In Depth:  ministry

Andy Mason

Spiritual leaders face many tricky circumstances, setbacks and tragedies, but the biggest threat that we leaders ever face is the failings of our own character.

The rather disconcerting thing about spiritual leadership is that every leader contains within themselves the seeds of their own destruction: "...sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you…" (Gen. 4v7).

Dan Steel

There is a peculiar kind of exhaustion that comes from living at one end of a tension that was never meant to be resolved.

Christian theology is full of paradoxes that resist easy resolution:

Matt Waldock

In the mid-naughties, it was fashionable to say that meetings of every type and stripe were a waste of time. But the concept of meetings endured, and most of us can attest that they are alive and well in most workplaces - and especially in churches.

Now, I’m quite fond of meetings, mainly because I’m good at them. I enjoy the cut and thrust of identifying an issue, and vaulting with the collective group to the new solution which we celebrate with a quiet self-satisfaction of cracking world peace in the time it takes for a cup of coffee to get cold.

Dave Burke

The Daily Telegraph recently featured a ten-year-long study of 500 Anglican clergy revealing that 41 per cent felt demoralised, 40 per cent felt isolated, and 35 per cent showed signs of possible mild clinical depression^[1].

It should be no surprise; Christian ministry is psychologically demanding.

Matt Waldock

In secular leadership circles, the holy grail of self-development is the attainment of a "highly productive life".

In this world, productivity is typically measured in terms of how many plates one can keep spinning without everything crashing down.

Dan Steel

Ask any experienced church minister with family what the most dangerous hours of the week are, and many will tell you: four until seven in the evening.

Not Sunday morning, when the adrenaline is flowing. Not the pastoral crisis call at midnight. The danger hours are the ordinary ones – the school run, the homework battles, the dinner that needs cooking, the children who simply want their parent home. These hours do not feel like ministry. They feel like an interruption to it. That instinct is precisely what needs to be resisted.

Phil Moon

As a leader, do you listen? I hope so, as I think you really need to. But sadly, it’s a bit too easy not to listen and far too easy to get into the habit of not listening.

There’s lots of listening we should be doing. Listening to the Lord through his Word. Listening to the world in which we live. Listening to those in authority over us. Listening to our spouses and children when they tell us they’ve forgotten who we are… I’d like to look at three other areas of listening where we may just be getting slightly deaf.

Phil Sweeting

A friend once told me about the great tree that used to dominate his back garden in Oxford. It was a magnificent thing - tall, full, the sort of tree children point out from a mile away. It had stood through summers of blistering heat and winters that lashed at it without mercy. Anyone looking on would have called it healthy. Solid. Unshakeable.

But one night the wind rose.

Dan Steel

The joke goes that Jesus' greatest miracle was being a man in His 30s with 12 (or possibly 11) close friends!

We live in a country where, famously, in 2018 a "loneliness" minister was appointed by the government as it recognised the danger of isolation in our world of "connections" but not real friendships.

Matt Waldock

At least once a year a member of the staff team will drag themselves into the office with their nose running, full of cold and with a hacking cough; then everyone else will roll their eyes in the knowing frustration that unless their immune system is like an athlete, it’s only a matter of time before the whole team gets sick.

But what if there is a far more dangerous contagion that stalks among our congregations? That contagion is anxiety.

Paul Jackson

I was inspired by Jordan Brown’s round-up of Bible apps (see en article here) and wanted to make a further, more specific, contribution to the debate in terms of Logos and Blue Letter Bible.

As a middle-aged Christian, I have been using Bible software since the days of CD-ROMs! Bible software has helped me craft numerous Bible studies and sermons.

Dan Steel

I know we’ve only just celebrated Christmas and the Incarnation, but as Arsene Wenger famously (allegedly) said: “Christmas is important but Easter is decisive.” And the thing about the Easter story for pastors and ministry leaders is it’s not merely a doctrine we proclaim but a pattern we embody.

We follow Jesus who moved through betrayal, abandonment, agony, and the darkness of death before the stone was rolled away on the third day. He told his disciples plainly: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."

Phil Moon

Note: This article contains content that may be triggering for some readers.

I recently had a really helpful call from someone, and it made me think more about manipulation in Christian ministry.

Dan Steel

In today’s fast-paced world, where productivity usually reigns supreme, the notion of slowness - or of slowing down - can seem countercultural. However, in pastoral ministry, slowness is not a weakness; it is an essential virtue.

Jesus often used agricultural metaphors to explain the Kingdom, not simply because that resonated with the people of His time (though it would have) but also because it explains something of how God is slowly at work in His world; tiny mustard seeds grow into huge trees.

Dan Steel

In a busy, bustling world, healthy pastoral ministry begins not with motion, but with a kind of stillness, an abiding, a willingness to dwell where God has placed you, even when your heart feels tired or stretched thin.

Many pastors and ministry leaders quietly carry the weight of wondering whether they should be doing more, producing more, or moving on to something larger. Yet the gospel’s invitation is gentler than that.

James Burnett

Would you make a good "Traitor"? Have you got the mojo of a chameleon to hoodwink fellow contestants, like the comedian Alan Carr - this year’s winner of BBC’s The Celebrity Traitors?

Game show The Traitors was inspired by the sinking of the Dutch ship Batavia in 1629. When the Batavia sank off Australia, 250 survivors scrambled ashore an island archipelago. Mutinous traitors fought against a small band of faithful soldiers, culminating in a live-or-die boat race towards an oncoming rescue ship. Who would get there first - the "Traitors" or the "Faithful"? A true story!

Jonny Pollock

The other week I watched the new Jurassic Park movie with our eldest son, and as soon as the movie finished (and it was ok by the way!) a curious thought entered my head. How many times has Jurassic Park been rebooted since the first movie in 1993?

There was the original, then the remake, now another reboot, and never mind the kids' Netflix series. I definitely think that velociraptors have now lost their sheen. I remember vividly watching that first movie and yet it has been rebooted more times than I have renewed my passport!

Howard Satterthwaite

In recent years, many of us have become more aware of the toll that emotional, spiritual, and mental struggles can take.

Christian leaders, of course, are not immune. In fact, some of us are quietly limping through discouragement, or even depression, while still seeking to lead with strength and clarity.

Dan Steel

Pastoral ministry has always been demanding, but our current age presents a peculiar challenge: distraction. (Even as I write this I realise I’ve forgotten to turn off notifications!)

The constant hum of tones and beeps, the relentless pull of emails, the lure of social media, and the subtle pressure to appear productive all conspire to scatter our attention.

Roger Carswell

I wonder how many sermons you have heard in your lifetime. I reckon I have heard at least 15,000. And just a few have left such an impression that years later I can tell you what was said, who preached them and where I was.

Each of those was characterised by an earnestness - an expression of the heart of the preacher. They fed my soul, impacted my will and exalted the Lord Jesus.

Dan Steel

Paul writes to his protégé Timothy in 2 Timothy 3v10: “You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance…”

It’s striking to me that Paul doesn’t only point Timothy to his doctrine, to truth, but also to his lived example. Faith is taught and caught. His words and his way of life both bear witness to the reality of Christ.