Oversight Today

The debate between casual wear and formal wear is a sensitive topic in some regions and a non-issue in others. I will be upfront with you about my agenda: I’d like to see the clothing issue taken off the table so we can focus on shepherding hearts.

I believe there’s more heat than light being created around this issue. My goal today is to come alongside other overseers who see both perspectives and just sift through some arguments...

When I issued the overseer survey in late 2017, the third-highest concern from overseers was that they felt they were far too busy and did not have enough time to shepherd God’s flock. In this article, I do not intend to criticize or add to the guilt surrounding this issue but rather would like to help each of us understand how we get so overloaded and then offer possible solutions.

Before we proceed to our topic, the top two conc...

Have you ever found people’s emotions just a little too overwhelming? Or maybe you’re shepherding someone and talking about an issue and then they get really emotional and you’re not sure how to handle it?

Emotions are a window into people’s hearts. So if in your work as an elder in a local church you want to help people to grow in the Lord and mature as Christians, then becoming more skilled at working with their emotions is goin...

This article is a sequel on divorce and remarriage as it relates to adultery. The goal of addressing these matters is not to promote divorce and remarriage — in a few moments we’ll talk about how God intends recovery and reconciliation to be a priority — but to note that in some extreme situations that may impact a marriage God does extend His mercy to offer peace. We’ll also dig into the careful process of discernment that must be...

In Gospel Hall assemblies I think we have a pretty solid grasp on soul winning. The word “Gospel” is right on most of our buildings and we generally are pretty keen on seeing souls saved.

But what happens after you win the soul? Well, we often fall flat when it comes to soul healing, despite the fact that this too is one of the provisions of the cross-work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A good part of that...

Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loveth at all times…” (KJV). The problem is, most of us do not have friends like that — especially if we exclude our wife from the count of close friends.

This is one of my longer posts but I feel the subject matter is especially important. I want to tell you why loneliness is such a problem and also report on a survey I ran for a number of months on Oversight Today, assessing just how prevalent this ...

I have been working with porn addicts for a decade now. I am embarrassed to admit that one thing that took me several years to catch onto was the incredibly devastating effect that pornography has on spouses. Well, I knew it was devastating, but I did not know what to do about that. I just thought if I could help the addict stop then the spouse would no longer be upset and everything would settle down. As it turns out, it is rarely...

Vulnerability and authenticity. These are buzzwords of modern culture. But do they actually have any place in God’s assembly? How about in our lives as overseers? As it turns out, these are much more than just modern buzzwords.

Allow me to explain the concepts behind these two terms before making a case for integrating them into your service as an overseer, shepherd or teacher of the Lord’s people.

There are things that you or I may take for granted as adults in healthy marriages. Fundamentals of trust, vulnerability, respect, mutuality: the things that make up healthy intimacy. For the recovering porn addict, he or she may not really know what healthy intimacy even looks like. So we need to be prepared to educate them about this.

When I use the word intimacy, I am speaking of relational closeness. With...