In a world of instant hot takes and online takedowns, it’s never been easier for pastors to get engaged in polemics.

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Faithful shepherds not only feed the flock, they also fend off wolves. If a pastor is never willing to enter the fray on anything—never willing to get his hands dirty, never willing to risk his reputation, never willing to make a few enemies—I doubt he’s fulfilling his calling to guard the good deposit (2 Tim. 1:14).

And yet, just because we have a way to make our voice heard does not mean it’s always wise to speak. I don’t pretend that I’ve arrived at some golden mean when it comes to polemics. I imagine some people say, “That guy is so opinionated!” while others feel like, “He never says anything about that!” It’s easy to think everyone else is either too soft or too pugnacious. I know the temptation.

But over 15 years of pastoral ministry, I’d like to think I’m at least a little smarter about polemics than I used to be. If not holier and wiser, then just more seasoned. Here are some of the questions I ask myself before sounding off on the most recent blogging brouhaha or charging headlong into the latest denominational melee. I don’t go through all 10 as some sort of checklist, but these are the thoughts often rattling through my brain.

1. Am I making the problem bigger than it needs to be by giving people my microphone? Sure, I may be annoyed by that post or that podcast. And maybe what was said shouldn’t have been said. But before I respond publicly—especially to something that wasn’t even directed at me—I need to consider if I’m only going to make matters worse. Most dumb stuff out there disappears in a week, if not in a day or two. Why should I make a martyr out of someone hardly anyone is talking about? Why should I direct more eyeballs to a discussion that has been languishing in obscurity?

2. Am I becoming a one-trick pony? When I co-authored a book on the emergent church, I often told myself and told audiences: I don’t want to be talking about this in 10 years. And by God’s grace, I don’t think I am. I said that not only because I hoped the movement would lose steam (which it did) but also because I had no interest in being the anti-emergent guy for the rest of my life. To be sure, we may feel a particular calling to address a certain issue. We need people whose “thing” is justification or religious freedom or biblical eldership or whatever. But we should be on high alert if our “thing” is always to be the critic, even if what we criticize is deserving of criticism.

3. Do I know enough to contribute meaningfully to this discussion? I’m reading Tom Nichols’s fascinating book The Death of Expertise. It’s not an apology for elitism. It’s a sustained argument against the hubris of thinking that we know as much as anyone else about everything. We don’t. I don’t. It may seem like everyone wants you or me to say something. But maybe it’s OK for you and I to admit that sometimes we don’t really have much to say.

4. Is a public response the best way to make a difference? Because so many of our thoughts and photos and experiences are open to worldwide consumption, we tend to think that nothing really counts unless it happens in the public square. Consequently, it seems as if you don’t care or haven’t done anything until (or unless) you’ve said something online. Rubbish. There is much good (often much more good) that can be done—polemical and otherwise—through private conversations, building institutions, nurturing relationships and mentoring disciples.

5. Is this confusing real flesh and blood people I know? This is usually the trip wire for me. As far as I can remember, every instance of theological polemics I’ve been a part of—from the emergent church to Rob Bell to Jesus Hates Religion to issues surrounding sanctification—was initiated because people in my church were asking questions.

6. Is this helping me to faithfully pastor my own congregation? I’m sure there are many non-pastors reading this post. Most of these questions apply to all Christians. But pastors in particular need to think about this one. We have been called to a specific people in a specific location. We have not been ordained and installed as pastors-at-large to the “online community.” If our social media activity means we don’t have enough time to prepare our sermons and pray with the saints, we have our priorities backward. Our online presence should be an extension of caring for our own flock, not a replacement for doing the more important work of pastoral ministry.

7. Am I looking to persuade or to emote? If we want to possibly, maybe, actually change someone’s mind, we have to be careful, circumspect, and include the necessary caveats and qualifications. If the aim is simply to vent our frustrations, may I suggest keeping a handwritten journal instead.

8. How would I talk about this issue or to these people if they were in the room? I started writing more carefully once I started meeting the people I was writing about. The goal is not to be man-pleasers, just generally humane. I think I can now honestly say that I never write something critical about someone without assuming that (1) he or she will read it, and (2) I will meet him or her someday in person. Whether those two things are true, I don’t know. But it makes me more careful. And it helps me sleep much better at night.

