Ministry Transitions

Many woke up this morning to news of two transitions involving among prominent church leaders:

1) The elders of Bethlehem Baptist Church are presenting Jason Meyer to the congregation their candidate for Associate Pastor for Preaching and Vision. The expectation that Meyer will become John Piper's eventual successor as the church's senior pastor. Click here for an update on Piper's transition which was posted at Desiring God.

2) In other news, Mark Driscoll announced that he will be replaced as the president of the Acts 29 church planting network by Matt Chandler. As part of this transition, Acts 29 will be moving its headquarters from Seattle to Dallas. Driscoll's Mars Hill Church will remain a part of the Acts 29 network.

Fulfill YOUR Ministry

Matt Chandler with a great reminder for young pastors...



(HT: Vitamin Z)

Ministry Idols

Last Sunday I got a call at 5:45 a.m. from our senior pastor's wife telling me that he was sick and asking if I'd be able to preach that morning (at 9:15 & 11:00). I was scheduled to teach a Sunday School class on the first commandment, so I spent a couple hours transforming it into a sermon and preached it. I survived and so did all of the congregation, so chalk another one up to the grace of God!

Having just dealt with the topic of having no other Gods, I've been thinking the last couple days about what idolatries I have in my life as a pastor. Low and behold, I was making my morning sprint through a number of blogs I follow and Justin Taylor has a post on that very topic. More specifically, he includes a Mark Driscoll sermon (posted below) in which he goes through a number of typical pastoral idols. Taylor summarizes them as follows:

1.Attendance idolatry: Does your joy change when your attendance does?
2.Gift idolatry: Do you feel that God needs you and uses you because you are so skilled?
3.Truth idolatry: Do you consider yourself more righteous than more simple Christians?
4.Fruit idolatry: Do you point to your success as evidence of God’s approval of you?
5.Method idolatry: Do you worship your method as your mediator?
6.Tradition idolatry: What traditions are you upholding that are thwarting the forward progress of the gospel?
7.Office idolatry: Are you motivated primarily by God’s glory or your title?
8.Success idolatry: Is winning what motivates you at the deepest level?
9.Ministry idolatry: Do you use the pressure of ministry to make you walk with God?
10.Innovative idolatry: Does it matter to you that your ministry be considered unique?
11.Leader idolatry: Who, other than Christ, are you imaging?