Weekend Nuggets – 10 Things Pastors Hate to Admit, Discernment, What Evangelism Isn’t, Blue Beats Green, Genuine Repentance & Much More!

10 Things Pastors Hate to Admit Publicly – Now in doing so my aim is not to rat out my fellow pastors. Nor am I doing this so congregants sleep with one eye open regarding their leadership. My intention is precisely the opposite. I hope that from this:
•Churches will pray all the more for their pastors because they understand the challenges.
•Churches will be doubly grateful for the fact that so many pastors stay in the saddle despite their fears, hurts and frustrations.
•People in churches will think twice before engaging in things that sink deep into the soul of their leaders.

Divisiveness vs. Discernment – So discernment is the process of making careful distinctions in our thinking about truth. The discerning person is the one who draws a clear contrast between truth and error. Discernment is black-and-white thinking—the conscious refusal to color every issue in shades of gray. No one can be truly discerning without developing skill in separating divine truth from error.

Genuine Repentance – I have sinned against you. I have apologized. But how do you know if I mean it? How do you know when someone is repentant? In his helpful little book Church Discipline, Jonathan Leeman offers some guidance.

What Evangelism Isn’t – From Reaching the Lost: Evangelism, the Bible study guide from 9Marks.

Loving Our Children – Part One – We do not naturally love our children with a tender affectionate love otherwise Paul would not have instructed the older women to teach the younger children to love their children with this kind of love. (You can Read Part Two of Loving Our Children Here.)

What’s on my nightstand this week – Wonder & The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment

What we’ve been watching – Blue – it is an outstanding documentary which challenges the agenda of the green movement. Get it and watch it with your whole family!

“Most of us have never really understood that Christianity is not a self-help religion meant to enable moral people to become more moral. We don’t need a self-help book; we need a Savior. We don’t need to get our collective act together; we need death and resurrection and the life-transforming truths of the gospel. And we don’t need them just once, at the beginning of our Christian life; we need them every moment of every day.” ~ Elyse Fitzpatrick