LEADER HEALTH
Creating A Healthy Leadership Culture For Women In The Local Church
On Being A Good Steward Of Pain
You’ve been there, right? In the left lane behind the person who has forgotten what the left lane is for. So, you get a little closer hoping to get their attention. And, if that doesn’t work, surely the three cars that just passed them on their right will. Finally, with no other option, you also…
What The Vet Taught Me About Change
We recently changed vets for our dog, Owen, from a large, national chain to a small, private practice down along a country road. Owen had been having ongoing, unresolved ear infection issues and my wife and I felt it was time for a change. After just two visits with the new vet, Owen is a…
The Church Needs Spiritual Formation
How is it that such a seemingly innocuous term generates so much misunderstanding and concern? In conversations with ministry leaders and pastors, who boldly proclaim Christ, there has been confusion about discussing spiritual formation – using words like “fuzzy” or “squishy” or simply choosing to not address it at all. The disinclination to identify with…
8 Essentials For Healthy Pastoral Ministry
What a privilege to work with pastors over the past 50 years! Initially, I knit my life together with fellow pastors for mutual support.In the last 10 years I have worked with pastors in EFCA East as the Pastor Support Director.I have observed many things that I wished I had known when I started in…
Underappreciated Hope
The Underappreciated Effect of Hope Our family was recently spending time with some good friends at their farm. The farmer was almost done milking cows and needed help distracting his kids. He suggested I take all of the kids (7 boys including mine) and drive them out to the tree house on the golf cart.…
5 Ways To Build A Ministry Of Encouragement
Sometimes, the most important things are the most obvious things. I learned a lot in seminary – how to interpret the Bible, how to preach and teach, loads of theology. I even learned some counseling skills and paradigms for youth ministry that have served me well. But the past few years, in the midst of…
Nothing to Lose. Nothing to Prove.
Over the past several months I have had the pleasure of meeting with a young church leader. Just a few months ago his home church tapped him to step into a full-time role for which he was not prepared. They knew him well, watched his life and considered him worthy of the position. The problem for…
Depression and the Path of the Pastor
CAPTAIN OBVIOUS Pastoring has changed in many ways from the way I entered it 33 years ago. The expectations are now so different. Not just the expectations of others, but the expectations we have for ourselves. As podcasts have become available, the obvious challenge is: Can I keep up with the quality/level of preaching of…
Top 10 Tips to Juggle Family and Ministry, Not Burn Out, and Keep Your Sanity
Ministry is harder than you think – it can be hard on you mentally, emotionally and spiritually, not to mention hard on your marriage and family. How do you last without losing your mind or your faith? Here are 10 tips to keep you balanced, fresh, and sane! But before the 10 tips, there’s something…
Loving Ministry When It Doesn’t Love You Back
One of the ongoing challenges of ministry, particularly occupational ministry, is taking up the work God gives us to do without allowing it to become the primary driver of our identity. We all know the temptation, and gravitational pull on our hearts, to feel less valuable when things are going poorly and more valuable when…
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…
Four 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…
Leading 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…
What 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…
Keeping Your Eyes on the Future During a Challenging Present
“I regret that I didn’t have time to write you a shorter letter.” I’ve seen that quote attributed to everyone from Blaise Pascal to Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin. Whoever said it, the moral is that brevity is best and succinctness is sublime. I’ll do my best to heed their admonition and deny my pastoral…
My Favorite Idol
My favorite idol is busyness. Allow me to explain. It’s not that I like being busy. It’s that I have built my life around it. Maybe you have, too. You might believe that God has called you to pastoral ministry. I certainly do. You might also believe that he has gifted you for that calling.…
Shred It
Has anyone else spent time this past year thinking about what other career they could be doing besides ministry? The thought entered my mind a few times, and I am certain I am not alone. Many of us have experienced an exodus of people, hurtful comments, betrayal, depression, abandonment…you name it and EFCA East Pastors…
Why Bother With Credentialing?
Licenses and credentials are nothing new to us. If you drive a car, there is a process of written and practical evaluation to become a licensed driver, and systems of accountability for misusing the privilege of operating several tons of metal and plastic at high speed. Various professions require licensing, whether medicine, law, or real…
Leading Through Pain
By a show of hands, how many of you have experienced some type of pain over the past year or so? I know I can’t see them lifted, but humor me and do it anyway? For the record, both of my hands are lifted pretty high. With all sincerity and candor, as I type I’ve…
Choose Your Adventure
Many of you are most likely familiar with the Choose Your Own Adventure, or Secret Path Books. In these series of children’s books, where each story is written from a second-person point of view, the reader assumes the role of the main character, and makes choices that determine the outcome of the book. We are…
When The Leaders Are Tired
I’m tired. I’m really tired. My guess is many of you are tired too. The last thing we need is to rehash all the things that have worn us down. We also don’t need more theology on rest. This isn’t some sort of devotional to inspire you not to be tired. I don’t really…
What About The Dark Nights?
Deep grief is isolating. Even our best friends pull back. Why? We are not good at hearing laments from broken people. They are disorienting, unnerving, and messy. This is particularly true of people who we expect something “more” of in their lives and walk with Jesus. We slide into moralizing or theologizing against people when…
Embracing the New in New Year
For the past six years I have practiced the rhythm of asking the Lord to give me a word for the upcoming year. Usually in late November or early December I begin praying and seeking His direction about a word that He has for me that will help me grow spiritually and serve more effectively. In…
When Perfect Isn’t An Option
The expectation that we are all highly functioning leaders, at all times, has to die. I certainly don’t want my volunteers trying to live up to that impossible expectation, so we tell our leaders and volunteers that our expectation for them is that they aren’t perfect, just growing. Yet, when it comes to the expectations…
The Value of Ministry In Small Places
I have heard from many small church pastors that they feel forgotten and overlooked. My own journey has given me the opportunity to be a part of several small church ministries.I have had the unique opportunity to shepherd a small church that grew and planted several other Free Churches and to oversee a church plant…
3 Reasons You Are Stuck And How To Get Moving Again
This summer, our family did a cross country RV trip to experience some of the grandest sites this country has to offer. From sunsets at The Grand Canyon or La Jolla Beach and fireworks over Arches National Park to snow capped peaks in Breckenridge, it took our breath away. We covered nearly 7,000 miles…
From An Anonymous EDA Pastor
For a brief moment I considered finding one of my most popular blog posts from the past few years, dusting it off, and sending it in for re-posting. Then I realized that would be lying. The truth is, I find myself like the little boy in John 6 – I don’t have enough. I don’t…
What Is Shaped In Solitude and Stillness?
Stillness. Quiet. Solitude. Sometimes when I invite solitude into my day, or it forces itself on me, I think about my grandmothers, Lucy Jones and Emma Martin. Both were mothers to 13 children. Believe it or not, I remember a quietness and a sense of stillness about both of them. I was raised in Flint,…
Imposter Syndrome
“Still don’t know what I was waitin’ for And my time was runnin’ wild A million dead end streets and Every time I thought I’d got it made It seemed the taste was not so sweet So I turned myself to face me But I’ve never caught a glimpse How the others must see the…
5 Ways To Achieve Longevity in Ministry
I’m a 53-year-old youth pastor. Most of the jokes at our youth ministry involve my baldness. I’m glad to give the students an easy target for their underdeveloped, juvenile sense of humor. Considering that our 19-year-old worship leader looks like a cross between Fabio and Samson, making fun of me for my high-gloss sheen is…
