Mar 2, 2017 | Calling, Depression, Fatigue, Fear, Leadership, Rest, Stress, Uncategorized
The more pastors I talk to, the more I realize many of them struggle with busy. At a recent conference, I asked several pastors how they were doing with taking a day off every week. The first two replied: “I don’t take a full day off and haven’t for years.” Two more...
Feb 23, 2017 | Calling, Fatigue, Leadership, Stress, Uncategorized, Work
When I ask pastors about their day off, I’m often greeted with a blank stare followed by uncomfortable mumbling. Some report they haven’t taken a day off in years… and even worse… a few of them are proud of it. Many contributors to pastoral burnout exist. An...
Jan 26, 2017 | Calling, discouragement, Fatigue, Leadership, Stress, Uncategorized
It’s Monday morning. Sitting here in my office, thinking about yesterday’s church service. Truly a powerful day: Great worship; great message from our lead pastor; great response from our people. We had a great crowd too. Afterward Laura and I met with our team...
Jan 5, 2017 | Calling, discouragement, Fear, Leadership, Quitting, Stress
What can you do when you’re a pastor and have lost your passion? When your calling seems fuzzy, difficult, perplexing, and you wonder: “God, why did You lead me to this church?” Most pastors wrestle with these thoughts occasionally. A couple of difficult...
Dec 8, 2016 | Calling, Career, Contentment, Fatigue, Fear, Leadership, Rest, Stress, Work
This past Sunday we celebrated Family Christmas at our church. It’s an annual event where we honor people who lived out the Christmas story during the past year. We had a big crowd. So much energy in the room. Everything was perfect. Later that afternoon, sitting on...
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...
