Category: Leadership

Gold nuggets for leaders – from Andy Stanley

I’ve recently been re-reading “The Next Generation Leader” by Andy Stanley.  It was published back in 2003, and is a book I’ve come back to again and again in my continual quest of becoming a better leader.

As I read through the book this time, I picked out some gold nuggets that hit me particularly hard in light of where I am in life and in ministry leadership.  Here’s some of my most recent take aways:

  • Be clear on who God has made YOU to be.  Lean into your strengths and delegate your weaknesses (because they are likely the strengths of someone else on your team… for more on delegation see THIS post)
  • If you are not teachable, you are not a leader.
  • As a leader, it is O.K. not to know.  It is not O.K. to pretend you do know.  Pretending exposes lack of character.
  • You can be wrong about some decisions or directions and people will still follow you.  But if you are unclear, they will eventually go somewhere else.
  • Wisdom seeks counsel.
  • The wise man knows his limitations… the fool thinks he has none.
  • Give time for major decisions… and invite others into the decision making process.
  • Great leaders are great servants.
  • Abuse your position as a leader and you will lose those you lead.
  • People don’t follow rulers, they follow leaders.
  • God has divinely established and works through channels of authority.
  • Your talent and giftedness as a leader have the potential to take you farther than your character can sustain you.
  • It is incumbent upon every leader to do all they can NOW to prepare their character for the eventual successes that may come.

Like I said, I read this short book again every few years.  I have found it to be a valuable help every time I have.  If you’d like a copy for yourself, there are some links below [affiliate links].

525396: Next Generation Leader Next Generation Leader

By Andy Stanley

Next Generation Leader – eBook

Delegate or die… a lesson hard learned

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’ve been in Pastoral ministry for 20 years now, and with the exception of my first two roles (Jr. high youth guy, and Associate Pastor), all that time I’ve been in fairly small churches (150 tops).  Being the “solo” guy has its ups and downs, and one of those is the many hats or responsibility that come with the turf.  Most guys in the “solo” role are pretty competent, and like me, they just knuckle down and do what needs to be done.  But what naturally happens in that scenario is at least these three things:

  1. All that minutia eventually becomes more than you can reasonably handle… and you’ll DIE.
  2. You deny people in your church family the opportunities for significant involvement they truly need.
  3. You wind up being distracted from the truly important things that are only yours to do.

My story

I carried on like a “good” little pastor without delegating much of anything for years.  The funny thing is this: I thought I didn’t have a problem delegating things.  But I did.  Nobody likes to think they have “control” issues, but we all do to some extent.  I was no exception.  I wanted things to be done up to a certain standard, and just didn’t think I’d have the time to train someone new to do things the way I wanted them done.  Dumb… dumb… dumb.

It was in 2011, meeting in our “Healthy Church Network” that a group of us pastors were discussing this issue.  That’s when things flipped for me.  Three guys in the group, Greg, Jim, and Greg (thanks guys) took me to task as I asked some questions about the topic.  They pushed, prodded, pried, and cajoled me into seeing the 3 things above… and I finally got it.

So, I headed home and immediately found some very competent ladies in our church to take over a good deal of the administrative stuff I was doing (thanks again “K” and “M” and “P”!).  It took a while to train them, but it was SO worth it.  They were not only happy to do it, but were also able to take things to another level!  Bonus!

Just recently, while I was gone on sabbatical, our church made the “executive” decision to take all the things I had delegated to people for the duration of my absence, and farm them out on a more permanent basis.  Their logic was ironclad:

If we can do this for 4 months while he’s gone, we can do it, period.  That means he can do other things that are more important for him to do.

I haven’t said it enough since my return from sabbatical, but I have really appreciated that initiative… and do more each day I work at ministry.  My plate is only as full as it needs to be now, rather than overfull.

The best part

There are a lot of “best parts” to this story, but the ones I like the most are these:

  • There are 10 more people in our church family involved in doing significant things toward eternal ends.
  • I’m freed up to do the things I love to do the most – study, preach, leadership development, discipleship, writing.
  • And I don’t feel like my head is swimming… like it used to…

What about YOU?  Do you have trouble delegating?  What things have you found that have made the task of delegating better for you?

