Let me share a little of my past with you.

I started serving in part-time youth ministry in 1996. By 2000, I was hooked and I felt God calling me into ministry. Over the next two years, I went through the license and ordination process for our local Southern Baptist Association, and was officially licensed and ordained as a minister. In 2002, I felt that the next step should be to start working on my seminary degree, soI started online at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.

After just taking a couple of classes over the first two semesters, I realized that working a full-time job, serving as a part-time youth minister, and parenting two small children (Drew wasn’t here yet) was a recipe for disaster. I was spread too thin, and I simply couldn’t do everything that was required of me. So I walked away from seminary with no plan to return. I kept serving in youth ministry, and I continued to grow in faith and confidence in ministry. In 2007, God really changed my plans and I started full-time as pastor of Cornerstone Community Church.

Two years ago, in 2011, I started thinking about finishing up my seminary degree. I did some checking, found a scholarship, and re-enrolled. And now, I am proud and extremely happy to say that I finished my Master’s Degree!  I received a M.A.R. in Christian Leadership this month. It has been a tough year and a half balancing family demands with school and ministry. I’ve written more papers and read more than I ever did in Engineering, but it feels great to be done.

A few people have asked me why I decided to go back. My biggest reason is that I felt I needed to grow my knowledge and skill. I have had some natural leadership ability, but as our church has grown, I have been stretched far beyond my ability. It has been a sink or swim opportunity, and although I’m trusting God to keep me afloat, I have a responsibility to do everything I can to preach, teach, and lead effectively. I’m thankful for Liberty Online. They have allowed me to continue in ministry and still go back to school. Now, I’ve got some catching up to do on my reading. I can actually start reading books that I want to read again.

For the last few years, I have taken part in the Chick-fil-A Leadercast. A unique group of leaders have come together to host this simulcast in our own community. We have a great cross-section of church leaders, educational leaders, and business leaders coming together to learn leadership lessons. This year, it’s on May 10th and will be held at the Crossroads Institute in Galax. For more information and to buy tickets, please visit the Crossroads website. This is a great event, and we have a great time together. Check out the video below for a sample of what you will see.

On Tuesday November 14th, I’ll be facilitating a leadership meeting at The Crossroads Institute. I’ll be taking a group through Andy Stanley’s excellent DVD study on Becoming a Great Staff. This is a great opportunity for pastors, business leaders, and local civic and educational leaders to come together and learn from each other.

We’ll meet at 11:30am at The Higher Education Center for the Crossroads Institute. It is located at 208 Cranberry Road in Galax, and lunch will be available for $5 a plate. If you know of anyone else who might be interested in attending, encourage them to call 276-236-0391 or email registration@crossroadsva.org to register.

Here is more information for the workshop.

What makes a great team or a great staff? What causes people to look at your organization and think, “Now there’s a team that knows how to work together”? The answers to these questions are found in one simple habit that every leader and organization can embrace immediately.

Together, we will go through a video session by Andy Stanley who will help explain how to build a culture of trust in your organization. Using real-life examples, he uncovers several best practices (and several not-so-great practices) for becoming a great team.

Have you ever heard the phrase “Don’t Judge Me.”  Unfortunately, as a pastor I have heard this statement a few times over the years. Usually, it is when I am trying to talk with someone who claims to be a follower of Christ, but is living contrary to the commands of Christ. So where does this phrase come from, and are people using it correctly?

First, the phrase comes from Scripture in Matthew 7:1. “Judge not, that you be not judged.” So does this mean that we should keep quiet and never say anything to another believer who is struggling with sin? Of course not! It’s important to not take a verse out of context and use it incorrectly. So here’s a few things to take into account.

Truth and Grace

I recently shared in our church the importance of having both truth and grace when we share with others. Jesus is our example of this as shown in John 1:14. Here is a good way to think about it.

In a previous post I shared

• Grace means that I will love you no matter what.
• Truth means that I will be honest with you no matter what.

Grace without truth is Christianity without a backbone.
Truth without grace is Christianity without a heart.

It is not always easy to bring up a concern with a friend, but if we love them and want to help them be faithful to Christ, we must be able to spur one another towards love and good deeds as Hebrews 10:24 tells us, by pointing out the sin that they might not see in their life.

Continue Reading…

This is my word for the day. I was having a conversation with my wife last week and I used the word frenetic to describe our pace of life lately. After arguing with me that it was not a word, I looked it up just to make sure and found the definition.

Fast and energetic in a rather wild and uncontrolled way: “a frenetic pace of activity”.

That seems to describe the last few weeks for us. Between my responsibilities at church, my classwork for the seminary classes I’m taking, raising three kids, and everything else I’m involved in, this has been a busy time. I seem to go through stages in life where everything hits at one time and I over-commit. That’s why the blog has been neglected a little lately.

It’s a challenge to abide in Christ when you become too busy. We have a rhythm of life where we must balance abiding in Christ and being fruitful. I’m doing a lot of good things right now, but sometimes the good can keep me from doing what is best. Here’s a question that I come back to when I think about my rhythm in life.

Am I working from rest, or resting from work?

There is a huge difference between the two. In the Bible, our rest is considered an act of worship. Honoring the Sabbath is even part of the ten commandments. God calls those who don’t work, lazy, but He calls those who don’t rest, disobedient.  I’ve been too busy lately, so I’m looking at my schedule to see what can be cut out. Rest is important, and if I am to abide in Christ and be fruitful, I need to have a healthy rhythm of life.

Frenetic may indeed be a word, but it is not one that should regularly describe our lives.