So You Want To Appoint Elders is a handbook for selecting and appointing elders of the church. It includes evaluation forms that encourage members to concentrate on elder qualifications instead of personal likes and dislikes. A typical appointment ceremony is also included. Don't let your efforts to appoint qualified elders become a popularity contest. Follow a tried and tested plan for selecting and appointing elders.

Born in 1491, Ignatius's early ambition was to be a knight, in imitation of the heroes he read about in the popular romances of the day. Following his dramatic conversion, his plans changed radically, and he decided to renounce all his previous hopes and become a penniless beggar. Living a life of intense prayer and penance, he received extraordinary mystical graces, experiencing the reality of God, not only in the depths of his heart but also in the concrete world around him. Sought by many people for his wisdom, he became an outstanding spiritual guide and the author of one of the great introductions to Christian living, The Spiritual Exercises. As he moved into mid-life, he became a committed student in the University of Paris, where he gathered a small group of enthusiastic followers around him who shared his vision. That small group quickly attracted more recruits and, with papal approval, became the Society of Jesus, more commonly known as the Jesuits. Initially ambitious for his own glory and honour, Ignatius worked only for 'the greater glory of God', becoming the inspirational founder of one of the Church's most influential religious orders.

Understanding the heart of a Pastor. Their struggles. Their hurts. Their triumphs

A better life, a better ministry, a better church starts with self-examination. The examination may be to determine the origin of the symptoms that are indicating to you that there's more that can be done in your life. That examination may be in looking at the missteps or what we in education call, doing a miscue analysis, to see whether the processes that we have in place in the name of serving people the Gospel of Jesus Christ are really producing the outcomes that the scriptures promise. We may need to examine and revisit our definition of the church, because in order to do it better we must be resolved to the belief that we have been doing either all wrong or not as right as we could. Regardless, as with any problem, circumstance or situation that is producing some level of growing pains the best place to start is at the root, below the surface or under the hood. These pastoral power points are an attempt to offer Pastors, Worship Leaders and Ministry Leaders nuggets of truth, to agitate their current comfort levels and to cause a catalyst effect that makes them more self-aware leaders, and better able to maintain healthy and healthful souls. The contemporary church like the civil and human rights activist community is struggling with the debate over what is needed to make the church relevant. It is a relevancy that is faltering in a society and a culture that finds much of what the church teaches and stands on in a traditional sense to be culturally aberrant in the extreme, and culturally close-minded in the subtle.