Mar 28, 2019 | Abuse, Calling, Criticism, Difficult people, Leadership, Ministry Leader, Missionary, Pastor, Relationships, Uncategorized
Difficult people go to church. I wish it wasn’t true . . . but sadly, it is. Not all people who go to church are difficult. The vast majority are not. But the few who are can make life miserable for a leader. I graduated from Oral Roberts University a...
Feb 14, 2019 | Burnout, Calling, Career, Emotional Health, Fatigue, Leadership, Ministry Leader, Missionary, Pastor, Productivity, Uncategorized, Work, Workaholism
What is the ideal work-week length? In 1900, the Ford Motor Company commissioned a series of tests to determine how long a workweek should be to optimize productivity. Ford discovered the “sweet spot” was forty hours per week. Sara Robinson, in her article Bring Back...
Feb 7, 2019 | Calling, Career, discouragement, Leadership, Ministry Leader, Missionary, Pastor, Uncategorized, Work
“Healthy leaders know how to separate what they do from who they are.” ~ Carey Nieuwhof That one-liner hit me right between the eyes earlier this week. Been going through a challenging stretch of late where it’s been a struggle to separate those two things. I’m...
Jan 31, 2019 | Anger, Difficult people, Ministry Leader, Pastor, People-pleasing, Uncategorized
Have you ever been in a meeting where people were talking (and maybe even shouting), but no one was communicating? I recently sat through one of those . . . it was ninety minutes of sheer torture. Multiple people talking over each other, not listening to each other,...
Jan 17, 2019 | friendship, Loneliness, Relationships, Uncategorized
Every relationship in our life—both present and future—carries with it a degree of risk. If risk-free friendships you seek, find yourself more and more isolated you will. (Written in Yoda-speak) In our increasingly lonely society, I wonder if one way we try to...
Jan 10, 2019 | Burnout, Calling, Career, Emotional Health, Fatigue, Leadership, Mentors, Ministry Leader, Missionary, Pastor, Rest, Stress, Uncategorized, Work
I despise long distance running. In high school, I was forced to run track because playing football (my real sports love) was contingent on running track. No track, no football. I was a sprinter by body type, but for some reason our track coach thought having me run...
