Are you feeling thankful today? Would you like to be overflowing with thanksgiving a few minutes from now? It’s normal for us as Christian leaders to be thankful in our theology, but to overlook expressing it in our lives. When you think about it, you’re thankful. But how often does thankfulness cross your mind and […]
Pastor's Personal Growth
8 Easy Ways to be a Resilient Pastor
Pastors are resilient…unless, not so much. When I get together with pastor friends we have similar stories. Along with the stories of God’s work and provision, we share challenges, discouragements, and burdens. Maybe you’re like me and my friends. We persevere, but there are struggles. Here’s the good news about your pastoral resilience. You’re in a profession that helps […]
How to Recover From the Post Easter Blues
Every pastor I know gets a little depressed (or a lot depressed) on the days following Easter. It’s natural. I call it the Post-Easter Blues. Easter is our Super Bowl. We pour our lives into preaching, and meeting, and caring for people, surviving the week on less sleep and more adrenaline than we should. Easter comes […]
How to Avoid Getting Stuck at Good Enough
Become Great one Step at a Time Great people don’t start out great. They get there by taking one step at a time. Sure, some people are born with more advantages… …but as people made in the image of God, we all have the seeds of greatness within us. Great people become great by improving […]
How To Improve What You See
The human eye is a neutral instrument. Instant by instant it transmits unfiltered data to your brain. Where you focus determines what you see. How you see is a completely different subject. How you see is determined not by where you look, but by who you are. Consider this parable: Just before their plane landed, […]
Get Out of Town
One of my favorite lines in The Father of the Bride is when Martin Short’s character, Frank, gets excited and says to Steve Martin’s character, George Banks, “Get Out of Town!” In the early days of New Song, Lori and I felt a low-level weight on us almost every day. We went out of town […]