It’s strange to watch you now, now that I am no longer one of you. I see things more clearly than I did before. It seems there are two camps: those whose lives appear to be perfect, never letting frustration dealing with the ministry seep through your Facebook posts, blogs, or emails; and those who [...]

Some churches are wonderful. They want to pay their pastor well, love him, and support him as he supports and encourages them. These tend to be the poorest churches who can’t afford to pay their pastor well, and are embarrassed. What they don’t realize is that many ministers would rather work for them than the [...]

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” -Matthew 22:21
It’s tax season! In the secular world, you hear a lot of complaints that some of these mega churches are tax exempt. What you don’t hear a lot of complaining about is that not only do churches not pay those kind of [...]

I discovered PostSecret while still in the ministry and read it faithfully every week, sobbing every time. It’s one reason how I know I have grown: I can now look at the secrets I can relate to and feel for the writer, but I don’t fall to pieces anymore.
Yesterdays’ post was full of good ones. [...]

The fruits of the Spirit may be love, joy, and peace, but there is also the train of thought that there are other gifts God gives us to help ourselves and others on their spiritual journey.  The include things like encouragement, mercy, speaking in tongues, prophecy, etc. Our church believed that speaking in tongues was [...]

Goshdarnit, I had another moment. I haven’t had one in awhile. I don’t even remember the last one. My own damn fault for getting carried away in some ministry blogs/Facebook notes.
They make everything look okay. Like life turned out just fine for them, and it probably did. Are they honest? I couldn’t tell, but I [...]

I used to sing in church a lot. I am not a soloist, but I do very well in a group. Because I did well in a group, most people assumed I would do well as a soloist and I sang a lot in both churches. I was never good enough for anything beyond the [...]

Once, I got into an argument with Bob over women in the ministry. I had always believed that women were not inferior, but had a different role than men. That meant men could lead in the church, but women couldn’t.
I questioned that, however, and ultimately decided that was wrong. Bob and I discussed it one [...]

Mark Driscoll, the pastor I love to hate, gave several ways to help the pastor’s wife. Here is his outline with my thoughts. The video can be found here.
1. The wife needs a clearly defined and guarded role.
Yes and no. He’s close, but just misses the mark.  He is right when he notes she’s not [...]

It’s kind of amusing, really, the ways in which Bob and I managed to offend and hurt people’s feelings in church. Really, some people say I was too sensitive, but recalling a few of these stories makes me feel much better.
Bob got in trouble once for saying, “Crap!” in front of the youth group. Now, [...]