Books from the PF Journal..

A wonderful GTD software tool that has scheduling capabilities! Good-bye Evernote!

I’m so stoked about this!  I can’t believe it – and am so thankful to the Lord.

OK, let me back up a bit.  I recently started learning about and practicing the “Getting Things Done“(affiliate link) time and project management system, and am loving it’s logical, simple way of managing tasks… and life in general.  I started using Evernote (a free software for productivity) at about the same time.  But I was a bit frustrated that Evernote did not have a “deadline” or “scheduling” function, to set dates by which certain tasks had to be completed.

Then today… I found THIS!

Nozbe(affiliate link)

Nozbe is obviously custom-made to be a GTD tool, and it’s well worth the $9.95 a month it costs me to subscribe.  I’ve found it to be much more helpful and functional for GTD than Evernote ever was!  Some of the main things I like about it…

  • It has a scheduling function… to the day, or just for a particular week.  Just what I needed most.
  • It can be connected to Evernote if need be (I’m not sure yet exactly why I’d do this, but time will tell).
  • It can be accessed via all smart phones (I’ll be using this a LOT), through web access or an application.
  • I am able to send tasks/notes to my assigned Nozbe email to place ideas in my “INBOX” (just like I did in Evernote, which was one of the best functions of it, in my opinion).
  • It’s centered around “Projects” AND “Contexts” rather than notes… so I can narrow the view so that I ONLY see the specific contexts or projects that I’m working on at the time.
  • It has a “Next Actions” function to help you get moving on your workload!
  • It’s much easier to set up to fit my preferences than Evernote was (in my humble opinion).
  • It has many of clear, helpful videos to explain the program and help you get started… including a 10 session “Get Things Done” video course! (You better believe that I’m watching every one of these… almost even as I type!)
  • It can be linked to a variety of other web services including… Evernote, Twitter, Jot, Gmail, Google Calendar, myYahoo, iGoogle, and Netvibes!
  • And has a GREAT affiliate program.  Paying subscribers get 20% of every referral – FOR THE LIFE OF THE REFERRED ACCOUNT!  Free users (limited time) get 10% of every referral – for the same lifetime deal.

I feel comfortable referring any busy person – a Pastor, a mom, a business person, etc. – so I am!

Check out the introductory video below… and click HERE to sign up for your own free trial!

Nozbe is simply the best Getting Things Done productivity software I’ve seen – Sign up HERE!

Rethinking Church Productivity – GUEST POST!

Loren Pinilis - www.lifeofasteward.com

I’ve made a new internet “friend!”  His name is Loren Pinilis, and he writes at www.lifeofasteward.com.  His focus is on personal productivity as it relates to life and spiritual stewardship.  His stuff is really good!  Check it out!  The following post is directly from his blog – reprinted in its entirety, with his kind permission!  Enjoy!

RETHINKING CHURCH PRODUCTIVITY!

I had great intentions. I had great motivations. But for years, I didn’t understand the way the church worked – and it made me part of the problem instead of part of the solution.

We were going through a period of exciting growth in our church, and everyone’s focus was on how we as a church could do more and more. More creative programs. More outreach efforts.

I had some good ideas about things our church could do to reach out to the community. I had people on the church staff commending me and telling me that my ideas were great.

It was exciting to share these ideas, to envision them being enacted, and to think of all the good that would come of them. We as a church could grow and do wonderful things.

Other People’s Efforts

But I realized something about my ideas. I was really good at coming up with stuff that wecould do, that the church could do – in other words, things that other people could do. Not me – because I was already so busy. I served on the tech crew, I taught a small group class, I played bass in the contemporary service – I was already doing a ton.

These great ideas were things for other people to organize and implement and evaluate and work at. I came up with the idea – it was the church’s job to make the rest happen. Sure, I’d be willing to volunteer – I just can’t do that much. I’m so busy, you see.

