Dreams Unlocked

Ready, Aim...... When you are a preaching pastor, you are in the public eye. Every week you stand up in front of a group of people - it could be 10 or it could be 10 000. Because of who you are and what you stand for, your life is scrutinized and analyzed. People watch how you treat them, they watch what movies you go to, and what places you go to. And people are needy - some people are very very needy - like needy for professional help. These types of people have unprocessed hurt, frustration and anger in their lives. And, these types of people tend to take out their hurt on pastors. I think this is because people know pastors won't return in kind - because we are supposed to be imitators of Christ who never struck back. And that is true - not just pastors, but all Christians are not supposed to strike back at those who hurt us. We want to. We want to throw the hurt right back at the person who hurt us. But, Jesus guides us and shows us that just like Him, it is possible to actual...

One of the biggest hurts a pastor can experience is when someone leaves their church. It is hard to not take it personally. Over the past year we have had people come and go from our church. A couple that was involved in ministry at our church, have just recently left and are attending another church. I was a little bummed about this, until I talked to another leader. He told me to not worry about it - this will happen - people will leave and people will be inconsistent. But - in every church there will be a core of believers who will be heavily involved, who will give of their talents, time and resources towards the missions of the church. These are the people that pastors need to focus on. There are a lot of people in our church that are sort of on the fringes - they are not very consistent in their attendance, they are not in home groups, they are not very involved and they probably don't tithe. Now - these are good people, and are most likely followers of Christ, and would call...

Last Sunday and this Sunday, I am not preaching. This is the first 2 Sundays in a row that I have not preached at church. I asked our elders board if I could have the first 2 weeks of July to do some thinking, praying and reading about the church. Primarily I had 2 goals: 1. Plan out all my sermons from Sept. 2009 - August 2010 - I have a good start on that, although there might still be a couple of changes to the preaching schedule. 2. Do some studying and thinking around the whole area of leadership and management, in regards to leading the church. I have been reading books on leadership and management, and solicited some friends recommendations for leadership books. The 2 books that seemed to lead everyone's lists were: In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen and Good to Great by Jim Collins Incidentally you couldn't find 2 more different books! Nouwen is one of the authors I have read the most of, and I have read this particular book twice already - it is quite short and can e...

Hats that Adam and Sophia made at Golden Spike Days at Rocky Point Park today. Adam loves his. Listening to the new Coldplay son, "Glass of Water" - It's awesome. I'm still pretty buzzed by that concert last week. Felicia is having a baby. Unplanned, but not unwanted. I was pretty shocked when she told me, but have now warmed up to the idea of having a third little one running around, and running my life. I come from a family of 3, and it is fun having more than one sibling. I'm pretty sure Adam and Sophia will prove to be good older brother and sister. Adam will keep Sophia from poking the baby's eyes out or trying to break his or her arm. I have a couple of weeks where I am not preaching - I have planned out all my sermons from Sept. 2009 - Aug. 2010 which is pretty cool. Now I am going to re-format oops - Sophie is crying. Ok - changed her diaper, and her shirt - it was soaked with sweat, put some cream on her exczema, had a brief talk on the greco-roman he...

Sophie leads the way. I had this super long post about this church in Kentucky that hosted a "bring your guns to church day". But, the post got too long and convoluted and sorted of imploded in on itself. Thus, you have this post instead. I spoke at Trinity Western this past weekend to a Mar Thoma Youth Conference. It went really well - really enjoyed my time with them. Preached on the Holy Spirit this Sunday - I said most Christians treat the Holy Spirit like the weird uncle you try to avoid at family reunions - he's family and all, you just don't really want him to do anything weird. Someone mentioned to me at how rare sermons on the Spirit are in evangelical churches. That struck me as quite odd. Maybe we are over reacting to charismatic excesses. Personally, I hope our church has more manifestations of the Spirits presence in our congregation: healing, words of knowledge, etc. I have seen first hand the destruction of the excesses. But, still the dry intellectuali...