C.J. Mahaney is president of Sovereign Grace Ministries, a family of churches which exists to start, establish, and strengthen local churches with the gospel, for God's glory. After 27 years of pastoring Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD, he handed the senior pastor role over to Joshua Harris. Read more…

Response From a Reformed Charismatic

by cjmahaney

Excellent post my friend!

My response will be even more brief.

I completely agree with you!

And for further study on this important topic I recommend:

"The Morning I Heard the Voice of God" by John Piper

"Thou Our Guide" chapter 20 in Knowing God by J.I. Packer

"Gudiance" chapter 6 in God's Plan for You by J.I. Packer

"Finding the Will of God" by Bruce Waltke

Posted on February 20, 2008 | Link to this Post | Comments

Making Thanksgiving Memories

by cjmahaney

Mark, thanks for asking about Thanksgiving customs. Initially, I was concerned about the title of your post and didn't find the idea of "Thanksgiving Exercises" too appealing. But I really appreciate the content of your post and the care and leadership you are providing for your family and friends.

Although I’m an “every day alike” kind of guy, this holiday is a wonderful opportunity for our family to express gratefulness to God for the many evidences of grace we have experienced this past year, and most of all, for the substitutionary sacrifice of His Son for our sins.

Thanksgiving Day is also a time for unhurried serious and hilarious conversation with one another—which produces fresh closeness and gratefulness for the love we share as a family.

It’s also about building memories with my children and grandchildren that will last a lifetime, and creating traditions that God-willing can be passed down to future generations I will never live to see. (You can learn all the specifics about the Mahaney family Thanksgiving traditions from my wife and daughters at the girltalk blog here, here and here.)

And of course, our Thanksgiving holiday would not be complete without an appropriate accent on athletics. The Mahaney-family "Turkey Bowl" has been a tradition since the kids were little and takes place every year, regardless of the weather.

Most of all, it is my hope that an overwhelming gratitude for the cross of Jesus Christ be the distinguishing mark of our Thanksgiving Day, and every day throughout the year.

Posted on November 22, 2006 in General | Link to this Post | Comments

"Above All Earthly Powers"

by cjmahaney

Mark, Lig and Al—since I was the only one who was able to attend the Desiring God conference, “Above All Earthly Powers,” I thought I would do a brief post relating my experience. Brief, because I would have to type all day to adequately recount all I learned and enjoyed at this great event. I wish you guys could have been there.

As much as I appreciated the content of the excellent messages, the highlight for me was the time I spent with my very good friends Jeff Purswell (Dean of the Sovereign Grace Pastors College) and Joshua Harris (my favorite Senior Pastor). Conferences provide unique and all-too-rare opportunities for priorities that pastors can easily neglect, such as deepening friendships, unhurried discussions about doctrine, and strategic planning for the church. I have discovered that when I am away at a conference, and removed from the daily demands and responsibilities of ministry, I tend to think more creatively and evaluate more effectively.

Therefore, it has been my practice over the past 30 years to take my pastoral team to at least one conference or class at Reformed Theological Seminary each year, for the purpose of learning and deepening our friendship. (BTW, If you want to hear some entertaining stories, ask Don Carson about what it was like to have the Covenant Life pastoral team attend his classes, with me in the back row.) During these trips, we’ve heard great preaching and teaching. But we’ve also used our meal times (and late evenings) for discussion and application. We look into our hearts, we encourage and correct each other, and we contemplate the future together. We laugh much, think much, and eat much—all to the glory of God.

So I would encourage all pastors to build into their schedule and church budget at least one conference a year for you and your pastoral team. And if you are leading a church alone (you have my deepest respect) I would encourage you to attend at least one conference a year with a pastor(s) from another church. As I look back and consider all the wonderful memories and momentous conversations I’ve had at conferences with my friends, I am simply amazed.

Now, I’m not a conference “live blogger,” so I won’t even attempt to give a comprehensive overview of the exceptional content from this past weekend.  I think the messages will be online in just a few days, and CD’s will be available from Desiring God Ministries in the near future.

As you would expect, the conference was a feast of outstanding preaching; but I want to highlight a few moments that stood out to me. Particularly moving were Don Carson and John Piper’s comments to and care for the pastors of smaller churches during one of the panel sessions. There were two panel sessions that were both effectively led by Justin Taylor. In response to a question from Justin, Don and John wisely seized the opportunity to encourage pastors of smaller churches and those who labor faithfully but seem to see little fruit. Don’s tears as he described his father’s faithful pastoral ministry for decades in a rural setting were deeply moving. You could feel the deep effect of his words and his tears upon the souls of all pastors present, but especially those who are faithfully and heroically serving in obscurity. More importantly, you could feel the pleasure of God.