But as a leader of a small group class, now I’ve seen the other perspective. I’ve seen the brainstorming sessions when people get talking about great things that the class could be doing. Great outreach efforts. Great service opportunities.

They really are good ideas – but I know what it means when people talk about what we could do. The idea is suggested, and no one steps up to lead. Everyone just assumes that someone else, mainly me, is going to get the effort organized. Then when it comes time for the rubber to hit the road, very few people are willing to step up and do the work. We’re all so busy, you see.

Action, Not Ideas

We live in a culture that celebrates ideas and the dynamic leaders that propose them. And this focus downplays the role of the manpower that makes these ideas happen.

I used to think of the implementation as the simple part – the given part. I used to think of the church as just this nameless blob that takes in ideas and spits out end products. So naturally, I believed that the gap between where we were and where we wanted to be was going to be bridged by great ideas for new, exciting things for us to do.

Now I realize: the missing factor is action, not ideas. The church is not short on ideas for programs, they are short on manpower to use on those programs.

I can guarantee you my pastor and church staff are not sitting at meetings thinking, “Wow – we have so many volunteers. If only we had some ideas for things they could do.”

I’m proud of the ideas that I came up with, and my class came up with some wonderful ideas as well. But, I hate to say it, ideas are a dime a dozen. We have so many ideas in the church – I bet the staff is practically swimming in them.

When I came up with these ideas, I wasn’t really helping the church out. Without action, my ideas are useless. And in fact, they can actually create more problems.

Adding to the Workload

Church productivity is not just about getting things done. It’s about managing resources to be most effective. If the resources in a church are slim, you do the best you can. And the demands of ideas will always exceed the capability of your volunteer and staff workforce.

Ideas add nothing to your resources. In very rare cases, good ideas can make a church more efficient and free up resources. But the overwhelming majority of projects and ideas (like the ones I had) are not for ways to be more efficient but are about additional things for the church to do. They add to the workload instead of helping it.

Justified Passivity

I told myself that coming up with an idea is contributing to the process. Other people are volunteering and working – I can’t do that (I’m so busy after all). But my part is to come up with ideas for other programs that would really be great for the church to enact.

We can trick ourselves into being passive. We can justify our lack of effort by pointing to ideas that we put forward – ideas that will never receive action or implementation and will never help the church.

Frustration and Negativity

Generating ideas can lead to frustration. When my great ideas aren’t enacted by the staff, it’s easy for me to think that they don’t value my ideas or they don’t value me. In reality, it has nothing to do with that. The staff may really want to use my idea, but the church workforce is just so overworked and stretched. It’s an issue of a lack of manpower, not the quality of ideas.

I can then look at the current programs and begin to judge them. “I can’t believe the staff doesn’t value my idea – and they think this is the way things should work?” I look negatively at the leaders who are responsible for these areas.

And as a leader, it really breaks my heart when my class members look at me with frustration when their ideas aren’t put into place. They just can’t understand that I’m trying my best – I’m just up to my eyeballs with very little manpower to back me up.

Let’s make the mind shift from a church in need of ideas to a church in need of hands to help in the work.

How can we do this – and how can we show others how to do this?

Books from the PF Journal..

What DOES a Pastor do all week?

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

You may have heard the “joke” that people say… most of the time directly to the Pastor.  And believe it or not, I’ve actually had people who don’t know much about ministry say it to me seriously.

So what DO you do all week?

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about the question.  I know that it’s a legitimate question when asked by some people, and I want to help them understand.

But I also know it can sometimes be a mocking or sarcastic question when it comes from the lips of others.

Either way, I’m writing this post to honestly answer the question, and help you understand what your Pastor has on his plate week after week.   I’m listing basic “categories” that a typical Pastor may serve within, and keeping a running total of the hours as we go…  Then, at the end, I’ll give some points of application.  HERE WE GO!

Sermon Preparation

Doesn’t sound like much to many people… but that just shows they’ve not done much public speaking, and even less sermon preparation.  Depending on the gifting and experience of the Pastor, a good, biblically faithful sermon can take upwards of 20 hours per week!  That’s HALF of a normal person’s work week!  I’ve honestly done it in less than 10 hours many times, but that’s not the norm.  For me it usually takes AT LEAST 15 hours each week to adequately study, pray over my preparation, prepare my own heart, and put together any illustrations, media, etc. that I may be using.

