps bring a renewed focus on the church’s doctrine and philosophy of ministry.
In this episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, my son Larry and I discuss the process that went into developing and sharing the core values of Lancaster Baptist Church as well as walking through the core values we presented to our church family. -
At a recent California for Christ meeting, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Alan Fong, Robbie Yapp, and James Kim to discuss the need for and challenges of church planting.
It was our joy nearly twenty-five years ago to help Pastor Fong in planting Heritage Baptist Church in San Leandro, CA. It was a blessing to me then in this discussion to join with Pastor Fong to encourage a new generation of church planters on their journey. Robbie Yapp and James Kim are preparing to plant new churches in Los Angeles and Orange Counties here in Southern California next year.
In this episode of the podcast, the four of us discuss several topics that relate to sending out church planters and being a church planter including the biblical model of church planting shown in Acts 13, the kinds of churches that get involved in planting other churches, the church planter’s heart for God, the spiritual pressure on a pastor, the need to refresh your spirit in the Lord, developing a calendar for your first year, disciplining your time, establishing convictions and training faithful leaders in a new church, and how the gospel penetrates a liberal culture.
If you are involved in any aspect of church planting—whether as a supporting pastor, a sending church, a church planter, or praying about God’s direction to plant a church—I pray this episode will be an encouragement and help to you.
(For more information on the California for Christ initiative mentioned in this episode, visit CA4Christ.org.) -
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Jerry Vines for the Spiritual Leadership Podcast. Some of the audio and technical quality was not up to the quality we desired, and so we delayed in posting it. However, I felt the content of this interview is relevant and important, and so we are posting today in hopes that it will be a help and encouragement to you. We discussed ministry trends and his commitment to Bible truth. I enjoyed our discussion and hope you will enjoy it as well.
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In this episode, I have the opportunity to sit down with Coach Joe Kennedy, who recently won a cast at the United States Supreme Court. He had made a decision to pray on the field after each football game, and that decision cost him his job and ultimately led to his cast coming before the high court. Also joining us is Jeremy Dys, his attorney from First Liberty.
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When the Lord first brought me into the pastorate, I was twenty-four years old and had a great desire to reach people in our community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s hard to believe that a few weeks ago, I celebrated my sixtieth birthday, and in a few more weeks, I’ll begin my thirty-seventh year at Lancaster Baptist Church. Sometimes I wonder where the time went!
I still believe that I have far to go, and with every part of my being, I want to finish well to the glory of God.
But I’ve been reflecting over the journey God has given me and noting some of the key aspects of what a biblical journey of local church spiritual leadership should include. I often tell our staff that if a spiritual vision will survive, it must be accompanied by a strategy of faith. In other words, just hoping for the best, isn’t a great plan. We need biblical markers of where we’re going and what we are striving to accomplish for Christ.
In this month’s Spiritual Leadership Podcast, I share very personally about five biblical and essential principles that I have been learning along the way of local church ministry. Some of these are principles that perhaps as leaders we have a tendency to give lip service to but neglect to implement. Some are ones I didn’t start out with in ministry but have worked to develop. All are principles that I am still growing in and still asking God to increase in my life.
I pray that these truths are a help to you as you seek to provide spiritual leadership. -
Mentoring may be a corporate buzzword, but when you think about it, the whole idea of mentoring is a biblical process. From Jesus mentoring His disciples to Paul mentoring Timothy and Titus, we see these kinds of relationships throughout the Bible, including the New Testament.
One of the most direct instructions about mentoring is a verse we commonly think of in relation to discipleship:
And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. (2 Timothy 2:2)
Paul challenged Timothy to take the things he had learned from Paul and to commit them to faithful men to the point that they could train others also. This is a great pattern for mentoring relationships because it moves past just the word to a functioning definition. Mentoring takes place when we have so trained someone that they are able to train others.
Paul gave another description of the mentoring process in Philippians 4:9:
Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you. (Philippians 4:9)
A wholistic approach to mentoring is a process that involves more than just hearing or instruction. It includes observation, reception, and application.
In this month’s episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, I share some principles God has blessed in my life as I have endeavored to mentor our ministry staff, men in our church, and various leaders in our community. I hope these are a blessing to you.
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That word perilous in 2 Timothy 3:1 speaks of an unraveling. It’s not hard to see the application of this verse to the world we live in today. It seems that culture from top to bottom is unraveling around us. The question is, how should we as spiritual leaders respond in this perilous time?
In this newest episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, my son Larry and I discuss three vital responses:
We need to settle our convictions. We need to know what we believe from Scripture and be unwaveringly faithful to biblical truth. As culture moves further and further from the truth there is a stronger and stronger pull on Christian leaders to accommodate their beliefs to the whims of culture. We must resist this trend.
We need to study our culture. We need to be discerning of current trends. While we must never bend our convictions to culture, we do need to understand the world in which we live in order to reach people for Christ. We need to understand how to teach and apply biblical truth to the people which we are ministering.
We need to seize our calling. We need a renewed commitment to proclaiming the gospel and to serving the local church. We need to lead like Jesus, walking in the Spirit even as we face opposition.
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Prayerfully, and with God’s help, as vaccines get distributed, it looks like we could soon be closing the chapter on COVID-19. I think most of us are looking forward to breathing a collective sigh of relief. This season of ministry has brought numerous challenges, and most church ministry today does not look like it did just 12 months ago.
Most of our churches have seen some combination of spiritual, physical and financial challenges over the past year. So what do we do now? How do we restart with fresh passion and vision? In today’s episode of Spiritual Leadership Conference, my son, Larry and I discuss moving ministry forward. We talk about learning from the challenges and reengaging our staff and our church family in our cause of declaring the gospel to our lost world.
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