It’s Not About You by Eric Landry

FROM TABLETALK | March 2012

After a particularly difficult marriage counseling session early in my first year of ministry, I called a mentor to debrief and decompress. He patiently heard me out and then offered a convicting assessment: “It sounds as if you’re more …Read More

From Pastor to President: An Interview with Philip Graham Ryken by Philip Ryken

FROM TABLETALK | November 2011

Tabletalk: How did you make the difficult decision to leave the pastorate and enter the academy as president of Wheaton College? Philip Graham Ryken: When the time finally came, making the decision was unexpectedly easy. Eventually God’s will became …Read More

The Pastor and the Funeral by Harry Reeder

FROM TABLETALK | October 2011

The subject I have been asked to write about was one of my greatest fears upon entrance into pastoral ministry. But today I consider it one of my greatest privileges. Why? Because of the historicity and glorious message of the …Read More

Happy Pastors by C.J. Mahaney

FROM TABLETALK | September 2011

As the star of the television series Dirty Jobs, Mike Rowe suits up and labors in some of the most dirty and dangerous work environments possible. To date, he hasn’t tried pastoring. But pastoring qualifies as a dirty job …Read More

Apostolic Anxiety by Kevin DeYoung

FROM TABLETALK | August 2011

Second Corinthians 11:28 always seemed like a strange verse to me — until I became a pastor. Here’s Paul, rattling off all the ways he’s been beat up for Jesus — imprisonments, lashes, rods, stonings, shipwrecks, drifting at sea …Read More

Don’t Waste Your Cancer: An Interview with Matt Chandler by Matt Chandler

FROM TABLETALK | July 2011

Tabletalk: By way of offering a brief introduction of yourself and your family, when was God’s call to serve His people confirmed for you? Matt Chandler: I think my story is a bit strange in that my awareness of …Read More

An Outpost of Jesus’ Kingdom: An Interview with Mark Driscoll by Mark Driscoll

FROM TABLETALK | May 2011

Tabletalk: What do you believe is the ultimate purpose of the church? Mark Driscoll: The biblical marks of the church universally and its expressions locally are many (for example, the Word, sacraments, discipline, discipleship, mission/evangelism, love), but their overarching …Read More

Ministering by the Life-Giving Spirit by David Hall

FROM TABLETALK | March 2011

Following a 1970s Jesus Movement conversion, I served in youth ministry, where I subjected poor students to nearly every fad imaginable — all, I told myself, to have young people come to Christ. I then served as a pastor, an office …Read More

Self-Centered Sermons by Sean Michael Lucas

FROM TABLETALK | February 2011

Our Son in the Unfaith, We see that you are making progress with your charge. We applaud you for that. The enemy has enough minions preaching His infernal Word faithfully; to see this one begin to totter and swerve from …Read More

Anti-Shepherds by George Grant

FROM TABLETALK | February 2011

Our Dear Asag, Remember: our abysmal sublimity does not so much want to tear down “godly” ways as to build up his own. From the apex of temptation in the garden to the present, his conspiratorial plot has always been …Read More

Unregrettable, Hard Words by Burk Parsons

2 Corinthians 7:8–9 “For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it …Read More

Congregational Counseling by Eric Bancroft

FROM TABLETALK | December 2010

Premarital counseling can be an entertaining exercise for an older couple offering guidance to a younger couple. Across from them sit two individuals eager to wed. Apart from occasional disagreements about planning the ceremony, the soon-to-be-newlyweds are prone to think …Read More

High Crimes and Misdemeanors by Carl Trueman

FROM TABLETALK | August 2010

Some years ago I caused no little consternation when I was invited to speak at a church on the nature of ministry and started my lecture by declaring that it really did not matter if the pastor was an adulterer …Read More

The Fine Line by Nicholas Batzig

FROM TABLETALK | July 2010

Every Christian is to have a conscience singularly informed by the Word of God, but it is utterly indispensable for the minister of the gospel. Ministers are called to take a stand for truth before those who oppose the Word …Read More

He Who Has Ears… by Scott Anderson

FROM TABLETALK | April 2010

Everyone loves a story. Whether young or old, we all enjoy hearing, reading, or seeing a good story unfold. Stories are remarkably powerful things. They stir-up our imaginations and excite our affections. They instruct us and inspire us. They intoxicate …Read More