Leadership
Avoiding Burnout Through Strategic Rest
SAM, A PASTOR Let me tell you a story about a friend of mine. Let’s call him “Sam.” Sam, a pastor with 30 years of service said to me one day, “John, I’m so tired.” I understood him completely in that moment, and I knew he needed deep rest. My response to Sam? “Listen to…
Read MoreFour Key Practices For Developing Emotional Health
Pastors and ministry leaders serve in roles that require high levels of emotional intelligence (EQ) and interpersonal skills. As spiritual leaders, they must navigate complex emotional situations, provide emotional support to others, and manage their own emotional reactions to challenging circumstances. This is a time of abundant information (and misinformation), improvement tips, and evaluation tools…
Read MoreLeading While Suffering
There are only a few moments in our lives when our understanding and role as leaders change dramatically. The first for me was being inducted into my first pastoral position at the young age of 23. The next came when I became a husband at the age of 25, followed by becoming a father at…
Read MoreDo You Compete or Complete?
Everything I touch dies. Not people of course! That would make for a tragic and inefficient ministry. But over the course of the past four years, I have watched every small green thing I have planted in our yard die. It wasn’t until I was praying with another local area pastor that the significance of…
Read MoreWhat Our Soul Needs
As followers of Jesus Christ, we can find ourselves living life with great tension. Pressures that hit us from multiple directions. They seem to be tied to our past decisions, current conditions, and future concerns. They manifest in the weight of the bountiful blessings of God or the harvest of sin in our lives. They…
Read MoreStuck Happens
I’m from a small town in Pennsylvania and recently we buried my Pap at the tiny chapel on the edge of his farm where he lived until he was 93 years old. Making the drive home was nostalgic. Miles and miles of country road twisting and turning through the wild forest leading me to the…
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