Jonathan Shradar

"Grant me to rest on thy power and faithfulness, and to know that there are two things worth living for: to further thy cause in the world, and to do good to the souls and bodies of men; This is my ministry, my life, my prayer, my end. Grant me grace that I shall not fail." - from the Valley of Vision

One of the things we are up to... [vimeo http://vimeo.com/54233439]

This is from The Gospel-Centered Life , a group study on how to live in response to the gospel. And it is good enough I wanted to share it with you. "Pause and answer this question: as God thinks of you right now, what is the look on his face? " "Do you picture God as disappointed? Angry? Indifferent? Does his face say "Get your act together!" or "If only you could do a little more for me!" If you imagined God as anything but overjoyed with you, you have fallen into a performance mindset. Because the gospel truth is that in Christ, God is deeply satisfied with you. In fact, based on Jesus' work, God has adopted your as his own son or daughter (Gal. 4:7)! But when we fail to root our identity in what Jesus has done for us, we slip into performance-driven Christianity..." This makes us uncomfortable - admit it! But it is true; if we are in Christ, God is overjoyed with us. He is deeply satisfied with you. That is rich and should be the basis fr

"Autonomous Christianity never works, because our spiritual life was designed by God to be a community project." - Paul David Tripp in Dangerous Calling . While this quote is in the context of a pastor being in community so he might grow in grace, this is a good word for all of us. This week as we endeavor to be thankful and spend time with our families, let us think rightly of the new family we are part of in Christ. And let's be about building this family.

What is the role of a pastor? I often wonder how I should answer this question for myself doing ministry and for those thinking of being vocationally involved in the church. While I might be called a "director" the reality is that I do pastoral ministry so I must fully contemplate what that means so I can venture to do it better. In my short time in ministry I am learning that pastoral ministry has two key functions: Proclamation and Presence. First proclamation. This word pretty clearly is defined by "preaching" and teaching. But I want to suggest that it is vitally important what we preach and anything less than the gospel of Jesus is in fact not proclamation and instead entertainment, condemnation or simply empty rhetoric. Those we are called to shepard are in need of the proclaimed truth of who Jesus is and what that means for our lives. The world around them declares plenty of platitudes and tells plenty of silly jokes. Pastor, you are called to proclaim the tr