9. Is my style of communication reinforcing what I hold dear or undermining it? We’ve all seen it before (and probably have done it ourselves). The grace guy who shows no mercy. The spiritual formation guru who is a constant crank. The “I’m not perfect” blogger who points out everyone’s imperfections. When we you see someone practicing something different than they preach, common sense says I’m not buying what you’re selling.

10. What is the motivation of my heart? If you skip the other nine questions, don’t skip this one. I have to ask myself at times, Why am I so riled up? Why am I pounding out this post? What is going on in my heart right now? If truth be told, we are all tempted by the same things: pride, fear of man, love of the praise of man, the need to prove ourselves, the need to defend ourselves, the allure of making a name for ourselves, the desire to be thought courageous, smart and godly. Is that why we all do what we do online? I don’t think so. It’s certainly not the only explanation. But is it the reason a lot of what ends up online ends up online? Probably. You can’t fix all that. Neither can I. But we can look at our own hearts and pray that God would keep working on those.

This article originally appeared here.

Most pastors have a rightful desire to train up future pastors. We realize that one day, our ministry will end and we ought to be preparing the next generation to take the gospel to the land we cannot go. This focus, however, can lead us to overemphasize pastoral training at the cost of training “normal guys.”

What follows are a few reminders as to why we must use some of our best time, energy and resources training up plumbers, lawyers, teachers and bankers. I will be focusing this discussion on the discipling of men in particular. The need to care for sisters in the Lord is critical and is related to most of the points I make, but won’t be the aim of this article.

1. They make up most of your flock.

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).

God has called you to give attention to all the flock, not just some of it. The size of a congregation has an impact on how much attention elders can give to each sheep, but it goes without question that every sheep must matter to us because every sheep matters to God.

If most of your time, energy and effort is given to future pastors, you’ll neglect the majority of your flock. This focus could unintentionally stifle the growth of the majority of your members who need discipling, instruction and pastoral counsel. It could also provoke members to bitterness, causing them to feel like “second-class sheep” in comparison to those who aspire to be pastors. Satan delights in cultivating distrust between sheep and shepherds, and this is an easy way to do it.

One way to consider addressing this tension is to include aspiring pastors in the work of shepherding other sheep. Jesus and Paul are almost always found with disciples by their side. A wise way to care for all the flock and raise up future pastors is to bring these groups together as often as possible.

2. They can reach people pastors can’t.

Before going into full-time ministry I loved working regular jobs. This is because I’m an evangelist at heart and those jobs afforded me the opportunity to be around people who didn’t know Jesus. But when someone becomes a pastor, they’re in one sense making the decision to retreat from the front-lines of evangelism to equip others who will take the gospel into the world.

As a pastor, I view discipling our members as the development of missionaries who will reach people I’ll never be able to reach. My job is to “equip the saints for the work of ministry” (Eph. 4:12). If we’re predominantly spending our time with hopeful pastors, we’ll neglect the equipping of church members who are on the front-lines of gospel work in the community.

Brothers, investing in a financier, construction worker, lawyer or teacher is an investment in people who will reach those you will never be able to reach. This is part of Jesus’ wise plan for reaching the world; don’t neglect it.

It’s also wise to know that some church members can reach other members more effectively than a pastor. For innumerable reasons, some immature sheep are hesitant to receive instruction from pastors, but are willing to listen to other members. As you equip “normal” brothers for ministry, you develop allies and advocates who can help hesitant sheep grow up into maturity.

3. They will help you be a better preacher.  

Hanging out with aspiring pastors can be rewarding, but pastors need time with normal people. When we spend time with men who are dealing with unbelieving bosses, the stress of travel, the pressure to make sales profits and so on, God educates us about needs of our flock that we might otherwise have overlooked. This shapes us and our preaching.

By spending time with men, visiting their work places and eating meals in their homes, we gain insights into unique issues we must address in our preaching. Texts we preach yield fresh applications because we see how they apply to the men we meet with. By neglecting discipling relationships with non-pastoral men, we’re robbing the church of rich insights that benefit everyone who hears the sermon.

