Jeremy Writebol wrote Make It Your Ambition for the future of the church. He wants young leaders motivated by godly ambitions to serve our churches for decades.
October 28, 2026
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Pastors, we apologize for inadvertently sending a test version of The Pastor’s Weekly earlier this morning. This is the corrected version—your weekly roundup of articles, podcasts, videos, and links curated by pastors, for pastors—to equip and encourage you in your ministry.
WORD OF THE WEEK

Who Will Lead Your Church in 15 Years?

Jeremy Writebol serves vocationally as lead campus pastor at Woodside Bible Church in Plymouth, Michigan

Imagine your local church 15 years from now. What’s the same? Maybe the facility you gather in. Hopefully, many of the people now with you are still there. People will have aged, children will have been born, new families will have started, and some will have died and gone to be with the Lord. Maybe you picture your church as relatively similar to how it is now but just a bit better. Perhaps your church will grow if it’s effective in sharing the gospel.

Now think about what’s different. Who are the leaders? Can you envision who will be the pastors, elders, Bible study teachers, family ministry directors? I’m asking you to think about what your church will be like 15 years from now because what your church will be then must be developed today. One study completed in 2020 found the median age of congregational leaders in the United States is 57 years old. I don’t mean to be grim, but that means more than half of the pastors leading local churches right now won’t be ministering in 15 years.

As a pastor,  I’m concerned. I want to see local churches well resourced and enabled to continue as a faithful presence in their communities. I long to see new churches planted where there’s little to no gospel witness. I’m eager to see young men and women reject the social and cultural values of living only for self and instead spend their lives living for God’s glory and the good of their neighbors in whatever vocation they work in.

To address these concerns, I’ve written Make It Your Ambition: 7 Godly Pursuits for the Next Generation. In this book, I speak directly to Christian young adults about the trajectory of their lives. I ask them a big question: “What will you do for the kingdom?” My hope is that through this book, we’ll see the next generation grow up into William Carey’s motto, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.”

—Jeremy

By the way, if you’re a youth or college ministry leader, you’re invited to a special breakfast gathering for next-generation leaders during the TGC25 conference. We’ll meet on Wednesday morning, April 23, from 7:30–8:30 a.m. You can register today.

Resource Roundup

The Pastor and Purity

In this episode of The Everyday Pastor, Garrett Kell joins Matt Smethurst and Ligon Duncan to discuss lessons he’s learned the hard way, how to foster transparency among leadership, practical tools for pursuing purity, and more.
Afshin Ziafat: Pastor, Your Calling Comes from God

In this video from TGC’s Pastor to Pastor series, pastor and TGC Council member Afshin Ziafat reflects on the unique privilege of seeing God’s growth in people’s lives over the long haul. He shares about coming to faith from a Muslim background and his call to ministry, and he encourages pastors to see their calling as from the Lord and to find freedom in their identity in Christ.
7 Things You Need to Know About the ‘Good News Mission’

This religious group may have “good news” in their name, but as Sean Nolan warns, the message they preach turns out to be false and dangerous.

Around the Web

Here are links to other great resources worth your time:

  • Mikey Lynch challenges the common pastoral wisdom that face-to-face communication is always best for difficult conversations, drawing from Paul’s example with the Corinthians to show how written communication can sometimes be more effective and compassionate.

  • Wyatt Graham combines historical insights and early church testimony to identify the likely opponents addressed in John’s epistles. This historical context helps pastors better understand John’s emphatic defense of Christ’s incarnation and offers valuable perspective for addressing similar theological distortions today.

  • Michael C. Lyons, a pastor and Hebrew instructor, warns against sermons that sound like Bible commentaries rather than discipleship tools. He shares his experience of impressing congregations with scholarly insights while failing to change hearts, and he offers practical advice for pastors who want their preaching to shape believers into Christ-treasuring followers rather than mere Bible analysts.

Find more resources for pastors at tgc.org/pastors.