David W. Manner's Blog: Worship Evaluation, page 3
November 22, 2021
Some Church Members Are Losing Their Minds
Jesus’s greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and also to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:30- 31). Paul’s exhortation to the church at Philippi was that if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. And what you have learned and received and heard and seen in him – practice those things (Phil 4:8-9).
Congregants who use their minds are able to approach their church relationships and ministries with humility, discernment, and...
November 15, 2021
Pastor, Who Is Holding Your Rope?
Free solo climbing or free soloing is climbing without safety ropes, harnesses, protective gear, or the assistance of other climbers. The free soloist relies only on his or her own strength, ability, and mental determination. Before he died in a climbing accident, British free solo climber Derek Hershey told the New York Times: “Observers think [I’ve] got a death wish. But there’s nothing else that makes me feel so alive. . . When you’re free soloing, you can’t afford distractions. You concentra...
November 9, 2021
Your Church Staff Deserves a Raise
Most church staff members would agree that the last eighteen months have been the hardest of their entire ministry career. It wasn’t the nightmare of having to create online church on the fly or transitioning to a hybrid of online and in-person ministry that made this season the most difficult. In fact, most of those faithful staff members sacrificially stepped up to and handled those logistical and technological crises like the servants and professionals they are.
Instead, what made this seaso...
November 3, 2021
November 1, 2021
Pastor, Who’s Your Timothy?
Nearly four decades ago when I began my first full-time local church ministry position, Paul Williams served as one of the pastors of another church in our city. In my first week or two of this new ministry, Paul stopped by my office and didn’t ask, but instead told me he was going to pick me up the following Saturday to attend a ministry conference with him. This wizened ministry sage (he was probably 40) invested in a 24-year-old ministry novice not for what he could get from me, but what he ...
October 27, 2021
October 25, 2021
Ten Things Pastors Wish We Knew
Most of us don’t fully realize the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual demands required to serve as a pastor. We are often aware of the investments those in ministry have made in our own lives. What we don’t often calculate, however, is the cumulative time and energy those investments require when multiplied by the entire membership population of our congregation.
We depend on our pastors as personal counselors, mentors, leaders, friends, and spiritual advisors. They are the first ones...
October 18, 2021
We’re Talking about Practice
Worship that continues after we leave the Sunday service is always easier when things seem to be going our way. It’s easy to worship when we have a job we love, when our family is healthy, when we’re living in our dream home with a stable family, and when our finances are secure. But what about when the daily circumstances of life overwhelm us? Worship is our response to God’s revelation in the past and God’s continuous revelation in the present. God’s revelation is perpetual, meaning it doesn’...
