Shepherding Thoughts

by Pastor Ben Francis

Welcome to Shepherding Thoughts: An inside look at a Southern Baptist Pastor's comments on navigating popular topics in Christianity and Religion.

Christianity is Shrinking in the U.S., Study Says…

“Christians are likely to be a minority in the U.S. by 2050, Pew Research Center says.” This headline really isn’t surprising to those...

SBC 2022 Follow-Up Thoughts

First things first: Southern California is beautiful! Tera and I thoroughly enjoyed our time in Anaheim. The weather was in the upper...

Marks of Healthy Preaching

In a previous post, we discussed the pressing need for good, healthy, Biblical preaching. In this post, we want to outline some of the...

Who are Deacons to Be?

New Testament Deacons: Servants in the Household of God. Who are these Deacons to Be? -In the last post on Deacons, we looked at the...

New Testament Deacons: Servants in the Household of God. Where Do Deacons Come From?

In our last post on Spiritual Leadership in the local church, we noted, “So, if Pastors are not expected to be managers and CEOs, who is...

What Does an Elder Do?

New Testament Elders: God’s Shepherds Part 3: What Does an Elder Do? From our brief survey of the 3 biblical titles used for the office...

Who Can Be an Elder?

New Testament Elders: God's Shepherds Part 2: Who Can Be an Elder In our first post, we looked at what an Elder is according to the...

What/Who Are Church Elders?

New Testament Elders: God’s Shepherds Part 1: What/Who is an Elder? In this series of posts, I want to explore what the Word of God says...