Kevin Presseault

This is just rambling... sometimes I just need to ramble here in this blog so God can do a work on my thoughts in my head :) This week I've been studying some of Jesus' very famous words.  They come from his sermon that we Christians call The Sermon on the Mount.  In particular I'm looking at the beginning section which we call the Beatitudes. When it comes to this message I think sometimes we can get pretty confused.  I have gone to many different events, particularly men's events, where Jesus' words are set up as this unattainable standard... that Jesus is painting a picture of the perfect person.  But since none of us are perfect that is why we need to give our lives to Jesus.  Now, I believe none of us our perfect... and I believe all of humanity needs to give our lives to Jesus...  But I think we're doing something very bad with this text when we do that.  Why? Because Jesus never says that we can't do this. In fact, the text actually po...

Ever since I was a little kid I've been afraid.  I know people who see me up in front of hundreds of people, whether that's been in theater productions, preaching at church or doing training seminars, find this hard to believe... but I spent most of my life nervous, shy and afraid. I was the kid who was too afraid to ask for the free toy at McDonald's.  I was the kid too shy and nervous to play with other kids.  I was the teenager way too terrified to step up and ask a girl on a date.  I was the consultant so afraid of making a mistake and disappointing a client. Over the last few months, I've been praying and reading and asking God how does someone like me, who's natural flesh reaction is fear, lead?  How do my other gifts and talents trump that fear that wants to creep into my head at 2am in the morning while I'm trying to sleep?  The answer isn't really all that profound.  The answer is FAITH! Over and over and over again Jesus told his foll...

This is just REALLY hard for me to believe... Five years ago today I worked my last day in the computer industry. Five years ago today I said goodbye to incredible people and an incredible career... and followed God on the craziest, roller-coaster of my life: I went into full-time pastoral ministry. Five years?!!?! Where does the time go? These past five years have really been incredible. I've learned so much about myself, the church, my family, and more importantly, about God! There have been times that were incredibly exciting. There were times that were incredibly challenging. There were times when I thought changing careers was the dumbest move ever. But way more often were times when I wouldn't trade a thing in my life for a billion dollars! I've been reflecting a lot on the last five years this week (maybe even a little bit too much since this Sunday's message is still in its outline phase!). Looking back on the work that God has done in me and through me ...

Gee! How did I miss this??? A few weeks ago was the 5th anniversary of when I started this blog. That's pretty crazy! Hard to believe it's been that long already! I've actually been blogging 2 years longer than that... my first blog was running on a Lotus Notes/Domino server using the very awesome Blog template from OpenNTF.org. Now that DEFINITELY feels like a lifetime ago! I've been reevaluating what I want to make available on this blog... Blogging used to be a great outlet for me since I love writing and didn't have many opportunities to do that. Now, I'm writing a 35 minute speech almost every week. Which, I just learned this week, is way more than what professional speech writers for politicians have to do :) I'd like to start blogging more about how my sermon prep is impacting me... and how other Pastor's sermons are impacting me. Now that I speak a lot more than I need to listen, I need to make listening a much more important part of my ...

I've had a number of conversations with people, both Christian and non-Christian, about all the news coverage surrounding the idea that this Saturday, May 21st, has been calculated as Judgement Day by a guy named Harold Camping. And to be honest, I've kept my opinion on this matter to myself. But I do want to say something to the people who truly believe that they will be seeing Jesus face to face on Saturday... and they may be struggling with the fact that it's Sunday. I just want you to know that God loves you! I'm sure you're feeling very confused... I'm sure you in a place of doubt and hurt... You may be feeling betrayed or even lied to... I want to simply remind you that God hasn't abandoned you nor has he forsaken you. God loves you so very much! Please don't let the fact that it's Sunday, May 22nd, taint your opinion of God. Please don't let it taint your view of Jesus Christ and what he did for you by paying the price for all of yo...

I've been praying and thinking a lot about play time. That may sound a little weird coming from a 39 year old... but I do. Play time is on my mind a lot because it's definitely something that I don't seem to have a lot of time for these days. I'm a big believer in the Sabbath - the spiritual discipline of taking time off and resting and just enjoying God and life. But lately my Sabbath keeping has seemed to be either spent getting work done around the house or school work or catching up on stuff to do at the church. Now that I'm reflecting on it... I don't think I've honestly taken a Sabbath rest since our vacation in January. Not cool! Now... I hear all about these pastors who have great play time. I hear about it in the conferences they speak at and in the books they write... and I can't help but wonder - is it just the big church guys who are able to pull this off? Is it when you finally have a huge staff that more play time becomes available? ...

