Pastoral Ministry

For me, as for so many others, Sinclair Ferguson has been and continues to be one of my heroes in the faith. While a Ph.D. student at Westminster Theological Seminary he was one of my professors. What is more, while he was pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina, I would...
I look forward to reading Sinclair Ferguson’s Pastors and Teachers . I have long admired Dr. Ferguson’s brevity, clarity, and depth in writing and preaching. After hearing the podcast I am especially anticipating drinking from the fountain of his insights forged over many years of faithful devotion...
Sinclair B. Ferguson, Some Pastors and Teachers: Reflecting a Biblical Vision of What Every Minister Is Called to Be . Banner of Truth, 2017. 796pp. Hardcover. I nterest in Puritanism has gained traction in the past fifty years or so. This has had mixed results. On the one hand, the resurgence of...
Sinclair Ferguson is associate minister at Saint Peter’s Church in Dundee, Scotland. He’s a long-time professor of theology, a former member of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals council, and author of numerous works, including Some Pastors and Teachers, which is the subject of today’s...
Joel Wood
Where you going, Dad? This question, above all others, comes from the lips of my now 10 year old son. He has always, from his earliest days, been keenly aware when I’m walking out the door, or even looking like I might walk out of the door. Then, it comes: “Where you going, Dad?” With pastoral work...
It is fitting that Christians should love the springtime of the soul, the bodily resurrection that will come in God’s time. But how much do we really know about the resurrection? Children often ask, “Will I know my mommy and daddy in heaven?” Wives want to know what kind of relationship, if any,...
As Reformed churches face an array of social challenges and pastoral concerns, I have found the idea spreading that we must "do" doctrine pastorally. That is, we must decide the Bible's teaching based on how we think it will impact our hearers. Most recently, we see this occurring with respect to...
Many Americans are still marrying but an increasing number are not. So, why aren’t people getting married these days? Recently, I was reading an article by a secular psychologist who offered several reasons for what he called the decline of marriage. First, new economic realities for women have...
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire... [1] Though this is arguably the most famous sermon ever preached on American soil, Jonathan Edwards preached just as much—if not more frequently—on the anticipated joys of heaven as...
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to...