RUNNING TOTAL: 15 hours (average)

Discipleship

This might be one on one meetings with people, or with groups in some kind of training or study time.  Every Pastor is gifted differently and uses his time differently in this area.  On a larger church staff, the Pastor’s time devoted to this category is probably used more toward his staff or volunteer staff than with lay-people in the church.  In a smaller church, it’s usually done with up-and-coming leaders, or training of ministry leaders, as well as lay-people.  For me, this comprises anywhere from 6 to 12 hours in a given week.  To be safe, I’ll say 6 hours per week.

RUNNING TOTAL: 21 hours (average)

Counseling

In my view, counseling is part of discipleship, but I’ve listed it separately because it does have a different “flavor” than typical discipleship.  Also, not all Pastors do counseling.  Some refer these things out to an experienced Christian counselor with whom they have a relationship.  But if a Pastor does do counseling (family, marriage, pre-marital, individual), the norm is probably 2 to 3, 1 hour appointments a week.  For the sake of our total, I’ll say 2 hours.

RUNNING TOTAL: 23 hours (average)

Leadership Meetings

Elder meetings, Deacon meetings, various committee meetings, etc. fall into this category.  In my experience there is usually at least one of these a week, and they typically last for about 2 hours each on average.

RUNNING TOTAL: 25 hours (average)

Administration work

This is the basic organization that goes into the smooth operation of a Pastor’s life and ministry.  It takes more time than you might think.  For me, I spend most of Mondays doing administration, which will include returning or making phone calls, dealing with email or projects that need attention, doing follow-up from Sunday morning responses, connecting with leaders within the church for the sake of accountability or equipping, planning how to best use my time, etc.  Total time for me, 8 hours weekly.

RUNNING TOTAL: 33 hours (average)

Shepherding Ministry

This category is pretty broad.  It could include anything from hospital visitation to writing notes of encouragement.  Every Pastor will do these things to differing degrees based on calling and giftedness.  I’d say the average is probably 4 to 6 hours a week.  We’ll use 4 as a baseline for the sake of our total.

RUNNING TOTAL: 37 hours (average)

Weekly worship leadership

Unlike the rest of the church family who comes to worship services on an “off” day from work, the Pastor is actually doing his vocational tasks during the weekly worship.  I show up early to get final things checked off and ready, as well as preach the morning sermon and in some circumstances, perform other aspects of the worship leadership.  For me, this is 4 hours each week.  If the Pastor serves at a church where there are multiple services, the time goes up.

RUNNING TOTAL: 41 hours (average)

Worship Preparation

All that work done during worship requires preparation.  This will include preparation of prayers, communication with team members and those included in pulling off the service, possible preparation for the Lord’s Supper or baptisms, etc.  The degree to which a Pastor actually “prepares” depends again on his giftedness and his ministry team.  For me, this takes roughly an hour each week.

RUNNING TOTAL: 42 hours (average)

Other studies

The typical Pastor, in order to be a good shepherd, is in a constant state of learning – about the culture, the role of Pastor, the ministry of the church, the Bible, etc.  Most Pastors are studying something OUTSIDE their normal sermon preparation for future use or development of training classes, etc.  This could be anywhere from 1 hour to 5 hours per week.  For me, it’s typically 3 to 4.

RUNNING TOTAL: 45 hours (average)

Vision & vision casting

The Lead or Senior Pastor is usually the one who does the majority of the actual up-front “leading” in the church.  A HUGE part of that is casting vision.  In other words, he keeps the direction and purpose of the church in front of the people of the church all the time.  Some Pastors are better at this than others.  Others are still learning about it.  For me, I have to honestly say I’m still learning how to do this piece well… presently it takes at least an hour a week for me.

RUNNING TOTAL: 46 hours (average)

Prayer for the flock

Most Pastors spend prayer time each week lifting up the needs of their flock.  This will vary from Pastor to Pastor, but I’d guess the average is 1.5 hours per week.

