Posts Tagged: "Pastor"

Thinking About That Time When I Was Enough

Recently some friends of ours showed up at church. It was a happy surprise—I wasn’t expecting to see them. They don’t exactly live in the Renton/Kent area, and I haven’t seen them in years… decades.

Who are they? Pastor Lou and Sandra—the ones who took a chance on me. My very first ministry position was at their church. I was young, inexperienced, and not yet finished with college. But they believed in me, loved me, and wanted me to be their youth pastor.

After their surprise visit at our church (where we had a few minutes to say hi, Pastor Lou gave me a “Pentecostal handshake,” and we posed together for a picture), Shari said something about them that left me reflecting for days…… Read More

Considering Who Is In Those Pews

In Frederick Buechner‘s book Telling The Truth – The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale, he briefly describes a few people sitting in those pews on a Sunday morning…

“In the front pews the old ladies turn up their hearing aids, and a young lady slips her six year old a Lifesaver and a Magic Marker. A college sophomore home for vacation, who is there because he was dragged there, slumps forward with his chin in his hand. The vice-president of a bank who twice that week has seriously contemplated suicide places his hymnal in the rack.

A pregnant girl feels the life stir inside her.

A high-school math teacher, who for twenty years has managed to keep his homosexuality a secret… Read More

Your Twitter Bio Makes Me Feel Like A Total Loser

Because I’m a pastor, I pretty regularly get followed on Twitter by other Christian leaders (that I don’t know) from all over the place. And for some reason, I receive a weekly e-mail from Twitter showing me these new followers – along with their profile picture and Twitter bio.

These Twitter bios make me feel like a total loser.

Let me explain. They say things like…

“NY Times Best Selling author of 14 books, senior pastor of the 23,000-member Hope of the World Church, international speaker and business consultant, entrepreneur, recording artist, fashion designer, coach, mentor, mogul, part-time professor of theology, cultural architect, health & fitness guru, Christian radio host, father of 4 beautiful children, husband, man of God, ultra-marathon runner.”

Dang. That’s incredible. How do you do all that stuff?

And thanks for reminding me that I suck.

Even this “Twitter Bio Generator” comes up with bios that sound better than I actually am… Read More