It was an interesting title for a conference, especially when most of the conferences these days are related to mega-churches. This one was named the “Ordinary Pastor’s Conference” and sponsored by my home church, Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX. The stated purpose was, “to encourage, instruct and bless the ordinary, average, vanilla flavored,…
I was fifteen years old, laying in a hospital bed with a broken second vertebra of my neck, when I first began to understand that God had a will for my life. According to the doctors, it was a miracle that I was alive. I reasoned that if God had spared my life, there must…
This is Pastor Appreciation Month. There was a time when Pastors were appreciated because of their title. They were called Reverend because they were revered. They were called Brother because they were loved. No more. Because of the abusive actions of a few, and the investigative desires of many, today’s pastors must prove themselves before…
Today is Canadian Thanksgiving Day giving thanks at the close of the harvest season. I invite you to join me today in giving thanks and praying to “the Lord of the harvest” (Luke 10:2) for the men and women who serve God in the spiritual harvest fields of Canada and especially for those with whom…
Have you ever been left behind? I remember a childhood experience when my father was leaving the house to attend a sporting event and not taking me with him. I almost always went with him to such events. This time someone else had offered him a ticket and there was no ticket for me, but…
The bumper sticker of a pick-up truck on a rural road testified to the driver’s intentions: “Due to the rising cost of ammo, do not expect a warning shot.” When you earn negative consequences, how many warnings do you think you deserve? Fortunately, for those like Paul’s readers in Colossae, teaching accompanied warning. “Him we…
It was my first semester as a seminary student and I had a new professor. How could this happen to me? In a faculty full of distinguished, tenured scholars, I had a rookie, teaching evangelism, no less. He had no notes. He just told one story after another and threw in a few sermon outlines….
An administrator said to me, “When you’re gone, the only thing you leave behind is what you’ve written.” My reply: “With all due respect sir, I disagree with you 100%. I’ve got books in the Library whose pages are turning yellow, and whose check-out record is empty. On the other hand, I’ve got former students…
I’m always challenged (if not always happy) when someone invites me to speak, then, after I’ve accepted, gives me the subject of my presentation. A friend recently invited me to preach in his absence at the church where he is Pastor and assigned me a theme, for which I was both happily challenged and appreciative….
Aging is both a blessing and a barrier. (I confess to a different “b” word when I first had this thought, but for this means of communication, I’ll go with “barrier.”) Having reached the biblical standard of “three score and ten” (Psalm 90:10, KJV) I feel qualified to comment on this subject. One blessing of…