Tag: ministry
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Pine needles are for kids
For Thanksgiving this year, our family stayed out in the woods outside of Arkadelphia, AR. It was a beautiful spot, secluded, quiet, and with a ton of trees. My three year old (like any reasonable three year old) upon seeing the trees and the hills and the lake below, decided he’d take off at a…
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Ministerial Detoxing
Sometimes the vulnerability hurts as a minister. Recently going to a doctor’s appointment, I learned much to my chagrin that LDL cholesterol level was at 397, which is double what a healthy number should be. With family history of issues in particular with LDL cholesterol, I’ve had to make some pretty stark and immediate changes,…
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Sometimes Backstage is the Darkest
Charles Spurgeon wrote in his Lectures to His Students an entire session on something he called the Minister’s “Fainting Fits.” It occupies the 11th lecture. I paused when I read that, thinking, “What does that mean?” While Spurgeon was partly referring to a lack of physical strength and weakness, in a greater fashion “fainting fits”…
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Preparations
“The horse is fitted for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD.” Proverb 21:31 In my ministry, the worst times of anxiety have always been the last 2 days before an event. You can spend weeks and months preparing for an event at or through the church, but every time the…
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Calling
I was thinking the other day on the nature of Calling. Ministry certainly leans heavily into the idea, but it’s not just there. I hear often of teachers or coaches or counselors or artists leaning into what they perceive is their Calling, and in fact thus we get the word for a career of vocation.…
And yet, and yet... 