Jason Allen

You can’t finesse your way through a sermon with polished appearance, warm people skills, or seminary credentials alone. In the moment of truth, your ability—or lack thereof—to teach and preach God’s Word reveals much about your calling.

For every Gospel minister, the New Testament letters of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus are to be lifelong companions. The Pastoral Epistles are letters we return to again and again, guiding us on our journey of life and ministry. Indeed, I know of no better way to ensure ministerial faithfulness than for the minister to live in these three books.

In our age of constant news, social media, and the world’s attentiveness to pastors who have stumbled, it is easy to forget all that pastors do for the Church. Sure, we have all heard of a pastor who has not acted admirably, but they are the exception, not the rule. Most of the pastors I know garner my trust and respect and deserve my prayers and support. That, and given my own years serving churches, makes me admire pastors. You should too.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP) -- I had been anticipating a warm throwback to yesteryear when I boarded a train in Kansas City bound for Jefferson City, Mo., to preach at the legislative prayer service marking the opening of the state's legislative session. My trip, however, fell short of a Humphrey Bogart movie.

"We must protect our families, but we need not sequester them," Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, writes about the balance a minister must find between serving his church and caring for his family.

Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, sets forth counsel about making year-contributions. Give to your local church first, he writes, and be fully informed about ministries making an appeal for your support.

Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, notes five words "to improve every sermon": Bible, look, repent, you, Jesus. The words in a sermon, he notes, "come with the power of life and death; thus, the preacher must carefully choose his words."

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP) -- Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's Jason Allen: SBC entities and state conventions have the same constituency -- Southern Baptist churches. "Churches founded us, they fund us and they expect us to serve them," Allen writes. "The SBC will thrive inasmuch as our state conventions thrive, and vice versa."

Institutions of higher learning are facing numerous challenges: a shrinking college-age demographic, nagging questions about the value of advanced degrees, the online revolution, persistent economic sluggishness and escalating costs. Yet, for distinctly Christian institutions of higher education, this is where the challenges begin, not end.

Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Seminary, reflects on the baptism of children in Southern Baptist churches from a biblical, pastoral, denominational and, as the father of five young children, a parental standpoint.