In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman interviews Aaron Menikoff, Greg Gilbert, Juan Sanchez, and Sebastian Traeger about a new network of like-minded churches: the ACME Fellowship.


Check out ACMEfellowship.org for more information.

Pastors Talk is back for season 9! In this episode, Jonathan Leeman interviews Phil Newton and Bob Johnson about pastoral transition and retirement.

Related Resources:

Articles: Preparing Pastors for Retirement by Brad Thayer, There’s No Such Thing as “Retiring” From Ministry by David Gough

Journal: Seasons in a Pastor's Life

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman interview Connie Dever about children's ministry.

Why is the Lord’s Supper so important? What should ordinary Christians know about it?

Jonathan Leeman interviews Aubrey M. Sequeira and Sam Emadi about this question.

Have you ever asked, “How can I find someone to disciple me?”

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever, Garrett Kell, and Mike McKinley about that common question.

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with David Helm, Juan Sanchez, and Michael Lawrence about the unique blessings and burdens of parenting your kids while also pastoring your church.

Does God love everyone?

Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever, Mike McKinley, and Matt McCullough about our new Church Questions booklet on that important question.

Kevin DeYoung recently wrote a new book—"Men and Women in the Church: A Short, Biblical, Practical Introduction". In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever and DeYoung about the role of men and women in healthy churches.

Most Christians know that they should give to their church, but fewer know why they should. In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop about this topic, which is also covered in Jamie's new booklet, "Why Should I Give to My Church?"

Why should pastors meet with prospective church members? What should they talk about when they do?

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever about the usefulness of membership interviews.

What does the Bible say about deacons? How are they different than elders? Should they balance the authority of the elders?

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever and Matt Smethurst about his new book.

Are local churches uniquely difficult for women? How can women thrive in our churches?

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman and Mark Dever chat with Keri Folmar about her new booklet from Crossway and 9Marks.

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan chats with Mark about the value of preaching big chunks of texts, including whole books in one sermon.

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman interview Connie Dever about children's ministry in a local church.

Are sabbaticals in the Bible? Are they . . . fair? (After all, what other profession gets them!) How should they be structured?

How much should churches pay their pastors? How can they even find the answer to that question? Should a pastor ever ask for a raise?

Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop about these questions.

Firing someone is almost always hard, perhaps especially in the church. In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan chats with Mark about this difficult topic, one that Mark says is a personal weakness of his.

In a growing church, nominating elders can be hard. After all, people might not know the man. They might never have heard him teach. So what’s a church to do?

Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever about raising up elders as a church’s culture changes.

How transparent should pastors be with their congregation as they think about pursuing other jobs? As it turns out, Mark Dever and Hershael York offer different counsel on this. Jonathan Leeman chats with them about the wisdom of different approaches.

There’s nothing in the Bible about who should chair—lead—elders’ meetings. But the role and responsibility of the elder chairman is nonetheless very important. Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever, Ken Barbic, and Isaac Adams.

Surely you’ve heard someone ask, “But pastor, why should I be baptized?”

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever and Bobby Jamieson about that important question.

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever about one of the pastor’s most important jobs: preparing his people for eternity.

This year has been hard, but now it’s finally (nearly) over. In this final Pastors Talk of 2020, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever about the highs and lows of this particular year.

Are you looking for books to read this holiday season? Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever about a bunch of fun biographies.

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman chat about seminary training.

Among the many things 2020 has made more complicated, chief among them is caring for members who are unwilling to come back to church.

For years, certain churches and ministries have referred to “virtual church” or “attending church online.” This year of COVID-19—the “anti-gathering virus,” as Mark puts it in this episode—has made such phrases even more popular.

Paul says pastors must be “well thought of by outsiders.” But Jesus says we’re “blessed” when others speak evil about us, even falsely.

What do we do with this? How much should a pastor care about his reputation?

Episode 149 explained what “cleaning the rolls” means, and why pastors should lead their churches to do it. Episode 150 continues the conversation, but focuses on how to actually get it done.