And one other moment that stood out was John Piper’s opening remarks before his message at the final session. John addressed those present who are a part of the emerging church movement and communicated his fatherly concern for them. Since it is clear (and was made clear throughout the conference) that serious doctrinal deficiencies exist in the emerging church, John wanted to communicate his care for those present with whom we disagree. John didn’t want the conference to simply be a series of critiques. Instead, he wanted to persuade and provide the doctrinal discernment that appears to be absent from this movement. And he wanted them to know how much he loved them—even with all his concerns. Again, I felt the pleasure of God.

Then, before he began his message, John made one more comment regarding observations he had previously shared about Mark Driscoll. Earlier in the conference, at the end of a panel session, John had informed us that he had received much criticism for inviting Mark Driscoll to speak at the conference. He explained why he invited Mark and what he appreciated about Mark’s message. He went on to express a concern he had regarding the content of Mark’s message. Though I would have expressed this concern to Mark privately and personally before expressing it publically, I have no doubt that his motive was to serve Mark and those present at the conference. John's critique and concern was related to Mark’s clever comments about culture throughout his message. After the panel session, someone had approached John and observed that John had a tendency to be similarly clever in his comments about the academic world. So before he preached the final session, John acknowledged the accuracy of this observation and correction and its application to his preaching. It was humble for John to inform us of this private conversation and its corrective content. I believe that long after the messages of this conference are forgotten, John’s compelling example of humility will not be forgotten. It will continue to inspire us all to true greatness—to walk humbly before God and with those we have the privilege to serve. Once again, I felt God’s pleasure.

Well, my son Chad just came and asked me if we were going to lunch, like we do each Monday. Immediately and with great joy I informed him that we were. So it’s time for this post to end. I have something much more important to do. Although I am deeply grateful for what I experienced with my friends at this conference, there is nothing that compares to returning home to the arms of the wife I missed so terribly, the son I love so deeply, the hugs of my daughters and sons-in-law, the kisses of my grandchildren, and the encouragement of the local church I love the most.

I look forward to applying all I’ve learned so that by the grace of God I might grow in godliness, serve more effectively, reach out to the lost more consistently and hopefully bring some pleasure to God, who in the mystery of his mercy killed His Son for me.

Posted on October 2, 2006 in General | Link to this Post | Comments

A Painful Picture

by cjmahaney

Mark, that picture from your previous post (This One’s for You, CJ) added more pain to my already burdened soul. It’s bad enough that the Yankees just swept the Red Sox, but to make matters worse, I have to root for a United States basketball team led by Coach K in the FIBA World Championship!  I did not need a fresh reminder of Duke Basketball at this time.

Seriously, I am very grateful to God you don’t know anything about sports, my friend. I am glad that you didn’t grow up in my neighborhood where all we did was play hoops. Otherwise, you may not have read the Encyclopedia Britannica in its entirety by age seven. But I’m most grateful to God for your friendship and leadership (great post on SBC mistake).

Now, it appears that the much-appreciated readers of our blog refuse to let me ignore your earlier question, “What is CJ?” By the way, what kind of question is that?

What am I? Well, here is what I am. I am the worst sinner I know. And by the grace of God I am doing better than I deserve. For I deserve the righteous wrath of God because of my sin. I deserve to be punished eternally. But in the mystery of His mercy, God sacrificed and crushed His Son on the Cross--as my substitute--so that I might be forgiven of my sin and know God as my Father rather than my Judge. What am I? I am truly amazed by the grace of God. That’s what I am.

Of much lesser importance, I have the privilege to serve and lead Sovereign Grace Ministries in its mission to plant and support local churches. And I am especially blessed to be a member of Covenant Life Church, “the dearest place on earth.”

Posted on August 23, 2006 in General | Link to this Post | Comments

Cross-Centered Relevance

by cjmahaney

Mark, Lig and Al, your biblical insight on this topic of faithfulness and relevance is critically needed in the church today. Thank you for serving us.

