The Power of an Average Mentor
October 2, 2018It was an inauspicious meeting, really. It took place in the corner booth at a Burger King. He, in his early 70s, a veteran pastor and church leader. Me, a young Bible college graduate and soon-to-be pastor. I was serving as a volunteer youth pastor at a struggling church in the Chicago suburbs and he was the interim, brought in to stabilize the congregation during a period of turmoil and decline. I wasn’t really sure why I called Bill and asked for a meeting. I told my wife it was simply to “get on the same page” with the senior…
Continue ReadingAbortion Meets a New Generation
September 25, 2018As evangelicals who came of age during the culture wars, we’re part of a generation ready to move past the pitched left-right debates. The critiques of Christian political activism have held some merit: A hyper-focus on elections, voter guides, and strategy has often buried the gospel story. Sometimes following Christ has strangely looked like following an elephant or a donkey. We need the hope, optimism, and willingness of a new generation of evangelicals to get dirty serving the poor, fighting for justice, and eschewing party labels. Their wide-eyed engagement has awakened new interest in bipartisan horrors such as human trafficking,…
Continue ReadingThe Church That Saved Me
September 19, 2018When a church looks for a pastor, in most cases, it is looking for a leader who can revive its witness and vitality in the community. So I supposed Gages Lake Bible Church, a small, struggling church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, was looking for a human savior. And while we had some successes in the five years I pastored there—increased attendance, major structural changes, renewed vision, and leadership health—it wasn’t me who saved the church. It was the church that saved me. Of course I should begin with the usual Christian caveats. Yes, I realize churches don’t save…
Continue ReadingHow Did Jesus View the Bible?
September 4, 2018When I pastored my small, theologically conservative church, I could safely assume the people sitting in the pews on Sunday morning to hear me preach believed that the Bible they held in their hands was God’s Word. But what exactly does that mean? Enter Pastor Kevin DeYoung. His book, Taking God at His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me (Crossway, 2014) doesn’t break any new ground in the debates over inerrancy. Coming in at just under 140 pages, this is a quick and easy read. But that’s just the point.…
Continue ReadingBehold Your Mother
August 7, 2018“Yeah, well, we’re leaving tomorrow for vacation.” This was the stunning response I received from the adult daughter of an ill and elderly church member when I called to let them know her father was in the hospital, hanging on to life. I wish I could say this was a rare exception, but I’d be lying. When I pastored a mostly elderly congregation, I was shocked at the cavalier attitude of their Christian children. These were otherwise professing, faithful, generous believers who, nonetheless, seemed dismissive about their parents. I’m not referring to the very difficult decision many face of whether…
Continue ReadingThe Worst Ministry Advice I Ever Received
July 31, 2018“Son,” the pastor whispered to me as he put his hand on my shoulder, “You need to listen up to what I’m about to tell you, because it will be the key to your ministry success.” I leaned in, eager to hear this crucial insight. “Don’t become friends with anyone in your congregation.” This pastor was only a few years older than me, but he’d grown up in a pastor’s home. He was scarred from the abuse he’d seen his father suffer and from his own experiences in ministry. To be fair, his advice did contain some bits of wisdom.…
Continue ReadingA Ministry of the Mundane
July 24, 2018I’ll never forget the quiet of the church building on my first day as pastor. I had previously served on a large church staff with many action-packed weekly ministries. The building was a beehive of activity. But in my new role as pastor of a small church, it was a different experience, one my Bible-college training and Christian upbringing didn’t quite prepare me for. I suspect most of my ministry colleagues have made similar adjustments. I once heard Chuck Swindoll say to a gathering of ministers, “In ministry life, there are more moments of the mundane than the magnificent.” This…
Continue ReadingThe Essential Art of Forgiveness in Ministry
July 17, 2018I’ll never forget where I was when I nearly quit the ministry: sitting in my office at church, weeping. My wife was out of town with our children, ministering to a friend whose husband had just died from cancer. It was very early in my first pastorate. Being a senior pastor was new, different, and somewhat frightening. I was experiencing the betrayal of a church leader close to me, someone who had discipled me, mentored me, and ordained me for ministry. What began, I thought, as constructive criticism, soon turned into private and public slander. This new opposition wasn’t the…
Continue ReadingWe Should Expect Non-Christians to Share Our Morals
July 10, 2018A common reaction among evangelicals to the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage has been deflection from controversy. This laissez-faire approach has been most commonly expressed by closely connected beliefs about Christianity and morality: We should not expect non-Christians to think and live like Christians. So why all the fuss among Christians over the legalization of same-sex marriage? Since when do we depend on the government to enforce Christian morals? Many who express these sentiments do so with well-meaning attempts to (rightly) keep evangelicals from panicking over misplaced trust in temporal earthly powers. Additionally, they want to remind themselves and…
Continue Reading7 Times Your ‘Righteous’ Anger Probably Isn’t
July 3, 2018When pastors get angry, things can get complicated. On the one hand, we know that anger is not always an indication of sin. After all, we say to ourselves, Jesus got angry. Paul also counseled the Ephesians on anger, saying, “In your anger do not sin” (Eph. 4:26): implying that anger is inevitable in human relationships, and that there is a way to be angry and not sin. James further cautions his readers to be “slow to become angry,” encouraging a slow emotional response, but not forbidding one outright (James 1:19). All of this seems to suggest that it’s okay…
Continue ReadingThe Way Home: Jason Romano on forgiveness and redemption
June 28, 2018He worked a dream job for Mike and Mike at ESPN for 18 years. But God stirred in his heart a new passion to share his own story, of forgiveness, of living with an alcoholic father, and of redemption. Show Notes Website: jasonromano.com and sportsspectrum.com Twitter: @JasonRomano and @Sports_Spectrum Book: Live to Forgive: Moving Forward When Those We Love Hurt Us
Continue ReadingSBC Resolution on Human Dignity
June 15, 2018I was grateful to see the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention pass a strong resolution on human dignity. More than ever, Christians need to reclaim this biblical view and apply it to the way we see ourselves and our neighbors. I’ve included it below: WHEREAS, In the beginning, the Triune God chose to create humanity in His image and according to His likeness, such that “God created man in His own image; He created Him in the image of God; He created them male and female” (Genesis 1:26–27); and WHEREAS, God judged His creation of humanity to be very…
Continue Reading“So . . . who exactly is Tim Keller?” I can still remember when this question came from a longtime, faithful member of my church. At the time, I couldn’t believe he didn’t recognize the well-known, respected pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Had he not read The Reason for God? The Meaning of Marriage? Counterfeit Gods? Apparently not. But really, why would he? Unlike me—who had spent a majority of his adult life in Christian ministry, swimming in theology—this faithful brother worked long hours and spent very little time online. He wasn’t on Twitter. He didn’t get the latest…
Continue ReadingHere is the Church, but Where is the Steeple?
