Sponsors
Recent comments
Current discussions
Top 10 Tips for Sleep Deprived Prayer (4 comments)
Taking ‘crazy’ one step closer to ‘can do’ (2 comments)
Stress-throwers and stress-absorbers (0 comments)
Recent posts
10 in 2 by Ben Pfahlert (6 comments). In January 2010 I set myself a goal that has transformed my diary, my thinking, my reading and the … more
Taking ‘crazy’ one step closer to ‘can do’ by Guest blogger (2 comments). Guest blogger Mikey Lynch, one of the directors of The Geneva Push, talks about the network's approach to … more
Top 10 Tips for Sleep Deprived Prayer by Jennie Baddeley (4 comments). There are so many reasons for losing sleep it's not really worth listing them. You're either getting enough sleep or you're … more
Stress-throwers and stress-absorbers by Jean Williams (0 comments). Are you a stress-thrower or a stress-absorber? A stress-thrower blames things on others and expresses stress in anger; a … more
‘Missional Lifestyle’: Education by Nicole Starling (11 comments). This is the fifth in Nicole's series on ‘missional lifestyle’. Read parts 1, 2, 3 … more
Why do we pray for others? by Scott Newling (1 comment). Learning to pray for others is one of the first things we learn as Christians: we see it commended … more
Forgiveness and repentance (part 8): Does God only forgive us when we repent? (ii) by Mark Baddeley (17 comments). (Read parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.) Does … more
The power of example by Peter Sholl (3 comments). Mexico in the 1940s was a country trying to come to grips with the 20th century. While discoveries of oil and … more
Forgiveness and repentance (part 7): Does God only forgive us when we repent? (i) by Mark Baddeley (29 comments). (Read parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.) We have been … more
The gospel to Greeks by Karen Beilharz (0 comments). For the past three Saturdays, we've been looking at contributions to the old Briefing ‘People in Ministry’ column, … more
Tony Payne
Paul is one of the Staff Editors at Matthias Media. He is married to Cathy and has three fantastic kids. He loves student ministry, reading, writing music and playing the saxophone, and is looking forward to meeting Jesus face to face.
Sola Panellists
Some other sites
we like (Why these?)
- Matthias Media
- The Briefing
- 9Marks
- Albert Mohler
- Anglican Church League
- challies
- David Ould
- ENTRUST
- EQUIP book club
- Girl Talk
- Gordon Cheng's Blog
- The Gospel Coalition
- Jean Williams's blog
- Justin Taylor
- Lionel Windsor
- Monergism
- Moore College
- MTS
- Nicole Starling's blog
- Phillip Jensen
- Pyromaniacs
- The Proclamation Trust
- Reformers' Bookshop
- The Simeon Trust
- The Ugley Vicar
This post confused me.
You asked people to think of “someone who is dedicated to prayerfully passing on the message of Christ to people”.
This is what every Christian should be. So I expected a post saying “look, you can do gospel ministry whatever your job and position in society”. The first two options on the list (mother and father) back up that principle.
But then most of the list is about people in salaried ministry/church/mission jobs. Are you trying to encourage everyone into overtly “Christian” work, whatever that is? Or have I misunderstood this post?
<i>So I expected a post saying “look, you can do gospel ministry whatever your job and position in society”. </i>
I’m not Ben, but the thought occurs that his list involves any job where the speaking of the gospel is the prime responsibility—which helps explain why ‘mother’ and ‘father’, although in my experience unpaid jobs, top the list.
The job of being a neurosurgeon or a street sweeper may well provide opportunities for speaking the gospel, but speaking the gospel is not one of the core responsibilities of such jobs. Indeed, when you sign on for some jobs it is quite possible that doing them diligently will involve not speaking at all.
Imagine what consequences might befall if the street sweeper was distracted by speaking. Her hand might slip just as she was about to remove a particular juicy dog offering, with terrible implications for health and safety.
(I was all set to give a non-sexist illustration involving a female neurosurgeon, but the last time someone operated on me they gabbled away to the nurse the whole time. Not to mention that being a street sweeper is much more important for public health).
Hi Ben,
Thanks for this post - it has prompted me to think again about something thats been wandering around in my mind for a while.
That is, why do we feel we have to ‘footnote’ mission as ‘homeland and overseas’? (#83). Why can’t we just have ‘overseas missionary’ as a distinct category?
I’m thinking on this list the ‘homeland and overseas’ category is a bit redundant - what is the difference between being a homeland pastor (83) and a church pastor (5)?
But the bigger issue is not one of ‘list consistency’ - I know this list serves as a brainstorm and thats fine. I’m wondering why we feel the need to somehow say that overseas mission can’t be a distinct category?
Is there possibly a sense of ‘everything we do is mission’ creeping in here, which means the distinctive nature of overseas missionary work is being lost?
Commenting rules
If you would like your comment to be considered for publication, please observe the following rules:
Failure to adhere to these rules will result in your comment being quietly deleted.
If you want to give us feedback but don't want your comments to appear on the blog, DON'T use the form below. Instead, please send us an email or click on the button below.
Your Comment
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.