Apr 24, 2024 | Personal Development
You are Royal How do you see yourself? When you attend a social activity, how do you introduce yourself? How do you describe yourself to others? Does the interaction go something like this? “Hi, my name is David”. “So, David, what do you do?” “I‘m a Ministry Systems...
Apr 23, 2024 | Church Matters, Leadership, Pastor's Life, Perspectives
Being in ministry provides leaders with a front-row seat to the good, the bad, and the ugly of people’s lives. If I’ve learned anything through the years, it’s this: Life is messy. And it doesn’t come with a nicely packaged answer to suit every occasion. Consequently,...
Apr 19, 2024 | Church Matters, Leadership, Pastor's Life, Perspectives
My pastor sat in his chair and steepled his fingers as he listened to my confession. When I finished, he asked me, “Did you enter this relationship with your consent?” I thought about my constant stream of nos, the boundaries pushed and prodded over and over, the...
Apr 16, 2024 | Church Matters, Leadership, Perspectives
We want heroes and want to be heroes. We imagine ourselves as the Billy Grahams, the Elijahs. We like to imagine ourselves in their company. We want to be that effective. To shape a society where our set of values and preferences is the norm. Where we can fit in and...
Apr 12, 2024 | Church Matters, Inspiration, Pastor's Life
There comes a time to move and to act. God commanded his people to do the impossible and step into the flooding waters: “Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing....
Apr 9, 2024 | Inspiration, Pastor's Life, Personal Development
Paul’s letter to Philemon presents us with a challenge. Imagine taking this letter to various movie studios in the hopes it gets turned into a film. The problem that studio executives will have is there is no clear villain. Sure, Philemon is fraught with problems— he...
Apr 2, 2024 | Church Matters, Devotion, Inspiration, Personal Development
Imagine greeting a family member without a hug, handshake, or smile. Your lack of enthusiasm would reveal a great deal about how you felt—or didn’t feel—about that relative. Imagine your favorite team in your favorite sport winning the game. Enthusiasm would be the...
Mar 29, 2024 | Inspiration, Mental Health, Pastor's Life, Personal Development
In a sense, a life of flourishing can be described very simply: It is the opposite of depression. Though you may be familiar with what depression feels like and how debilitating it can be, you may be surprised at how exceptionally common it is in our society. In 2020,...
Mar 26, 2024 | Family, Pastor's Life, Personal Development, Perspectives
Discipline is about teaching. In fact, the word discipline is derived from the Latin word disciplina, which means instruction or training. It is also derived from the word discere, which means “to learn.” Basically, discipline centers on providing instruction and...
