Kevin Presseault

  12 months! It has officially been twelve months, one full year, since COVID-19 showed up in my city. This time last year, as a church community, we were laughing on Sunday mornings as we simply closed down our free coffee and did elbow bumps to greet people at the door. On March 16th, 2020 we moved everything online. And we have been operating that way ever since. To say that this year has been unprecedented truly is an understatement of the magnitude of what people have been dealing with. This year wasn't simply crazy or unprecedented. It was hard. Really hard. Hard on seniors. Hard on families. Hard on couples. Hard on singles. Hard on kids. Hard on teens. Hard on small businesses. Hard on mental health. Hard on physical health. It has been hard on our very souls. And it has been particularly hard for those who feel called to care for the souls of the people around them. How can we possible care for others when we ourselves are struggling with the very same issues? I have a con...

Phygital. Yes. You read that correctly. It is not a typo. It is a word that I am strongly resonating with as the COVID-19 pandemic enters its 9th month of impacting our lives and our church. I talk to a number of people about church ministry. It's kinda my thing. I spend a TON of time reading, praying, talking, listening, and discerning all things as it pertains to the church. I LOVE the Church! And it is because I love the church so much that I work so hard in seeking God on how best to serve the purpose for which God created the church. Because, really, that is all that matters. It doesn't matter what I think the purpose of the church is. It doesn't matter what people think the purpose of the church is. All that matters is that the church lives out the purpose for which God created the church. Jesus shared his reason for coming to earth in Luke 19:10: For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. The work of the church continues the work of Jesus. To seek and save th...

Back in mid-March, the church ministry landscape completely changed. When churches went online, the hope was to be back in-person in our buildings in a few short weeks for Easter. That didn't happen. While the hope was a quick return to normal, I just felt deep down in my spirit that I needed to prepare for a marathon. This disruption to our way of doing ministry wasn't going to be a short sprint. This was going to be a long, hard, challenging season. One that would push many leaders, myself included, to the wall of breaking.  Even for churches who are back to in-person gatherings, the challenges of these days continue. Lots of time, energy, and resources are needed to manage the in-person and online ministry simultaneously. Around Easter 2020 I began to introduce the language of Marathon Strategy to our staff and leaders. I began to ask the question "What do we do when more and more of our church hit the wall? And what do we do when it's our staff and are leaders who ...

In this episode of the Leader Lifter podcast we continue the conversation on how we respond to criticism. Nothing will reveal our character faster than how we deal with criticism. Click the post title or READ MORE to watch the video. Would love to hear how you handle criticism as a leader in the comments below.

I implemented something pretty simple into my life way back in 2005. I began that year to write out a short, one or two sentence prayer, that I would make the central focus of my prayer time that year.  I don't remember where I learned the idea... my guess is it was from the men's Bible study put out by Man in the Mirror since I has heavily influenced by them back in those days... regardless of where I learned it, this practice has been a huge blessing in my life, my family and in my work in the church. Some years I've very spiritual about it and spend days, even weeks, praying to God asking him to give me the prayer I should pray. After all, wouldn't it be so much better to be regularly praying God's will? Of course! Other years, I just simply picked something that I wanted more of. Some years I've seen instant changes around me through these prayers... and other times, it was only when someone pointed it out to me that I became aware of any change. For 2...

In this episode of the Leader Lifter we continue the conversation on how character impacts our leadership. We talk about the importance of integrity. Simply click the Title or the Read More link to watch the video. An amazing book on the topic of Integrity is Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality by Dr. Henry Cloud.

Have you ever heard a child complaining "I'M BORED!"?  I know I have.  What is really interesting about the statement is not a true lack of possible activity for the child... but rather, the complete lack of interest in doing any of those activities.  They are mundane and just not exciting... so the child gets bored. Guess what?  This happens to adults too!  Especially leaders! In the ten years I've been serving the local church as a pastor I've seen many leaders express that they are bored.  Let's be honest for a moment, I've said this myself on many occasions - in fact, I'm in a bit of a season right now where I'm feeling bored. If you're a leader, here's what I know about you.  There is something about the status quo that never sits right with you.  There's something that just shouts out in your bones that if your church or organization isn't growing and moving forward then it's running the risk of dying.  And you get...

