Feeding & Leading Archives < Oklahoma Baptists

PAUSE (Pt. 2)

In my years of ministry as a pastor, some of the most important things I was a part of were meetings about the Bride of Christ. Working with committees, teams, staff, deacons to determine God’s will for the situation strongly influences the future of churches. Taking the time to Pause and follow...

PAUSE

Our practice for forgiveness to others reflects what we think and understand about God’s forgiveness. When you get to the heart of the Gospel it is all about forgiveness. Because of Jesus sacrifice and death on the cross we can be forgiven when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior. ...

7 A’s of Confession

Living at peace with God, ourselves, and others is essential for our witness for Christ. Everything God does He does in love. He is always working things out for the good. Even in the midst of conflict, if we allow Him to, He will work things out for our good. Acts 2:23 reminds us that God is...

How to SERVE People

In the book Discovering Relational Wisdom by Ken Sande we are called to serve by living the Acronym SERVE S is for SMILE. E is for explore and empathize R is for Reconcile V is for Value E is for encourage. We are called to put wind under the wings of every person we meet. Let’s Start with a...

The Four G’s of Peacemaking

We live in a world of conflict. It is on the news every day, nations in conflict with other nations and neighbors living in conflict with each other. We find conflict in or own families. We even find conflict within our churches. Everywhere you turn you find conflict. Conflict occurs when we...

How to READ Your Emotions

One of the most important things we did as young children was learning to read. We would be severely handicapped if we had never learned to read. So many things we enjoy doing today we would not be able to do if we had not learned to read words. Think about it. In the same way if we want to be...

Practicing SOG

How do you become proficient in anything? As with so many things, the answer is simple but not easy. The path to proficiency is through practice. Reflection is important in peacemaking. Discussion is often helpful in conflict resolution. But in the end practice is the key to living a life marked...

Three Gospel Relationships

When I was in elementary school, our classrooms were heated by a boiler. It would heat water to the point of steam which would then travel through pipes to a radiator and heat the room. This is literally an “old school” method of heating. One day our class was allowed to go to the...

Dimensions

Humor me for a moment. Let’s play a word association game. I’ll say a word and you respond with a word that comes to mind when you hear my word. Ready? Here’s the word: relationship. What comes to mind? The average American would likely associate that word with other people. Relationships are...

Using Emotions Wisely in Pastoral Ministry

In the last article, I began an examination of 8 essentials of core human emotions to harness their energy in practicing relational wisdom. There, we saw God’s design in our emotions, their complexity, and how they can drive our behaviors. Let’s turn our attention to the final 4 essentials as the...

Reading Scripture Publicly

The Associate Pastor slowly meandered to the pulpit. The congregation could nearly hear the second hand on the clock ticking it took so long as the...