Pastors aren’t just message-givers, but also message-livers. We’re called to be “examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3). Therefore, being around the flock helps them see what our message looks like in real life. It also helps us avoid hypocrisy. By being among our members, we’ll remember our own sermon applications and ensure we’re applying them ourselves. Not a few times, I’ve had loving sheep say to me, “Now pastor, didn’t you say…” I love it when friends preach my sermons back to me! This helps me more faithfully live what I preach.

4. They will help you follow the Lord. 

Pastors are sheep first, shepherds second. Always. We must remember that though we’re called to lead the Lord’s people, we’re also one of his people. One of our great temptations is to get so caught up in pastoring that we forget we’re sheep in need of care. Fellow church members help us remember this.

Just yesterday, I had coffee with a brother who faithfully serves in our church. We’re in similar life stages, face similar family challenges and undergo similar work pressures. We both left our meeting refreshed and encouraged to keep trusting the Lord.

I’m encouraged by my fellow elders as well, but they aren’t the only ones I can learn from. Fellow church members allow me into their lives and from them I learn how to be a more faithful father, husband, financial steward, educator, citizen and more. Pastors aren’t supposed to be experts on everything, and we can always learn from anyone who has the Holy Spirit.

5. They might end up being pastors. 

I took a moment and wrote out a list of half dozen men that are serving as pastors today. What makes these men unique is that my relationship with each of these men began as a normal discipling relationship. One was an oil field worker, another was a physical therapist, another was a salesman, and so on. These were “normal” men with “normal” jobs who just wanted to grow in their relationship with Jesus.

But God used the time, attention and focused Word ministry to mature them and make clear their calling as a pastor. One of the ways God trains up pastors is by taking men who never thought they’d be pastors and giving them this desire. We’ll remember that Samuel thought he knew who God’s anointed was, but the Lord told him, “Do not look on his appearance…for the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). Be faithful with faithful brothers, and you just might be surprised by what the Lord does with some of them.

This was originally published on 9marks.org and is reprinted by permission.

In Titus 2:2, Paul writes to Titus about the older men in his congregation:

“Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love and in steadfastness.” –Titus 2:2

These older men are not to be confused with those who hold the office of elder (cf. 1:5). The “older men” are those who literally have advanced age. Paul says that these men must have several exemplary characteristics.

“Sober-minded” translates a term that means “very moderate in the drinking of an alcoholic beverage” (BDAG). Its figurative extension here means “be free fr. every form of mental and spiritual ‘drunkenness’, fr. excess, passion, rashness, confusion” (BDAG). It is a call to be “restrained in conduct, self-controlled, level-headed” (BDAG).

“Dignified” means “worthy of respect/honor, noble, dignified, serious” (BDAG). The dignified person is so self-possessed and in control of his temper and fears that he elicits admiration from those who know him.

“Self-controlled” indicates someone who is “thoughtful, self-controlled” (BDAG). In Aristotle’s ethics, the term indicates “avoidance of extremes and careful consideration for responsible action” (Aristot., EN 3, 15; BDAG). For Aristotle, the “self-controlled” person “is intent on the what, the how and the when of doing what should be done.”

“Sound” means to be “healthy” or free from sickness. The figurative extension of that meaning here is “correct” or free from error. So “sound” in faith, love and endurance means that older men have to believe in the right way, love in the right way and endure in the right way.

In sum, Paul says that older men must be those who do not panic in the face of a challenge. They do not get angry when provoked. They do not fear in the face of a threat. The older men are to be as solid as an oak. They are to be the kind of men to whom people look when something is broken and no one knows how to fix it. They are the kind of men who are sought out for their wisdom and ability to speak truth into very difficult situations.

They are exemplary in faith and in love for wife and children and church and neighbor. They face trials with perseverance and courage. They are the kind of men that you want your son to grow up and be like.

Churches desperately need their older men to exemplify being sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love and in steadfastness. Churches need an army of laymen who believe well, love well and suffer well. And churches need them because these older men are the pace-setters for the rest of the church. It is not an accident that Paul begins with the older men. He begins with them because he intends for the old guys to be leading out in these things in the church and in their homes.

Proverbs 20:29 says that “The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair.” This verse means that young men are not noted for their great and profound wisdom into life. The main contribution of young men is their ability to serve others with their physical strength and vigor. That means that the young men ought to be trying to out-serve one another in ways that involve their physical ability. When someone needs help moving, they show up. When there is a workday at the church, the young men need to be there with their able-bodied eagerness.