The most effective way that I can serve is to post excerpts from my favorite article on this issue: "The Power of the Gospel in the Church Today" by our friend Ray Ortlund, Jr. (Trinity Journal 18, NS, no. 2, Spring 1997). Check out Ray's theologically informed discernment, on what it means to be relevant in ministry, written with remarkable forsight nine years ago:

"We might get the wrong impression from Paul, when he writes in 1 Corinthians 9:22 that he has become 'all things to all men,' that he might by all means save some. Paul was not unbending in meeting people as they were, where they were. He was widely adaptable. But we might get the wrong impression from this passage, if we read it in isolation from Paul's other statements about ministry, as if 1 Corinthians 9 were the whole of his mind. The fact is that Paul was not infinitely flexible in his outreach strategies. He had limits, and in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 he explains one of his boundaries:

'When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God, in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling; and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (RSV)'

Paul deliberately chooses ('I decided') not to meet the culturally conditioned expectations of his hearers....The most embarrassing aspect of the gospel—a crucified Savior, a loser Messiah—was the very thing Paul concentrated on. Paul is here exposing to view the controlling center of his ministry strategy. 'Jesus Christ and him crucified' was for Paul, the ultimate criterion for what we today call 'relevance.' And with his typically refreshing outlook, the apostle defined relevance not as we tend to do. For him, relevance had to be defined not in terms of meeting audience expectations but in relation to the centrality of the Cross. His preaching agenda was set by that theological center, not by his audience....

Now, what lessons may we preachers today learn from this amazing passage of Scripture?

First, a biblical preacher critiques his methods, his forms of contextualization, his adaptations to culture, his style, not primarily by the standard of culture but by the superior standard of the gospel itself....The message of the Cross must discipline and control us—indeed, limit us—even though that puts us at a disadvantage in winning an audience.

What one observes in evangelicalism today is that, while many preachers can declare allegiance to all the right doctrines, their theology makes little difference in their preaching beyond drawing the widest, most amorphous and seldom alluded-to boundaries. Their formal credentials may be in order, but the theology they affirm sits very lightly on their actual practice of ministry. It is invisible to their people. Such ministers demonstrate little doctrinal specificity or even discernment—intentionally so?—in their message and style. The biblical gospel may be formally obligatory, but it is personally uninteresting and strategically incidental. Such ministers may be exacting in their methodology, but they are vague in their theology—a curious arrangement of priorities! For Paul, such thinking would have been completely alien to his soul. For him theology reigned supreme in every aspect of his ministry. Theology for him, energized him, cheered him, emboldened him. It was his ministerial fountain of youth. One wonders how far we may drift from Pauline ministry and still retain a plausible claim to biblical authenticity in our work."

I could go on and on with more great stuff from this article. I recommend every pastor obtain and read it for himself, and apply it to the leadership and preaching of your church.  Assign the article to your pastoral team or eldership and together evaluate your church in relation to the content of this article. We must do more than nod our heads as we read, we must make application to our pastoral ministry in very specific ways.

How about your pastoral reading list—is it more focused on the latest pragmatic pastoral fad than the cross of Jesus Christ? Are there more books on your desk from the business section of Barnes and Noble than there are the great works of Calvin, Edwards, Owen and Spurgeon?  Let us not be numbered among those for whom "theology...sits lightly on their practice of ministry" or pastors who are "exacting in their methodology, but vague in their theology."

May it never be said of our pastoral ministry that the gospel was "formally obligatory...but personal uninteresting and strategically incidental."  Instead, by following the example of Paul, let "theology reign supreme" with the message of "Jesus Christ and him crucified." May this be the "the controlling center" of our preaching content, the structures and practices of our church and our evangelistic strategy. Then, and only then, will the church be truly relevant to our culture.

Posted on July 5, 2006 in General | Link to this Post | Comments

Deliberate Complementarian Pastors

by cjmahaney

Mark, Lig and Al, thanks for serving us big time with your insightful posts on this important topic. Please keep this stuff coming, boys. And Al and Mark, any possibility you guys could live-blog the Southern Baptist Convention this week? How exciting would that be?  So, how about if you cover the SBC this week, and I will take responsibility for the U.S. Open (that would be an important golf tournament, Al and Mark)? Lig, who ya got in the World Cup?

Well, you have heard from three of my favorite scholars; and now it’s time to hear from a simple, but athletic pastor. Here’s my concern: It is all too easy for us to affirm biblical manhood and womanhood and humbly contend for the complementarian position, and yet fail to intentionally and consistently apply this body of teaching to our lives and churches. So this post is a reminder to us as pastors that we must not only proclaim truth but practice truth. Preaching on biblical manhood and womanhood is not enough--we must transfer this body of truth to every member of our churches. Complementarianism must be functional in our personal lives and in our churches, not simply professed. And we must not lose sight of the difference biblical manhood and womanhood can and should make for husbands, wives, children and singles. 

