×

Pastors need churches. And churches need pastors. They ought to be able to find one another and settle into a long, happy relationship.

It isn’t so easy for dating and marriage, and it isn’t so easy for pastoral searches and transitions. The Gospel Coalition wants to help pastors find placement in churches where they can thrive, so during our last national conference we invited Chris Brauns, Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, and Rick Thompson to address the issue.

Brauns recently wrote a book on Bible-based pastoral searches, while Rick Thompson assists with many placements in his role as a district superintendent for the Evangelical Free Church of America. Dever takes issue with the typical pastoral search committee and believes elders should bear this responsibility. Duncan brings the Presbyterian position to bear on the inevitable yet frequently haphazard approach many churches take to finding their leaders.

In these four clips you’ll hear how a panel with diverse experience counsels pastors and their churches on making happy matches.

In the first clip, the panelists draw out the tension that sometimes arises when a search committees may not represent the local church or its leadership well. Mark Dever and Ligon Duncan share some of the differences and challenges in search committees, voting, and pastoral appointments in the PCA and SBC.

Chris Brauns opens up with an interesting question about how one would council a seminary graduate seeking a pastorate who was reared in a fundamentalist tradition, but begins to recognize he has more in common with TGC folks. Dever gives some helpful recommendations on how that issue works out in the context of a local church.

The panelists highlight common shortcomings in pastoral search committees. Dever shares an insightful list. The panel offers wise counsel for committees looking for help.

Several good questions are raised in this video: How can networks help local churches in pastoral searches? Why is it wise for the local church to do the major heavy lifting in pastoral searches? And how can we keep the Bible central in our pastoral searches?

Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?

In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
But the Gospels are historically reliable. And the evidence for this is vast.
To learn about the evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels, click below to access a FREE eBook of Can We Trust the Gospels? written by New Testament scholar Peter J. Williams.

Podcasts

LOAD MORE
Loading