Just Children: Mobilizing Young People as Peacemakers

Today’s post features guest blogger Michael McGill with Breakthrough Partners, a ministry whose work I deeply appreciate. Eternal Perspective Ministries has supported their work for many years. Through an initiative called Just Children, they’re now working to carry out Christ’s call to be peacemakers and to care for vulnerable children.

Writing Letters to the Suffering

The following moved me deeply. We asked permission to post it. It speaks for itself. My thanks to John Knight, John Piper and Desiring God.

Pastors, Help Your People: The Ministry of a Letter in Suffering
by John Knight

Pastors, Here's a Scenario

You're a pastor and ‘the call’ comes. One of your families have welcomed a child into the world – and that child is significantly disabled. They are crushed.

Writing as Ministry First, Vocation Second

Yesterday I made my February 1 deadline for the Courageous novel. I sent it off 11:56 p.m. Pacific time—hated to waste 4 minutes, but I needed a margin in case it got stuck in my outbox and I had to reboot. :)

Many thanks to all of you who prayed. There’s still much editing to come, but I’m grateful for God's grace and kindness in an exhausting project that has consumed the last four months.

Question and Answer of the Week: How do you enjoy your family and the ministry?

Question from a reader:

I’m a full-time youth pastor with four beautiful kids and an incredibly supportive wife. It is so hard to juggle ministry and family and do it well. As someone who has reached the other side, and now with grandkids, does it get easier? How did you find the energy and time to really enjoy the kids AND the ministry?

Answer from Randy Alcorn:

I received this letter and this was my response, in case it might be helpful for others:

It did get easier as the kids got older, and more when they launched out ...

The Leader's Character; Leadership is a privilege, not an entitlement

The following are my answers to some questions on leadership I gave to Crawford Loritts for his new book called Leadership as an Identity: The Four Traits of Those Who Wield Lasting Influence. The book includes contributions from various Christian leaders, including Bill Bright, D. A. Carson, Clyde Cook, Steve Douglass, Robert Lewis, Bill McCartney, Robertson McQuilken, Gary Rosberg and Joseph Stowell.

A number of my answers are in Crawford's book, some are abridged, but I thought I'd share my full original answers with you here.

Third (and Final) on Spurgeon, Ministry and Depression

This is a picture of Charles Haddon Spurgeon at age 23. Only a year previously, an event happened that brought on a severe depression that he nearly didn’t recover from. (Since this is my third and final blog on this subject, if you missed either of the previous ones you may want to go back and read part 1 and part 2 first.)

Spurgeon’s congregation had grown so large that they had to rent the Music hall in Surrey Gardens (see drawing later in this blog). On June 7, 1891, an overflow crowd filled this huge building. As ...