2019 » Page 2 of 8 » GProCommission

October 17, 2019

Healthy Church Systems

Many leaders and couples get into church planting or leading in a church because we care about people and want to see their lives changed; marriages healed, past hurts redeemed, addictions broken. This is why we labor, pray, vision cast, have meetings, preach sermons and sacrifice like we do. But how does that happen? The work of the Holy Spirit is one, but the other part of that is through relationships and systems. God is a God of systems and relationships. We see in Genesis 1 both of these. God creates man and woman in His image, and we see […]

October 15, 2019

Millennials Leaving the Church

In this classic episode, Darrell L. Bock, Kat L. Armstrong, Sam Eaton, and Nika Spaulding discuss millennials leaving the church, focusing on how to better engage with this demographic. Transcript below: Dr. Darrell Bock Welcome to The Table. I’m Darrell Bock, executive director for Cultural Engagement at the Hendricks Center at Dallas Theological Seminary. And our topic, today, are Millennials’ take on the church, and this is a response to an article by the man sitting at my left, here, Sam Eaton, who wrote a piece called “12 Reasons Millennials are Over Church.” Sam Eaton Well, I wrote it […]

October 10, 2019

5 Things Preachers Should Stop Doing

Resharing with kind permission from Carey Nieuwhof. Today’s post is written by Mark Clark. Mark is Senior Pastor of Village Church in Vancouver, a close friend, and co-creator of the course The Art of Better Preaching. By Mark Clark I have the great opportunity to not only communicate as part of my job – as a preacher, writer, conference speaker, etc., – but actually help train up preachers and communicators in different settings (church ministry, marketplace leaders, etc.,) Here are five things I tell them to stop doing! 1. STOP PRETENDING Authenticity is the new currency of leadership. So stop pretending. Stop […]

October 8, 2019

Preaching to Make the Bible User Friendly

Have you ever listened to a sermon and thought, “Wow, I could never get as much from that Scripture text as he did”—as if the preacher was a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat? I have. When the preacher is biblically faithful, this can be a beautiful demonstration of God gifting the church with shepherds and teachers (Ephesians 4:11). It may also expose a flaw: the preacher may not be training his flock how to read the Bible through his preaching. Preachers need to see the preaching event as a key moment in church life that makes the […]

October 3, 2019

How To Stay Spiritually Healthy This Ministry Season

Good grief this fall is busy! Is anyone else tired? And, we’re barely into the ministry season. Maybe it’s the combination of ministry and leadership plus all that’s going on with my kids getting older, playing more sports and being involved with more at school, but this season feels a little crazy to me. Earlier this week, I had lunch with a good friend, who is also a pastor in my city, and we were talking about the busyness of life. We were laughing about all the nonsense that comes with soccer, football, cross-country, homework, tired kids, quirky volunteers at […]

October 1, 2019

Building Successful Teams

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 We all enjoy watching individuals achieve success in sports, business or entertainment through hard work, dedication and perseverance. It’s often called the American way because […]

September 26, 2019

Two Examples of Preaching Christ from Samuel and Acts

This is the final installment in this three part series reshared with kind permission from Leadership Resources. To access parts one and two, simply click the corresponding links. What follows is the final part of an interview with Colin S. Smith on what it means to preach Christ. Click here for the audio below is the transcript. KH: We’ve talked a little about theory about preaching Christ and why it’s important. Can you share a couple examples? Maybe walk us through a message you’ve preached before and how you think about preaching Christ. CS: Sure, I’d be glad to talk about […]

September 24, 2019

Preaching for Encounters with the Risen Christ (Part Two)

Continued from Part I and reshared with kind permission from Leadership Resources. This post is a continuation of a series on what it means to preach Christ with Colin S. Smith. Listen to the interview in audio mode here. Below is the transcript: KH: You’ve written before that preaching Christ must arise out of the Word and should lead us to the table, creating a worshipful experience encountering Christ there, at church. What do you mean by this, and why do you think it’s such an important idea? CS: I got that out of the Church of England liturgy, going all the […]

September 21, 2019

Can Anything Grow in the Desert? Testimony from a Pastoral Trainer in Kenya

Watch our video interview with Pastor Tasse, be encouraged, and learn more about MentorLink International’s resources for training leaders who lead like Jesus. A written interview is below, as well as links to the MentorLink courses. We encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube channel for future interviews. “ With explosive numeric growth but few trained pastors, Christ’s Church in the great continent of Africa has been described by African leaders as “a mile wide and an inch deep”—a description which can fit many congregations anywhere. Kenyan pastoral trainer Pastor Alia Tasse rejoices over the rampant church planting in Africa. […]

September 19, 2019

What does it mean to preach Christ? (Part One)

Reshared with kind permission from Leaderhip Resource (LRI) LRI’s Kevin Halloran sat down with his pastor, Colin S. Smith, to talk about what it means to preach Christ. Listen to the audio or read the transcript below. The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:23, “We preach Christ crucified,” and a few verses later, he said he was determined to “know nothing among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). But what does this mean? And how can a preacher faithfully preach Christ? Pastor Colin Smith With me is my pastor, Colin Smith, of the Orchard Evangelical […]