Pastoral Ministry

If, as we believe, God is Triune, what difference does it make in our daily Christian lives? If God is Triune, how does this shape our Christian lives and our church life. First, the value of the Trinity is not primarily the benefits that we receive or how it shapes us. God’s glory and majesty are...
This week on Theology on the Go, our host, Dr. Jonathan Master is joined by Dr. Liam Goligher. Dr. Goligher began serving as Senior Minister of Tenth Presbyterian Church in May of 2011. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. Dr. Goligher...
My wife and I are planning a fairly substantial gardening project in our front yard (she more enthusiastically than I). We’re going to uproot some bushes that no longer seem to fit, and are planning to plant other flowers in their place. It’s all fairly conventional, I suppose, and right now it...
Today theology has fallen on tough times and that includes confessional theology. Listen closely to contemporary conversations, because depending on the participants the discussion will usually include a wink and a nod, as if to say, the narrative, of which these confessional documents are a part,...
Several people have told me they were first truly converted Christians upon becoming Calvinists. Finally, the Bible made sense when the Spirit enlightened them to see, caress, and smell TULIP’s five lovely petals of God’s sovereign embrace from regeneration to glorification. [1] Thus, as the...
Whether formally acknowledged or not, confessional orthodoxy is a matter of importance to every genuine Christian. This is true even for Christians who might tend to be put off or dismissive of the term "confessional" or "confession" on the grounds that it either smacks of a mainline flavor, or,...
A couple of weeks ago a friend asked a question: "How would you encourage a faithful brother who had been pastoring for several years and has not, in that season, seen a conversion directly from his preaching, though the church is growing and health with saints being built up and believers joining...
Just as bottles of distilled water offer drink that is free of poisonous chemicals and clogging minerals, so the Church’s confessions provide boiled-down, condensed, purified orthodoxy for healthy Body life systems. For instance, a seminary student being examined on the floor of Presbytery with...
Throughout my twenty-plus years of following Jesus Christ and serving in His church, I have repeatedly seen pastors disqualify themselves for ministry. The moral failures of such ministers have led to confusion, pain, and even a crisis of faith for many. Of course, there are those who occupy a very...
Any church that includes questions to ministers-elect in their ordination or installation to service will, in some shape or form, ask a question about the candidate’s commitment to the pastoral care of his people. This is very much in keeping with the practice of caring for the needs of God’s...