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The part of my job I love the most is teaching/preaching. This includes the lesson preparation process with the study that goes along with it. I love the discovery and organization of truth into a life-changing presentation that clearly communicates the very word of God.

A close second to what I enjoy about being a Pastor is what you might call “mentoring” or perhaps “counseling.” I love it when people come by to talk about the Bible. I know many pastors who have degrees in counseling. So I ask this question, “is the Pastor meant to be a ‘counselor?'” My answer to this is “sorta…”

The point of a counselor is to listen to you and help you make decisions to make your life better. They help you to feel better about yourself and to improve your individual situation. They meet with you on a regular basis and they keep what you talk about in the strictest confidence.

The role of a “pastor-as-counselor” (I think) is different. Continue reading →

I read a recent article over at the Harvard Business Review that brought up some interesting points about how successful (“great”) businesses started out, around 70% did not have a business plan!!!

In a “former life” I worded in sales for Xerox and a few other companies, and so I’m still interested in business/marketing information. Actually, I think that most of the things that make someone successful in “business” also would help leaders in the church, I think this is what we categorize today as “leadership.”

Leadership is all about people, how to influence them to do what it is you believe they should do (that’s a nicer way of saying, “getting them to do what you want.” if you’re in the church, you should want the right things 😉 )

I lead our Adult Education program here at the church and I have shifted to training more about “core convictions” and “purpose” than the details. I think this article reinforces that idea. Continue reading →

I wrote on Wednesday how to be a good husband… die.

There is a big debate between those who are egalitarian (believe men and women are the same in everything), and complementarian (those to hold that men and women are equal in value or worth, but different in role or function, these roles are complementary to eachother).

I’m in the latter group.

This view is put forward pretty well in the Continue reading →

One of my favoriate passages in the NT is Ephesians 5.

I like it because it’s immensely practical, and yet theologically dense at the same time. The text has to do with living a holy life within a community of faith, as well as within the smallest community, a family.

Paul uses marriage as a picture of how Christ relates to the church, but in a secondary sense, it is a great passage to direct us about how marriage should work.

Husbands should be the “head” of the wife (Eph 5:23), taking the lead and being willing to face the consequences..

Husbands should Continue reading →