Ministering by the Life-Giving Spirit
"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 I have held for thirty years. Along the way, I have made many blunders — far too many to chronicle here. One mistake that I hope to avoid, however, is ministering with external methods that cannot give life."
This is what David Hall writes in his column for the current edition of Tabletalk. He goes on to suggest the remedy to this kind of temptation. "Over the last thirty years, I have noticed a great reduction among my repertoire of ministerial gimmicks, while reliance on a smaller number of powerful tools has significantly increased. One thing I’m pretty sure of: this pastor has very little to offer other than God’s Word, and the effectiveness of that depends on the work of the Holy Spirit."
Read about the source of Dr. Hall's confidence in ministry in Ministering by the Life-Giving Spirit.