Category Archives: Misc.

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The Halfway Point of the Year & the Top 5 Posts so Far

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Photo by Isai Ramos on Unsplash

It’s the middle of summer.

In New England, we do whatever we can to be outside (and survive the humidity) to replenish our vitamin D and enjoy the long days!

The year is more than halfway over. I hope you are closer to the goals you set in January.

If not, don’t fear.

The year isn’t over, and it isn’t too late to hit restart and try again.

In case you missed them, here are the 5 most read posts of the year so far. Hopefully, they will be encouraging to you and will also help you reach your goals as a leader and a person. Thanks for reading!

  1. Pastors Lose 5 – 7 Relationships a Year
  2. How to Know It’s Time to Leave a Ministry
  3. Love Is…
  4. 8 Things I Wished Everyone Knew about Enneagram 8’s
  5. 18 Things Every Husband Should Know about His Wife

If you’re looking for something great to read this summer, check out what I’ve read so far this year to find something!

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Top Blog Posts of 2023

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As we get closer to the end of the year, many people post their favorite and top lists for the year. Stay tuned for my favorite books of the year post.

Here are the year’s top posts, in case you missed them or want to go back. Thanks for reading and coming along the journey with me!

The 10 most read blog posts of the year.

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  1. Pastors Lose 5 – 7 Relationships a Year
  2. What I Didn’t Know About Being a Lead Pastor
  3. 8 Things I Wished People Knew about Enneagram 8’s
  4. How to Stay Passionate as a Pastor
  5. 11 Ways to Be an Engaging Preacher
  6. How to Walk with People Through Pain & Difficulty
  7. How a Church Falls
  8. Should Women Lead & Teach in a Church?
  9. How to Plan a Preaching Calendar
  10. How COVID Changed Church Staff Cultures
10 blog posts to help pastors in 2024.

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The Halfway Point of the Year & the Top 10 Posts so Far

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black Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses on beach sand

Photo by Ethan Robertson on Unsplash

It’s almost the end of summer.

We’ve loved spending tons of time at the beach and soaking up the sun before cooler temperatures come!

The year is more than halfway over.

Hopefully, you are closer to the goals you set at the start of the year.

If not, don’t fear.

The year isn’t over, and it isn’t too late to hit restart and try again.

In case you missed them, here are the top 10 posts from this year. Hopefully, they are encouraging to you but also help you reach the goals you have as a leader and a person. Thanks for reading!

  1. What I Didn’t Know About Being a Lead Pastor
  2. 8 Things I Wished People Knew about Enneagram 8’s
  3. 11 Ways to be an Engaging Preacher
  4. How to Stay Passionate as a Pastor 
  5. How to Walk with People Through Pain & Difficulty
  6. Forgiveness, Letting Go, and Figuring out How to Move Foward
  7. How to Plan a Preaching Calendar
  8. How to Let Go of Shame
  9. 4 Ways to Build a Strong, Healthy Elder Team
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Friday Five

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I turned 42 last week, which is hard to believe in some ways, and in other ways, I feel like my life is really just beginning.

The older I get, the more I’m reminded how precious and important each day is but not for the reasons I thought at 30. At 30, it was about building, gaining, moving up a ladder of some kind. At 42, my focus is on relationships, adding value to others, and being a great friend, dad, and husband.

I was talking to someone who I’ve known for most of my life, and he said, “It is amazing how we change and how priorities shift.” And he’s right, and that’s a good thing.

Favorite books:

Last week I finished up Winn Collier’s fabulous biography on Eugene Peterson,  A Burning in My Bones. I appreciated how raw and honest this book was. I have read several of Peterson’s books, including his memoir (which is fantastic as well). So many times, I found myself thinking, “I’m so glad Eugene Peterson struggled with this too. I’m so glad that was a battle for him as a pastor as well.” Definitely, one pastor should add to their summer reading list. 

1 book every pastor should read this summer.

