Thomas R Swears

This volume shows pastors how to be spiritually prepared for the myriad tasks of pastoral ministry: preaching, pastoral care, church administration, worship, teaching, and more. Thomas R. Swears demonstrates that study, reading, and prayer are three essential disciplines that lead to a more intentional and focused spiritual life. Swears shows: --How to use time more creatively and holistically --How to keep track of gleanings from daily life --How to faithfully prepare for preaching --How to keep a professional journal --How to create a balanced reading program --How to develop a personal devotional life

This volume shows pastors how to be spiritually prepared for the myriad tasks of pastoral ministry: preaching, pastoral care, church administration, worship, teaching, and more. Thomas R. Swears demonstrates that study, reading, and prayer are three essential disciplines that lead to a more intentional and focused spiritual life. Swears shows: --How to use time more creatively and holistically --How to keep track of gleanings from daily life --How to faithfully prepare for preaching --How to keep a professional journal --How to create a balanced reading program --How to develop a personal devotional life

Preachers have long been faced with two options. On the one hand they can appeal to their congregations' intellects, teaching them the substance of the faith from the pulpit. On the other they can seek to stir their hearers' emotions, wooing or warning them with the gospel. Usually we reserve these two forms of preaching for different tasks or audiences. If you are preaching an evangelistic message to the unchurned, then your preaching style will draw more heavily on the emotional aspects. If you are leading the faithful into a deeper grasp of the Christian message, then you will more likely draw on the intellectual components of preaching. While most preachers know that the choice between the head and the heart is a false one, they often don't know how to bring the two together effectively. In this book Thomas Swears offers detailed, practical advice on how to preach to both head and heart. He shows how both emotions and intellect function any time one tried to convey meaning from the pulpit, regardless of the kind of message one is preaching. Without abandoning the conventional wisdom on evangelistic vs. teaching sermons, he nonetheless insists that preaching with integrity--in which the Word is truly embodied--will always involve the whole person and personality of both the preacher and the congregation.

Preachers have long been faced with two options. On the one hand they can appeal to their congregations' intellects, teaching them the substance of the faith from the pulpit. On the other they can seek to stir their hearers' emotions, wooing or warning them with the gospel. Usually we reserve these two forms of preaching for different tasks or audiences. If you are preaching an evangelistic message to the unchurned, then your preaching style will draw more heavily on the emotional aspects. If you are leading the faithful into a deeper grasp of the Christian message, then you will more likely draw on the intellectual components of preaching. While most preachers know that the choice between the head and the heart is a false one, they often don't know how to bring the two together effectively. In this book Thomas Swears offers detailed, practical advice on how to preach to both head and heart. He shows how both emotions and intellect function any time one tried to convey meaning from the pulpit, regardless of the kind of message one is preaching. Without abandoning the conventional wisdom on evangelistic vs. teaching sermons, he nonetheless insists that preaching with integrity--in which the Word is truly embodied--will always involve the whole person and personality of both the preacher and the congregation.

We each will face times of transition, loss, challenge, and change in our lives. The goal of this book is to provide perspective and encouragement that will lead to living more meaningfully in response to the many significant events that will occur over the course of a lifetime. Among the themes addressed are life's essential untidiness; memory; ordinary holiness; gratitude, love, and fidelity; work, leisure, and fallow times; wealth, beauty, and acquisition; comparison and competition; transitions and diminishments; suffering, loss, and sorrow; kindness and compassion; and living a centered life.