Comments on: A Favorite Gospel Word

By: Matthew Robert Payne

Matthew Robert Payne — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:56:56 +0000

I hwas recently in a mental ward and it is so good when people from church come to visit to you. “I was sick and you visited me”

By: Chaplain Mike

Chaplain Mike — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 03:45:12 +0000

Had an interesting visit with a new patient’s wife the other day. The patient has had Alzheimers for a few years, and they moved back from Florida so that she could be near family. She was also able to reconnect with the evangelical church she had been very involved with, thinking they would be of help to her. The church had changed pastors. Since they’ve been back (a few years now), the pastor has NEVER visited. Nor has anyone at the church offered in any way to help her. They know and understand the situation but have never taken any initiative to see how they might serve her.

Needless to say, she’s changed churches.

By: Patrick Lynch

Patrick Lynch — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 05:24:45 +0000

That’s wild.

By: mick

mick — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:00:55 +0000

Yes, she is both inspiring and convicting. But she also had her struggles and her limits which also inspire and encourage us.
“Maybe we need to stop dwelling on ourselves so much: it might be the very thing that is draining us of our strength.”
I think you are so very right in this statement. A journey each of us must make but it would be amazing to be in the midst of thousands (or a few) who were devoted to “I must decrease but He must increase”. It’s interesting that Mother T also appears to have had her bouts of self absorption like many saints of old. They seem to have received the grace not to live there or chose to live sacrificially inspite of such thoughts.

By: Christiane

Christiane — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:22:37 +0000

I think about Mother Theresa, all of four foot eleven inches, AND with a bad heart, lifting the dying out of the gutters of Calcutta. Where she got the strength ? . . . maybe it was because she let the Lord Christ come so deeply into her life ?
And when the doctors told her she had to stop her activities, she didn’t.
Draining? Oh no. She would turn around and go out and do it all over again. Day after day, year after year.
even if it is said that faith can move mountains, we can still wonder how a tiny nun with a diseased heart and badly deformed feet, can physically lift a grown man out of a gutter.
Maybe we need to stop dwelling on ourselves so much: it might be the very thing that is draining us of our strength.

By: Chaplain Mike

Chaplain Mike — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:08:17 +0000

“Ranchers” is not my own language, but a term specifically promoted by those who introduced the Church Growth Movement in the 1970′s. It was their way of saying that the church must adopt American corporate management structures in order to grow big congregations.

By: greg r

greg r — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:03:49 +0000

oh my yes….ALL my excuses are ‘eminently biblical’; typically it’s not a bible study that brings me around: it’s somebody doing the bible minus the microphone and hoopla, and usually unaware that anyone is watching.

You are pretty darn good for a stand in, BTW. must have been a good ‘draft year’.

Greg R

By: Patrick Lynch

Patrick Lynch — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:00:40 +0000

‘Pastors became â€œranchers,â€ not â€œshepherds.â€ Church staffs began to grow and terms like â€œsenior pastor,â€ â€œexecutive pastor,â€ and â€œpreaching/teaching pastorâ€ described the CEO at the head, whose job description changed from â€œministering to the peopleâ€ to â€œcasting the visionâ€.”

This is a fascinating description for the historically minded; I wonder if it will stand as an accurate summation for the preachers of our time? “Ranchers”, not “Shepherds”.

By: Patrick Lynch

Patrick Lynch — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:49:12 +0000

Why is it draining, and not a source of strength?

I don’t mean to ask disrespectfully or to question your skill or commitment, just wondering – I mean, I ‘get’ why people needing help aren’t friends and a source of strength for us. It’s the ultimate rhetorical question for me..

By: Chaplain Mike

Chaplain Mike — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:21:33 +0000

Again, please remember that my post was NOT just about pastoral visitation. Of course the congregation should be involved. The issue is church culture and ethos, not simply who does what.