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I also slowly worked my way through Pete Scazzero’s latest book, Emotionally Healthy Discipleship: Moving from Shallow Christianity to Deep Transformation. I have benefitted greatly over the years from Scazzero’s writing and speaking. This book was a breath of fresh air for me to understand not only how to continue growing as an emotionally healthy disciple but also how to implement this more into the culture of a church to produce emotionally healthy disciples and leaders. This is one I will come back to again and again.

Two books every pastor should read.

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Favorite blog posts:

Jeff Haden shared on Inc.’s blog 14 Things Everyone should before turning 40 (similar to my thoughts here and here.). This list is spot-on, especially numbers 7, 10, 13, and 14. I wish I knew some of these things earlier in life, but then it takes hitting some snags and learning some of these lessons the hard way.

Jared Wilson’s blog on Pastor, Your Body Keeps the Score is right and what many pastors are experiencing. I think more and more pastors need to pay attention to their souls and their bodies. Learning to listen to it when it speaks to you, understanding the feelings you have, the tightness in your stomach, and what that is communicating to you. The implications for leaders are huge on this and also can serve as a guide for your pace and workload.

Pew Research released a fascinating new study on The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050. So many implications for pastors and churches to think through and be prepared for in the future.

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Friday Five

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We are now 1/3 of the way through 2021!

Crazy.

This weekend is Katie’s 40th birthday celebration.

But before the festivities begin, I wanted to share my favorite books, podcasts, and blogs of the last couple of weeks. I hope it helps you grow!

Favorite books:

An entertaining book I read recently was A Man at Arms: A Novel by Steven Pressfield. The story was great, but it also made me really think about what it took for the letters in the Bible to get to the places they got to. Things that I kind of just assumed or took for granted. 

One of my favorite podcasts is The Learning Leader with Ryan Hawk, and his book Welcome to Management: How to Grow From Top Performer to Excellent Leader was fantastic. I highlighted so much in it and took away so much from it. If you are in a new role, entering a new role, or wanting to grow as a leader to take on more responsibility at your church or company, this is a book worth picking up.

Favorite podcasts:

I really appreciated the recent podcast conversation Carey Nieuwhof had with Derwin Gray about racism, our country, and what it looks like to lead a multicultural church. There were a lot of things that stood out to me as a pastor and a father.

Favorite blog posts:

If you’re a pastor like me, you are trying to navigate this new hybrid world and rebuilding your church. You are also wondering, who is coming back? Who is still a part of my church? Will everyone come back? And how will I handle that? What will we do? Karl Vaters lays out 7 Reasons Some People Might Not Come Back To Church, which I think are important things to be aware of as a pastor. In my church, #3 is one I’ve heard a lot of.

Mark Clark and Carey Nieuwhof shared 5 preaching trends that will shape the future, and I think they are spot on. A great read for pastors and church leaders.

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Most Read Articles of 2020

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I did less writing on my blog in 2020. I don’t know if it was covid, my changing role at my church, or thinking about things more than creating.

Whatever it was, I’m thankful for all of you who have stuck with me and continue to read and share this content. I hope that it helps you to lead and live at a higher level.

Below, you will find the most-read posts of the year:

What Will Ministry in a Post-Covid World Look Like?

I wrote this post in April when we were only a month into quarantine and online church, but the 7 questions in it are incredibly relevant to every pastor and staff as we move into 2021 and what the “new normal” will look like.

7 Keys to Preaching to a Camera

Every pastor spent more time preaching to an empty room than they ever planned to when they started in ministry, but the camera and online church are here to stay. Yes, it won’t always be an empty room, but we can and should grow in this ministry arena. And yes, this is the second post on this list with 7 ideas in it!

How to Be Still in a Crazy World

All of us were forced to sit still more than we expected this past year as we spent more time at home than normal. But while we did, the world got crazier. My fear looking back, is that we missed some chances to be still and be with God. Even in this time of the year, this is a timely post to help you be still wherever you are.

Building a Healthy Staff Culture

For many churches and teams, we learned this year the kind of culture we have in our churches and our staff. This was a good thing, but for many churches, also a hard thing to see. If you fall into the category of not liking what you learned, this might help you rebuild your staff culture in 2021.

