The Everyday Pastor

How do you pastor people who consistently drain your time, create relational tension, or seem to make every issue their issue? Matt Smethurst and Ligon Duncan talk candidly about the challenge of shepherding difficult sheep. They discuss church members who lack social awareness, monopolize pastoral attention, become fixated on a particular cause, struggle to get along with others, or expect their personal ministry passion to become the church’s priority. If you're ready to go deeper, Southern Seminary's PhD program is where that begins. Visit sbts.edu/phd to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Pastoral ministry can be deeply joyful, but it can also be profoundly discouraging. What happens when the church isn’t growing, conflict won’t resolve, your family is hurting, or one difficult relationship begins to overshadow everything else?  RESOURCES MENTIONED: The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis Developing the Hide of a Rhinoceros by Peter Barnes Letters of John Newton by John Newton Slogging Along in the Paths of Righteousness by Dale Ralph Davis The Clay Pot Conspiracy by Dave Harvey If you're ready to go deeper, Southern Seminary's PhD program is where that begins. Visit sbts.edu/phd to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How should a pastor decide what to preach next, and how far ahead should he plan? Matt Smethurst and Ligon Duncan discuss the pastoral wisdom behind planning a preaching calendar, from choosing books of the Bible and balancing the Old and New Testaments to determining the length and pace of a sermon series. They explain why planning ahead doesn’t quench the Spirit, how expositional preaching protects pastors from their own hobby horses, and why the goal isn’t simply filling Sundays with sermons but faithfully feeding God’s people over time. RESOURCES MENTIONED: Prepare Your People For Sunday [The Everyday Pastor - Ep. 16] When Pain Is Real and God Seems Silent by Ligon Duncan The Treasury of David by C. H. Spurgeon The Message of the Old Testament by Mark Dever The Message of the New Testament by Mark Dever If you're ready to go deeper, Southern Seminary's PhD program is where that begins. Visit sbts.edu/phd to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What does it actually take to plant a healthy church?  Matt Smethurst and Ligon Duncan discuss the joys, challenges, and realities of church planting. Drawing from Matt’s experience planting River City Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, they explore everything from assessing a call to church planting and gathering a core team to fundraising, developing leaders, and cultivating a healthy church culture.   RESOURCES MENTIONED: Planting by Pastoring by Nathan Knight Church Planting Thresholds by Clint Clifton Why Plant Churches? by Tim Keller New Churches Podcast  | ”Zero Year” | Season 1 | Episode 655 Church Planting Journals by IX Marks If you're ready to go deeper, Southern Seminary's PhD program is where that begins. Visit sbts.edu/phd to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How do pastors faithfully preach the gospel in every sermon without forcing Jesus into passages where he doesn’t belong? Matt Smethurst and Ligon Duncan tackle one of the most important questions in pastoral ministry: How do you preach Christ from all of Scripture? They discuss preaching Jesus from the Old Testament, avoiding moralistic preaching, applying the gospel faithfully, and helping sermons move beyond information into transformation. Ligon shares lessons learned from Mark Dever about making sure every sermon clearly proclaims Christ, while Matt explains why sermons that would still work if Jesus were “still in the grave” aren’t truly Christian sermons. They explore how pastors can preach the gospel naturally from Genesis to Revelation without flattening the Bible’s storyline.   RESOURCES MENTIONED: Sermon Application Grid by IX Marks CSB Connecting Scripture New Testament by Holman Preaching Christ in Every Sermon with Bryan Chapell [The Everyday Pastor - Ep. 5] The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson If you're ready to go deeper, Southern Seminary's PhD program is where that begins. Visit sbts.edu/phd to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.