But as the years accumulate, strength diminishes. And as strength diminishes, guess what begins to accumulate? Experience and wisdom. And gray hair represents the accumulation of wisdom and sensibleness about life and about what needs to be done. And this is an old man’s splendor and contribution to his neighbor. And it is supposed to be his contribution to the body of Christ. The church needs her older men to be what God has called them to be. They should live life in such a way that evokes admiration and respect. They do not need to be great orators. They do not need to write books on theology. They simply need to be godly. They need to be able to pour themselves out to their family and others who need their steadiness and wisdom.

The world’s point of view on the relationship between gray hair and wisdom is upside down. The world absolutely idolizes youth. So much so that the order of the day is to suppress the appearance of age—to try to stay and look as young as you can for as long as you can because the essence of the good life is for those who are youthful, vigorous and beautiful. And the world caters to the tastes and opinions of the young because they are the most coveted consumer demographic.

The world puts the old people on the shelf and the young people on the podium. But it really should be the other way around. Every believer should aspire to the crown of splendor—to the honor that is due to those who have learned to live well and faithfully to what God has called them. So this word to the old, therefore, is a word to all of us.

This article originally appeared here.

Anyone can get up in front of a congregation and deliver a killer sermon, right?

Not exactly. If you’re a pastor or leader who has to get up in front of your people week in and week out to try to deliver God’s word in a creative and clear way, I got mad props for you.

While I appreciate those of you who do this, there are still so many of us who struggle to create interesting sermons on the regular. Like it or not, we live in a media saturated world. The constant bombardment of media has turned us into impatient and highly expectant people. The entertainment industry continues to step up their game and people expect us to be on point with our communication.

Below are several ways you can bore your congregation, small group or ministry to death. Hopefully, you can avoid these in the future and begin to wow people with your sermons!

1 – Read From Your Slides

Want to really bore your audience? Turn your back on them and read from the PowerPoint slides on the screen. After all, your congregation probably can’t read anyway?

2 – Make an Unbearably Long Introduction

Nothing screams “Get me out of here” like hearing your pastor speak for 20 minutes and then say…“OK, lets get into the message.”

3 – Read Too Much Scripture

Read too much scripture? Is that a real thing? I’m glad you asked. If you want to read the first five chapters of who begat who, go for it. Don’t make your audience sit there and listen to it. Use key verses to fit the story. Unless you want everyone to start thinking about their lunch plans, please don’t read chapters at a time!

4 – Keep Your Voice Exactly the Same

You just might be the smartest person in the room, that doesn’t mean people don’t want to feel your excitement. Want people to disconnect from what you’re saying? Keep your volume and disposition at the exact same level.

5 – Make It Complicated

People will remember your 86 bullet points, right?

6 – Avoid Humor at All Costs

This is church. There is no place for jokes and funny business. Make the sermon experience a little more painful for your audience by never…I mean never never…making them laugh.

7 – Don’t Be on Time

People in your community have absolutely nothing to do. People never work on Sundays. That clock in the back of the auditorium is simply there as a reference point. If you’re looking to turn the audience against you, forget your time limit and ask them to stay for just 30 more minutes. If they love Jesus, they will!

This article originally appeared here.

“The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” – Jesus (Luke 10:2)

It is a fact that doing one service every Sunday is easier than doing two. There are a lot of complexities involved in duplicating your ministry and eking out how to execute across multiple services in a day. However, prevailing churches make a conscious choice to offer multiple services every Sunday to their community. Why?

One of the common traits of growing churches is that they all have at least two services on a Sunday if not many more. It is so common that it makes it easy to overlook that one of the dividing lines between churches which make an impact and which don’t is the number of services they offer on a weekend. Typically, churches with a greater impact have multiple services while churches on the decline have just one.

Why is this the case? Below are five reasons why prevailing churches choose to have multiple services every weekend. If your church hasn’t made the jump, these are some of the reasons you should!