RUNNING TOTAL: 47.5 hours (average)

Miscellaneous issues

Within the church there are also emergency situations that arise, benevolence cases to be involved with, conflicts, administrative struggles to address, conversations to be had, communication to initiate, fires to put out, etc.  This category is hard to define because it could be anything.  I’d say the average Pastor spends 2 to 3 hours a week dealing with this kind of stuff, as it comes up.

 RUNNING TOTAL: 49.5 hours (average)

As you can see, we’re almost to 50 working hours per week, and I feel I’ve been pretty conservative on most of my estimates.  There is a LOT that goes into the Pastoral role.  And this is only talking about hours worked, not the true “essence” of what it means to a person to carry this kind of load.

Some of the intangible pieces of his job that can’t be quantified, but should be kept in mind are…

  • The emotional nature of the work
  • The bearing of others’ burdens
  • The constant vigilance it takes to be discerning about people, situations, and possible dangers to the church family
  • The genuine spirituality the Pastor must constantly maintain for himself in order to lead well and with integrity
  • The pressures that being in ministry brings to his family
  • The frequent criticism that flock members seem to think is somehow O.K. to hurl in his direction because he’s the Pastor (I’ve had people actually tell me that it’s O.K. for me to be publically criticized because I’m paid by the church.  Somehow biblical teaching about how to approach interpersonal disagreements or offenses go out the window in that case… which I must say is CLEARLY not what scripture teaches).

Add to all this the normal stuff of life that everyone has to keep tabs on… things like:

  • The health and needs of his own family
  • Financial pressures
  • Extended family relationships
  • Health, diet, and exercise
  • and many more things

Looking through this list, and putting yourself in the shoes it describes, the common-sense person can easily see that the role is anything but a “one day a week” job.

APPLICATION

  1. Pray for your Pastor and his family.  They together carry a very heavy but vital role in God’s plans for your church family.
  2. Consider the value, in your life and the lives of others, of what this servant of God is doing… and thank God (and him).
  3. Cut him some slack.  He’s one man, with his own family and needs.  Don’t expect him to do everything the way you think it should be done, in the timing in which you think it should be done.  He simply can’t… and a wise Pastor won’t.  He’ll follow the Spirit’s leadership as much as he knows how.
  4. Trust him.  Most Pastors are genuinely trustworthy guys who care about the spiritual health and growth of the people under their care.  Of course they have their own personal quirks, and there are exceptions who are power-hungry or personally manipulative for the sake of their own left-over emotional needs.  But that’s the exception, not the rule.
  5. Recognize the unique weight of others’ burdens that the Pastor must bear, and that he is to do it joyfully.  Make his work a joy, not a burden by cooperating with his efforts in every way you can (Hebrews 13:7).
  6. Realize that though your Pastor may not have personally entered into your life (yet), he is doing so in the lives of others ,and again, he’s one man.  Pray that the Lord will use him in the lives of those to whom he’s ministering.
  7. Do what you can to regularly encourage him.  He needs it.
  8. Don’t forget his family needs encouragement and appreciation too.  They all make MANY sacrifices in order for him to do his job well.  Make it a regular part of your ministry in the church to lift up his family.

What do Pastors REALLY do? You know you wanna’ know…

photo credits: Colin_K on Flickr

Come on.  Admit it.   You’ve wondered this yourself.  Unless you are a Pastor, or related to one.  Then you roll your eyes at these kinds of comments.

If you think about it, it’s really a natural comment for anyone to ask of any profession that is not their own.  For example, I don’t REALLY know what brain surgeons do.  Yes, they do surgery on brains, but I’m sure there’s much more to it of which I’m completely unaware.  I’m not aware of the strain that the necessarily-flexible schedule can be on his life and family.  I’m not aware of the diligence with which he has to maintain his education, learning the newest and best techniques continually.  I’m not aware of a ton.  I admit it.  I’m sure there are brain surgeons all over the world who have just stopped rolling their eyes and are glad to hear that someone understands (tongue firmly in cheek).

