By John Benton

When a pastor is forced out We tend to think of America as the place of the “hire and fire” culture – sadly we have the same kind of culture in some UK churches. A 2008 US study reckoned that around 23% of pastors have either had their contracts terminated or been forced to resign. […]

Perhaps my favorite of John Bunyan’s works is his little volume titled The Jerusalem Sinner Saved. It is really an exposition of Luke 24:47, Luke’s expression of the Great Commission, in which the Lord Jesus tells his disciples to preach the gospel “beginning at Jerusalem.” The people of the city and its leaders had repeatedly rejected, scorned,

Flowers love the sunshine. At night the blooms close. But with the warmth of a new day, they open up and show themselves in all their beauty. And people are somewhat the same. They thrive on being appreciated. Even though it is by God’s grace alone that we work, the Lord thanks those who have

How are pastors faring in ministry? Three years ago, through my work with the Pastors’ Academy, I was in touch in an active way with 63 pastors. This autumn I thought it was time to conduct a simple audit of how those same men are getting on. Here are the broad statistics: Of those pastors,

We tend to only hear about larger churches and pastors of larger churches. But we should not despise small churches. Actually they can be beautiful. A beautiful church There are two dominant pictures of the church in the NT. These are the picture of a church as a family, and a local church as the

Asked recently what had been the greatest help in his ministry, a pastor replied, “It’s not a ‘what’ but a ‘who.’ My wife has always been the greatest help.” He went on to talk about how, under God, she had liberated him from so many concerns by her efficiency and set him free to concentrate