#24: On the church and the regular pastor with Landon Coleman.

Photo by Joshua Eckstein on Unsplash

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Our culture runs on performancism. We rank ourselves and compare ourselves by our achievements and then determine our worth and value thereon. We are so easily sucked into performance-based living and, likewise, pastors are similarly some of the most performance-based people in our day. Some pastors live and die by numbers and results and statistics, so as to meet good attendance with good feelings and bad attendance with discouragement, or even depression.

Pastors are some of the worst when it comes to defining their success on achievements and accomplishments. Even if pastors preach the gospel with their mouths, they are often infected by the drug of performance in their personal lives. In any event, whether you pastor a large church or a small church, the gospel rings loud and clear about who you are in Christ. Your performance as a pastor doesn’t bear the weight of your justification — Jesus did that already for you.

In this installment of the Ministry Minded Podcast, I’m joined by Pastor Landon Coleman to speak to some of these same realities. Landon has a heart for local pastors and seeks to speak the paradigm-shifting gospel into their unique situations. That is, a gospel that declares everything settled and nothing’s left undone or left to prove. The gospel of God is for all people, for all pastors, “regular pastors.” Therefore, whether you’re a pastor or church member, I think this episode will greatly encourage you as we speak to the “regular realities” of the Christian faith and endeavor to continually point you back to Christ.

Resources.

Pastor to Pastor: Practical Advice for Regular Pastors, Landon Coleman

Pray Better: Learning to Pray Biblically, Landon Coleman

The Master Plan of Evangelism, Robert E. Coleman

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, David Platt

Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World, Michael Horton

Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, J. I. Packer

The Holiness of God, R. C. Sproul

The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus, Zack Eswine

Grace: So Much More Than You Know and So Much Better Than You Think, Brad J. Gray

Sponsor.

This episode is brought to you by the Christian Standard Bible. Find out more by going to CSBible.com.

Notes.

Landon serves as the teaching pastor for Immanuel Baptist Church in Odessa, Texas, where he lives with his wife Brooke and four children. He’s a graduate of West Texas A&M University, and a two-time graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received his M. Div. and Ph. D. Landon is gifted preacher and writer, as is evidenced by his authorship of two books as well as his curation of the Regular Pastor website. He’s also a regular contributor for Servants of Grace. Be sure to connect with Landon on Twitter, @landoncoleman82.

Credits.

Intro music: “West Coast” by Ryan Little, licensed under CC BY 4.0.