But back to it… what DO Pastors really do?  It’s a question asked by those who are curious, at the best end of the scale, or by those who are suspicious and/or pessimistic on the negative end of the same scale.  Pastors live interesting lives… as “employees” of the local church (a term I very much dislike… but don’t know of a better alternative), and as “members” of the church family.  They have responsibilities and the need to be accountable for those responsibilities, but also need the trust and freedom of a loving church family that enables them to have a flexible schedule in order to make snap decisions with the wisdom that God provides, meet needs that arise instantaneously, and still remain balanced and healthy in their relationship with their families.

What do Pastors really do?  Hmmmmm…. what DON’T they do?  Well, brain surgery for one…

Here’s an article that I came across that is very helpful in thinking about this issue.  I think I’ll probably write more on the issue in the future as well (my wheels are turning as we speak… ouch).

Tim Tebow, NY Jets, & true Christ-filled virtue

photo credit: OPEN sports on Flickr

Everyone has heroes.  I’d suggest that everyone NEEDS heroes.  The Apostle Paul encouraged Christians to emulate other Christians who were following Christ well (Hebrews 13:7).  That’s what I’d call a hero.  In anybody’s book.

That brings us to Tim Tebow.  I’m not a Bronco’s fan… never have been… even though I live in Colorado.  But I have been impressed with this guy.  Not because of his football smarts and ability, but because of his character.  He’s one of the few professional sports figures I’ve seen who  not only talks up the Christian life, but backs it up too.  He appears to be the real deal.

But, as is always the case, I and other Christian brothers and sisters need to be careful that we don’t fall prey to “Hero worship.”  We already have a Hero (capital “h”) that we worship.  His name is Jesus… and to put any other hero (lower case “h”) in that place is called idolatry.

HERE is an article I found on the New York Times (of all places) that makes some very good points… not from the sports angle, but from the Christian-life-that-practices-what-it-preaches angle.

In the end, Tim is pretty cool.  But Jesus is cooler.  And it seems like Tim wants you to know that.  Reminds me of a guy named John… you know, “He must increase but I must decrease“…

The power of a Dad’s worship…

The following is an article I came across last week, and it powerful.  It is written by a Christian man who lost his earthly father in 2010.  I’m quoting the entire article because it’s so powerful to me.  May the example of his father be an example to the rest of us fathers…

Dads… you have GOT to read this!

Dads, Sing Like You Mean It Because Your Kids Are Watching

by STEPHEN ALTROGGE on MARCH 13, 2012

[This was written by a man in my church named Keith McCracken. May we be inspired by the example of Keith's father.]

My father was a wonderfully eccentric man. He was a quick witted recluse and a virtual Picasso of mechanicalia. He worked third shift (11:00PM to 7:00AM) for 37 years (without missing a day or ever being late) so as to avoid having his talents “supervised into obscurity.” To most people outside of his family he was hard to understand and blissfully unconcerned with anyone else’s opinion of him. But despite all of that he was very overt about his faith in, and love for, our Savior Jesus Christ.

Though I hold many cherished memories of him, perhaps the most vivid was his excitement over singing certain hymns. By all accounts he possessed at best an “average” voice when it comes to uniqueness and tonal quality. But he sang his favorites with a conviction that was beyond convincing and was by far one of the loudest and most joyful voices in a congregation of approximately 350. I remember looking up at him and “checking him out” while he was singing… “Is he for real?” I would wonder. When he would catch me looking at him he would simply “lock-eyes” with me and sing all the louder while he broadened his grin to match proportion with his pleasure.

He wouldn’t just sing hymns at church either. I can think of many times when the two of us would be welding up a go-kart frame or swapping an engine on a Saturday afternoon and he would spontaneously break into a hymn. In my teens and early twenties I actually found it annoying given the perplexity of some of the situations we would be deep into. But then again I would eventually come around and sing with him anyway. I just never managed to muster the joy he got out of it. I didn’t think about it then but I can see clearly now that he was blessing me with rich God honoring doctrine. That he was lovingly cramming truth into my psyche that would not return void in my soul.

