THE BASIC IDEA

INTRODUCTION



This blog will be a mess - for a while.



It's my attempt to squash ideas from fifty years of pastoring and thirty years of ministering to pastors into a Blog - and then maybe a book.



The book probably won't use the title I've chosen here, for two reasons - it's disrespectful, and it's probably copyrighted by the other mob...



Today (24/6/2011) I've started a sabbatical, and this project will occupy most of my intellectual, theological and prayerful attention over the next seven months.



Pastoring is easier and harder than it's ever been. Easier? Yes, I'd have loved a World Wide Web and a computer when I was preparing three sermons/talks most weeks back in my first pastorate (1960s - Narwee Baptist Church in Sydney) - and at the same time studying in a seminary full-time (supposedly).

(I just googled 'pastor dummies' and got only one response! It was a comment about President Obama's 'pastor dummies'... Oh well, good try).


Harder? Yes. People's expectations of their pastoral leaders are higher than ever before, and more often bluntly expressed. It's not 'liturgies as usual' in the so-called Free Churches, and where 'liturgical fidgeting' is proscribed, people say they don't get much inspiration from the preaching...


So it's a tough calling: burnout rates are high; most churches (in Western countries) are declining numerically; and Christianity is getting a bad press from militant atheists, and critics of our interferences in public discourse on this and that...


~~~

Anyway, this Blog has the raw material, which will be updated and compressed into articles on another Blog, tentatively titled

== THE ABC's OF EFFECTIVE PASTORAL LEADERSHIP ==


... with the following headlines (any others?):


ADDICTIONS
BEST PRACTICE
BIBLE


CALL
CHURCH
COMMUNITY
COMPASSION
CONFLICT
COUNSELLING

DENOMINATIONS
DEVOTIONS


ECUMENISM
EMERGING CHURCHES
EMPOWERMENT
ENCOURAGEMENT
ESCHATOLOGY
ETHICS
EUCHARIST
EVANGELICALS
EVANGELISM


FAITH
FAMILY
FINANCE
FUNDAMENTALISM


GOD
GROUPS


HEALING
HEALTH: MENTAL, PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL, SPIRITUAL
HOMOSEXUALITY


IDOLS
INSTITUTIONS
INTERRUPTIONS


JESUS
JUSTICE


LEADERSHIP
LECTIONARY
LIBERALISM
LOVE


MARRIAGE
MEDITATION
MIDLIFE
MISSION


PARTNERS/SPOUSES
PASTORAL CARE
PENTECOSTALISM/CHARISMATIC RENEWAL
PHILOSOPHY
POLITICS/THE STATE
PRAYER
PREACHING
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT/SUPPORT


READING/BEST BOOKS
RELIGIONS
RETREATS


SECULAR/SACRED
SELF-CARE
SEMINARIES
SENIORS
SINGLENESS
SOLITUDE/DESERTS
SPIRITUALITY
STRESS/BURNOUT
SUCCESS


TEACHING
THEOLOGY
TIME MANAGEMENT


VISITATION


WOMEN
WORSHIP


YOUTH


ZEAL/ENTHUSIASM