Gotta be honest... most Monday mornings I feel like I've been hit by a truck. I've heard other pastors call it a "spiritual hangover". Maybe that's the term I should start using :) Cause this weekend was an awesome spiritual roller coaster! On Friday evening my wife and I attended a pastors' dinner and conference put on by One Way Ministries . It was great to be a part of this... Being the new kid in town it was a tad awkward at first not knowing anyone... but then we found a few familiar faces so we didn't feel completely isolated :) The conference itself was a preview of the Love and Respect conference which will be coming to Ottawa in November. I'm a big believer in the material covered by Love and Respect... in fact, I use the principals in all my discussions with couples. This was a great refresher of the material for me... but... man oh man was I ever uncomfortable sitting there for 1.5 hours for the first session. Maybe I had the only br...

Our family Christmas celebrations start this weekend. That is just so incredibly weird for me to get my head around that. Already?!?!?! The past couple of months just seem like a blur... must be from all the drywall dust and paint fumes from my recent basement renovations :) I'm looking forward to celebrating with loved ones over the next couple of weeks. I'm excited to have family coming to the church to see the kids' Christmas play. I'm pumped for our very simple Christmas Eve service. I can't wait to see the looks on the kids' faces when they open their present on Christmas morning... they are going to LOSE THEIR MINDS! But even more I'm just SO incredibly grateful for all that God has done in my life this year. It wasn't a easy year by any means. We had tough decisions and hard choices to make... but God has been so faithful in all of this. It had a lot of stress. It had a lot of tears. It had a lot of stress (did I say that already??) Bu...

This Sunday I'm continuing our series on LIFE and living a life of encouragement. We are looking at the life of Barnabas and how he encouraged the early church. I'm reminded this morning of the verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." I am SO grateful for the men and woman who have encouraged me in my life. Especially those who have encouraged me in my spiritual walk with God. I remember too well the criticism I received from some people when I shared that I thought God was calling me to leave the IT profession and become a pastor. They were critical that God wouldn't use a new believer like me... or someone from my background... or someone without a masters degree and education. It was quite a discouraging and doubtful time. Was I just being conceited and prideful wanting to go into ministry? Was I not walking with God closely? But I had many others who were INCREDIBLY enco...

This weekend was just awesome! Really was! I'm kicking off this week just pumped up and thanking God for all I was blessed with over the course of the past few days. Here's just some of the thoughts on this weekend. My parents came to visit so my step-dad could help rebuild my laundry room. I love doing reno work... but I'm not all that good at it. So it's great to have help from my step-dad with this stuff! We had quite the weekend redoing the plumbing and the electrical work for the washer and dryer. I learned a ton and feeling like I'm ready for any leaky pipes in the future :) It looks SOOO much better already and I can't wait to do more laundry. It was just so nice having dinner with family every night this weekend (Fri and Sat with my parents, and Sun with Danielle's sister). I'm so grateful for the family that God has blessed me with! This Sunday we had a family service at Greenbelt. It was great to have the kids join us for the sermon pa...

Sometimes what starts as a laugh turns into something more... To be honest, when I first learned about Movember yesterday, I chuckled and thought that was it. But after praying about it and chatting with my family, I'm totally sold on this and excited to be a part of it! The 'Mo', slang for moustache, and November come together each year for Movember . Each Movember men are challenged to change their appearance and the face of men's health by growing a moustache. The moustache is our ribbon, the means by which we raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer. Much like the commitment to run or walk for charity, my commitment is to grow a moustache for 30 days. Funds raised benefit Prostate Cancer Canada. Why am I doing this? To be honest, and it's kind of sad to admit this, when it comes to health issues I'm incredibly ignorant. Even though I serve as a pastor and come along side people in times of need, I'm totally clueless on medical issues and th...

This morning in our men's community group we discussed the parable of the Good Samaritan and Jesus' reminder that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our being and to love our neighbours as ourselves. We had a great discussion about what that looks like in our culture and how it impacts some of the difficult issue that come up in people's lives. Our talk really hit home in my heart this morning... especially being in a new community again. Before, in our previous home, it was VERY easy to make connections with our neighbours since everyone was pretty much a young family like ours. We could easily connect just based on the common ground we had with the age of our kids. In fact, every evening a large number of families would meet up at the park across from our house and the adults would socialize while the kids played. Now, we find ourselves in a new city. And we moved into a community where, as of yet, I have not seen a single child. The house is nearly 40...

