Reflections

Normally this time of year I become very reflective... I look back on the past year and I pray that God would show me things that He has taught me.  I find this very important so that I do not forget what I've learned and, more importantly, that I actually put it into practice.

I learned this from the Bible.  In Philippians 4:8-9 the Apostle Paul writes:
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
"Put it into practice".  It's not enough to just hear from God and learn great stuff... as Christians, and especially as Christian leaders, we need to put it into practice.  Over the next few days I'll be writing about what I believe God has taught me this past year and how I hope to put these learnings into practice in 2017.

LEADERS ARE READERS

In many different ways God reminded me this year that Leaders are Readers.  He did this through school courses, seminars, mentors and in personal reading.

For pretty much my entire life I have been a HUGE reader.  I was always reading.  In fact, at one point before going into Pastoral ministry I would read 2-3 books a week!

But something has happened over the past couple of years...  Somehow, and I really don't know when, I began to struggle with reading.  I couldn't stay focused on a page long enough to absorb anything from it.  I would rarely, if ever, finish a book.  And instead of 2-3 books a week, it would be 2-3 books every six months.

I've become distracted.  With so much on my mind, and so many sources of distraction in email, texts, phones, social media and whatever else, I have lost discipline in being able to focus and to be still.

Going through the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Course with our church has greatly helped me realize the importance of getting this skill back!

In order to return to my love of reading I've put together a leadership reading plan which I learned from Nelson Searcy's book, The Renegade Pastor.  In order to be a well balanced leader I need to be reading different types of books from different types of authors.  This is what the plan will look like.

  • Every day includes Bible reading.  In order to track this, I'm using a One Year Bible reading plan provided by YouVersion.
  • Each month I will read one "Best Practice" book, focused on growing and improving either ministry or my personal devotional life.
  • Each quarter I will read another book.  These four books will be 2 Theology books, 1 Church History book, and 1 Philosophy book.
My hope and prayer is that God will use this new discipline to help me love and shepherd my family, my church and my community at even greater levels in 2017.

So if any of you have book suggestions for any of those categories, I'd LOVE to hear from you!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Practical Atheist

Image
Over the past few weeks our church has been doing a preaching series called Practical Atheist. This is based on the book The Christian Atheist by Pastor Craig Groeschel. I've been blown away by how God has worked in the hearts of so many people over the past few weeks. Mind you, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Pastor Craig's ministry has had such a huge influence on my personal walk with Jesus so just is just a continuation of that blessing. This week we're probably going to hit the hardest topic for me to preach on, I Believe in God but I Pursue Happiness at All Costs. I'm going to be using Jesus' parable of the sower and look at how our pursuit of happiness causes us to miss out on truly how God wants from our lives. This topic hits me right between the eyes as I'm being open and honest with God about what allow to be entertainment or how I go about trying to be happy. Do I allow myself to be entertained by sin? Do I pursue the world's view
Read more

Revitalized Pastors and Leaders

Image
On March 15, 2023, the Barna Research Group released the "The Resilient Pastor Initiative". Its goal was to explore and share the state of pastors in America in the post-COVID climate we find ourselves in. According to the data, the state of pastors may not be as good as it appears from behind the pulpit. From 2015 to 2022 Barna notes the following where pastors responded "Excellent" in a number of categories: Spiritual well-being dropped from 37% to 14% Physical well-being fell from 24% to 9% Mental and emotional health plummeted from 39% to 11% The overall quality of life dipped from 42% to 18% The level of respect they felt from the community tanked from 22% to 10% Level of ‘true friends’ dropped by 50% from 34% to 17% The data also showed that this drop in wellness was more prevalent in younger pastors! Older pastors are riding it out to retirement. Now, before anyone from my church begins to panic, I'm OK. As shared in a blog post from January 2023 entitled
Read more

Sabbatical Planning

Image
  I'm BACK!! What a season of ministry this has been! Over the past year, I have talked with many leaders from churches, para-church ministries, and businesses, and many say the same thing: "I'm still recovering from the craziness of the pandemic four years later!" Does this resonate with you? It definitely has for me! While this past year has seen some INCREDIBLE moves of God and great blessings, it was also filled with many challenges, divisions, spiritual attacks, and a lot of weariness. Thankfully, God has given us many spiritual disciplines to help us overcome this weariness in our souls: Sabbath and Sabbatical. In October 2023 the craziness of the pandemic in the life of our church and family finally caught up to me. I was tired. More tired than I had ever been. Every decision in my role at the church felt heavy and filled with doubt. While my spiritual life was deep and I felt very close to God, a nagging voice would speak into my thoughts that it was time to t
Read more