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Church planting is really hard...not just hard work; it's also hard on life.

I was talking to the spouse of a church planter yesterday, and she was relating to me her feelings that they hadn't accomplished what was intended or expected.  I tried my best to reassure her, but to be honest, I don't know if she heard me or not.  At times like this, feelings dictate to us most of what we are experiencing.

Recently, one of our church planters announced in my presence that the book, "Choosing to Cheat," by Andy Stanley had revolutionized his ministry.  I was delighted to hear it.  We give that book to all of our church planters when they attend "Focused Living for Church Planters," the preliminary training event to our Basic Training experience.  The premise of the book is simple:  every person has the same amount of time at his or her disposal.  The choices we make with our time will prioritize certain responsibilities and roles we have, while

I have to admit, I'm not in the best of moods today...I'm angry at my world, because nobody seems to respect MY values.  This morning all the significant people in my world determined that they had issues that were more important to them than what was important to me!  (Have YOU ever had that happen to you?

Well, I find myself in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of our country today.  There are three reasons for me to be here, maybe four.  First, I am in hopes of casting a compelling vision of what God's doing in our midst to a potential partner in our church multiplication efforts in the Mid-Atlantic.  Second, I expect to learn some things that will assist our churches in a fast-growing methodology for church growth and expanision.  Third, I'm attempting to network with one of our own key pastors to find out how we can assist him and his church in accomplishing the vision God ha

Well, I did it.  When the New Year started four months ago, I told my wife, Joye, that I was bound and determined to lose weight.  I had gotten out of shape and overweight over the past few years, and at my age, it was limiting my effectiveness in all areas of life.

Last weekend I lost my fortieth pound and officially passed my goal on the 117th day of my diet. 

Well, today is the sixteenth birthday of my one and only son, Jonathan.  Consequently, I am flooded with a variety of emotions.  I feel amazed...am I really old enough to have a 16-year old young man living in our home?  I feel proud...he is learning and maturing before my eyes into an impressive, poised teen-ager.  I feel angst...how could I have let so much time go by without investing more time and energy into my son?  I feel joy...he loves God and people very much, and I've convinced he'll go far in life, as He pursues God's will.

Blogging is a whole new concept for me.  It's not that I don't have a lot of thoughts; I have plenty!  It's that I typically don't take time to write them down, especially like this for all the world to see.  So bear with me...and if any of you bloggers out there have any advice, I'm listening!  Help me do this better, for all who may be interested.

I have often heard friends of ministers encouraging them to "come away or come apart." They always used the model of Jesus who made it a consistent practice to call "time-out" and take breaks for physical and spiritual refreshment.

I believe every person receives God's call to salvation. I also am convinced that God calls every believer to serve him. That general call to service is best described as a full-time call to discipleship as each of us seeks to grow to be more like Jesus every day. The call to service can have specific dimensions. For example, I have spent some quality time recently revisiting my own call to ministry. I can remember God's call to me as a sixteen year old to surrender my life to the gospel ministry. I have never doubted that call.

I am new to this. Some of my peers have warned me not to do it. Others have said it will give me a more direct connect to our constituents. I choose to listen to the "direct connect" guys. So here we go. I do have a few groundrules by which I will operate (since it is my blog :)).

I want this to be a forum for sharing ministry ideas. If you want to talk about convention things, give me a call at 800-466-5290 x 201. Here I want to spend time writing and reading about my passion--ministers and ministry.