First Thoughts

In light of the strong response to my essay, Priests in the Garden, Zombies in the Wilderness, and Prophets on the Wall: The Current State of the Contemporary Biblical Counseling Movement, I want to share a few observations about what I am thinking, what I intend, and where we go from here. Peeling Back the Metaphor My essay makes a very clear argument that I develop in four stages. I express my concern that the biblical counseling movement has been infiltrated by people who are syncretizing se…

David Powlison, Counter-Conversion, and The Biblical Counseling Movement The contemporary biblical counseling movement is in a significant state of transition. After a half-century of development and growth, most of the established leaders are gone, and newer ones are seeking to influence the contemporary conversation. At this very moment, our movement is discerning whose voices will be dominant and which institutions and organizations will have future influence. The voices in this transition a…

In recent years, corporal punishment has received a resounding rejection from most Americans. The “Gentle Parenting” movement has erupted in reaction to wrongful uses of spanking, and it has caused many to forsake spanking altogether. Large organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations have released statements condemning “any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light.” The American Psychol…

When we read God’s Word, we see that the grace we need for all of these days, whether we’re in our early adult years or farther along in our life here on earth, is a gift from God. God is the giver of grace (James 5:6). There is an old hymn that I love very much. It is named “He Giveth Again.” I want to tell you a little of the story of the hymn writer of this hymn, Annie Johnson Flint. Annie had been born on Christmas Eve, 1866, in Vineland, N.J., to parents Eldon and Jean Johnson, and they lo…

Because God Raises Up Authority, Leaders Must Lead with Selflessness, and Followers Must Submit with Joy We live in a day of massive exposure to harsh and corrupt leaders. We usually don’t make it more than a few weeks before hearing another painful story of cruel and abusive leadership that left wounds and destruction in its wake. This environment makes leadership hard for everyone. Leadership is hard for wounded and suspicious sheep who wonder who they can trust. It is always hard for faithfu…

The Presence of a Preference Is Not an Argument to Pursue It When any team member departs a church staff, it is always painful, but years ago, we experienced a departure that nearly split the church. The trauma was not because the person who left was highly effective, profoundly influential, or was more loved than anyone else. In fact, he was strongly divisive and deeply controversial. The reality that nearly killed the church was the sinful way this man behaved in the lead-up to and in the aft…

Because We Want People to Be Patient with Our Weaknesses, We Must Be Patient with Theirs I hate to brag, but I imagine I have broken the world record of senior pastors who’ve had the most brain surgeries. I’ve had six since coming to First Baptist. No one has ever said they’ve had more. My surgeries have been to correct blood vessels applying pressure to nerves in my brain, which create pain and spasms throughout my body. The surgeries have not come about because of anything that is my fault bu…

We Will Always Assume the Best of Another’s Actions, Words, and Motivations Until Evidence forces Another Conclusion A Staff Mess Conversations can be complicated on ministry staffs. Years ago, a staff member at First Baptist asked for my plan about his boss’s future. That would have been an inelegant question at any point, but in this case, it was positively awkward. Recently, our leadership team had decided his boss was a great man who was poorly placed. Everyone wanted to keep him on the tea…

We will never speak critically about someone without a plan to help them Gossip consists of critical comments made about another person without a plan to help them. At First Baptist, our ministry staff is not allowed to talk this way. I hope this is true for your ministry team as well. To help you understand why, I want to tell you ten true statements about gossip. 1. Gossip Is Very Damaging When I first came to First Baptist, there was a terrible problem with gossip. It seemed that everyone ta…

When We Discover a Problem, We Will Neither Deny It Nor Complain About It But Seek to Resolve It All Ministries Experience Trouble The Apostle Paul wrote the book of Philippians while locked up in prison. He was being unjustly held for a crime he never committed, and you would think—even expect—that such treatment made him bitter. It didn’t. In fact, he wrote to us from prison and gave one of the most amazing instructions ever handed down by a convict, “Do all things without grumbling or disput…