Our responsibilities as pastors fall into two categories: Personal Application and Pastoral Strategy.

1)    Personal Application

Our teaching on this topic will only be as effective as our personal example. Modeling precedes teaching. Biblical instruction cannot be divorced from personal example. We must provide our churches with a genuine (not perfect) model of biblical masculinity. It is possible to skillfully teach Genesis 1-3 or Ephesians 5 and yet neglect to apply these passages to our lives. So, let me ask you: Where and how are you going to demonstrate biblical manhood to your wife and children this week? What difference is your complementarian position going to make in your life and for those you love, lead, and serve? If I spent the week with you, would your conviction about biblical masculinity be obvious?

Gentlemen, here is a gift you can give to your wife this week. Set aside a few hours of uninterrupted time, and ask her to honestly evaluate your personal example of godliness and your leadership in the home.

I dare you to ask her this question:

Where do I need to grow in serving and leading you?

For bonus points, ask this question:

Where do I need to grow in serving and leading the children?

This one conversation could initiate dramatic changes in your life.

After you’ve talked to your wife, I would encourage you to relate the details to a fellow elder, pastor or friend. Invite their questions and observations and make yourself accountable to them for application. This step will weaken pride and cultivate humility. Because God gives grace to the humble, this is a very smart thing to do. In fact, it would be stupid not to, since God opposes the proud. So, let us avoid being mere advocates of the complementarian position. By the grace of God we must be functional complementarians, and this must be evident for all to see.

I double dare you to ask your wife that question.

2)    Pastoral Strategy

Do you have a strategy for helping your church demonstrate biblical manhood and womanhood? If so, what is your strategy? What is your plan to clarify, cultivate and celebrate biblical manhood and womanhood in your church? This must be done intentionally, strategically and consistently--not occasionally. And it won’t get done if you don’t lead humbly, wisely, and boldly.

Here’s why: The members of our churches are daily being assaulted by a feminist worldview and culture. They are breathing feminist air each and every day. So do not assume that your statement of faith or last year’s teaching series are sufficient to protect your church from cultural or evangelical feminism.

Here’s how: Begin by thinking through each ministry in your church. Is biblical manhood and womanhood modeled and explicitly taught in each ministry? What about your children’s ministry? How about the youth ministry? The worship team? The counseling ministry? Thoroughly evaluate every aspect of your church, including the teaching diet on Sundays. Then devise a specific plan to channel this important body of teaching through each ministry of your church to every member of your church for every year you pastor the church.

Although I attempted to be brief and concise, this has once again become the never-ending post. My apologies. The fact is, I am not sufficiently gifted to be concise. But before I conclude, I must reaffirm that our motivation for biblical manhood and womanhood is the gospel. I am convinced that the complementarian position will strengthen the church in her God given-role to proclaim and protect the gospel. And the most effective apologetic (apart from Scripture) for the complementarian position is marriages, families and singles who radiate the beauty and wisdom of God’s plan for men and women. Biblical manhood and womanhood is the life-transforming effect of the gospel on full display. When a church teaches, practices and honors gender distinctions determined by our good and wise God, the gospel will advance. But this will only happen where there are humble and courageous pastors who lead every member and ministry of the church by personal example and with strategic pastoring.

Posted on June 11, 2006 in General | Link to this Post | Comments

New Attitude

by cjmahaney

Mark and Al, I am looking forward to our time together tomorrow night. Lig, it won’t be the same without you, my friend, but I am glad you can join us by phone later in the evening. I’m sure our conversation will prove to be edifying and exhausting (from laughing and staying up late).

The reason Mark, Al and I will be together in Louisville is because we are speaking at the New Attitude conference, led by my favorite Senior Pastor, Joshua Harris. This event equips college students with the gospel. As I play the back nine of life, few things bring me more joy than to see the next generation passionate about the gospel and the local church.

And speaking of joy, I just now glanced at a Spurgeon quote displayed on my desk. It’s my daily reminder about the importance and priority of joy:

“Moreover, labor is easy to those of a cheerful spirit; success waits on cheerfulness. The ones who work while rejoicing in God and believing with all their hearts have success guaranteed.”