Jonathan Leeman, Mark Dever, and Matt Schmucker discuss.

Some churches report hundreds of members, with dozens in attendance. These churches need to “clean their rolls.”

Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever and Matt Schmucker about what that means and why churches should do it.

Healthy churches plant churches. But how? What causes a church to “bubble over”? Here’s one way.

Broadly speaking, “theonomy” is the theological persuasion that civil societies ought to be governed by the Mosaic Law. In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman and Mark Dever chat with T. David Gordon about the errors and appeal of theonomy.

We just released a new Journal: Pastoring through Political Turmoil. In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan chats with Mark about the Journal in particular and the topic of pastoring through an election season in general.

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Mark and Jonathan talk about how pastors can prepare their people for a tough political season.

How do you prevent a potential friction between staff and lay elders? How do you ensure they’re not just “yes men”? How much deference should non-staff elders give others?

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman, Mark Dever, and Klon Kitchen continue their conversation on lay elders.

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman chat with Cheston Pickard, a pastor in Louisville, about corporate applications in preaching.

Churches ought to have elders. Some will be paid (1 Tim. 5), but many will be not. These unpaid elders are called “lay elders.” Is this distinction in this Bible? Are lay elders “minor-league elders”? Are they called to ministry in the same way senior pastors are? How can a church make sure that there isn’t a deep divide between elders who are paid by the church and those who aren’t?

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever and Klon Kitchen (a lay elder at Cheverly Baptist Church) about these questions and more.

In this inaugural episode of Bible Talk, Alex Duke chats with Jim Hamilton and Sam Emadi about the first three chapters of Genesis. These first three chapters of the Bible are so important because they set the trajectory for everything that comes next—all the way until we get to Revelation 22.

Bible Talk is available on iTunes, Spotify and 9Marks.org.

Jonathan and Mark chat about Grace Community Church’s decision, civil disobedience, and how Christians ought to approach this season with an extra amount of charity and grace.

In this special episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman asks Mark Dever to reflect on his friendship with J. I. Packer.

As Christians, we know we should pray. But too often, we fail to because we simply don’t desire to.

Sadly, missing church is common. Sometimes, it's for good reasons; other times, it's not. As a pastor, how many times have you heard a member tell you, "I'm so sorry we missed last Sunday—we just couldn't make it with everything we have going on!"?

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever and Gunner Gundersen about how we should respond to those who simply don't feel like going to church—and so they miss for this-or-that reason.

Many pastors feel pressure from their members to speak up on social media. “Why aren’t you talking about ___________? Don’t you care?”

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever about how pastors ought to approach social media use.

In this Pastors Talk episode, Jonathan chats with Mark about the new 9Marks Journal: On Shepherding — The Work and Character of a Pastor. They focus on three traits of a pastor:

— They should be godly & gifted, but especially godly.
— They should care about other churches.
— They shouldn’t freak out.

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman chat with Jamie Dunlop about when a congregation should vote against its elders.

In his book Revival & Revivalism, Iain Murray defines revival as God using ordinary means to effect extraordinary change. That’s much different than revivalism, which is when man tries to use extraordinary means to effect the same, extraordinary change.

Can you tell the difference between the two? Is it even possible? In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan asks Mark to take a brief tour of church history so that pastors and Christians today can discern the difference between revival—a good thing—and revivalism—a bad thing.

Have you ever met a growing Christian who is self-consciously choosing not to join a church? In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever about the vital necessity of joining a local church.

For more on this topic, check out Mark’s new mini-book in the Church Questions series: "Why Should I Join a Church?"

Should pastors try to educate their church about issues related to race and racism? If so, how?

In this Pastors’ Talk episode, Jonathan Leeman chats with three staff members of College Park Church—Mark Vroegop, Jeff Brown, and James Miles—about what they’ve done, how they’ve done it, and why the journey is worth whatever difficulties it brings.