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 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...
Oct 13, 2016 | Calling, Career, Depression, discouragement, Fatigue, Leadership, Rest, Stress
401k plans serve as the primary retirement funding vehicle for private sector workers. The purpose of a 401k plan?f It’s a tax-advantaged savings vehicle for building your retirement nest egg. If you don’t contribute to your 401k now, if you don’t plan for your...
Oct 6, 2016 | Calling, Depression, discouragement, Leadership, Relationships, Stress, Uncategorized, Work
We are losing pastors in the U.S. at a rate of 1500-2000 every month. A 2015 Survey conducted by Expastor.com, which focused on pastoral health, explains some reasons why. Here are the highlights (actually low-lights) of their research: 81% of pastors at times feel...
Sep 15, 2016 | Calling, discouragement, Fear, friendship, Relationships, Uncategorized
A famous proverb begins: “An anxious heart weighs a man down, but…” Perhaps no words ring truer for pastors than these. There’s a second part to that proverb… but I’ll share it with you in a bit. When I was a pastor—especially during my years as a lead pastor—the...
Sep 8, 2016 | Calling, Career, discouragement, Fear, Leadership, Uncategorized, Work
The word “health” gets tossed around a lot regarding pastors. The question is: what does health look like for a pastor? I reached out to a few good friends and asked for their definition. Here are their responses: “The ability to breathe in and out. Many pastors only...