Great Roundtable Event

 This past weekend I had the privilege of leading a Roundtable discussion with a group of pastors from the South Central Ohio Nazarene District. Nearly 30 people were in attendance as we looked at two of the issues facing the church as we continue into the 21st century.

The issues we addressed were from my latest book Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade? During the morning session we discussed how the church can best minister to persons struggling financially. Every church wants to help those seeking assistance, but we must make sure we are actually helping the individual and not creating dependency and other problems for them. After lunch our topic was "The Church and Gender Dysphoria." This is a growing problem in today's culture and likely will continue to be for some time. Many pastors are not familiar with the issue and how to best address it. 

Following the second presentation there were several questions about the topic, and then the questions began to become more general regarding church ministry in the smaller church. It was a great time with some wonderful leaders in the area churches, and I appreciate them inviting me to be with them again.

I think many of us in pastoral ministry would prefer to avoid the issues discussed in the book. They are often messy and create confusion, pain and even misunderstandings within congregations. But if we are to minister to our current age we must be willing to address the issues that people today are dealing with. We cannot hide out in our theological ivory towers and pretend that difficult things do not exist. Christ didn't and neither can we.

The book is available through amazon.com for Kindle devices for $6.95. I would recommend this book for any church leader who wants to be better prepared for doing ministry in today's world.

I want to again thank the South Central Ohio Nazarene District for allowing me to spend the day with them. I especially want to thank their District Superintendent, Trevor Johnston, for inviting back for a second time to be with his pastors. Trevor and his staff and pastors are doing great things for the Kingdom of God in their district, and it's always a pleasure to work with such individuals.