My challenge each day is not so much working hard, but cheerfully working hard.  If I understand Scripture accurately, I will not glorify God simply by working hard. To truly bring Him honor, I must labor with a cheerful spirit. Therefore, I must not only serve my family each day, but I must serve them with joy. I must not only prepare a sermon, I must do it cheerfully. I must not only labor faithfully in the church, I must do so happily.  Merely working hard is not sufficient. It must be done with gladness.  It is for my good and His glory that God has given this sweet command, ‘Serve the Lord with gladness” (Psalm 100:2).

So, Mark and Al, thanks for gladly serving at this conference. Lig, Mark will be teaching a session on Biblical Theology (“The Story: Understanding the Storyline of the Bible”), and Al will be addressing “Cultural Discernment from a Biblical Worldview.” I have the privilege of speaking on “The Cross: A Meditation on Jesus’ Atoning Death (Isa. 53).” Again, Lig, you will be missed, but I respect you for joyfully serving the local church you love.

Posted on May 25, 2006 in General | Link to this Post | Comments

Mahaney as Grateful

by cjmahaney

Mark, your encouragement in your most recent post (Mahaney as Bunyan) is very kind, very meaningful and very humbling, my friend. I want to communicate how deeply grateful to God I am for the education you have pursued and the difference this has made in my life. The theological training you have received and the hard work you have invested in the study of God’s Word has been a gift to all of us who learn so much from you. And I sure hope you are enjoying all the encouragement and fruit from the T4G conference. That conference was the fruit of your leadership and your heart to serve pastors. You were the one who brought the four of us together for the gospel. And you were the one who led us in this unique and memorable conference. I trust you feel our deep gratefulness.  Be assured that I am praying for you as you serve the church in Australia and as you endure an abscessed tooth. I am sorry that you will be welcomed home with a root canal, but I look forward to our time together when you return.

Lig, that was a great post on T4G Hopes. But I am still waiting for your answer to my question “What is the gospel?” my friend. In addition to your outstanding message at the T4G conference (best I’ve heard on the topic), your rap with your brother John—and I am completely serious—was an example of your winsome humility. Thanks for your example and the enduring memory. Years from now, when we are working hard to even recall the messages from the conference, your reformed rap performance will remain a vivid memory for us all.

Al, thank you for serving Covenant Life Church (the church I love the most) and my favorite Senior Pastor, Joshua Harris, so effectively this past Sunday. According to everyone I have talked to, your message, “The Bible, The DaVinci Code and the Christian” was simply outstanding. This message is yet another example of the cultural discernment you provided in your superb sermon at T4G. What a unique gift you are to the church. And our time together on Monday at Bertram’s Inkwell and lunch was a pure blast, my friend. While I wish I could have been there for your message Sunday, I had the privilege and joy of speaking at Bethlehem Baptist Church for our friend John Piper while he is on a writing sabbatical.  And I would appreciate the support of you guys in prayer as I have that privilege and joy again this weekend.

But before I leave for Minneapolis, I wanted to express my gratefulness for friends and leaders like you men. What a gift you are to me and so many.

“How can we thank God enough for you, in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?” 1 Thessalonians 3:9

Posted on May 13, 2006 in General | Link to this Post | Comments

Extraordinary and Unforgettable

by cjmahaney

Since my return from Together for the Gospel, I have been asked the following question countless times: “So, how was the conference?” And each time I have paused, trying to craft an appropriate description. I’ve found it to be a difficult task. Normally, I just end up repeating the words “extraordinary” and “unforgettable.” I doubt this proves particularly helpful, but I don’t know what else to say. For me the conference was, well, “extraordinary and unforgettable.” God’s grace was richly present among us at every moment.

Your encouragement has been so meaningful to Mark, Al, Lig, and myself. You men have buried us under an avalanche of e-mails and letters sincerely and specifically communicating your gratefulness for the conference. The evidences of God’s grace you describe seem to be endless, and I often find tears filling my eyes as I read your comments. We simply cannot thank you enough for your expressions of gratefulness. To know that God enabled us to effectively serve you brings some serious joy to our souls. I only wish I could look each of you in the eye and say “thanks.” With deep gratefulness in our hearts we ascribe all glory to God for what took place. As the Psalmist says, “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” (118:23).

On Thursday evening I had the privilege of introducing John Piper. I asked for the assistance of Jonathan Edwards in this task. Here is how Edwards encouraged his church to view “faithful ministers of the gospel:”

“Useful men are some of the greatest blessings of a people. To have many such is more for a people’s happiness than almost anything, unless it be God’s own gracious, spiritual presence amongst them: they are precious gifts of heaven…Particularly, I would beseech and exhort those aged ones that yet remain, while they do live with us, to let us have much of their prayers, that when they leave the younger generations, they may leave God with them.”

