Tensions can get high on a pastoral staff. Chuck Lawless offers the most common reasons he's seen through years of consultation.
We are living in a day when societal acceptance of gambling is beyond anything we would have thought possible in our times. I have seen statistics that reveal there are as many as 48 states in the U.S. that have some form of legalized gambling.
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I am living in my favorite season of life so far. Last November I turned 60 years old and found myself pleasantly surprised by that reality.
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If you have been preaching long enough to have become comfortable with the rhythms of producing weekly expository sermons, you do not have to acquire some different skill set to be able to preach a good funeral sermon. If you have reached the point that you can pull together a good sermon from most places in the Bible, then you can write a good expository funeral sermon from more places in the Bible than you might realize. The sermon you preached last Sunday might easily have been developed into a funeral sermon, depending upon whose death the funeral marks.
I recently conducted the funeral of a good friend. Only 65, he had suffered from early onset Parkinson’s for years and then developed dementia. He died much too soon. Preparing for his funeral, I found the perfect passage for his service: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.
