I love when my children come home from school with art projects. It’s the season when gnomes and snowflakes find their way onto my refrigerator. Every holiday season brings new art projects, but the goal of each is the same: creative expression through glue, popsicle sticks, paint, and cotton balls.

That’s how individual books of the Bible work too. Different human authors, different writing styles, different themes—yet all working to paint unique pictures of God’s glory. Each book is a God-breathed work of art magnifying His greatness. This conviction is what stirs pastors to the good work of expositional preaching.

One divine art project worth preaching is the Old Testament historical narrative of Ruth. Why should pastors consider preaching through the book of Ruth?

It’s beautifully written and theologically robust

Ruth is a Holy Spirit-inspired work of art. It checks boxes that humanity is magnetically drawn toward: love, heartache, kindness, redemption. These themes are brought to life in a story that goes from emptiness to fullness because of the “I’m-sticking-with-you” loyalty of a daughter-in-law.

Seriously, stop now and read the book. Isn’t it well-written? I’d say beautifully written. Not only is it beautiful, but theologically robust. Two major theological realities wind through the narrative.

The first is redemption. The words redeem, redeemer, and redemption appear 23 times in the book. In one out of every four verses you will find yourself stepping through this thematic river. Of course, Boaz plays the kinsman-redeemer in the story. His work of redemption sums up two Old Testament practices: property redemption and levirate marriage—neither of which, surprisingly enough, were required by law. What kindness!

Even more significantly, Boaz serves as a type of Christ—one who would purchase sinners through self-sacrifice. The book ends with this aim as it connects the importance of this new family, Boaz and Ruth, with the Davidic line—the one by whom the Messiah would descend. If for nothing else, preach this book because it anticipates the Savior.

The second doctrine worth noting is providence. A church member gave me a miniature gavel recently, tongue-and-cheek, “to straighten up unruly deacons.” Judges use gavels. They’re declarative. They can be used to punctuate proclamations in the court. In some ways, the book of Ruth puts God on trial.

Ruth 1:20-21 says, “She said to them, ‘Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?’”

Providence answers the question, “Who oversees the universe?” Answer: God. Preaching through the book of Ruth will help your congregation see His providence is ultimately kind toward His people, even when it feels harsh. Naomi leaves for Moab full and comes home empty by her own testimony, but she wasn’t alone. She had Ruth. And by the end of the story, the women of Bethlehem proclaim that Ruth is better than seven sons (Ruth 4:15)! There is real pain and heartache in this story, but there is also real filling and redemption.

It’s relevant to our congregations

We are pastoring in a world of confusion. One area of life where this is evident is the confusion surrounding gender. The book of Ruth is an antidote for robust biblical masculinity and femininity. Study the character of Boaz and you will find a picture of the strength and biblical masculinity. He protects Ruth’s reputation from stain after the proposal on the threshing floor (Ruth 3:14) and protects her from possible threats in his fields (Ruth 2:8-9).

Then take Ruth. She is a Proverbs 31 woman. At risk to her own well-being, she leaves her people and her gods to cling to Naomi and Yahweh. She nurtured Naomi in her darkest hour. In the face of suffering and sacrifice, Ruth clings to Naomi to see her countenance transformed—from “I’m empty” to “I’m full.” And this is how the story ends:

“Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may His name be renowned in Israel’” (Ruth 4:14).

Pastor, Ruth is a work of art worth putting on the refrigerator door of your congregation’s hearts. Read it, study it, then preach it!

Pastoral ministry is more than preaching sermons. There are other responsibilities that demand your attention. One of them is shepherding your people through personal crises. You must learn to navigate the complex world of human brokenness. 

At times you must wear the hat of a counselor. The demands of this responsibility can overwhelm you if you’re not careful. How much counseling you do and when you do it is an important consideration.

I learned this lesson the hard way. Some people in your church would talk to you about their problems every day of the week if you’d let them. There is more emotional suffering in your church than you personally have time to address. 

I recommend you consider the following:

Be willing to meet with anyone at least once.

A willingness to meet shows your people you care about them and that you’re not just preaching to them. I would discourage you from becoming the kind of pastor who is too busy to meet with people about their problems. Think of it as an extension of your pulpit ministry.

Limit your pastoral counseling to one day a week.

Counseling is emotionally regardless of the form it takes. When you walk with someone through their darkness, their emotional wounds will impact you at on emotional level. 