• Attend One | Serve One – At the core of all the churches which make an impact are thriving volunteer leaders fired up to make an impact in their city. Prevailing church leaders constantly look for ways to inculcate more people into a service rather than trying to figure out how to do a service with as few people as possible. When you have multiple services on a Sunday morning, it gives your volunteers the opportunity to attend both the services as well as serve during another time slot. This removes a major barrier that people have to volunteer at a church with only a single service on a Sunday morning. It also has a reverse effect by communicating to volunteers that they are valued as a member of the church.

• Multiplication Instinct – Healthy things grow and multiply. Multiplying your services in the same location is a step toward further multiplication down the road. Some church leaders resist adding new services because they feel overwhelmed with the task of finding new volunteers. However, recruiting and training new team members is at the core of what a church should do in order to make an impact in their community. Of course it’s not easy, but it is healthy and necessary for the life of the church by motivating a group of people to be committed to the life of the church. By not adding more services on a Sunday morning, one is limiting the opportunities for people in your church to join in the life of the church. When services are not added to the church, there is a decline in the growth opportunities for those attending the church!

• An Honest Reason – Can we keep it real for a second? We all say that every service we do is done with excellence and care. However, typically the first service on any given weekend has a few kinks to be worked out. This applies to your church as well as the largest “brand name churches” in the country. I attended the first service of a “super mega large church” recently and it was obvious that the band’s lead singer did not know the lyrics to the opening song. Having multiple services gives you the opportunity to work out some of the kinks before guests arrive for later services. In an ideal world, these problems are solved in the rehearsal itself, but sometimes they are not. There is something about the intensity of the guests actually being in the room which gives us a heightened sense of clarity about how the services should roll out. Having only one service every Sunday results in a service which is not 100 percent perfect. I wish that wasn’t true…but it is.

• More Options – People’s lives are complex and difficult; therefore, it is not possible for everyone to attend the single service at a certain time in your church. If the timings are moved around even by an hour, more people in the community might be available to be a part of the good things happening in the church. By sticking with only one service time, you are adding a limitation on the time people can connect with your church. In an era of “on demand” everything, it appears to be a total disconnect to not offer more options for those willing to connect with your church. I have seen this work successfully when a church adds new service times and they grow as they open up new times for people which they can actually attend.

• It’s Not About Us – When you listen carefully to what we say when we stay with just one service in our churches it usually is about some form of selfishness. We’re smart enough to not articulate it in those terms plainly, but when you carefully try to understand what the people who want to stay with one service mean is that they would rather not put in the extra time, effort and energy into making a second (or third!) service a reality. This is a dead end for your church and your leadership. God wants to bless those churches which aren’t inward focused. Pushing through the pain of multiplication is at the core of expressing to people that it is all about the people we’re trying to connect with. The aim of adding an additional service is to reach new people rather than keep the people who are already with us. The essence is selfless and I believe that’s a part of what God uses in the community in order to draw more people toward Himself!

This article originally appeared here.

John Piper’s Brothers, We Are Not Professionals is one of the books that pastors in the Western world would do well to read annually. In that work, Piper puts his finger on the gaping wound of a corporate mindset that has plagued the church in North America for far too long. At the outset Piper explains why we should reject the professionalizing of ministry:

“We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry. The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the prophet. It is not the mentality of the slave of Christ. Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and heart of the Christian ministry. The more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we will leave in our wake. For there is no professional childlikeness (Matt. 18:3); there is no professional tenderheartedness (Eph. 4:32); there is no professional panting after God (Ps. 42:1).”

The problem of professionalism in ministry is endemic to those living under the influence of the American dream—in a business and marketing driven society where money rather than Christ is King. We must resist the temptation to believe that the church is a business in light of the insistence that there are organizational and financial aspects to the church. The church does not sell products. The minister is not a business man. The minister is a servant of Christ called to be His ambassador in a world that has turned its back on Him. The professionalizing of ministry in the church is the bane of the church’s existence in whatever shape or form it may take.

