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I am grateful to read this 40 days of devotional on pastor and pastoral ministry. Especially after more than ten years of practice, it is time to make some sort of conclusion for the first period in my ministerial life--if God’s will I may continue in the future. The author helps me to figure out ...

There are things better to have guidelines. Recently we leadership team discussed how to handle people who want to rent our church for wedding. There was a couple wanting to rent the church but they are not believers. They contacted a sister, who sporadic attends the church activities, to ask for re...

Church discipline is indeed the most difficult part of church ministry. In our area, we frequently saw church lay leaders even disciplining pastors. It was sad to see such a painful process, especially when there is actually no apparent issue related to Christian belief and moral norm. Leaders just ...

As pastors we are lonely. We need to make decision whether to “sallow the red pill� (a class scene in the movie of “The Matrix�) for being more truthful to ourselves and to the church we serve. We do see false prophet serving as a compromised watchdog, thinking only of a peaceful retirement,...

I once confronted with a couple in our church, when they’d been invited to join a local Unitarian Universalist gathering. On a particular Sunday they missed our church service for going to the other “church�. After that they explained they just wanted to visit another church. But they posted v...

Two years ago an incident broke up in our Baptist church. A devotional and highly respected Christian couple decided to join our church membership. It is a good thing to see your congregation having desire to serve the church and community further. One question popped out. They were born as Lutheran...

It’s pleased to know the author once brought bibles and materials to pastors in Mainland China. When young I heard of report from my pastors some missionaries did have such a ministry bringing bibles to China, and testimonies how miraculous the security department can’t find those materials whil...

After years of preaching and teaching, the passion for preparation may somehow die out. Rarely counsel with commentaries. Avoid Greek or Hebrew. Study the audience to earn their approval instead of a faithful exegeses. Lose appetite to read the Bible and theology. Dig not deeply enough the words of ...

I share Our Daily Bread on our church social media, WeChat. I share the devotional as frequent as possible in the group chatting. I also see other pastors sharing in a similar way. It is a trend now. A steady stream of spiritual food and water we want to provide everyday for the well-being of the sh...

The call of a pastor is compassion. Without compassion we may be a good Bible teacher but not pastor. Compassion made Jesus different from the Pharisees. To be like Jesus as pastor, we are called for compassion. It is the core of pastoral identity and ministry. It distinguishes pastorate from profes...

The first chapter reminds me of Psalm 91:5,6— “You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.�—isn’t it a comparable scene in description of the topic of Wilderness, where heat,...