Jan 19, 2017 | Career, character, Fear, Productivity, Uncategorized, Work
A bulletproof vest helps absorb the impact of bullets and shrapnel. Its purpose is to keep these kinds of ammo from penetrating a person’s body. These vests don’t guarantee survival when we’re getting shot at, but greatly increase our chances coming...
Dec 15, 2016 | Calling, Difficult people, Leadership, Uncategorized
I graduated from Oral Roberts University a starry-eyed 22-year old who was going to change the world for Jesus. No matter where God planted me and Laura, we were going to set records for Him. We would love people, and they would love us. It didn’t take long for my...
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...
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...
