The pastoral ministry is an inexact science. It calls for experimentation. It calls for artfulness. It calls for tinkering. Plan to tinker. One of my biggest surprises in the pastoral ministry was that there is no clear path on how everything really should be done and how everything really fits together and how everything really works! After nearly four decades […]
There isn’t one. At least I never found one, and I looked hard! Go to the conferences, read the books, attend lectures, pray for insights, but don’t expect to find one silver bullet that will change everything in your ministry and provide amazing fruitfulness! There is not one thing out there that you have not found that if found would […]
I do not mean the ubiquitous water bottle. I mean alcohol. Beer. Wine. Liquor. This is a touchy topic. But it is one that must be touched. Make no mistake; alcohol is a gift from God. It is at the heart of our sacramental union with Christ. It is at the center of Paradise’s promise. (Isaiah 25:6) But it also […]
We live in a casual culture. Men leave hats on when they enter buildings. People who formerly would have been greeted with, “Hello Mr. and Mrs. So and So,” are now greeted with, “Hey Guys. Sup?” Hugging is done everywhere by everyone—no matter how casual or new the relationship. (Well, not so much since COVID.) I do not see a […]
The following will get you out of trouble before you get into it. Robert Frost remarked wisely, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Proverbs 23:10 warns against moving ancient boundary stones. In Dare to Discipline James Dobson writes about the importance of boundary setting for raising children. Make sure that you have appropriate and firm boundaries in place. You will be […]
…of sorts… This past week I finished reading (listening to) Adam Grant’s book Give and Take. It’s not a new book, but it was new to me. The subtitle is Why Helping Others Drives Our Success. Grant begins with a very compelling discussion about who is most likely to succeed in life: givers, takers or matchers. There is a great […]
My mother liked straight pictures. When I painted for her through the years, the worst part of the job was rehanging all the pictures. We had to measure. Mark. Compare the mark to the next picture. Re-measure. Hang. Put the level on it. Take it back down. Re-measure again. Try a new nail over 1/8th of an inch. Hang. Move […]
The less time you spend trying to be what you are not, and even more so, the less energy you spend forcing your congregation to be what it is not, the better. Don’t underestimate the significance of this insight. God gives some gifts to all people. He does not give all gifts to all people. He has dealt you some […]
As a pastor somewhere, somehow you have gotten stuck. Maybe you could never quite get the sermon you were working on to come together. Maybe there is a project that hasn’t quite gotten off the ground. Maybe you have not quite hit a stride in a particular area of ministry. Try turning things upside down. For instance, if you have […]
Pastors are notorious for being lone rangers. They are, unfortunately, notorious for being narcissistic. We fall far too easily into the sinfully silly notion that we are the show; we are not. That it is about us; it is not. We must WORK at the recognition that we are in the ministry together with lots of other people. We must […]