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Ordinary Life of Obedience is Never Ordinary

KATY BRINK | GUEST Three official languages in a country the size of Maryland. Two official languages in the capital city which boasts well over half its residents being of foreign origin. Where in the world are we? Brussels, Belgium. Being one of the most international cities in the world, the “culture” of Brussels could be described as a wacky, delightful hodge-podge of countries with definite Belgian flavors mixed in. Multiple languages swirl through the air as I walk the streets, running my errands, feeling in good company as a foreigner here. You don’t have to spend much time here to realize that the nations have come to Brussels. The Bible often speaks of the gospel going forth to the nations and emphasizes the reality that God’s Church includes people from every tribe, tongue, and people group. Living in an international city and participating in the life of the local church here has given me a small window into what that mixture could look like, offering a vivid foretaste of the glorious heavenly hodge-podge to come. God Builds His Church We moved here several years ago with the long-term goal of church-planting, though without knowing exactly when and how that desire would come to fruition. We spent years engaged in valuable learning, waiting, and networking, knowing that if the Lord wanted us involved in planting a church, he would orchestrate the details. Fast forward to 2022. We had made a connection with a likeminded Belgian pastor who was interested in the idea of church-planting, and the details started to fall into place for him to join our planting team. We began to make plans and had a particular timeline in mind, but God in his mysterious yet always perfect timing, seemed to take our timeline and speed it up. I’ve laughed and told people that the launch of this church plant felt like God said, “wait, wait, keep waiting” for several years and then suddenly said, “go NOW.”...

Ordinary Life of Obedience is Never Ordinary2023-10-03T15:03:56+00:00

Three Ways to Encourage Your Pastor

KATIE POLSKI | CONTRIBUTOR When I was a kid, I told friends that I was a “PK.” An inquisitive friend asked one day, “What does ‘PK’ actually mean?” Another friend answered for me: “It means she’s a potential kid.” No, I was not a budding human. I was a pastor’s kid. And I loved it. I treasure my experience as a pastor’s daughter, and I wouldn’t change it for anything. But while much of my experience with my father leading the church was positive, I do remember days when dad was very worn. I recognize that same worn look on my husband, who also serves as a senior pastor, but what I understand now that I didn’t as a child is that the worn look is not mere physical exhaustion. The familiar weariness comes from a weight filled with other’s burdens and expectations. It’s a weight that almost every pastor carries, and the longer he is in pastoral ministry, the heavier it can become. But I also see the joy that exudes from my husband as he does the work the Lord has called him to. He has the same passion as my father for preaching and shepherding his flock. I asked my husband recently what gives him joy in this calling as pastor. “The people!” he said with a smile. And I think my father, who passed away years ago, would have said the same. With lingering stories passed on through the generations from a grandfather and father in the pastorate, and now experiencing ministry alongside my husband who is the founding pastor of our church, there are some common threads I notice as to what fills the hearts of these dear servants and what lightens the burden they carry. If you are looking for ways to encourage your pastor during pastor appreciation month, here are three practical ideas to consider. Shepherd the People in the Church There is little else that encourages pastors more than knowing that the congregation cares for one another. And Scripture is clear in exhorting us to do just that! We’re called to love one another (a command that occurs more than 16 times in the Bible), to be devoted to one another, to live in harmony, and to honor others above ourselves (Romans 12). When we take these exhortations seriously, a pastor is encouraged because he sees the congregants functioning in the way that God intended. He and the other leaders are called to shepherd the flock, so they must be responsible for knowing their sheep and caring for them in seasons of need. But it lightens the load of the leaders when others in the congregation come alongside and join in on that care. When the church is acting out its calling as the family of Christ, providing for each other, praying for one another other, and being physically present in one another’s lives, you will encourage your pastor...

