I can’t wait to kick off The Biblethis Sunday and spend the next 3 weeks answering common questions about the bible.
I can’t say enough, how much the last 6 weeks off from preaching have meant and how helpful they have been.
Pastors, you need to take time off in the summer.
It doesn’t have to be 6 weeks, but you can’t have a sustainable rhythm and last in ministry if you preach 48 or 50 times a year.
I know because I tried to do it the first 3 years of our church.
It was great to see how much Joe and Erik have grown as communicators as they got the chance to preach while I was away.
But I’m excited about spending the next 10 weeks preaching again.
10 weeks is my limit right now for how many times I’ll preach in a row.
That’s another thing a pastor and his elder team should figure out, what keeps a pastor fresh. For you it might be 6 or 12.
After we do The Bible series we’re going to spend most of the fall walking through 1, 2 and 3 John.
We had our newcomers lunch yesterday and it was packed.
Blown away that we have grown over the summer.
Always amazes me.
Speaking of growth, I am so excited about the addition of Derek to our team.
He spent his first 4 weeks working while I was away, but the last 2 weeks working with him have been incredible.
Someone texted me while I was away and said, “Derek is exactly what our church needed” and I couldn’t agree more.
His gifts and personality are a perfect fit for what we needed and God’s timing in it has been cool to watch.
I’m in the middle of book 4 of the Harry Potter series with our kids.
We took a break from Lord of the Rings after The Two Towers to read this and it’s been fun.
The writing it so simple and the storytelling captures you.
I’ve been asked how our kids are handling it. Our kids haven’t seen the movies so their imaginations are driving what they see (which I think makes a big deal).
The conversations we’ve had about witches, wizards and spells have been great too.
I’m speaking Thursday afternoon on base to a group of young leaders in the Air Force about purpose and mission.
I’m getting more and more chances to speak on base and I love the time with them.
Then Saturday morning I’m speaking at Vail Family University on how to build an intentional family.
