Leaving: Short Timer’s Blues

I grew up in the military as an Army Brat. I remember the GI’s talking about “short timer’s blues” which is the feeling of anticipation and excitement that they got when they only had a few more months in the Army. You’ve seen this in just about every war movie: the guy who is just [...]

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To My Loyal Leaders…. Both of You

Wow, I’ve really slacked off on keeping the blog updated.  Forgive me, but it’s been crazy around here.  Closing on one house, buying another, shutting down one ministry, getting geared up for another… all while still ministering.  In fact, I just did a funeral service tonight and am driving 6.5 hours to TN for the [...]

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Warning: Snarky Comment

Gee, Robert, what could POSSIBLY go wrong with making the church into a consumer destination? After all, you just get the folks into the church with marketing and the conversion and discipleship will automatically follow, right? For my answer, read Chad’s article called “Bottom Line”.  Basically, he tells about going to Southeast Christian Church, perhaps [...]

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What the Heck is the Emergent Church?

I remember when I was a really good Basic programmer.  Then I got interested in girls or something and the next thing I knew the computer world had left me behind, they were talking about C and C+ and HTML and so on.  I stay abreast of current church topics, but somewhere in the process [...]

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Go Read This Now

There was a recent article called “The people formerly known as the congregation”.  I’m sure you can find it if you want to read it, it was good.  But this one, called “The people formerly known as the pastor” really struck a chord with me.  If you are a “pastor” (or, for my Christian Church [...]

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Leaving: Trepidation

The search is over and you think you’ve found a church that will be a good match: you with them, them with you. You’ve announced to your church that you are leaving and have faced their reaction. You’ve made your plans to move, started packing the books, and marked on the calendar when [...]

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Leaving: The Announcements

In the process of leaving a church, there comes the day when you have to read your announcement that you are resigning.  What a horrible time.  It’s actually easier if there is a lot of conflict and you are being run out.
Don’t get me wrong: no sane minister likes church conflict and the prospect of [...]

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Yeah, That’s What I Was Trying to Say

Once again, the Internet Monk hits it out of the park.  This post pretty much sums up what I’ve been saying, he just does it much better and says it with more sense.  The question: are we trying to have a big church, or a healthy church?  Don’t say both: if our goal is JUST to get [...]

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Comic Heresy

Check out the Comics Curmudgeon for one of the most disturbing commentaries on Easter that you will find in the comics page (not Josh’s comments, the cartoon itself).  Sad that even a self-proclaimed non-Christian like the Curmudgeon can see the theological problems with this cartoon.  I have a feeling that many of my preacher friends [...]

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Leaving: the Search

In a church system such as the Christian Church where the minister makes a choice about whether he leaves or stays at a church (unless he is fired), the decision to leave is not easy.  First of all, the process is very taxing.  You can’t exactly go to a church and say, “I’m going to [...]

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