I limit my counseling to one afternoon a week—typically Sunday afternoons. (I’m already drained from the morning services, so I figure I might as well block it all together.) Sundays might not work for you, but find a day that does work and schedule it all together.

Limit the number of meetings early on in the process.

For the vast majority of pastoral counseling, the first session provides enough clarity for what needs to happen next. At that session or shortly thereafter, I will create a plan that schedules up to four or five other sessions to address their needs (key words being “up to”). Most of the problems you’ll encounter can be addressed in one to three sessions.

If you don’t set limits, you’ll find that people are happy to meet every week for as long as you’ll let them. Avoid that trap by creating a well-defined counseling plan that has a start date, an end date, and concrete goals. Be wary of committing to anything indefinite when it comes to pastoral counseling (although there are exceptions to every rule). 

Know when to refer someone out for long-term or professional counseling. 

If their needs are greater than what five to six sessions can handle, I refer them out to a professional who can commit to their needs long term. Usually, those professionals will serve them better anyway, given the complexities of their situation. It’s important you learn who the great counselors are in your area. Only refer your people out to counselors you trust. There’s a lot of junk out there that’ll do more harm than good.

Usually, I’ll know after two to three sessions whether something long term is going to be required. Most people are understanding and grateful for the investment of time you give them. At the end of the day, it’s about what’s best for them, not what makes you feel most important.

In my many years of pastoral ministry, I’ve broken each of these four rules. That’s why I commend them to you without hesitation. Every time I’ve violated these rules, I’ve paid the price and done a disservice to the people I’ve been called to pastor.

Think of it as a tension to hold, not a problem to solve. You must be there for your congregation. They need more than preacher. They need a counselor.

However, in your desire to care well for your people, make sure you also take care of yourself. Find a balance. Have a plan. Enforce it with grace. You’ll be glad you did!

“Liturgy” is a loaded word with lots of opinions attached to it. But liturgy is simply the way you order a church service. Understanding that definition, your church has a liturgy—and my goal is to help you think through this question: What does your liturgy communicate?

Four years ago, I had the opportunity to lead a church plant. As its first and only senior pastor, I wasn’t walking into pre-existing church customs and traditions. That meant I began with a blank slate in most areas, including liturgy. From our first service, I was committed to practicing certain biblical commands and convictions in our worship gatherings (such as the reading and preaching of God’s Word, corporate prayer, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and encouraging one another in song).

I wish I could tell you I found the perfect liturgy and it has been working for us ever since, but that’s not the case. Our liturgy has evolved as God has convicted, challenged, and prompted our pastors to lead our body faithfully and biblically. While I do not think our liturgy is perfect, I wanted to share a few examples of why we structure our churches the way we do:

• We want to be a Bible-saturated church, so we begin and end every worship service with Bible verses calling us to worship and commissioning us on mission. In addition to our sermon text, we add a fourth passage to read from the corresponding testament.
• As a fairly congregational church, we expect all members to come to church ready to participate, serve, and encourage one another rather than merely consume. Because of this, we look for ways to involve our members in announcements, Scripture readings, and prayer in addition to more normal avenues of service (such as A/V, band, nursery, etc.). Aside from the sermon, most of my involvement on Sundays takes place from my seat.
• While we pray a lot during the service, we never want this to be used as a transition to get people on and off stage. This makes parts of the service a little longer and more awkward, but we want everyone to be able to pray with us with as little distraction as possible.
• We designate time during the service to pray specifically for our church body, another church in our city, and a church/missionary outside our context.
• We observe communion every week after the sermon. We used to take it individually while the band led us in a song. Unfortunately, the band never got to partake of the Lord’s table with the congregation (they’d do it after service), so we changed our order of worship to have everyone take communion together before the band came up to lead us in song.
• In partaking in the Lord’s Supper, we rotate through a handful of varying responsive Scripture readings, focusing on different aspects of prayer each week (prayer and adoration, confession and renewal, thanksgiving and gratitude, affirmation and declaration, and praying the Lord’s Prayer).

What does your order of service communicate? Let me encourage you to intentionally think through everything you do, because it communicates what you value. Be flexible with everything except your commitment to God’s Word. Let His Word guide how you lead how your church worships Him. Matt McCullough uses a helpful analogy: “Liturgies are the pipes, but the Word is the water. … Good liturgy is merely the delivery system for this miraculous power to save. It’s the piping that carries the life-giving water.”

Liturgies, like well-structured sermons, should intentionally lead churches to respond in repentance, faith, and worship of God.