Nevertheless, I have often thought that a complementary volume—bearing the title, Brothers, We Could Be a Little More Professional—might be in order for some. After all, there is proper use of the word professional (i.e., “to exercise mature competency and skillfulness in one’s vocation”) that should characterize the lives, preaching and pastoral care of ministers. All ministers should seek to be as professional as possible in those things in which God has called them. Here are a few areas that I have in mind:

1. Maturity in Life and Doctrine. The Apostle Paul charged Timothy with the following admonition: “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim. 4:12). A mature minister will want to treat every part of his life and ministry with the utmost spiritual care. He will keep a serious watch over himself and his doctrine (1 tim. 4:16). He will strive to think, speak and act coram Deo. The Apostle Paul charged Timothy to “give heed to reading, exhortation, doctrine” (1 Tim. 4:13). Surely this is a call to be as professional as possible in our lives and in our study of God’s word and sound doctrine so that we might “rightly divide the word of truth” (1 Tim. 2:15).

2. Skillfulness in Leading and Preaching in Worship. There are many in the church who dismiss the need for the minister of the word to be polished in his speech and delivery. While we never want to trust in eloquence or rhetoric to accomplish what the Spirit of Christ alone accomplishes through the pure preaching of the word and Gospel (1 Cor. 2:1-2), we should strive to do away with anything in our speech that distracts the hearers from receiving what is being preached. The same is true of what is said during the other parts of the service. It is the responsibility of ministers of the Gospel to communicate the truths of God’s word in the call to worship, reading of the law, assurance of pardon, prayer of confession, pastoral prayer and Lord’s Supper as clearly and as persuasively as possible. Getting feedback from other ministers in the congregation on ways to improve in delivery and form can be a great blessing to a pastor who is seeking to grow in these areas. Additionally, all ministers should be reading homiletical volumes that give instruction on these things (e.g., see J.W. Alexander’s Thoughts on Preaching and R.L. Dabney’s Sacred Rhetoric).

3. Wisdom in Pastoral Counseling. Much good can come from pastoral counsel. Much harm can also be done by pastors seeking to give counsel. We must seek to become wise and careful counselors with regard to the spiritual care of the people of God. There is a need for us to be professional as counselors. This does not mean that there is to be the counseling desk/counselor chair paradigm. It means that ministers should be searching the Scriptures, reading counseling books and learning from seasoned pastors and counselors.

4. Care in Ministry Structure and Development. Whether the responsibility for the structuring and development of a variety of ministries in a local church falls to the elders, deacons or other members of the church, the church should give proper attention to such ministries as greeting, visitation, hospitality, music, outreach, finance, set-up, etc. We can err on one of two sides of the equation when considering the development and oversight of these ministries. On the one hand, we can overemphasize the organization and development of these ministries. One the other hand, we can underemphasize the need for thoughtful procedures and organizational structures of such ministries. In many cases, churches that are most vocal about their dependence on an ordinary means of grace ministry (i.e., a ministry rightly focused on the word, prayer, sacraments, etc.) often fall into the latter error. David Prince, in his post “Don’t Theologize or Spiritualize Ministry Mediocrity,” addresses the need for ministers to exercise great care in their oversight and knowledge of the various ministries in their churches. He writes:

If a pastor cannot explain how the church’s commitment to the Word and the gospel impacts how the church handles parking, greets visitors, does announcements, and so on, then that reflects a reductionistic and diminished view of the primacy of the Word. The result when this kind of diminished view of the primacy of the Word pervades the church, in the name of being Word-centered, is that the church often develops a self-righteous, holy-huddle, self-justifying theology, that attempts to spiritualize its own lack of passion to pervasively live out the Word. It often sounds something like this: “It is sad that so many rely on tricks and secondary matters in ministry. We do not care about that stuff here because we believe in the power of the Word.” In other words, the congregational narrative is that they are small and not growing because they are so faithfully committed to the Word. That could possibly be true, but it could also be because they are lazy, and their ministry lacks comprehensive commitment to live out the Word, in every nook and cranny of congregational life.

This is precisely what I mean when I speak of the need for pastors and churches to seek to be more professional.

There is a proper revulsion that we should have when we hear the word professional linked to the word ministry. However—as the saying goes—“we must not let the abuse of a thing negate its proper use.” There is a need for mature, thoughtful, wise, educated and skillful ministers in churches that are committed to the prayers, the pure preaching of the word of God, the right administration of the sacraments and church discipline. There is a dire need for ministers to seek to be professional in the things that build up the people of God, even as we reject that sort of professionalism that causes great spiritual harm to the church.

This article originally appeared here.