Ministry

Episode 21: The Extraordinary Impact of Ordinary Ministry with Chris Hefner

On this episode of the Podcast, Dr. Chris Hefner and I discuss the importance of everyday ministry. We talk about Francis Schaeffer, Moses’s staff, and floating axe heads. Along the way Chris helps us to see how the Elisha’s ministry was important and valuable even though it is often overshadowed by Elijah. If you have ever felt like your ministry at work, at home, or among your peers didn’t matter, this is the podcast for you!

Here’s a link to the book discussed on today’s episode, No Little People

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Steps to Broaden Your Ministry Platform

 Many of you who are reading this just came back from the Southern Baptist Convention where you rubbed shoulders with the pastors you want to be just like. If we are honest (and not careful), we will also admit that we rubbed shoulders with some pastors we are jealous of. It can be easy to …

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Making Time For Ministry

In January I’m beginning a sermon series on the book of Mark, so I have been spending a ton of time reading through the second gospel in recent weeks. One word out of Mark’s gospel continues to jump off the page: immediately. In the ESV the word immediately occurs 36 times in 35 verses. I read …

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Blue-Collar Ministry

I grew up in a blue-collar family. My dad was a mechanic for twenty years and my mom managed the high school cafeteria. My first jobs involved manual labor. I learned to work on cars, mow lawns, paint houses, and repair decks. I went off to college and got a white-collar education and then to seminary …

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What Were You Saved For?

Some of you grammar nazis will point out that the title of this should be, For What Were You Saved? But, proper grammar in this context takes away the impact. I want you to consider what were you saved for? We think often about all that we’ve been saved from. There is no shortage of videos of cardboard …

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A Gritty Faith

Have you ever known some people who have great ideas and passions for doing great things for God, but never seem to quite accomplish their goals? Maybe they have surrendered to the ministry at youth camp every year for the past three or perhaps they continue to talk about how they are going to go …

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Pride, The Danger of Success, and Uzziah’s Destruction

This morning, my Bible reading guide brought me to 2 Chronicles 26 and the story of Uzziah. Uzziah’s was a great king in Judah. He began to reign as king at only 16 years old and he reigned for 52 years. According the the the Bible, Uzziah’s did “what was right in the eyes of …

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What’s Your Motive In Ministry?

“My colleague, Stanley Hauerwas, was recently asked about the moral confusion of contemporary clergy. Hauerwas said something to the effect that, ‘You have these people who get out of seminary thinking that their job is to ‘help people.’ That’s where the adultery begins.’ What? ‘So you have these clergy,’ he continued, ‘ who have no …

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God Keep Us Humble

“Ministry itself can create a mask of performance, the projection of success.  Everyone wants to be a winner.  In contrast, Jesus never used his power to show off.  He used his power for love.  So he wasn’t immediately noticeable.  Humility makes you disappear, which is why we avoid it.” -Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life …

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