Day Three

Today I listened to disc three of a pastor training series that I started on Wednesday.  The teaching covered The Pastor and his Faith, The Pastor and his Family, The Pastor and his Flesh, The Pastor and his Friends, and The Pastor and his Frustrations.  There were many great principles and questions to reflect on.

I also continued reading "The Trellis And The Vine", as well as several other books I have started since Wednesday.  So far, most of my reading has dealt with the ministry of the pastor, and the ministry of the church.  My potential reading list is long, and covers many more topics.  I will probably be adding more books into the reading cycle in the next few days.

These first few days of sabbatical I have spent at home.  Here are a few observations from "being at home" all day:
1.  My wife deserves a sabbatical.
2.  I miss out on Kate saying very funny things throughout the course of the day when I'm at work.
3.  Molly is very quiet and can bring destruction very quickly.
4.  Cole needs a brother.
5.  Megan is a fantastic big sister.
6.  Sony headphones plugged into the computer block out a great deal of noise.

This weekend I will begin traveling.  Stay tuned....more to come.

Day Two

When I began planning to take this sabbatical, one of the most fun, yet most challenging tasks was choosing the books that I would read.  Over the summer I got a Nook e-reader with September in mind.

 This nifty gadget is able to hold up to 1,500 books at a time and is roughly the size of a 5x7 photograph.  The screen is much easier to read from than reading on a computer and it is much easier to carry a Nook about with me than to lug all of my books!

As of yesterday, I have 41 books loaded on my Nook and 11 "paper and ink" books stacked on my  the kids' school table.  

Today I began reading a book that, upon its release at the end of 2009, met with spectacular reviews. 

Mark Deaver is one of the pastors whose church I will be visiting this month and he had this to say about this challenging book:

I've read a few chapters and already my thinking has been very challenged.  I'm looking forward to seeing more of what the authors of the book have to say.

Finally, did you know that today is the opening day for college football season?  Enjoy it.  We actually observed a moment of silence in our home this evening in honor of the season that is to come! (It was mostly a silent moment...as silent as it ever gets around here anyway!)

Day One

I begin this time of rest, reflection, and refueling with some very vivid pictures of my church family that I will hold in my mind while I'm gone from them.  This Sunday was an important one for many reasons: Molly's dedication and my final Sunday in the pulpit for a four week period.  My family and I were blessed to be able to ask a dear friend, a member of our church family,  and a fellow minister of the Gospel to perform Molly's dedication.

 What a blessing to have Pastor Jay as a part of our church body. He did a super job and we are grateful for the sincere words he shared with us and the church family during the dedication.

 Another picture that I cherish from last Sunday is of the congregation.  During the sermon, I said something to the effect of "look at verse..." and as I looked out at the congregation the majority of the family wasn't looking at me they had all dropped their gazes to their Bibles in unison!  I was so excited to see my church family in the Word together.  I wish you could have seen it along with me.  There were also many who shared kind words and testimonies that I continue to reflect on even today.

I spent this morning listening to audio CDs of one of my mentors.  The topic was "The Pastor's Fatigue." One of the most helpful things I learned was that fatigue causes you to "go through the motions" of ministry, and when you "go through the motions of ministry" you lose your passion.  When you lose your passion in ministry and for ministry you are in trouble.  I am once more reminded of the privilege of this sabbatical season which will help me to combat such struggles as I rest and learn.

I close this post today with a quote that was shared in the lesson from a counselor to a pastor:  "Everything you do you do to give away, you don't keep anything for yourself, and if you are always giving, you have to have time to replenish.  When you open a book every page has margin, when I look at your life I see no margin, there are words everywhere."  A good reminder for us all.

Quotes From The Pastor's Conference

Recently I attended a Pastor's Conference featuring Alistair Begg, John Shearer, and Sinclair Ferguson.  As I have been thinking about the conference, I realized that I had  many great thoughts to reflect on.  So, I thought I would share some of my favorite quotes with you.

John Shearer:


"Pastoring Is The Greatest work in the world."

"The minister of the word of God is to minister the word of God."

"We are as godly as we want to be."

"We can't keep on giving out, if we don't keep taking in."

"We must be aware of being sermon machines."

"In instructing others, wee must digest the truth ourselves.  We must master the art of feeding ourselves."

"If you preach the bible you will never run short of seed to sow."

"Some may preach the gospel better than others,  but there is no better gospel."

"Hold lightly to things that are temporary, and hold tightly to things that are eternal."

Sinclair Ferguson:


"When you know who you are in Christ, you don't need to pretend any longer."

"When Christ is preiminate, thankfulness reigns in our heart and life."

"When I understand what has happened to me, I become more sensitive to sin, because I see it in its true light."

Alistair Begg:

"The three c's of the pulpit:  candid - so there is no concealment; clear - so there is no ambiguity, and confident - to speak without fear of the consequences."

"The message of the cross is not about something that we must do, but about something that has already been done."

"The complexity of human wisdom cannot deliver what it promises, but the simplicity of the cross can."

Basics Pastor's Conference - Day One

I am away this week at a Pastor's Conference entitled "Basics".  (Click on the word BASICS to go to the conference website.) This conference is hosted by Alistair Begg, the pastor of Parkside Church, and the bible teacher of "Truth For Life" heard on radio stations all across the country and around the world.  This is the eleventh year for this conference, and it is my third year in attendance.

