I’m about halfway through a three-week vacation from my position as pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church. After 5-1/2 years as pastor with no more than two weeks off at any one time (except to have kids!), I started to feel tired, and it was taking more and more to recover. I later learned that psychologists [...]
The word pastor comes from our job as shepherds. Of course, Jesus is the real shepherd, but we pastors try our best to represent him well as we seek to care for his flock. Jesus taught us that he’s the kind of shepherd who cares if a single sheep goes astray and wanders into danger, [...]
Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of my first day as pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church. I can still clearly remember talking to the pastor nominating committee at my face-to-face interview with them back in 2003. After they asked me their questions, I asked them a few, including what would you to see happen in the [...]
Eleanor and I were headed for a rare cup of coffee without the kids and during the five-minute drive, we encountered two different people who were angry over someone getting into the lane of traffic ahead of them. Eleanor and I actually let a couple of people in and then found a great parking place! [...]
“Can I have some apple juice?” my son Joshua asked.
“Sure,” I responded.
“DAD, HE ALREADY ASKED MOM AND SHE SAID NO!” my older son Johnny yelled.
Yes, Joshua has discovered the fine art of continuing to ask until you get the answer you want. Dave Barney, a system software director I worked for for a while, called [...]
If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you know that this is the time of year when I get worried about the church finances… But if you’re expecting me to write about that, you’re in for a surprise.
Wooooo!
Lately, I’ve been doing a decent job of doing some light weight training on a semi-regular basis (boy, that sentence don’t claim a lot, does it?) Anyway, every so often, I bump up my weights, and I can really “feel the burn” as my muscles work harder than they’re accustomed to working. There’s something satisfying [...]
Mark 15:15 says, “Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.”
Last spring another pastor said that he had a word for me: ”God has your ministry on hold until you can stop worryign about what other people think.” OUCH! Do I really let [...]
I have seen so many people give up on an idea before they even begin to pursue it. Why? Because they don’t have the solution to all of the problems they can imagine in the first ten minutes. “We can’t afford it.” “What about liability?” “I don’t have time for it.” “What if ______ happens?”
You’ll [...]