The apostle Paul’s solemn charge to Timothy was to “preach the Word.”
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. (2 Timothy 4:2)
Biblical preaching and teaching is the expounding of the Word of God to a world that needs to hear it. Of course, the gospel is our central message in preaching. But pastors are also to declare “all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) as the expound Scripture to their church family.
I have been preaching now for just over forty years. This is God’s calling on my life and is one of the great privileges of my ministry as a pastor as well as in training preachers at West Coast Baptist College.
In this episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, my son Larry and I discuss what biblical preaching is, how to rightly divide the Word of truth, and strategies for the practical implementation of study and delivery of messages. Whether you are a senior pastor, a Sunday school teacher, or a father sharing God’s Word with your children, I believe our discussion will provide scriptural context and relevant ideas for expounding the Word of God.

Pastors are surrounded by stress-inducing circumstances. Whether it be the uncivil culture in which we minister, family burdens, financial pressure, dealing with problems in the church, or any number of other factors, stress is a daily reality for pastors.
But if stress is a daily realty for pastors, the availability of God’s grace is too. Jesus told us, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
In this new episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, I share eight practical ways to appropriate God’s grace in dealing with pastoral stress. Whether you are a pastor or serve in ministry in any capacity, I pray this episode will be a help and an encouragement to you.

A few days ago, our church hosted our annual World Impact Missions Conference. One of our guests here for the conference was Dr. Kevin Folger, who is the North American Director for Spiritual Leadership Asia.

The Spiritual Leadership Asia initiative has grown as God has continued to open amazing doors of opportunity for ministry in some of the most spiritually-needy places of the world. In this short bonus episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, Dr. Folger and I discuss the three aspect of Spiritual Leadership Asia and share how you can pray for billions of souls in the 10/40 window who need the gospel.

Every church has core values, but not every church has written them down. And actually, it wasn’t until several years ago that I and some of the other leaders in our church worked on writing our core values. Both the process and the product proved to be a helpful exercise and tool. Today, we have our core values visibly displayed and give them to each new member. They are a key way that we communicate the philosophy of ministry and goal for the body life of our church family.
Whether you are a church planter or have been pastoring for many decades, clarifying the core values of a church is beneficial at any stage. As ministries mature, sometimes clutter in purpose and goals builds. Creating a written list of core values can be an aligning tool that helps bring a renewed focus on the church’s doctrine and philosophy of ministry.
In this episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, my son Larry and I discuss the process that went into developing and sharing the core values of Lancaster Baptist Church as well as walking through the core values we presented to our church family.

At a recent California for Christ meeting, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Alan Fong, Robbie Yapp, and James Kim to discuss the need for and challenges of church planting.
It was our joy nearly twenty-five years ago to help Pastor Fong in planting Heritage Baptist Church in San Leandro, CA. It was a blessing to me then in this discussion to join with Pastor Fong to encourage a new generation of church planters on their journey. Robbie Yapp and James Kim are preparing to plant new churches in Los Angeles and Orange Counties here in Southern California next year.
In this episode of the podcast, the four of us discuss several topics that relate to sending out church planters and being a church planter including the biblical model of church planting shown in Acts 13, the kinds of churches that get involved in planting other churches, the church planter’s heart for God, the spiritual pressure on a pastor, the need to refresh your spirit in the Lord, developing a calendar for your first year, disciplining your time, establishing convictions and training faithful leaders in a new church, and how the gospel penetrates a liberal culture.
If you are involved in any aspect of church planting—whether as a supporting pastor, a sending church, a church planter, or praying about God’s direction to plant a church—I pray this episode will be an encouragement and help to you.
(For more information on the California for Christ initiative mentioned in this episode, visit CA4Christ.org.)