In January 2006, I officially left my position as a youth pastor and set off full-time as a church planter in Lansing, MI. I was 22 when I went to the assessment center in August 2005 and was ready to save the world a few months later at 23. I was naive, arrogant, insecure and […]
What does the Bible say about insecurity?
What does the Bible say about insecurity? Failure, Insecurity as a Striving Pastor & Finding My Soul in Jesus Much of my 10 years as a church planter have been riddled with anxiety, performance and self-striving. When I started out in 2005, I envisioned leading thousands of people to Jesus…for Jesus’ glory of course. The […]
Podcast Interview with Recording Artist Jessa Anderson
Episode #6 of “Behind the Curtain” Ministry Podcast is here! Recording artist Jessa Anderson and I talk about the tension in the Christian music industry between making good music with good theology, how all of life’s struggles can’t be fixed in a 3 and half minute song with a pretty bow at the end of […]
5 Ways to Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed
5 Ways to Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed: 1. Don’t be enslaved to pleasing people. Don’t give people authority to judge you that they don’t have. Don’t live your life as if what everyone thinks about you trumps what God thinks about you. Colossians 1:22 tells us that in Jesus, we are holy, without blemish, and free […]
Pray for your Pastor
This reminded me of the recent blog post I did on The Struggles of Being a Pastor. This is another great reminder to pray for your pastor. I’m not posting this for self-pity or to complain, but to raise awareness as most all of these are true of me and likely of your pastor as […]
The Struggles of Being a Pastor
As I pastor, I typically have thick skin. But there are definitely days, and weeks, where the skin gets thin and things hurt more than normal. Or when enough things pile up to pierce the toughness that is typically there. Many pastors I know are like me in that if 99 things are going well […]