Before having kids, my husband and I believed that family dinners would come naturally. Neither of our parents seemed to have much trouble making this happen, so we thought we wouldn’t either. Veteran parents might laugh at us for being so naive, but it hadn’t been difficult for us to eat dinner together before. Boy, did our baby girl change things.

A few months back, I wrote a post about how you can support your pastor’s wife. In it, I mentioned that because the role of the pastor’s wife comes with so many challenging aspects, there could be a field manual for women about to square up with the task. In place of a field manual, though, I thought I’d offer more insight via a few dedicated blog posts. Here’s the second of three.

There are many ways to share God’s Word with those who need it during struggles or challenges in life. A simple method to spread the Good News to those in need is to provide Bibles in easy-to-read and guided formats.

 “What dis?” my son asked, pointing to the ultrasound picture of our baby, due next month.

“Baby brother!” I said, pointing to the picture and pointing to my tummy. Then I dug around in a special wooden box we keep in my son’s room and found his ultrasound picture from two years ago to show him too.

“What dis?” he asked again.

“This is Ben!” I said, pointing from the picture to him, giving him a little tickle for good measure.

The local congregation develops ministry efforts to accomplish God’s mandate. These initiatives intend to bring God’s gracious presence to people through His Word of the Gospel (Ephesians 1:3–14). They aim to deliver God’s power to release people from the bondage of sin and to enable sanctified living (Ephesians 1:15–2:10). They undertake to execute God’s plan of reconciliation (Ephesians 2:11–22). They seek to promote maturation of the saints (Ephesians 4:1–16). Such efforts, when aligned with these priorities, accomplish great and marvelous things in this world and for the world to come!

But the development and implementation of these ministry activities do not occur automatically and without effort. They require very intentional thinking and acting. Since they are done collaboratively, they require organization. Participation by multiple people in a shared effort will require some degree of organization. This is done so that the work of the Church is conducted effectively.

Read on to learn about three different organization models that may help your church accomplish God’s mandate.

There’s a joke in my family that my older sister was baptized in the kitchen sink by my maternal grandmother. I have no idea whether the tale is tall or true, but I can imagine it might have a speck of honesty in it.

A few months back, I wrote a post about how you can support your pastor’s wife. In it, I mentioned that because the role of the pastor’s wife comes with so many challenging aspects, there could be a field manual for women about to square up with the task. In place of a field manual, though, I thought I’d offer more insight via a few dedicated blog posts. Here’s the first of three.

Pssssst. C’mere.

Closer.

I’m gonna let you in on a not-so-secret secret.

Five, actually: five things missionaries wish you knew.

I walk into the sanctuary with my newborn daughter strapped into a baby carrier and a diaper bag on my back. I’m only a few minutes early to service, but it’s a relatively empty space. It’s my first Sunday alone with my daughter. My husband, who is the vicar (a yearlong pastoral intern) at the church, cannot help me with her cries. I want to find a place to sit and just blend in. I want to disappear into the crowd of worshipers. I find my seat and send a little prayer up that she stays asleep or remains quiet. The opening song starts, and I realize I have no idea where to go if she starts to get loud.

There has been a lot of buzz recently about what it means to be an authentic servant leader.

The phrase “servant leadership” was originally coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in his 1970 The Servant as Leader essay. Greenleaf writes that a servant-leader starts with being a servant. It is his or her desire to serve that leads one to aspire to want to lead others. This is in sharp contrast to those whose primary goal is to become a “leader first.”