Russell Moore: "30 Things I've Learned in 30 Years of Ministry"
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Some excerpts; full list linked below.
1.) In preparing to preach, teach, and in everything else I’ve done, immersion since childhood in the Scriptures was more important than graduate and postgraduate education in systematic theology.
7.) My mind was often wrong, but my gut rarely was. When I thought, “This person gives off a creepy vibe, but I seem to be the only one who notices” or “This person is filled with rage but is so important to the kingdom, so I should overlook it” or “This leader is, behind closed doors, talking about crazy things, but he’s smarter than I am, so I shouldn’t question it”—I should have trusted my gut and would have avoided much heartache. Once, 30 years ago, I attended a purportedly “Calvinist” meeting at which I said, “This seems to be more about neo-Confederate ancestor cultism than about the grace of God, but that must just be my immaturity.” My first intuition proved to be true.
9.) Consider a complementarian who believes that certain biblical texts differentiate a few offices between men and women and an egalitarian who believes the full authority of the Bible but believes the texts in question don’t say what the complementarian says they do. These two have more in common with each other than either does with the “complementarian” who thinks everything is about gender wars or who has a creepy psychological problem with women or with the “egalitarian” who thinks Paul and Peter were misogynists. The “two-party” system on this stuff—which I once accepted at face value—is nonsensical and dangerous.
12.) The most dangerous and damnable heresy is treating Jesus like a means to an end—political mobilization, marketing a product, financial blessing, or whatever. It doesn’t matter what the “end” is or how theologically sophisticated one is in getting there. The way of Simon Magus (Acts 8:18–23) always leads to hell.
17.) Wisdom is not optional, and it’s about more than knowing facts. Solomon demonstrated wisdom by knowing human nature generally and “reading” specific people’s actions and motives particularly (1 Kings 3:16–28). Solomon’s greater son did too (John 2:23–25). You need to get to know psychologies very different from your own. Along with immersion in the text of the Bible, paying attention when counseling people will help, as will reading good fiction.
20.) Keep a journal, if you can. It will help you to remember ordinary graces you will forget, and it will also show you that almost everything you worried about turned out to be either something that never happened or something that was bearable.
28.) The miracle that many skeptics around you find most incredible is not the Resurrection or the Virgin Birth but the New Birth. They’ve seen lots of Christians who have given no evidence of having been born again, of walking in the Spirit. Lots of people are watching you—people you have no idea are doing so—and they are asking, “Is it real?”
30.) The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not, the darkness will not, and the darkness cannot overcome it. Don’t give up.