I'm so thankful that the church Family so graciously gives me two weeks a year to go to conferences or training of some sort.  Up until a few years ago, Gretchen and I would travel down south to The Timothy-Barnabas pastor/pastor's wives conference as one of my weeks of training.  Then a few years ago, I stumbled onto this conference from a recommendation of a friend.  I gave it a try, and the rest is history.  It has become one of my favorite conferences, and I place it on the calendar every year.
The first year I attended this conference by myself.  Last year, Gretchen and our, at the time, nine month  old Molly joined us.  This year, Gretchen and I shipped off the children to two different Grandparent camps and are enjoying some much needed time together.

There are so many things that make this conference great.  First, there is the bookstore.

 It is loaded with many of the best books in print today, as well as a fantastic used section of books containing some very rare finds.

As part of the conference brochure, there is a ten page section containing a recommended reading list.

Then there is the service.  Everything at this conference is first class.  From the food, to the service, to the organization, to the laid back schedule, to the friendliness of the staff.

Did I mention the food? The above picture is of Parkside Church's Commons area.  It is beautiful and is set up for dinner in this shot.

 Finally, there are the breakout sessions, the music, and the teaching and instruction.  I am challenged every year by the teaching, and this year has proved to be no different.  But that is for another blog.  For now, let me leave you with some great quotes that were interspersed throughout the conference brochure.

"... to be a preacher is one of the most deeply humbling experiences in the world.  Preaching drives us to our knees, puts gigantic butterflies in our stomachs, and makes us cry out, 'Who is sufficient for these things?'" ~Christopher Ash

"We might preach till our tongues rotted, till we should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless there were mysterious power going with it - the Holy Ghost changing the will of man...O Sirs!  We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity unless the Holy Ghost be with the word, to give it power to convert the soul." ~Charles Spurgeon

 My favorite spot so far.

Where I can find Gretchen at any given moment.

(The coffee shop within the bookstore within the Commons area within Parkside Church!)

My Life Shorteners (the May edition)

At the beginning of Sunday's sermon, I mentioned that there were two projects in particular that were "looming large" in our home these days because of their desperate need of FINISHING.  For those of you who may be wondering what in the world is causing such angst in the house, the two projects are as follows...

This is what Cole's basketball hoop should look like when I finish it.  It's been waiting for my attention for about 6 months.  Talk about a life shortener!  Every time I step over it I'm filled with a sense of failure to finish.  

The second unfinished project in our home is a grand cause of stress because it must be maneuvered around in our basement in order to reach the freezer.  Each time Gretchen asks one of the children or me to retrieve some frozen item, we have to step over the parts and pieces of the unboxed yet unassembled...

...filing cabinet. 

 It's an Ikea model which means huge amounts of assembly required.  It not only cries out to me to assemble it, it sings of promises of improved organization.  

We learned somewhere along the way that the various "life shorteners" we deal with in our lives actually take a toll on our health and our general sense of well being.  When a "life shortener" is completed in our lives, we happily give it a new name.  We call it "a personal victory" and celebrate its completion.  What we are really celebrating is the end of the stress that the unfinished task was creating.  Instead of the expected dread, we experience a sense of victory and accomplishment.  

The sermon today was ultimately not about life shorteners, but about the Life Giver who requires strong finishes from His followers.  He doesn't want us to get bogged down with spiritual life shorteners like ingratitude, bitterness, unforgiveness, selfishness, pride, or any others for that matter.  As this new week awaits us, I urge you to deal with the spiritual life shorteners that may be stealing your joy in the Lord.  Would that we like Paul in 2 Timothy 4:7

 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

As for me...I'm off to put a file cabinet together!

Humility: True Greatness

At the end of the sermon Sunday, I made reference to a book by C.J. Mahaney called Humility: True Greatness .  This book is a small one, having only 176 pages and merely 7 inches by 5 inches.  What it lacks in size, however, it makes up for in its message. 

The author says of his experience writing the book,

“Given pride’s pervasive presence in my life, I come to this book in holy fear, yet inspired by God’s promises to be humble and sobered by his warnings to the proud (Isaiah 66:2b, 1 Peter 5:5b). Scripture reveals to us that, while pride was the first and most serious sin, God is decisively drawn to humility and is specifically supportive of the humble. Only Christ has fully obeyed Isaiah 66:2b (“This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word”), yet He did so as our representative! How marvelous that in our daily battle against pride we can rely on God’s grace, through the gospel, and thus bring honor and glory to God.” —C. J. Mahaney

In a the first part of the book, Mahaney looks at the sin of pride.  In the next section, humility is defined and the final part of the book gives practical application on how to cultivate humility in one's life.  This small is filled with such practical, useful information and inspiration, you may find that you want to keep it handy to make reference to frequently.

I found Humility: True Greatness to be a very readable book.  I especially appreciated the appendix that is included at the end of the book that lists all the practical suggestions which were made in the book.  If you happen not to be "a reader", this book would be an excellent place to begin with its very quick moving flow, logical reasoning, and a grounded Biblical base.  It is a great read about a vital topic to every Christian!

(For further information about this book and its author, simply click on the picture of the book.  It will take you directly to http://www.amazon.com/ )