Jared C. Wilson

It’s easy to believe that once you graduate, get married, get a better job, settle down, or [insert whatever other milestone you’re hoping to reach next], you will have more time to focus on Bible study, prayer, and other spiritual disciplines. Quite the opposite is true.

FTC.co asks Jared C. Wilson, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry at Spurgeon College and Writer-in-Residence at Midwestern Seminary, what advice he would give a new pastor who already wants to quit.

Beginning pastors aren’t often prepared for these unspoken agreements. Veteran pastors still struggle with them. But there are a number of “job hazards” that come with the pastoral territory for which every minister should be aware and to which every minister should adjust. Here are just three:

An older friend of mine told me a story once about having cheated on his wife with a secretary at his workplace. He’d committed this sin more than 30 years ago.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP) -- Gluttony is the big fat elephant in the room of the evangelical church. I don’t remember ever hearing a sermon or lesson on gluttony when I was growing up, despite the fact it was rampant all around us. I remember plenty of talk on the dangers of sex and alcohol and even rock and roll music, but nary a word on over-indulging in food.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP) – One of my favorite bands from high school, Christian alt-rock supergroup The Lost Dogs, had a song on one of their albums titled “Jesus Loves You, Brian Wilson.”

Encountering a beggar, Jared Wilson writes, may point toward a larger realization of God's grace.

Scripture teaches that heaven is "richer than our four-dimensional space, more vibrant, more colorful," Jared Wilson writes, noting that a grasp of heaven's glory can change everyday life.