Winter 2011
Toward Excellence In Life And Ministry
Are there vital parts of your life and ministry that are out of balance and not getting the best of your time and energy? Successfully executing a balanced life is always more difficult than planning one. The secret to a strong, healthy, and fruitful ministry lies in how you bring balance to five dimensions of your life: spiritual, emotional intellectual, relational, and physical. Giving priority to each of these areas will go a long way in fixing an imbalanced life and ministry.
Moreover, as the complexities of modern living increase, the challenges facing the minister become even more problematic. The persona of the minister’s role can be vastly different, in essence, from who the minister is as a person. Therefore, much of the discussion of this issue of Enrichment will center on the successful balance and integration of the minister’s public ministry and his private life.
Read thought-provoking articles by Mark Batterson, James T. Bradford, Warren D. Bullock, Henry Cloud, Scott Hagan, Byron Klaus, H. B. London, Dallas Willard, Neil B. Wiseman, Dennis Rainey, and others.
Theme Articles
Introduction: Aspire to Greatness
Rick Knoth
Personal Soul Care
Dallas Willard
Will you take time to do what is necessary for an abundant life and an abundant ministry, or will you try to get by without it?
Interview: Toward Excellence in Life and Ministry
Richard Dresselhaus, Dick Foth, John Lindell
Three leaders share practical insights combined with profound spiritual wisdom that will deepen, enrich, and strengthen your ministry for the long haul.
Get a Life: Creating and Sustaining a Personal Life Vision
Mark Batterson
Here are five principles that will help you discover and define your personal life vision.
Becoming Strong Again: How To Regain Your Emotional Health
Richard D. Dobbins
Here are some suggestions for getting out from under the unbearable yoke and the insufferable burden of ministry overload.
Necessary Endings, Pruning, and the Balanced Life
Henry Cloud
Are there vital parts of your life and ministry that are out of balance and not getting the best of your time and energy? If so, you may need some pruning. Here are three wake-up questions to ask.
Caring for Your Intellect: A “Both-And” Approach to Leadership Development and Effectiveness
Byron Klaus
A leader’s life may have some value that others can easily observe, but not nearly the long-term influence that is possible if he sharpens his intellect and develops it to its full potential.
Caring For Your Body: A Ministers Guide to Long-term Health and Wellness
James T. Bradford
North American churches have in common not only the Cross and a love of Christ, but also a pastorate whose health is fast becoming cause for concern. Here are three simple, albeit difficult, areas to focus on — rest, diet, and exercise.
Caring for Your Family: How Not to Lose the Battle at Home
Dennis Rainey
How to make your home a visual sermon the sheep in your flock will welcome and never forget.
Eliminating Obstacles to a Healthy Ministry
H.B. London
How should we deal with those characteristics and flaws that Satan can and will use to keep us in bondage and even despair? Here are eight steps to healing and deliverance.
Chair No. 3: What a Leader Must Do To Get to the Next Level and Take Others With Him
Scott Hagan
More than trends, here are four traits of next-level leaders and next-level churches.
Relationally Based Ministry: Connecting From the Bottom Up
Warren D. Bullock
If relationships are so important to our spiritual health, ministerial longevity, and our families, why do some ministers live in relative isolation?
Coming Out of the Desert — He Restores My Soul!
David Horner
When spiritual dryness hits, we should not delay in developing a plan of action to be replenished with the living water of Christ.
IN CLOSING
The Bible in 7 Words
George P. Wood
From the General Superintendent
Excellence in Prayer
George O. Wood
No matter what our age, our years of Christian service, our maturity in ministry, we will always need to keep growing in the exercise and discipline of prayer.
Column Articles
THEOLOGICAL ENRICHMENT
Apostasy and Backsliding: Biblical Synonyms?
W.E. Nunnally
MANAGING THE MAYHEM OF MINISTRY
Seven Skills for Fair Fighting in the Fellowship
Cal Lemon
MOVING LEADERS FORWARD
Teams in Turmoil: Coaching Your Team Through Conflict
Glenn Reynolds
Run Well…Finish Well
Abstinence From Whine: Optimistic Leaders Go the Distance
Scott Hagan
Dealing With Doubters
The Grand Design — Truth Or Fiction?
William Lane Craig
MINISTRY AND MEDICAL ETHICS
Human Enhancement: Could Becoming Better Make Us Worse?
Christina M.H. Powell
Q&A FOR MINISTRY WIVES
I Feel Like a Failure
Gabriele Rienas
SOURDOUGH, AK
Season’s Bleatings
Torry “Moose” Martin and Jack Aiken
departments (Print edition only)
- Sermon Seeds
- Book Reviews
- News & Resources
- With Christ
- Advertising Index
