Today we're discussing another listener's question. "How do you know when you're ready to be a lead pastor?" Pastoring requires a lot of responsibility and experience. Pastor Jim and I discuss our own transitions and what Pastor Jim has observed in others as they make that transition. We hope it offers some practical help to anyone seeking guidance on their next calling in ministry. 

The world around us is changing fast. Christians aren't called to live isolated from the world. We're supposed to be in the world but different from it. In our conversation today, Pastor Jim and I are exploring how to recognize the changing trends of culture and how, as Christians and pastors, we should engage the cultural questions of our day. 

We're in a short series answering listener questions. Today, we have a question about preparing a sermon. Pastor Jim and I explore how we go about studying a passage, preparing a sermon, and how new tools like AI are helping us study. We hope it's a helpful conversation for any preacher, teacher, or believer who is trying to study and better understand God's word. 

As part of our current series answering listener questions, we discuss how churches and pastors should think about power and authority. Authority is a hot topic in our culture and is often misused in our churches. We ask what scripture has to say about power and how we can handle it with wisdom and discernment in our churches and ministries. 

As we continue our series answering your questions, today we're talking preaching. One of the challenges of preaching can be finding your own voice. It's easy to sound like the preachers you listen to. In our conversation today, Pastor Jim discusses how to find your own voice and how long it takes to really feel comfortable in the pulpit. We hope it's a helpful conversation for anyone who finds themselves preaching regularly.

For many, transitions are a part of a lifetime of ministry, but how do you know when what you're feeling is your own restlessness vs a genuine call from God? In today's conversation, we're going to explore how to recognize God's call to a new place of ministry. Pastor Jim shares lessons he's learned from several of his transitions and offers advice for how to navigate your own. 

We're starting a new series answering listener questions. Special thanks to those who submitted questions. In today's episode, we talk about how we became Assemblies of God credential holders and what keeps us in the AG. We'll discuss some of the strengths of our movement and the challenges we face moving forward. 

In today's episode, we're wrapping up our conversations through the book A Sharp Compassion. If Jesus was willing to risk offending people, should we seek to offend people like Jesus did? How should we think about hard words and hard conversations? And does Jesus offer us wisdom for knowing when to risk offense? We'll explore how Christians and ministers should think about their own words of offense. 

As we continue our look at the book A Sharp Compassion, we unpack what it really means to follow Jesus. We've talked about how insecurity and imitation of this world draw us into offense, but in our conversation today, we'll discover how by imitating Jesus, we are freed from offense. We hope this conversation helps you focus your own life on following Jesus and being healed from insecurity and offense. 

In our conversation on A Sharp Compassion, we have been looking at what we've called the mechanism of offense, the complex series of emotions and desires that lead from insecurity to offense. In today's episode, we're looking at the final step of that process: accusation. We'll explore how insecurity moves us to accusation and how this spirit of accusation has consumed our modern culture. 

Over the past few episodes, we've been talking about the mechanism of offense. How insecurity creates idols and leads us into imitation. That imitation leaves us more insecure and desperate for affirmation. In today's episode, we're taking a look at why our culture is so desperate for affirmation and the temptation the church faces to offer grace as a cheap form of affirmation. We're continuing our conversation on the book A Sharp Compassion. 

As we continue our look at A Sharp Compassion, we come to the topic of imitation. With our attention fixed on an idol, we are drawn to imitating them. We become like what we worship. But imitation is more pressing than most realize. Wherever there is insecurity, there is a temptation to imitate the things of the world. We take a closer look at how Jesus freed his disciples from the things of the world and offered them a better form of imitation.

As we continue our discussion of the book A Sharp Compassion, we take a closer look at the consequences of our insecurity. Wherever there is an insecurity, there will inevitably be an idol, a hope for some salvation and security. We discuss how we become blind to idols in our hearts and how it often takes a hard word for us to recognize them. 

As we continue our discussion of the book A Sharp Compassion, we turn to the topic of insecurity. There is a deep connection between the feeling of offense and insecurity to which we are often blind. You might not have recognized it, but insecurity is one of the oldest themes in the Bible. In our conversation, we'll describe how insecurity works, how it is connected to offense, and why it's so hard for us to recognize. 

We're continuing our discussion around the topic of offense, based off of Chase's new book, A Sharp Compassion. In today's episode we track the theme of offense through the Old and New Testaments and discuss why the theme is often negelcted in our reading and theology. Through our conversation you'll come to not only better understand the biblical theme but also learn to recognize it in your own reactions. 

In this episode, we have a special conversation about the hard words of Jesus and how we should think about them in a world that is increasingly sensitive to offense. We discuss the idea of offense and how it appears in the Biblical gospels. We hope the conversation helps you better navigate hard conversations in your own life and leadership.

In the final episode of our Christmas conversations, we take a closer look at the shepherds and the magi who came to worship at the birth of Christ. We discuss how the Christmas season moves us to worship and how we can receive the incarnation anew this Christmas season. As we wrap up this year of conversations, we'd also like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

We're continuing our December conversations on the birth of Christ by taking a closer look at the scene of the nativity. While most of us have nativity sets in our homes, they don't always convey the full details the gospels record. We discuss how the night of Jesus' birth might have really looked and what it teaches us about the meaning of Jesus' coming into history and humanity. 

Over the next few weeks, we're taking a closer look at the Christmas story and why it matters to the story of Jesus. In this week's episode, we're looking at how the gospels begin and how the story of Jesus's birth connects the Old Testament story with the New Testament story. We hope these conversations through the Advent season will help you reflect more deeply on Christ's incarnation and deepen your worship of him.

We have spent the last 66 episodes working our way through each book of the Bible. In this week's episode, we take a closer look at the book of Revelation and the incredible way in which the Biblical story comes to a close. Pastor Jim helps set Revelation in its context and offers thought not only on its interpretation but on its application for believers today. 

We are coming close to the end of our conversations through the Bible. In this week's episode, we discuss the book of Jude. The next to last book of the Bible, Jude is often missed by readers of the Bible. Though it is not long, it gives us a fascinating look into the world of the early church and a compelling description of the work of discipleship. Pastor Jim helps us better understand the book, its history, and how it can guide believers today.

In this week's conversation, we're wrapping up our look at the letters of John. Pastor Jim offers an explanation of 3 John and its historical setting. It gives us the opportunity to talk about false teaching and the dangers of accumulating power as leaders. 

As we continue our conversations through the Bible, we come to the second letter of John. Though one of the shortest books in the New Testament, 2 John offers some important warnings to the Church. Pastor Jim helps us better understand the historical context of the letter and what we can learn from John's advice.

As we continue our conversations through the Bible, we come to three letters attributed to John. In today's episode, we explore John as an author and the unique time and setting of John's letters. It gives us a chance to see how the church was growing and the new challenges the church faced. Pastor Jim will help you apply John's first letter to your life as a believer and leader as well. 

In this week's episode, we continue our conversations through the Bible by discussing the book of 2 Peter. Last week, we had a chance to discuss the role of Peter in the New Testament; today, we dig deeper into his life and his second letter. Pastor Jim explores the book's major themes and helps us reflect on lessons we can learn for today.