Valiant for Truth - A Pastor's Reflection Series

I can remember one of my seminary professors telling me, “Be sure to take your day off. If you don’t, I promise you, you will take your missed days off all in a row as you lay flat on your back.” In other words, if you don’t take some time to rest, your body will eventually crumble beneath the heavy workload and you will find yourself sick in bed, or worse, in a hospital.

As a pastor I always did my best to encourage my congregation to pray. Prayer is, I believe, one of the lesser-attended subjective means of grace. I suspect that when times get tough people pray, but I often wonder that when times are good do they pray as much?

There are all kinds of formulas in life—formulas for getting rich, getting thin, reaching your life-goals, advancing your career, and successfully managing your time. I think that people often lack the wherewithal to figure things out and so they want specific step-by-step instructions.

In the digital age communication is as convenient as ever. We can make a phone call from our cars or the remotest of locations, send an e-mail, or even twitter away till our thumbs get numb.

One of the tasks pastors should regularly engage in is discipling church members and new converts to the faith. There are a number of ways a pastor can do this.