The Pastor in the Middle

On March 31, 2023, a historic tornado outbreak occurred across the Mid-South, doing particularly devastating damage in Covington, Tennessee. In this episode, Fred and Matt interview their friend Cliff Marion, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Covington, about the doors of ministry that the Lord opened in the aftermath of those storms.

Evangelism and discipleship go hand-in-hand. In this episode, Fred and Matt talk through ideas for building a culture of discipleship within the local church. Here's the link to an article (referenced in the episode) that Matt wrote for LifeWay Research in 2020: https://research. lifeway.com/2020/06/04/how-to-avoid-sacrificing-evangelism-for-discipleship-and-vice-versa/

Fred and Matt discuss the church's ordination processes and ceremonies - both for deacons and for pastors.

Fred and Matt discuss the importance of effective sermon illustrations, as well as methods for collecting, tagging, and utilizing them.

Fred and Matt discuss a recent Barna study on pastor's satisfaction in ministry, and then how pastors can find joy in the gift God has given them in ministry. Here's the Baptist Press article mentioned in the episode: https:// www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/pastors-satisfaction-certainty-of-call-in-rapid-decline-barna-finds/

Fred and Matt interview special guest Dean Inserra, founding and lead pastor of City Church Tallahassee ( citychurchtallahassee.com ). We discuss casting vision as leaders in the local church.

Fred and Matt discuss the importance of theological education for the pastor, as well as pros and cons of different methods of getting that education.

Fred and Matt discuss the importance of prayer for the Christian in general and the pastor in particular. We share some helpful practices and things we've learned regarding personal and corporate prayer.

Fred and Matt discuss the biblical role of deacons in the church, as well as ideas on recruiting and developing deacons.

Fred and Matt continue their 2-week discussion of the ordinances. This week they address baptism.

Fred and Matt start a 2-part series on the ordinances, including a discussion of the concept of theological triage. This week covers the Lord's Supper, with baptism coming next week. Here's a link to the Lord's Supper document Matt uses with his deacons when they take the Lord's Supper to shut-in or homebound church members: https://sermonillustr8r. wordpress.com/2023/02/20/communion-for-the-homeb...

Fred and Matt discuss the why and the how of strategies for developing church staff members. Sample staff evaluations mentioned on the podcast can be found at the link below. One is for ministerial staff, and the other is for support/administrative staff. https://sermonillustr8r. wordpress.com/2023/02/13/sample-evaluations-ministerial-and-support-staff-for-pastor-in-the-middle-podcast-episode-17-...

Fred and Matt discuss the pastor's reading and the building of a pastoral library. Resources mentioned in the show: 1) LibraryThing.com - a personal library database 2) Daniel Akin's "Building a Theological Library" - https:// www.danielakin.com/pdf-download-building-a-theological-revised-edition-2019/ 3) Bestcommentaries.com - recommendations and rankings of Bible commentaries (Matt accidentally...

Fred and Matt discuss the use of church facilities.

Fred and Matt follow up on their two episodes about pastor search processes with an episode about how to walk through your first year in a new pastorate.

Fred and Matt work through Part 2 of their two-part series on pastor search committees (which is also relevant for ministerial position searches). This second episode is addressed to the candidate. Again, a sample theological and ministry questionnaire for these kinds of searches can be found here: https://sermonillustr8r. wordpress.com/2023/01/08/sample-theological-and-ministry-questionnaire/

Fred and Matt work through Part 1 of two episodes on search committee processes. This first episode is geared to the members of search committees. You can find a sample theological questionnaire for search committees to use here: https://sermonillustr8r. wordpress.com/2023/01/08/sample-theological-and-ministry-questionnaire/

Fred and Matt discuss their processes for planning preaching, both for individual messages and series. The "Series Map" that Fred and Matt discuss can be found here: https://sermonillustr8r. wordpress.com/2022/12/31/series-map-example-for-pastor-in-the-middle-podcast/

Fred and Matt discuss how they biblically and practically flesh out rest in the life of the pastor.

Fred and Matt discuss the issue of putting other Christians on pedestals.

Fred and Matt discuss the pastor's first ministry responsibility.

Fred and Matt discuss the value of churches using big events for outreach ministry.

Fred and Matt talk about how a pastor should react to criticism in ministry.

Fred and Matt discuss addressing difficult topics as a pastor, both from the pulpit and on social media.

Fred and Matt discuss what it means to be a pastor doing ministry in the middle of your congregation.