From time to time I get the question, “Why do you blog?” This is my attempt at an answer. § The first time I remember seeing the word “weblog” was in 1995 or 1996. At the time it was widely regarded as . . . Continue reading →
Pastoral Ministry
Ministry Is Not Mastery
There are myriad temptations in ministry. One persistent temptation is to stop ministering and start mastering. There are many reasons mastering is tempting. All congregations are non-profit organizations. Most are under-funded and understaffed or staffed with volunteers. Often the pastor is the . . . Continue reading →
The Spiritual Crisis In Forgotten America
The twentieth (and now twenty-first) century had a devastating effect on the regions of Appalachia in the East, the farms of the Midwest, and the fishing and forestry areas along the coastlines. Mechanization and industrialization have motivated a rural exodus, leaving depleted . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Where Are They Now? Zach Keele
At Westminster Seminary California our primary mission is to prepare men for pastoral ministry. This is has been our primary mission since 1980. We have graduated more than eleven hundred About 70% of our graduates go on to pastoral ministry. Indeed, some . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Where Are They Now? With Chuck Tedrick
In 2009 one the first Office Hours episodes featured an interview with some current students, one of whom was Chuck Tedrick. Since that time, Chuck has graduated and has been serving as the minister of Calvary United Reformed Church in Loveland, Colorado . . . Continue reading →
When Elders And Ministers Cross The Line
In my experience, the vast majority of elders and ministers are selfless, gracious, kind, patient, and Christlike men. Most serve sacrificially. Most serve out of love for their Savior and out of love for their brothers and sisters in Christ. Unless one . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Zack Eswine On Pastoral Ministry According To Ecclesiastes
Any honest graduate of law school, med school, or seminary will tell you two things a) that he wishes he had paid attention in school and b) there is a lot about life as a physician, lawyer, or minister that you cannot . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Where Are They Now? Bill Godfrey
The primary mission of Westminster Seminary California is to prepare men for pastoral ministry. This is has been our primary mission since 1980. We have graduated more than eleven hundred students. About 70% of our graduates go on to pastoral ministry. Indeed, . . . Continue reading →
A Pulpit Is Not A Platform
A Pulpit Is Not A Platform Since the early 18th century, American Christianity has been dominated by personalities. George Whitefield, the Wesleys, and Jonathan Edwards feature prominently in any narrative of the history of eighteenth-century American Christianity. When we think of the . . . Continue reading →
Of Empires, 180s, And The Communion Of The Saints
A friend and I were talking recently about a mutual friend, who had been a pastor and a strong advocate for the Reformation doctrines of sola scriptura (according to Scripture alone), sola gratia (by grace alone), and sola fide (through faith alone). Suddenly, however, this . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: God Gives Us Ministers So As Not To Swallow Us By His Majesty
We have seen heretofore, that Eliu intending to rebuke Job, protested that he himself was a mortal man as Job was, to the end he should not complain that he was handled with too high a power. And so he showed that . . . Continue reading →
On Disciplining Abusers And Protecting The Sheep
If skilled professionals (e.g., cops, nurses, and physicians), who deal with such cases routinely, are capable of failing to address the danger in which Nicole Brown Simpson founder herself, how much more difficult might it be for ministers, elders, and deacons to see the symptoms and address the problem? We (ministers, elders, and deacons) need to learn the symptoms and signs of abuse and must become prepared to take concrete steps to help. Continue reading →
Office Hours: Pastoral Ministry And The Grace Of The Doctrines
Westminster Seminary California was founded more than 30 years ago principally to prepare men for pastoral ministry. The seminary educates students from all across the world to fulfill a variety of callings but they are still committed to that original vision because . . . Continue reading →
Strangers And Aliens (22a): Serving The Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:1–5)
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Roman claims about an alleged Petrine papacy, apart from the utter lack of historical evidence for any such thing, is that Peter did use two different nouns to characterize his offices and ministry, apostle (ἀπόστολος) and presbyter (πρεσβύτερος). As a matter of fact, the papacy per se did not really come to exist until well the 4th century and even then its occasional claims to authority were rebuffed. As late as the 7th century Gregory I (c. 540–604), who was arguably the first Roman bishop to begin to exercise anything like the authority attributed to later popes, rejected the idea of a universal episcopal see. Continue reading →
Office Hours: Student To Pastor To Pastor-Teacher
Office Hours usually focuses on the process, i.e., on what the faculty says to the students and to others about what scripture says and what it means. That is as it should be because that is what we do at Westminster Seminary . . . Continue reading →
Coaches For Pastors: An Index Of The Identity Of American Culture And Evangelicalism
With the stench of decades of sweat fixed permanently in the air, its tile floor, and its fan-shaped basketball hoops mounted to the brick wall—the only protection against which being a thin, worn wrestling mat—the Community Center was the epitome of an . . . Continue reading →
Of Pastors And Their Wives
One of the most frequently recurring set of search terms that brings readers to the HB is “pastors” and “wives.” They get here from this January, 2013 post on What Pastors Shouldn’t Tell Their Wives. The combination of the terms “pastors” and . . . Continue reading →
When Pastors Abuse
In the wake of the recent discussions about church discipline there have been many online discussions about whether churches should exercise ecclesiastical discipline (yes, it’s one of the three marks of the true church—see Belgic Confession art. 29), how, and when. In . . . Continue reading →
My Pastor Knows My Name
In the Reformed tradition, pastors and elders typically are required to visit church members in their homes at least once per year. In larger churches, an elder assigned to care for a certain number of families often does the visits. Unfortunately, home . . . Continue reading →
Machen On The Uniqueness Of Pastoral Ministry
Remember this, at least — the things in which the world is now interested are the things that are seen; but the things that are seen are temporal, and the things that are not seen are eternal. You, as ministers of Christ, . . . Continue reading →