You will notice, as a leader, that your struggle with your insecurities can “come and go.” You will likely feel as if you’ve won the war during times of success or popularity among the people you lead. However, insecurity raises its ugly head most often in times when you feel intimidated in certain situations. By understanding when a pastor is most susceptible to insecurity, we can gain the opportunity to address those fears before they materialize into their most powerful forms. So, when will a pastor most likely face such feelings?
As a pastor, you simply aren’t allowed to have too many personal problems. While most folks realize that you’re human, just like they are, there will still be a great deal of pressure to keep your own struggles hidden. People feel insecure if they think their pastor isn’t doing okay himself. Pastors may be people too; it’s just that we can’t act like it.
Getting people involved in ministry is one of the great challenges every pastor faces. When surveyed, this part of the pastoral assignment always tops the list of greatest frustrations in local church ministry. So, desperate to get people involved, we can succumb to common mistakes–mistakes that will end up being more costly than we imagine. The old Human Resources adage is true–“You hire all your personnel problems.”
Over the past several years, there has been a trend amongst Christian business writers towards ensuring that Christian values be woven into the business world. Due to this trend there has been an awareness, or perhaps an awakening, of the need for Christians to stop compartmentalizing their lives and leaving their beliefs at home or church to only be used on Sundays. I believe it has become apparent that Christian values have a specific purpose and can have a significant impact on the secular organization and on people.
Adding a minor to your degree program can be a great way to customize your college experience. A combination many people don’t immediately think of is combining a business minor with a degree in ministry. To show the the benefits of such an academic pairing, I’d like to share with you eight reasons why I believe it is a wise decision for ministry majors to get a minor in business .
In my last video blog I discussed some examples of attention-getting introductions. In this video I want to offer some warnings about potential momentum stoppers, or as I call them “speed bumps” in the introduction. Speed bumps are meant to slow you down while driving through neighborhoods and parking lots. While we certainly want them in those places, you don’t want them in your sermon introductions.
The value of discussions and other interactive strategies in online instruction is to get the student active in exploration, discovery, and deep learning which leads to critical thinking. Learning that enables critical thinking is a collaborative process in which content is generally constructed or discovered rather than transmitted.