Shirley and I once visited a church whose pastor I had coached (poorly, as it turned out) in the Connection System. We were greeted extravagantly at the door, personally escorted to the refreshments, handed great brochures about the church’s ministries and led to our...
I was visiting the gathering of a church where my daughter and her husband were attending to see why they found it so compelling. The church met in an out of the way unfinished warehouse of a building on the wrong side of the tracks (which literally ran through their...
I was singing at the top of my range during the worship time. By the end of the third song, my throat was rebelling, but dropping an octave made the lower notes too low. So I mumbled my way through the rest of the worship like many of the people around me. Did I...
I think we all know that a church is the people of the Lord gathered, not the building in which they gather. When believers come together in community, they are the church, whether in a small group or in a large congregation. These gatherings are both natural and...
I started writing this series because too many people I love and serve have crashed and burned spiritually and personally. Others are heading for that kind of destruction. I hope that your fear of pain or indifference about your unfinished business has begun to...
I learned how to disciple others out of necessity. I was in my first year as a pastor and realized I knew zilch (technical term for ‘nothing’) about the process because I had never been discipled by another person. I had ‘learned’ how to follow Jesus through...
In the last article, I talked about rest as the first ‘Done’ Discipline in addressing unfinished business. For you leaders who are willing to engage with God in a ruthless searching process, the revealed specter of the sin of your heart (anger, lust,...
While pastoring I developed what I still call the acorn-to-the-oak approach to discipling. I had come to understand that unless I was deliberate about taking people we baptized and leading them through a clear process of disciple making, many would never, on their...
Unfinished business still is stalking leaders I know and love. How close are you to self-destruction? I do not ask this flippantly. Many humanly successful pastors and church leaders live on the edge for a long time before their lives unravel for all to see. When you...
A premier pastor of a former generation was mentoring a group of younger leaders of which I was part. During one of his discussions, he mentioned that in the years since he retired from ministry, he had visited over 250 churches all around the country and never had...