Three Ways to Encourage Your Pastor2023-10-03T15:04:50+00:00

Churches Need a Biblical Theology of Suffering

PAMELA MCGINTY | GUEST “When it is the heart that has been wounded, it doesn’t heal.” These words broke my heart when I first heard them, from a woman who had experienced great trauma throughout her young life. Women across Africa often express similar beliefs.  The word, ‘trauma’ comes from the Greek, τραύμα, meaning ‘wound.’ Emotional trauma is a wound of the mind and heart that affects our brains, bodies, beliefs, and behaviours. Yet, the effects of trauma CAN change, hearts CAN heal, and our faith and trust in God can be renewed and grow. Africans Know Trauma Africa includes many of the most traumatized countries in the world. Physical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual abuse, violent crime and political unrest are often the norm. Yet, emotional health is often ignored or poorly addressed, and holistic soul care within the church is rarely found. Many Africans know trauma all too well, yet often have little understanding of its effects on them or where to turn for help. Where should our emotional support come from? Africans are spiritual. Most all believe that a Creator designed us as embodied souls, but many pray to a god whose favour they believe they can earn. Africans are relational, but across South Africa much traditional community and extended family support has been lost due to displacement and economic pressures. More than two-thirds of homes are fatherless and healthy; intact nuclear families are rare. In some African cities there is a growing desire for professional counselling, yet this can be confusing or harmful when it contradicts traditional or Christian beliefs and ethics. All Western thought may be held suspect, even the common grace wisdom that God has revealed through sciences. Few Christian mental health professionals are equipped to understand their secular education through the foundation of their faith, or to discern where conflicts exist between them. A Missional Opportunity All this leaves many Christians feeling desperately alone when seeking relief from emotional pain. Yet, this provides an amazing opportunity for the Church. Diane Langberg believes “…trauma is perhaps the greatest mission field of the twenty-first century.”[1] All souls who do not know the Lord are our mission field, but by addressing the trauma that hearts have experienced and providing biblically sound counsel with an understanding of the physiology involved, we can point people to Christ and the healing of souls which only He can provide...

Churches Need a Biblical Theology of Suffering2023-10-09T21:54:50+00:00

Pastor Appreciation Month: Show and Tell

TARA GIBBS | CONTRIBUTOR Sometimes church members seek to show their care for their pastor with “helpful” tips and advice like, “Let me tell you how to fix your sermon. You preached too long/too short/too much grace/too much law/ with boring illustrations, etc. etc.” Or, “Let me help you know why I am upset because you didn’t call me enough… fix my marriage… heal my broken family…” And that “helpful” feedback isn’t restricted to the pastor himself. It extends into pastoral families as well with comments like, “Your children are too fidgety in worship. Here’s how to fix that.” Or even insights we share with one another and not to our pastoral family’s faces like, “Did you see his wife’s sweater has a stain on it?” Or “Did you see the length of his daughter’s skirt?” Or “Is that too nice of a car for a pastor’s family?” As a longtime pastor’s wife, I have a bookshelf filled with titles ranging from Windows in a Glass House to Help! I’m Married to My Pastor! to She Can’t Even Play the Piano, and perhaps most eye-catching of them all: I Quit! All four of our children offered concerned queries when they saw me reading that last title! What does it mean to care for those who live in glass houses, don’t always preach perfect sermons, and perhaps have fidgety kids, but who are nonetheless called to shepherd the flock? We know our pastoral families are frail humans in need of grace and support just like we are. But in daily practice, it can be easy to start applying a different scale to ministry families. Perhaps Pastor Appreciation Month is a good time to prayerfully consider how to apply Paul’s words in Hebrews 13:17, “Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning...”...

Pastor Appreciation Month: Show and Tell2023-09-21T19:32:08+00:00

Working Together Across Gender in the Church

HOLLY MACKLE|CONTRIBUTOR When my pastor, Bob Flayhart, asked me to help adapt his life sermon into a book, my immediate wash of excitement quickly turned to a flood of fear. In my experience, it’s hard not to dignify any relational conflicts that arise in inter-gender work with a weight they should never carry. This feels especially constraining in the body of Christ, where an often unspoken sense of higher stakes in working together betrays an underlying level of disunity in the church. As such, I imagined all the ways working alongside Bob could go terribly wrong—all the scenarios in which I could disappoint, frustrate, or annoy him. I spoke my hesitation to a friend who wisely didn’t quash it, but rather turned the tables to the what if. “What if one or all of those things do happen?” she pressed. “I don’t knoooow,” I whined. “What would I do?” Instead of looking at me like I had three eyeballs, in a level, somehow non-judgmental tone she replied with the answer whose obviousness still stuns me to this day: “You waltz.” Oh right. Got it. It seemed my wash of fear would be a good place to employ the very framework Bob asked me to help adapt from sermon into book form, which he termed the Gospel Waltz. It also happens to be the precise skill to which I am witness number one as to its transformative power. Yet how quickly I forget. I am a writer who works largely in collaborative contexts, sometimes alongside the men of our church, which means this is hardly the first time this fear has flared. And I know I’m not alone, as so many women in the church labor alongside men in ministry and service contexts. The questions of what to do if I disappoint him or annoy him aren’t unique to me, and the truth is they barely scratch the surface of the deep-seated fear. It strikes me that the real question as we seek to work together across gender is: how do we do this well? How do we honor the Lord in our projects, planning, and partnership both within the church and out into the larger world?...

Working Together Across Gender in the Church2023-11-15T22:00:50+00:00
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