• How can we have an effective pastorate? • How can our ministries, our preaching, support church health? • How can we be faithful in our ministries? There is a parable for young preachers in Walt Disney's Dumbo, the little circus elephant that Continue Reading
March 22, 2013 2 Comments
Thoughts on Faith from a Garden in March and Pastoral Ministry
For a gardener, like myself, March is an in-between month. The dried, gray-brown stalks on the oak leaf hydrangea, left over from last autumn, stand at attention, like a proud, old war veteran in his outdated, ill-fitting military uniform. And like a Continue Reading
March 12, 2013
Difficult but Necessary: Relinquishing Leadership in Winter to Renew in Another Season of Ministry
March 11, 2013 Dearly Beloved in the Lord: I greet you in the name of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. I write you to also make an announcement that must come on the heels of a series of providences that both surprised me and have tried me—body and Continue Reading
February 18, 2013
A Promise is Stronger than Blood: The Doctrine of Adoption in Romans 8
There is a crisis with adoption. There is a crisis in that there are more would-be parents desiring children than there are children available. This is so because of abortion. This is so because of unjust laws. Recently the president of Russia declared Continue Reading
February 15, 2013
Growing in Joy all the Way Home
The introduction of Paul's letter to the Philippians begins not only with Thanksgiving but with a prayer for the believers in that beloved church. And within that prayer we are able to discern what St. Paul desired for the Philippians. He desired that Continue Reading
January 11, 2013
A New Years Letter to our Ministry Colleagues at RTS
My beloved in Christ, I wanted to write you directly. I wanted to share what it is a central and growing concern and aching plea to God: for revival in our time. I share this video of the first Faith for Living of the new year, recorded just a few weeks Continue Reading
December 13, 2012
There’s Green and Then There is…Evergreen: The Secular Environmental Movement and Biblical Care for Creation
The current cultural climate is a veritable greenhouse for growing ever-mutating myths about Christians, particularly evangelicals, and their concern for the earth.[1] The charge that there is a “huge burden of guilt”[2] to be born by evangelical Continue Reading
December 13, 2012
Are You a Bill Snyder or a Nick Saban Pastor?
Two coaches. Two great coaches. And they are about as different as night and day. One, Coach Snyder, is the epitome of the "old school" type: cautious, reserved, conserving, and, well, just a fine, gentle man with a hidden but real furnace burning within. Continue Reading
September 19, 2012
When Sam Heard God
From the RTS Communications Office: Dr. Milton wrote this in honor of The Rev. Sam Patterson, founder of RTS, as he reflected on the inaugural events. A framed copy has been provided to Sam’s daughter in his honor. When Sam Heard God A Message from Continue Reading
