30 Reasons Why Pastors Fail to Seek Counsel for Issues in their Life:
Notes from Kenneth Maresco, “Accountable Pastors/Accountable Churches,” 2005 Sovereign Grace Pastor’s Conference
I don't need help on this one; I know what to do.
Do I really need help? After all I am a pastor.
I'll confess it when I've repented completely.
I've got the Bible, I've got the Holy Spirit, I ought to be able to handle this myself.
It was not a "big" sin, so it's not that big a deal.
It's not a besetting sin, just occasional.
They're just going to tell me what I already know.
I can change on my own. I don't really need the help of others.
This is something I'm working on.
I'm making progress so I don't need to share this.
I can just apply the counsel I've already received.
It's not a ...
Keep Reading
By Pastor Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 Network
Ted Haggard was the founder of a megachurch in Colorado Springs and president of the politically powerful National Association of Evangelicals who was forced to resign nearly four years ago, after admitting that he had bought methamphetamine from, and had a sexual encounter with, a male prostitute.
Ted Haggard speaking to his new congregation meeting in his barn.
In a letter to the congregation, Haggard confessed to sexual immorality and described himself as "a deceiver and a liar." Describing a lifelong battle against temptations that were contrary to his teachings, Haggard wrote in his letter he had sought assistance "in a variety of ways," and while he had stretches of "freedom," nothing proved effective. "There is a part of my ...
Keep Reading
Troubled Souls and Pastors
By Scott Thomas, President, Acts 29 Network
Pastors are often overwhelmed with ministry. I am concerned for their souls. I spoke last week to the widow of a pastor who committed suicide recently. It was sobering. She said that he didn’t just come home one day and explode. Instead, she said, "his soul faded out slowly-just like the song by Casting Crowns:"
It's a slow fade when you give yourself away It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid When you give yourself away People never crumble in a day
Indicators of a Troubled Soul
Minimal longing for Jesus
Minimal joy and gladness
Minimal dependence on God
Maximal thoughts of self
Maximal burdens of ministry
Maximal outbursts of anger ...
Keep Reading
TAP
My friend Yancey has written an accesible book for men of John Owen's treatise of sin. Men either want to deal with sin by tapping into white-knuckle disciplines (because it's manly) or by excusing sin altogether because all men deal with certain sins. Neither attempt to defeat our formidable sins has any success. Yancey (and Owen) will help guide men to stop trying to defeat our sins on our own and start tapping into the gospel's power over sin.
Order multiple copies and give them away.
- Scott Thomas, President, Acts 29 Network
About the AuthorYancey is the Teaching Pastor at Clear Creek Community Church in League City, Texas, a suburb of Houston, where he has served since 1998. He is a husband to Jennefer and father to three sons; Thatcher, Haddon and Beckett. A native Texan, ...
Keep Reading
Here Matt Chandler sits down to talk about his cancer and leading his church in and through suffering. In this video:
Pastors - have a biblical theology of suffering before it happens to you and your people
If you haven’t studied it and taught it to others, you have no rock underneath you and no hope to offer in the waves of pain and emotion that will ensue
We live in a broken, fallen world so suffering will not be escapable
Remember suffering is not the only means to sanctification (asceticism)
Matt’s personal reflection on living with cancer
Video Quote:
“Lauren asked the doctor, ‘what’s best-case scenario and what’s worst-case scenario?’ He said: ‘Best-case scenario is that God heals you… worst-case ...
Keep Reading