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 ...

I've been wanting to write on this topic for some time... I've been studying this topic more and more... and I figured now would be as good of a time as any to start looking at this. As church leaders and as Christians we need a good Theology of Meat vs Fruit. Why?  Because of what the Apostle Paul wrote to church leaders in his letter to his son in the faith, Timothy: For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Tim. 4:3) Now... most of the time we attribute this verse to people outside of the church who are looking for whatever spiritual leader will tickle their fancy.  But Paul is writing this to a church leader about people in the church.  The church will be a place where people will turn away from listening to truth and will find teachers to suit their own passions. ...

I was watching this video by Pastor Andy Stanley from the 2014 Catalyst conference. In his opening statements he challenges leaders to know who they are... and asks them what breaks their hearts. As a pastor in the local church I know exactly what breaks my heart.  It's what keeps me up late at night.  It's what drives me crazy when I'm not able to articulate it in such a way as to get others on board.  It's become my reason for all that I do in the church. What breaks my heart is Christians who live like non-Christians and give non-Christians a bad image of Christ . Let me try to explain why this breaks my heart. I didn't grow up in church.  I know most people would assume that since I'm a Pastor that I come from this very religious home.  My family is great but church life wasn't really a part of my upbringing.  In fact, by grade 8 I didn't believe that God was real and I thought that the church was a scam to get people's mone...

I'm not a hymn guy. AT ALL! In fact, good old fashion hymn-sings are flat out scary to me. Remember, I didn't grow up in church and the "classics" are not classics to me... they are completely foreign to me. Anyways, that's a rant for another day :) This afternoon I do have the song "Trust and Obey" floating around my head. Here is a great updated version of this song if you're not familiar with it (if reading this on Facebook, click this LINK ). I'm really learning a lot lately about trusting and obeying. I'm learning more and more how little answers I actually have to a lot of big questions, in ministry and in family life. I'm learning more and more that with every step I take in faith God is with me in it! I may not know exactly what He has in store for me, but I know that I can keep on walking, trusting and obeying Him! And that's a really cool spot to be! God isn't impressed with my leadership skills or my plan. He...

This morning I was challenged with the thought of why does my church participate in One Prayer ? Not only that, I pushed even further as to why should we record my preaching message and submit it to be potentially used by other churches participating in One Prayer? I have wonderful people in my life who stretch me and challenge me. I'm so appreciative of their love and support as I seek God in all areas of my life and ministry... and this challenge this morning really pumped me and and encouraged me. Are my reasons for participating in One Prayer to build me up? Or my reputation? Is it so I can play with the "big boys pastors" as well? Or so I can be cool? Is it because I have big church ministry envy? Or because I have secret pastor-crush on Craig Groeschel? Great... I'm guessing now my reputation is completely shot and that's the only statement everyone will remember LOL! :) I participate in One Prayer because it gives me a much BIGGER picture of God! L...

No surprised to anyone that I'm a big tech and computer nut. I love playing around with new technology and learning on how it can be leveraged to make the church more effective in reaching more and more people. On the LifeChurch.tv blog is a FANTASTIC article on their plans for creating campus pages on Facebook! You can read it by clicking here . I love this! I think their points are bang on. I've played around with a basic Facebook page and would love to get ours to a higher level of functionality and use. So... any Facebook experts out there wanna help get our page done? :)

Easter is the BIG DAY for me! Not Christmas! Why? Because Christianity isn't worth the price of the paper my Bible is written on if the Resurrection didn't happen! It's ALL about the truth that Jesus is ALIVE! If it was just about a good, moral teacher being born in a manger it would all mean nothing. It's about an empty tomb! It's about a Saviour paying for my sin! It's about his ascension to heaven to advocate to the Father on my behalf. It's all about Easter! AND I'M PUMPED! I've been praying for BIG things to happen this weekend. I'm trusting James 1:6 when it says "But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." I've been asking and believing God is going to work in the hearts of people BIG TIME this weekend! Hope you believe that too!

