Articles for tag: The Vulnerable Pastor

September 25, 2018

Christian Standard

He’s Right Here

By Mandy Smith  Outsiders watching Christians take part in the Lord’s Supper over and over might feel sorry for us. We take a tiny piece of bread and a tiny sip of juice and remember someone who had a real meal with his friends a long time ago. It might seem foolish or sad that we keep doing this. “Jesus is gone,” they might say. “Move on.” But they don’t know what we know. We know that when Jesus left, he promised he would never leave. It’s a strange truth, but it’s what he said. Although he stopped walking around

September 11, 2018

Christian Standard

Jesus’ Controversial Approach to Food and Eating

By Mandy Smith Jesus often caused a stir, and it’s surprising how often food was at the center of things. Whom he ate with caused controversy. When he ate and what he ate upset the religious leaders who seemed to be watching his every move. Mark 2 provides various examples. First the Pharisees judge Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners. And Jesus simply replies, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (v. 17). Then the Pharisees get upset with Jesus because he doesn’t

September 4, 2018

Christian Standard

Grandparent’s Day: Paving a Path to Communion

By Mandy Smith  We don’t know as much about Timothy as we do the apostle Paul, but we know Paul trusted Timothy deeply. Paul sent Timothy as his representative to churches he had planted. Paul listed Timothy as a co-sender of several of his letters, and the New Testament includes two letters Paul wrote directly to Timothy. In them, we get a picture of a trustworthy and incredibly faithful young leader who had an important role in the development of the early church. So it’s significant Paul remembered the source of Timothy’s faith. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul

October 18, 2017

Christian Standard

Lower Is Better

By Mandy Smith Mountaineer Joe Simpson tells his chilling story in the book and movie Touching the Void. Thousands of feet up the side of the 20,814-foot Siula Grande mountain, Joe”s safety line was cut, leaving him to slide, with a broken leg, into a deep crevasse. After several desperate attempts to climb up and out of the crevasse, he realized his injury made that impossible. And so, against all survival instinct, he made the excruciating choice to lower himself deeper into the crevasse, in the hope that there would be other exits further down. All the time he was

October 4, 2017

Christian Standard

Out of Our Depth

By Mandy Smith   What makes you feel out of your depth? Starting a new job? Taking an exam? Having a child? So many situations in life force us to face the size of our own limitations. And when we do, we deal with those feelings of fear and inadequacy in our own ways””by running away, by working extra hard, by becoming anxious. Sometimes it”s not until after we”ve tried all those options that we finally stop to ask for help. But asking for help isn”t the first choice, because it requires us to admit to someone else, “I can”t

July 7, 2016

Christian Standard

Miracles, Marvels, and the Vulnerable Minister

By LeRoy Lawson The Miracle of Dunkirk Walter Lord New York: Open Road Media; for Kindle, 2012 The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon Brad Stone New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2013 The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry Mandy Smith Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2015 Just about everything I thought I knew about the “evacuation” of Dunkirk (read “retreat”) was wrong. Or at least wildly romanticized. I could picture the thousand-plus boats of all sizes and types crossing the English Channel to rescue soldiers fleeing for their lives from the Nazis. My mind”s eye saw them push up against the

April 8, 2016

Christian Standard

WHAT’S NEXT?: Remember the Spirit

We asked several Christian leaders, “What should churches served by CHRISTIAN STANDARD strive to be or do or look like in the next decades?” ____ By Mandy Smith We in the Christian churches have the Cane Ridge Revival in our history, but we”re not comfortable with the Holy Spirit. We”ve seen so many abuses of the Spirit that it”s easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater. So what would it look like to rediscover a scriptural approach to the Spirit”s work in our lives? I”m still learning this, but let me share two ways I”m stepping into it: 1. Guidance “But

February 12, 2016

Christian Standard

My Theology and My Approach to Pain

By Mandy Smith There are many ways we can horrify our dentists. I horrified mine last month by saying, “It”s OK if I have to live with the pain.” It was unthinkable for him, but in spite of his best efforts, I”m still left with a dull ache when I bite into an apple. I”m OK with that. We have become intolerant of pain””physical, emotional, and spiritual. Does that deny the opportunity God sees in pain? As a pastor, I often walk with people along the edge of emotional and spiritual pain. As they see it coming, it”s natural to

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