When You’ve Been Betrayed in Leadership

If you’ve been in leadership any length of time, you’ve been betrayed. You’ve been hurt. 2020 hurt many leaders as we saw people leave our churches for reasons we never expected. Who saw a spiritual divide coming over masks and online church, but here we are. If you have felt betrayed or hurt in 2020, this post is for you.

Relationships in Quarantine – Kindness

Just like the crisis’s of 2020 revealed things in our churches, they also revealed things in our relationships and marriages worldwide. I joked with our kids that they need to marry someone they could quarantine with for months on end. But in the midst of quarantine and life in covid, kindness is still a crucial piece of relationships and something every relationship needs.

5 Thoughts from Moderating a Conversation on Race

One of the most difficult parts of 2020 is seeing the racial divide in our country continue, bu9t one of my favorites parts of 2020 was being able to speak into that at our church in one of our deeper dives (if you missed it, you could watch it here). In this post, I share 5 things I learned from that night. The deeper dive is one of my favorite things to do at our church, and we had some great ones this year. You can see them here. And stay tuned for some great deeper dives coming up in 2021!

Three Things to do Right Now to Strengthen Your Church

Yes, 2020 has eaten our lunches. Yes, leadership is hard. Yes, church ministry is changing, and we aren’t sure what it will look like in 2021 and beyond. But there are some things you can do to prepare and enter that new season stronger.

One Tweak that Took my Preaching to a New Level

I’ve learned a lot about leadership and preaching in my new role at our church, but this lesson, this tweak, took my preaching to a level it has never been at before.

Relationships in Quarantine – How we Destroy Relationships

Relationships are hard but add quarantine into the mix, and it can be even more difficult. And in this time of the year, we can destroy relationships without even realizing it.

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Monday Morning Mind Dump…

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  • It’s been a while since I posted one of these, so I thought it was a good time.
  • A lot has changed since the last one.
  • My role at our church is now different, which I am really enjoying.
  • I get to oversee the WIN for our church and our teaching team.
  • Definitely up my alley.
  • Speaking of our church, two exciting things are happening this week: One, I am hosting our deeper dive into politics tonight. Two, we regather at our East campus this coming Sunday!
  • I can’t wait for both of those.
  • I’ve been asked by a lot of pastors what I expect when it comes to people returning to church.
  • My answer: “I have no idea.”
  • More than likely, a lot like the rest of the country, but we’ll see on Sunday.
  • Over the weekend, I finished a really fun and interesting book: The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win. Not a life-changing book, but had some really good nuggets, especially related to emotions and decision making. 
  • Last night I started Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life after hearing the author on a podcast, and I am hooked on this book. I highlighted so much of the first few chapters.
  • Because of how much time we are spending staring at screens for work, Katie and I are reading more often at night than watching TV.
  • It’s been nice in the midst of this crazy season.
  • A new season of parenting has happened at our house: watching shows we all enjoy.
  • A couple weeks ago we started the greatest TV show in all of history (yes I said that), The West Wing.
  • Several years ago, I started a podcast with a friend.
  • Then we took a break.
  • We are starting to record again and have some great things coming up.
  • Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss some things that will help you as a leader.
  • Speaking of podcasts, if you haven’t heard Carey Nieuwhof’s interview with Gordon MacDonald on The view from 80. Stop what you’re doing and listen to it.
  • 2+ hours of leadership gold.
  • Well, my next sermon is due at noon, so back at it…
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Friday Five

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As churches are beginning to resume physical services, it feels like a lot of things are changing and changing quickly. If you’re a leader, you might be feeling the pressure of this and beginning to feel tired of this last season but also physically and emotionally exhausted. If that’s you, below are some posts that I hope will be helpful to you.

Here are my favorite podcasts, books and blogs in our Friday Five:

Favorite books:

Katie and I are doing a zoom book club on Managing Leadership Anxiety: Yours and Theirs with the author Steve Cuss. I read the book last year, so it has been helpful to re-read it and interact with Steve Cuss and others on it. If you haven’t read it, I would encourage you to read it, especially in this season where anxiety is on the rise. 

Favorite podcasts:

Speaking of Steve Cuss, he did a great interview with Carey Nieuwhof on seeing the signs of stress and managing anxiety.