Hard to believe, but this week marks ONE YEAR since I've been the Lead Pastor at LifeSpring Christian Fellowship. Where does the time go??? I am incredibly humbled and blessed to have the privilege of pastoring this church. God has really been stretching me, challenging me and growing me as I serve here. Hopefully he's been doing that to the people who attend LifeSpring as well :) Here's a couple of things that I've learned over the course of the year that have really grown me spiritually: I care less what people think about me. Now, this may sound harsh... but it's SO true. My role is not to get people to like me... my role is to help people grow spiritually. The spiritual gift of shepherd is to love people so much as to not leave them as they are. If I was just concerned with having people like me then I would be too scared and nervous to speak God's truth. It is impossible to pastor a church while concerned that every body likes me. Truth is... I ca...

This past summer I did a research paper for the Hermeneutics course I was taking at Heritage Seminary. The goal of the paper was to show that I had learned concepts taught in the course on interpreting a difficult text from Scripture. One of the best things that I learned in that course and during my research paper was just how AWESOME God is! How did a course on interpreting ancient, biblical texts and a research paper on 1 Timothy 2:12 (yes, I like stirring up hornets nests!) do that??? It was just an awesome and beautiful reminder to me on the work that God is doing all around the world through his church. And he is doing this through SO many different types of churches! I just find that there is a beauty to this diversity in the churches! Over the past year I've had the wonderful and humbling privileged to meet so many different church and ministry leaders from so many varied backgrounds, theological viewpoints and church models! And what is SOOOO cool about all of them i...

It's kinda weird how important "going home" is. You know... that feeling of going to that special place where your childhood memories are so strong it just gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling. For my wife and I, we don't really have that "home" to go to. We both moved around growing up. My parents now live in a house and town that I never lived in. Our family is spread out and all in homes and towns that we never lived in. So when we get together it's great... but it just seems to be missing that "going home" feeling. On Sunday, I finally felt that "going home" feeling again. It was by visiting our church. I didn't tell anyone we were coming. The last few trips to Ottawa/Montreal we were unable to work out a visit and I didn't want to risk having to cancel and then telling people why we weren't coming. Sitting in Westview Bible Church again just brought out so many wonderful memories! This is the place that we sta...

God really does amaze me! No really. He does. Each and every day! Why? Because everything that goes on around me is just flat out amazing! I'm amazed by how awesome everything in creation is. I'm amazed at the incredible love and grace that was shown to the entire world at the cross. And I'm just amazed that God would use me, a complete nobody, to be a part of the work that he is doing in the world. I can't believe that I get to pastor a church. I can't believe I get the opportunity to learn from such wonderful professors at seminary. I can't believe I get to share my heart and what I'm learning with other leaders in the church. Who am I to equip people who've been in church leadership longer then I've even been a Christian??? I truly stand in amazement of all that God is doing around me and in me. I can't believe we've been at LifeSpring for six months! We're does the time go?!?! I'm standing in total amazement in all...

This week I'm working on a new schedule. Kids going back to school will do that. Also, my awesome, amazing wife started a new job today. So in order to ensure that we have our weekly Date Day together, I'll be taking Thursdays off instead of Monday from now on. Now, on Monday mornings I'm fried. Really fried. Some Mondays, especially after doing everything to get ready for Sunday Celebration, preaching and then our LifeGroup that evening, I feel like my brain has been hit by an angry bus. And because that bus was so angry, it backed up to hit me again :-) I love taking time every single week to pray and dream about what God wants to do. I dream about what God wants to do in my life and my relationship with him. I dream about what God wants to do in my family to stretch us and grow us closer together. I dream about what God wants to do our the church that I pastor so that everyone will continue to grow in their spiritual journey. Monday mornings with a fried brain ...

I recently read that the average church in North America allocates about 5% of their total budget on Missions and Evangelism. The rest of the money goes to pay staff and buildings and equipment and programs for church members like children and youth. I can't help but wonder what would the world look like if we flipped that around... what if 95% of our church budgets went to reaching out to a lost and hurting world? What if our programs were not just about building ourselves up but were all about teaching us to obey everything that Jesus commanded so that we would go and make disciples of all the nations? What if 95% of churches' money was being poured back into our communities through the lives of people radically transformed by the message, power and love of Jesus Christ? I wonder what that would look like... probably like the church I read about in my Bible.