Welcome Ministries in the North American Church I’m not an expert when it comes to “Welcome Ministry” in the local church. In fact, I spent most of my paid professional ministry career failing at it. We tried giving new people that arrived on our doorstep new names like “Guest” or “Visitor.” We determined that the new names for the new person were always not quite the right name, and went to the thesaurus to find a different name for the... Read more
The Real Church: A Hopeful Future As my days in Bible College drew to a close, I was a young, idealistic, church fanatic. Armed with the understanding and knowledge of what the bible had to say about what the church could be, I was ready to change the world. Very few churches could withstand the power of God who wanted to change the way that church was being done, or so I thought. I became a Youth Pastor and ‘put... Read more
Pastoral Ministry can be quite stressful. If you have been or currently are a Pastor in ministry, you know this to be true. Week in and week out, you go through the motions to make sure that your church is well cared for, that the weekly gatherings are thought through and planned, and that all that are involved are as happy as they can be. You worry about money, resource, staff, programs, success and failure, and may find yourself daydreaming... Read more
Leader. You create and maintain culture. If you are a leader in a local church, it is important that you evaluate the culture that you have created, lead, and continue to perpetuate. If you are leading in a Protestant or Evangelical context, recognizing the tendencies that are easy to fall into is very important to reaching those with addiction. If you are reading this and you don’t want to reach those with an addiction, know that nearly half of the... Read more
Where Shame is, there is also fear. – John Milton Shifting the Shame I was at a meeting recently when someone said, “I have had to learn to shift the shame.” It was a phrase that caught my attention. I jotted it down in my reminder app and have been pondering the phrase from the time that I heard it. I know that I can’t shift the ‘blame’ because I deserve all of the blame that anyone would point at... Read more
Youth Pastor, You are dealing with current and future addicts. I was a youth pastor for the first and most exciting part of my paid professional pastoral career. I loved almost every moment of it. Working with teenagers and their families was probably one of the most gratifying parts of my early adult life and I took great pride in growing a youth ministry in a church that wanted numerical growth constantly. Looking back, allowing a person that has just... Read more
Pastor, are you an addict? If you have ever had the thought run through your brain, “Am I drinking too much?” or “Would I be in trouble with my church if they knew I was doing this?” You are probably already in deeper trouble than the fallout from your church might be if they would find out. I drank for several years prior to my catastrophic failure and a couple years into my heavy drinking career, I had multiple moments... Read more
The Definition of Discipleship Just google ‘discipleship.’ I dare you. I’m guessing you’ll find – (these were the top three hits that I came up with). https://www.allaboutfollowingjesus.org/what-is-discipleship.htm- A process designed to help you be better Christian, filled with ideas on how to grow in areas that you are weak in. You can even get into the 8 areas where you are weak and find ways to be strong in those areas. There are even a few bible verses peppered in... Read more
First, A Caveat about the Bible There are very few times in one’s life that are as dark as the place of mental illness. Whether it be depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, bi polar disorder, or other debilitating illnesses, life seems to get pretty bleak with these conditions. People have often asked me if mental illness is really in the bible. When I was pastoring in a local church this was a common question because people really wanted the Bible... Read more
Failure Humans fail. Since the beginning of time, humans have always struggled to be successful at the art of ‘perfection.’ In fact, the entire Christian narrative is based on one human failure, and then the failure of his wife, and the saga to bring redemption to failing humanity back into a relationship with God. I’m not sure why there is much surprise when a high profile leader in an organization fails. It happens through all walks of life. Whether it... Read more
The Addict Pastor
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