I'm always amazed at how it's the little, tiny verses in the Bible that really seem to stretch and challenge me the most. This week I was reading 1 Thessalonians... and verse 5:16 really hit a cord in me. Be joyful always. Very small. Very simple. Easy to skim over. But how am I doing in that area of my life? Am I joyful always? In every situation that I find myself in, am I joyful? Or do I allow myself to get grumpy and crabby? Is my joy only situational? When things are good and I'm content, I'm joyful? How can I work at always being joyful? The next two verses give the answer: pray continually; & give thanks in all circumstances! Pray for me is not simply a 20 minute prayer time in the morning to kick start my day... but rather a continuous conversation during the day. Sure, from time to time, I'm doing most of the talking... but when I find those quiet moments during the day when I can just chill and listen then I find myself more joyful and more ...

'Tis the season to be incredibly busy! WOW! I'm always amazed at just how crazy this time of year gets. Family activities start ramping up. Christmas shopping and planning start causing sleepless nights. Seminary papers are becoming due. Ministry work seems to start hitting about 100mph. And in all of this... we're supposed to hear that still quiet voice of God telling us how much he loves us. So... in this very busy time of year I'm being VERY purposeful on spending that quiet time with God. Everything else can wait. The key to hope, peace, joy and love is a good, healthy walk with God. Without that everything else that I try to do is useless! Without that quiet time with God I'm useless as a husband, father, friend, brother and pastor. Without God's love pouring into me and flowing out of me this time of year can easily turn me into a Scrooge or a Grinch :) Not very good role models! How about you? How are you ensuring that the busyness of this tim...

I may not agree with the wars (or the reason for them) going on in our world right now... but I certainly have a HUGE respect for the men and women who give up their own lives and sacrifice so much in their own lives so that I have the rights and freedoms that I have in this part of the world. Tomorrow is Remembrance Day here in Canada. I'm remembering my grandfather who passed away when I was in college.... and honoring those who serve my country. Last Sunday we played this song by Shawn Hlookoff during our Celebration service. Very powerful and beautiful song! (If you're reading this on Facebook click this link for the video)

This morning I spent half an hour on the elliptical machine at the gym. I was listening to a GREAT message from Andy Stanley on my iPod. The message was incredibly uplifting, powerful and got me all pumped up. It got the heart rate up faster then I normally do on that crazy machine. But something hit me as my heart rate was approaching 160.... no... it wasn't a heart attack. I began asking myself is this what ministry feels like sometimes? Are we as leaders running this fast pace, getting our heart up to the collapsing point... but in reality we aren't even going anywhere? Are we running so much after the work of God that we forget to slow down and remember that God is running after us and wants to do a work in us? That was a great reminder to me this morning... I can't run after the work of God. I'll never be good enough, strong enough or talented enough. I can't do everything no matter how hard I try. But if I remember to slow down, God catches me! I can ...

I love reading. I read a lot. But lately I've been feeling a tad disappointed that I'm not reading all that I would like to be reading. I read a lot for different areas of ministry. I have five books that I'm going through right now in that category. But... I have 13 others that I would love to get through before Christmas... I have 2 books in fiction/fantasy that I would love to read... they were Christmas gifts from last year! That's pretty sad! I gotta free up more time to read novels for fun! I have a bunch of reading for my seminary class as well. Love that! I'm a few chapters behind though... At least I'm up to date on my comic book reading :) I'm a big believer that one of the best ways to grow as a person is to always be learning. The trick for me has been to keep a balance on the type of stuff that I'm reading. I'm thinking of working on a reading plan as part of my New Year's resolution this coming January... we'll see ho...

Today I want to celebrate all that God has been doing in his church through men and women who have had the guts to follow His call and direction... especially when it would have been really hard and had great cost to do so. God has done some AWESOME things in the world because of people who were willing to challenge how the church works and to do what needed to be done... even though those decisions wouldn't have been popular or even considered acceptable. Could you imagine what would it feel like to be called by God to be the first church to do something radically different from every other church in your community? What would you do? How would you even consider this if there were no books, no conferences and not a single other church doing this that you could study? You were completely and totally on your own on how to make it happen... Would you protest the most powerful religious organization and make a list how it should be updated? Someone did that! Would you be the very...

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...