“Brethren, do not be children in your thinking…..but in your thinking be mature” (I Corinthians 14:20).

I could wish that every pastor would use discernment. That he would “be smart.”

To put it another way, I wish every pastor would determine that in the new year, he is going to do nothing impulsively, out of fear, or motivated by false guilt.

The “un-smart” pastor–to coin a term–does things that are unwise and unhealthy and in the long run, not beneficial to the Kingdom nor to his people.

Here is my take what an unsmart pastor does about his preaching–

1) The unsmart pastor skips the hard work of sermon preparation. He is lazy.

The smart pastor knows this is his most important work and is always thinking about the next sermons, even to the point of rising from the bed and looking up something that occurred to him.

Pastors would do well to use this time just after Christmas and early in January when nothing much is going on to make long-range plans for his preaching.

2) The unsmart pastor refuses to do long-range planning for sermons, but decides this week what to preach next Sunday.  He is shallow–and will work himself into an early grave.

The best sermons are not microwaved but marinated.

Continue reading →

“Help! I’m being eaten alive by a school of minnows.”

“I felt like I was being stoned to death by popcorn.”

Ask any pastor.

In my opinion, the minister of the medium-sized flock has it hardest.

In most cases, the pastor of the tiny church has one well-defined set of jobs, while the leader of the mega-congregation another entirely.  The first has a few well-defined roles–preach, advise, do funerals and weddings–while his mega-church colleague has a vast team of helpers who free him up to doing his few, very specific assignments.

It’s the poor guy in the middle who has little say-so about what he will do today.

The pastor-in-the-middle–let’s say the shepherd of the church running from 150 up to three hundred or so, depending on situations, resources and available helpers–will always have more on his plate than he can get to.

The daunting task of the medium church pastor 

This pastor is the church administrator.  He is the boss of the employees.  He gives direction to everyone who works there.  He deals with problems and headaches.  He is the counselor for the congregation.  He is the hospital visitor and does all the funerals and weddings.  He is a member of every committee in the church and, if he doesn’t call the meeting and attend, nothing gets done. He is the go-to person for every question.  He dictates all the letters, and may even type them himself.  He follows up with the visitors and prospects, phoning or visiting them.  Meanwhile, he preaches all the sermons and even teaches some of the Sunday School lessons.  Add to this one overwhelming fact…

Continue reading →

I came by an active curiosity honestly. My dad, a coal miner with a 7th grade education, was interested in everything. He read and learned and talked to us of all kinds of subjects.

In college, I changed majors from physics to history because the history professor had the most wonderful imagination and made history come alive.  Every class was a delight.

Nothing is off limits to history. It deals with the grand scope of humanity on this small planet.

That did it for me.

In 2012 I made a life-changing trip to Southern Italy.  After several days of ministering to pastors and spouses from churches of numerous countries, some of us spent several hours touring the ruins of Pompeii, the Italian city devastated by the eruption of Vesuvius in August of A.D. 79. It was truly unforgettable. So much so, that….

After arriving home in New Orleans, the very next afternoon I was in our public library reading up on Pompeii. I checked out a Robert Harris novel titled Pompeii, and finished it the next night.

Since then, I have read a half-dozen books on Pompeii.

Question: Of what possible use was this in my ministry?

Answer: It’s impossible to know.  Just as God uses all our experiences from celebrations to suffering in ministry, so He uses what we learn from everything we read.

A great curiosity is a wonderful thing for any Christian to have, but particularly for preachers. Why?

Continue reading →

“One can’t believe impossible things,” said Alice to the White Queen. “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” –From Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

I write this mostly tongue in cheek.  But not completely.

It seems to require superhuman strength to keep our latest accomplishments out of our sermons.

That’s what this is about.

If a pastor jogs or works out, he will probably work that into a sermon at least monthly.  “As I was jogging yesterday morning, I’d just completed my third mile….”

If a pastor’s child excels in athletics or the band or academics, he will find a way to mention that in a sermon.  It’s what a proud dad does.  “My wife and I are so proud of Jayson who has just received ‘student of the month’ award for the third time.  We were telling our daughter who is working on a Master’s at Johns Hopkins…”

If the pastor once took a course in Greek and can find his way around a Greek lexicon, look for him to mention that in a sermon, “When I was studying Greek” or “My Greek Bible says….”  I suspect that if a real Greek scholar ever entered the service and challenged us, we would be petrified.

If a pastor reads through the Bible annually–or has just done it the first time–not saying so in a sermon is asking more than he is able to give.  I can hear him say, “As you know, I read through the Bible annually–and have done so for the last 13 years.”

If the pastor is an avid golfer or a die-hard for some university’s football team, expect it to show up in sermons from time to time.  He can no more keep that a secret than he can his commitment to Jesus Christ.  “Well, I did it! I hit a hole in one last Tuesday.”  He waits for the congregation to applaud.  Half the people turn to the other half as if to say, “What does that mean?”

Continue reading →