Favorite blog posts:

Chuck DeGroat has a great guest post from Robert Stewart on Seeking to Understand the Rise, Fall, and Loss of Young Pastors. This is a sobering post for sure.

At this point, there’s a good chance that you are getting tired of doing online church or even attending an online church. It is hard. But Carey Nieuwhof had two posts that I think are incredibly helpful and honestly, straight fire for leaders: 5 reasons your online numbers are suddenly dropping and 8 ways to lead the new digital church.

2 posts that are straight fire from @cnieuwhof.

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As a bonus, here’s a video that will hopefully bring you a laugh.

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Friday Five + 1 [Quarantine Edition]

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Welcome to the Friday Five. I hope you are staying safe and healthy as we are in quarantine life.

Before getting to my Friday Five. I’ve been writing about how to live and lead in this new season of life. In case you miss them, here they are:

Here are my favorite podcasts and blogs in this quarantine world:

Favorite podcasts:

I’m working on a sermon on loneliness, isolation, and the power of presence, especially in a quarantined world. This podcast with Tim Ferriss and Esther Perel on Tactics for relationships in quarantine was incredibly helpful. It’s long but has a lot of nuggets in it. Specifically, how to navigate your relational world while at home and under the stress and anxiety of quarantine.

Keeping with the quarantine theme, Andy Crouch was interviewed by Jennie Allen about how to have hope in this season. How do you move forward as a church? What should rhythms for your family look like? It found it incredibly helpful right now.

Pete Scazzero had a great podcast on our collective dark night of the soul in this season. He looked at what we are all losing, but what it will be mean for communities, families, and churches. There is a sadness we are all living in that will have enormous ramifications on us.

Favorite blog posts:

Being in quarantine can add a lot of stress to your marriage and family. But how do you deal with it? I appreciated the ideas in this blog post from Toni Nieuwhof on How to battle back when quarantine makes your marriage worse. 

I’ve been doing a lot of reading and thinking about what church will look like post-covid, and I have appreciated Andy Crouch’s thoughts on the topic (see above). He has a great article about how every business and church is now a start-up.

Bonus: What does leadership look like in this covid world? Harvard Business lays out 4 things great leaders are doing right now.

Stay tuned next week as I’m starting a new blog series about relationships in quarantine that you won’t want to miss!

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Friday Five

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It’s been a little while since I posted my Friday Five, but here we are. I hope you are staying warm wherever you are. For the most part, Tucson has been an incredible winter with a few days in the ’70s (I know, I know), but I love it when it is in the ’50s, and 60’s here for the winter!

Favorite book:

I recently read Fathered by God: Learning What Your Dad Could Never Teach You by John Eldredge. This book walks through the stages of being a man: boyhood, cowboy, warrior, lover, king, and sage. And while each stage and year have parts of all of these, the masculine journey can be broken up into these parts. A few things stood out: don’t king a man too early, and this happens to a lot of boys when they’re told: “you’re the man of the house early.” While sometimes that can’t be avoided, it causes a lot of harm. Many older men who are in or entering the sage chapter continue to try to be a king, which leads to frustration to them. And lastly, if you don’t give a boy a chance to be a cowboy or a warrior, he will look for ways to do that later in life, and it is often destructive. 

I am getting closer to the end of The Last Kingdom series and love this series. It just keeps getting better and better. If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do. It’s a fun read.

Favorite podcasts:

I just discovered a new podcast, The Paterson Podcast. This is a podcast by the company that helps people create life plans. Katie and I are getting ready to start one as we turn the corner of heading into our 40’s and looking at the second half of our lives and what we believe God holds for us. I’m excited about this process and what we’re going to learn about ourselves through it.

I also just discovered Gabe and Rebekah Lyons’s podcast Rhythms for life. Their episode with Pete Richardson of the Paterson company (see above paragraph) was incredibly informative for us as we look towards creating a life plan. Still, my favorite so far has been the episode with Curt Thompson on what to do when you feel overwhelmed.

Favorite blog posts:

I loved this article on what makes a person rich: IQ or personality. Fascinating.