The now heart-softening aspect of these memories is that I am standing here in my church singing these same time impervious truths in front of my children. I catch them looking up at me and I wonder if I am anywhere near as good an example as he was. I get caught up and overwhelmed when I recognize the blessing that God had granted me in an earthly father. How diligent Dad was to bless me in an eternal way without ever making a point to tell me that he was doing it.

Jack McCracken passed away on March 9th of 2010 from pancreatic cancer. The last day I saw him alive was March 8th. We were alone and I was brutally tired from all that had preceded. He could not speak or even open his eyes but the nurses assured me that he could hear so I just prayed for him and encouraged him to trust in Jesus and look for him to come soon. When my nephew arrived I felt comforted that dad would not be alone and I decided to return to my parents’ house and get some rest. I asked my nephew for just a few moments alone with dad and I grasped his hand firmly, kissed his forehead and said: “You did a fantastic job as my father and I am so glad I got to be your son. Thank you for taking me to church. But more importantly thank you for going to church and being joyful there. Thank you for singing like you meant every word… You have no idea how that still affects me… I love you dad.

I stepped back and whistled a “call” he had taught me when I was very young. It would not have been discernible to anyone in a crowd but it meant “I am right behind you” and “I am coming.” I hugged my nephew and thanked him for coming then drove to my parent’s home. Three hours later I was awakened by a phone call from my nephew telling me that “Grampa was gone.” I slumped back into my chair. I wept bitterly. Then I cried out to God for comfort and without much thought I began singing one of Dads favorite hymns…“Jesus paid it all.” As I was singing I began to hear Dad’s voice singing with me… Not as any kind of haunting specter or communion with the dead kind of thing. Much more like a perfect echo… I began to envision his face and felt like I was a little kid again looking up at him. His grin was broadening and his voice was getting louder. I began to thank God over and over for the gift he had given me in my earthly father and the gift of salvation that he had granted to both dad and I. I just laid on the floor and prayed then cried, then sang then prayed some more. I have no idea how long I spent in that state but I can tell you that God granted me peace through it.

Now almost two years later I am still unable to sing a lot of those “old-Baptist” tunes without experiencing the “echo” of my father. I count it a privilege to sing these rich truths in tribute to the one true God; but I also experience the benefit of knowing I am fulfilling the scriptural command to honor my earthly father as well.

I decided to write this all out first as a means of expressing for myself what is sometimes difficult to verbalize. And secondly as a means of encouragement to the fathers in this church. Please sing like you mean it on Sunday morning. I am not asking you to “fake” anything… but rather embrace the very meaning these songs were written for. Seek to express your joy in your Savior Jesus Christ by singing in response to what he has done for you, and in agreement with the truths imbedded in these songs. Neither am I encouraging you to do this specifically for your children’s benefit but first for yourselves with the added comfort of knowing how much it will affect your children. I am simply encouraging you to worship in spirit and in truth. Sing strong because that is what God wants from you. Trust God to bless your children with the echo

You can find the original article HERE

“Rock Star” Pastors – really?

I’m on sabbatical (translation: I’m resting),
so this is a pre-scheduled post for your encouragement, education and enjoyment! 

I was recently reading a post by James MacDonald regarding “Celebrity Pastors.”  Do you know what he is taking about?  It’s those guys who are well-known throughout the Christian realm, have out tons of videos (on disk and the internet), and seem to have a “following” of sorts.  It could be anyone from Rick Warren, to John Piper, to Mark Driscoll, to FILL-IN-THE-BLANK.

There have been all sorts of criticisms of those guys (as you might imagine) and it all really comes down to motives in the heart of that particular man.  As James wrote about this, he had some very good points.  Here’s one of the quotes that grabbed my attention…

The issue is not celebrity, but how one arrives there and how they steward that influence.  I realize that he, like all of us, will account to Christ for how he allows his influence to be used and how he treats every minister of the gospel, every Christian, and every person outside God’s family.

If you’d like to read the entire letter from James MacDonald – you can do so HERE.