Nov 30, 2016 | Calling, Career, Depression, discouragement, Fatigue, Fear, Leadership, Stress, Uncategorized
When it comes to the subject of emotions, pastors tend to fall into two camps. Camp 1 believes emotions are meaningless and don’t matter. Emotions are to be ignored. And at the extreme layer of Camp 1… emotions are your sworn enemy. Camp 2 believes emotions are...
Nov 23, 2016 | Calling, Career, Contentment, Leadership, Uncategorized
A tradition around many tables this Thanksgiving includes each person sharing a thing or two they’re thankful for during the past year. It’s been fun to watch the development of this tradition around the Opalewski Thanksgiving table. When the boys were young, it went...
Nov 17, 2016 | Burnout, Calling, Career, Depression, Emotional Health, Family, Fatigue, Leadership, Marriage, Ministry Leader, Missionary, Pastor, Rest, Stress, Uncategorized
Wouldn’t it be great if all a leader needed to know was 3 things? Wouldn’t our lives be simpler? Of course a leader needs to know more than 3 things—that’s one reason more books on leadership exist than we’ll ever be able to read in our lifetime. I’ve lost count...
Nov 10, 2016 | Calling, Depression, Difficult people, Leadership, Stress
Being a pastor has its great points. Being a pastor has its not-so-great points. Some people have a naïve view of pastors. They’re convinced since he or she is doing the Lord’s work, a pastor’s life is a charmed life… exempt from normal human pressures, and the wear...
Nov 3, 2016 | Calling, Career, Depression, discouragement, Fatigue, Leadership
Monday morning. The sworn enemy of pastors. It’s said that many pastors quit every Monday morning, only to re-up by the end of the day. On Monday morning, Sunday gets replayed in our head. The good and the not-so-good. “Thank you Lord for Your felt presence. For those...