These words are not only an appropriate introduction of John Piper, these words are an accurate description of the many pastors in attendance at T4G. You men are “some of the greatest blessings of a people.” You “are precious gifts of heaven.” And you are doing the most important and difficult work. For you daily care for the saints “[Christ] obtained with his own blood (Acts 20:28).” You “leave God with them” each week as you preach, counsel and serve the church. And one day “when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory” (I Peter 5:4).

You men are our heroes. And it was a pure privilege and joy to be with you and serve you during those few extraordinary and unforgettable days together for the gospel.

Posted on May 6, 2006 in General | Link to this Post | Comments

Packer on Reading and Study

by cjmahaney

"I think that the priority for every pastoral leader must be his own personal time with God over the Scriptures, and anything he does by way of preparation must flow out of that. The first requirement for authoritative, perceptive communication of the word of God is that you yourself should be experiencing the power of it. The Puritan John Owen said, 'A man only preaches that sermon well which first preaches itself in his own soul.' He was profoundly right." J.I. Packer

Posted on April 21, 2006 in General | Link to this Post | Comments

A Plan for Reading and Study

by cjmahaney

A while back I promised a post on how to develop a plan for reading and study. We’ve been covering a variety of topics on this blog, but I didn’t forget my promise. I hope this brief post proves helpful.

If you haven’t already read all the great posts on this topic--provided by Lig (his series might still be going), Mark and Al--please make time to peruse this material. And if you’ve already read it, let me encourage you to review it again. You will be freshly inspired by the content and discouraged by all you’ve forgotten.

It’s important to read these posts again, because if you don’t have a conviction about the importance of study, talking about a plan would be premature. Let the following words by Charles Bridges create a renewed conviction about the importance of studying Scripture--not simply because we are pastors, but because we are Christians:

“For if we should study the Bible more as ministers than as Christians, more to find matter for the instruction of our people than food for the nourishment of our own souls, we neglect to place ourselves at the feet of our divine teacher, our communion with him is cut off and we become mere formalists in our sacred profession.”

May God protect us from becoming “mere formalists in our sacred profession.”

So, do you have a plan for reading and study? Do you have a plan for each week, each month and each year? If not, your good intentions will be hijacked by the urgent and issues of secondary importance. You will look busy and maybe even feel productive, but eventually there will be a withering effect on your soul and in your preaching. But this doesn’t have to happen. It’s not inevitable, unless, of course, you don’t have a plan.

Here is what I recommend. Before your week attacks you (and each week will do this), attack your week. Spend time at the beginning of each week determining when and how long you need to read and study in order to cultivate passion for the Savior and prepare the sermon for Sunday. This simple practice can make all the difference. It has for me.

This practice protects my time of study from the many requests that come up each week. Because I have already determined what is most important, it is easier to decline or reschedule a request if it interferes with reading and study. Obviously, however, there will be emergencies and exceptions.

I would also recommend informing the church of your divinely prescribed mandate to study. This will help your people to understand this is a biblical priority for you as their pastor, and not simply a personal preference. Explain why you devote yourself to this task and how they will ultimately benefit. And ask them to pray for you as you devote yourself to the study of Scripture in service of the church.

So how much time should you devote to reading and studying each week, month or year? Lots! Actually, I can’t answer that question for you. You must work hard and seek counsel to come up with your own custom-designed plan. If you don’t know how or where to start, check out John Stott’s time allotments for study (apart from sermon preparation), which he has followed for many years:

One hour a day
One 3 hour period a week
One day every month
One week every year

This plan sure seems to have worked well for Mr. Stott.

Now, let me conclude with one personal recommendation. I encourage pastors to take two 3-day retreats each year for the purpose of reading, study, praying and planning. Put these dates on the calendar before the year begins. I have found that this unhurried time away from the daily routine of ministry refreshes my soul and makes all the difference in my leadership. I believe it will have the same affect on you. I would however, not recommend taking a retreat in March. The temptation to watch college basketball is too distracting. So take your retreat in a month where there is no Madness!

Posted on April 19, 2006 in General | Link to this Post | Comments

Dever on the Old Testament

by cjmahaney

Al, thanks for recommending Mark's article on the atonement in Christianity Today and commending Mark for this article. I couldn't agree more. And thanks for your fine post on the meaning of the gospel.

In case you guys didn't know, Mark's latest book, The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made, wa