All of this is to say, in any dispute you need to do your best to listen to both sides of the argument. How fair is it to prejudice one side over the other? Would you want to be snubbed and have someone completely ignore your point of view and then write it off?

You therefore need both an internal call, a personal sense that you need to serve as a pastor, as well as the external call, the confirmation and encouragement from the church that you genuinely possess the gifts to pursue the pastorate.

Sometimes it’s best to start from scratch—get out a new sheet of paper (or a new digital document) and begin the process afresh. Your inclination might be to use your initial effort, and that might be possible in some cases, but in others, it’s undesirable. Sometimes when you’re writing a sermon, your first idea isn’t always your best. And sometimes, you have to discard old notes no matter how valuable you might think they are, so it forces you to reexamine material and write new information.

All of this is to say, ministers must be prepared to accept criticism for their sermons. And ministers should not live or die by the comments (positive or negative) they receive. With many comments, you have to be prepared to ignore them, not out of pride, but out of the firm conviction that you have prepared well. With other comments, you have to be humble enough to take the criticism and adjust your preaching.

When tragedy strikes, resist the temptation to have everything immediately figured out. Rest in Christ and take things slowly, one step at a time. Do the next thing.

I think it is difficult for use to comprehend just how confused the gospel and politics became at the turn of the twentieth-century. Progressive clergy set aside the pure gold of the gospel and mixed it with the fool’s gold of political policies and the social gospel.

Regardless of the venue, let us affirm with Kuyper the universal sovereignty of Christ in all areas of life, whether in the virtual or real-world realms.

Generally speaking, we should try to read books from cover to cover. . . . On the other hand, I also look at the growing mound of books that I have gathered in the various nooks and crannies of my office and home and I’ve begun to realize, life is too short for bad books.

In the end, we should never look for or try to build a fill-in-the-blank church. Rather, they should look for a church that bears the three marks: the right preaching of the gospel, the right administration of the sacraments, and the proper administration of church discipline.

In the end, remember that when you take your ordination trials that pastors and elders are looking for more than orthodox doctrine. They want to be assured that the man who stands before them is humble. Or, in the words of Paul, an elder must be self-controlled, able to teach, gentle, and not quarrelsome (1 Tim. 3:2-3).