Shepherds After God’s Heart
What is a pastor fundamentally called to be? Reading Ezekiel 34 alongside John 10 and 1 Peter 5, Raymond Hylton argues that the shepherd is first a revelation of God, and so a healthy and accountable model for ministry.
Tag
Pastoral Ministry
42 articles from 34 issues, 1996 to 2026
The Good Deposit of the Gospel
Reflecting on Paul’s final letter, Douglas Pratt traces the word “entrust” in 2 Timothy and asks whether the church is investing in the next generation of pastors and leaders to whom the gospel will be handed on.
A Devotional Reflection on George Herbert’s Poem, Love III
Herbert's most famous poem stages a soul drawing back from divine love and the patient persistence with which Love draws it forward anyway. McDonald reads the poem alongside Herbert's pastoral writings, finding the same Reformed conviction running through both: only refusal can shut us out.
Living East of Eden – Pastoral Reflections on How Theology Matters
Miller takes Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi as the question that follows every pastor home: who do you say that I am? A conference address mixing personal story with theological seriousness, reflecting on living and ministering east of Eden, between hell's gates and the keys of the kingdom.
The Grace of Theological Friendships: Augustine
Augustine is loved for the introspective Confessions, but Andrews argues he was never alone. This chapter follows Augustine's circle in Hippo, his theology of friendship, and the sometimes-uncomfortable question it puts to pastors today: who walks with you, and what are you actually accountable to one another for?
Encouragement for the Journey
Parish ministry is one of the most demanding journeys a person can take. Ray writes to encourage those discerning the call, and the older ministers who tend them, with a reminder that the calling is never private: it is always the church's gift to one of its own.
Pastoral Ministry and Scholarship
Why insist that pastors be trained as scholars? La Montagne separates the Reformed tradition's actual answer from the modern research-university definition that's quietly replaced it, and shows how the original conception still serves congregations better than the institutional one.
Moses, Death, and the Continuation of Ministry
The Pentateuch ends with Moses dying outside the promised land. Dearman reads that anticlimax theologically, finding in it a pattern: ministry passes from one hand to another, the work continues without us, and the inheritance belongs to those who come next, all by God's design.
“That’s The Spirit!” Or, What Exactly Does Spiritual Formation Form?
Pastors run spiritual formation programs without often pausing to ask what 'spirit' actually means. Vanhoozer treats that question as a load-bearing one for ministry: what we think the human spirit is shapes everything we do to form it. He follows the biblical words to a working answer.
Why and How Theology Matters
If the church's calling is to be stewards of the mysteries of God, theology is the work that keeps us trustworthy with what's been entrusted. Small unfolds Paul's image and asks what theological stewardship looks like in session meetings, confirmation classes, and Sunday worship.
Six Observations about Presbyterian Theological Education: The View from My Window
Forty years into ministry, Bullock offers six observations about how Presbyterians have trained their pastors and where the model has thinned out. Stewardship of time, the witness of unlikely converts, and the irreplaceability of mentors all show up on his list.
Ministry During a Time of Great Change
COVID-era ministry left pastors asking questions they'd never had to ask before. Brown sets the pandemic alongside cultural upheavals over identity, race, and politics, and offers practical reminders for ministry that hold up no matter which kind of change is washing over the room.