Pastor Resources Podcast

Pastorresources.com
Pastor Resources Podcast Podcast

For 17 years, Pastor Resources has been serving those who serve the church. By presenting resources to pastors from like-minded organizations, as well as providing guidance from proven leaders in ministry, we connect pastors with the tools they need to succeed. The JCA Company was founded on the principle that the revival and renewal of the church in America is vital. We hope to be used as an instrument to catalyze that movement.

  1. Leaning Toward Unity

    25/06/2021

    Leaning Toward Unity

    Outrage. Perhaps no other word better captures the spirit of our times, the wildfire in society that keeps roaring back with more and more fuel. It can deplete all our energy for quieter work, draw us away from the still small voice of God, and seem impossible to overcome. It spreads from social conflict to interpersonal relationships, disrupting community in the home, church, and workplace. How can pastors help their congregations reimagine a way forward, one that hammers their swords into plowshares (Isaiah 2:4, nlt) and leads to lasting unity? Eugene Peterson translates those Isaiah verses further by stating, “He will show us the way he works so we can live the way we’re made (The Message).” The way we’re made. Yes—we are designed to heal, not to fester in our wounds. We are meant to be made whole through Christ and his church. One way God shows us how he works is in the way he created our physical selves. Our bodies have simple yet elegant systems in place to promote restoration and recovery, rather than rupture and limitation, when we are wounded. Can we live the way we’re made by following the example of the body, made in the image of God? Might this be particularly appropriate for Christian community as we are called the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27, nlt)? In Designed to Heal, we encounter the persistent, orderly stages of physical wound healing. Clotting, inflammation, new growth, and return to function—even if through scarring—are portrayed through poignant patient stories illustrating each phase of healing. Chapters reflect how a particular aspect of physical healing can be a model for relational healing.  Inflammation, it turns out, is a necessary and helpful process. After clotting comes to the rescue, inflammatory cells get to work cleaning up the wound site. Just the right amount of pressure is applied by their work to prevent further damage. They identify debris that doesn’t belong and swallow it up. But then they get out of the way so new growth can begin. If the inflammatory stage goes awry and those cells don’t get a clear signal to stop their work, good tissue gets hurt. Healing stops.  Jennie A. McLaurin is a writer and physician with degrees in medicine, public health, and theology. Her book, Designed to Heal: What the Body Shows Us about Healing Wounds, Repairing Relationships, and Restoring Community (coauthored with Cymbeline T. Culiat), releases in August 2021.

    4 min
  2. Lessons Of The Lockdown

    25/06/2021

    Lessons Of The Lockdown

    The term "lockdown," is now associated with the attempt to slow or stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus.  The virus is real, the risks are real, and the lessons learned from the lockdowns are real.   Some of the lessons learned were intended, others were not.  There is legitimate debate about the efficacy of the lockdown, the wearing of masks, and social distancing.  One thing is not debatable, the lessons learned are real, but many of the unintended lessons may be the most real, and the most unsettling. For example, we have learned that: Infants and small children have difficulty processing emotions and perceptions without the benefit of full facial expressions, Children deprived of diverse social interactions do not develop as healthy interpersonal skills as children participating in actual group settings, A virtual world is a flat-screen world without the depth of experience filled with the normal nuances of human life, Personal isolation can quickly morph into feelings of distress, distrust, and fear with real harmful psychological and physiological consequences, People can be divided into two classes, those who comply, and those who do not.  Those who comply care about others, and those  who do not are a threat, The elderly, infirm and otherwise physically vulnerable can be protected from friends, and family for their so-called "own good," to the point that they live and even die essentially in isolation from the very thing they need most - the presence of the ones they love, When people die, there is no obligation for a full funeral.  A small group of essential personnel can perform a truncated (or online) service,  Cremation is a cost-saving, and efficient way to dispose of the body,

    5 min
  3. Man Of The Millennium

    25/06/2021

    Man Of The Millennium

    n the years leading up to the turn of the century (1996-1999), several publications ran “Man of the Millennium” features, presenting various candidates for the title. TIME Magazine featured extensive reports on various candidates, Einstein, Newton, etc. Theirs was perhaps the most closely watched process, and when the winner was revealed (as “Person of the Millennium”), the TIME Magazine laureate was Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1400-1468), inventor of the moveable-type printing press. It was to be expected, I suppose, that media people would choose someone who enabled their craft in a remarkable way. And truly, modern literature, scholarship, reporting, propaganda, advertising, and spam all owe a great debt to Gutenberg’s invention. The trouble is, Gutenberg had nothing to say. The purpose of printing, after all, is to utter something of value (to someone) in an inexpensive and easily distributable way. Luther took great advantage of the printing press: at his death (1546), according to some estimates, over 700,000 copies of various of Luther’s writings were in circulation, having a profound effect on the Protestant Reformation. Since then, the printing press has accelerated literacy, scholarship, and cultural cohesion everywhere, and the story has not yet ended. But from Gutenberg himself—silence. And from the printing press itself, also—silence. The printing press only has meaning if someone uses it to say something. Such inventions, no matter how clever, do not change societies—ideas do. So, it seems to me that the Man of the Millennium should be someone who proposed ideas that changed the society of the second millennium. Of course, you know all the popular candidates—Luther, Newton, Jefferson, Nietzsche, Einstein, etc. Let me propose one from a little earlier, one whose influence still resounds above all the others today: John Wycliffe (1320?-1384). Robert McAnally Adams is a retired mathematician and curator of The Christian Quotation of the Day. See cqod.com

    6 min

About

For 17 years, Pastor Resources has been serving those who serve the church. By presenting resources to pastors from like-minded organizations, as well as providing guidance from proven leaders in ministry, we connect pastors with the tools they need to succeed. The JCA Company was founded on the principle that the revival and renewal of the church in America is vital. We hope to be used as an instrument to catalyze that movement.

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