June 5, 2018Several years ago, a church I pastored went through a massive remodeling effort, updating a tired, ‘90s-era look with more modern, chic, 21st-century décor. Peeling wallpaper was replaced with fresh paint. Hideous brown siding was covered over with a beautiful new stone treatment. A landscaper transformed some tired and unkempt bushes into a beautiful garden walkway. Our building, which many mistook for an abandoned union hall or a Masonic lodge, now looked, to passersby, like a place that might have signs of life. Interestingly, though, we capped off our remodeling effort by adding a steeple. Yes, you heard that right—as…
Continue ReadingFuneral for a Stranger
May 22, 2018I sat in my office late on a Thursday afternoon after a week of meetings, study, and a thousand other crises big and small. By that point in the week I was thinking about what I would do on Friday: lock myself in my office, take no phone calls, and crank out the final draft of my Sunday sermon. Alas, the phone rang, and I took the call. “This is the Warren Funeral Home. We have a family requesting an evangelical funeral, and we were told you could do this.” Word had gotten out, apparently. I told the caller that, yes,…
Continue ReadingWho Exactly Am I Preaching To?
May 15, 2018“Um, so, did someone tell you about Dave’s job?” an anxious member told me, as she shook my hand on the way out of the auditorium one Sunday morning. “Because it seemed like you were talking to us.” I told her this was the first I had heard of their fragile employment situation. The sermon was on fear, and we were in uncertain economic times. I had offered, in passing, an example of someone who might be nervous about his or her job. But I wasn’t specifically targeting this family. It’s difficult to know how to take this kind of…
Continue ReadingBoring Church Services Changed My Life
May 8, 2018I’ve never really had a moment in my life—39 years—when I wasn’t going to church. My parents got engaged and married in the church. I was born into, raised in, and baptized in church. My parents, first-generation Christians, were devout church-goers. We went every time the doors were open—and many times when they weren’t. My father, a plumber, volunteered thousands of man-hours helping build church buildings. My mother volunteered, worked as a secretary, and later served as a preschool teacher. Since the age of five, I sat in church services: Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings, and Wednesday night prayer meetings. I…
Continue ReadingThe Dad I Want To Be
April 23, 2018I wrote a piece on the vulnerability of fathering for In Touch: It’s 7:30 at night, and I’m staring at my iPhone for no apparent reason. There is no crisis in the world that requires me. No organizational issue that demands a response, and no critical communication I must conduct on behalf of my family or friends. I’m just scrolling through Twitter, aimlessly. This is probably a justifiable use of time during leisure activity or when waiting in the doctor’s office, but not at 7:30 on a weekday when the kids need my attention. And yet here I am, escaping…
Continue ReadingThe Church’s Next 10,000 Years
April 10, 2018It was a slick PowerPoint—presented by a (self-described) cutting-edge ministry practitioner—that sent me over the edge. Carefully presenting cherry-picked research, this ministry leader offered a doomsday scenario for the American church: heresy is rising. Millennials are fleeing. Culture is changing. Of course, this inevitable slouch toward Gomorrah could be prevented, we were told, if we purchased this organization’s brand-new curriculum. If I sound cynical about the demise of the church, it’s because I am. I read Jesus’ words to Peter in Matthew 16:18 and I believe them: “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome…
Continue ReadingEvery week I met with a drug dealer, a shady business-man, and a serial gambler. Only you wouldn’t know it, because sitting in the pew next to me, they looked just like church people. Middle class. Put together. Churchy. But here they were, trophies of grace, evidence of some strange and mysterious redemption. Glimpses of some other world where sinners become saints, not at all of their own making. Chances are, this is your reality, too, if you attend church regularly. It may seem everyone is gathering from the corners of your community on Sunday, dressed up and spiritual. But…
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