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Category: Leadership

Addicted to Ministry?

“Hi Craig, my name is Karl, and I too am a recovering ministry-a-holic.” In the current issue of K! Magazine, there is an excellent article by my friend, Craig Jutila, former children’s pastor at Saddleback Community Church, where he very honestly and transparently talks about his own personal “crash” from being so addicted to ministry he found himself in an unhealthy place spiritually, emotionally, and relationally with his family. I appreciated his candor. I’ve attempted to be as open here on my blog (and even more so in one on one relationships) about my own “demise” as a children’s pastor nearly two years ago who thought he could do everything and keep his walk with God and family life healthy. Why are the best lessons in life learned so painfully? Craig’s topic was “spiritual renewal” and he admits (as I will) that we can be so good at faking it and knowing all the answers even as we are dying on the inside – but unwilling to admit our need. He quotes an unknown person as saying we don’t change until, “you hurt enough that you have to” or you “learn enough that you want to.” We both admit, it…

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Best Advice Ever Received

I don’t remember who told me this story, or if I read it in a book, but it came to me at a period of my life when I was suddenly more teachable than ever before having come to the end of “myself” and it made a huge impact. The story was of a pastor who had just gotten a call to a much larger ministry and wanted to seek out the council of a well known and highly successful pastor of an even larger ministry. He was excited to get a lunch appointment with this pastor and came ready to glean as much wisdom as he could from this one meal they would share. After they had ordered he explained that he was soon going to be going to a larger ministry and wanted as much advice as possible on how to survive and thrive in this new bigger ministry. The seasoned pastor smiled, and calmly responded, “Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” The younger pastor wrote down this first bit of advice and then looked up ready to write down the next pearl of wisdom this godly man would have to share… but no words followed. Seeing the…

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Confessions of a Driven Pastor

A while back I found the articles linked below on pastors.com and they were exactly what I needed at the time. I have since shared them with many men and I offer them here, not as something I think you might need, but as something I NEEDED that you just might too. I recommend you read and digest just one at a time and actually DO the recommended assignment provided in each PDF download. Confessions of a Driven Pastor I (Download Part One) It’s no longer safe to assume that people in ministry have healthy souls and just need a little coaching in the leadership area. – Pastor Lance Witt  Confessions of a Driven Pastor II (Download Part Two) For years I intuitively knew that I was violating my soul. In honest and quiet moments, I longed to get off the treadmill but didn’t know how. – Pastor Lance Witt I pray that you will find these artilces as convicting and as helpful to you as I did.

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Lose Weight Reading the Bible?

This past weekend I was presenting at the GCSSA conference in Arlington Heights, IL, but as often happens when you are serving God, it turns out that’s not the only reason I was there. I was also there to meet a guy named Dave Wager and to be challenged by him. It’s an amazing thing I’ve been learning over the past two years – when I am focused less on DOING for God and more on BEING with Him, I end up seeing and hearing things I would have missed otherwise. Dave is the president of Silver Birch Ranch in White Lake, Wisconsin. You can’t talk to Dave for long before his passion slips out – a passion for men to be intimate with God and to be men who are IN THE WORD daily. Dave was explaining to me that as he travels around to speak to men at conferences, retreats, etc. he often asks the men if they desire an intimate walk with Jesus, and (of course) they all say ‘yes.’ But when asked how many believe they HAVE an intimate relationship with Jesus, few answer that they do. In fact, he told me that when he asks…

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Let’s Get Political

(Found this in my drafts folder… I did not write it, but I thought the facts were still pertinent as we are in a presidential election season. National Security is the #1 issue. Without a nation, there are no other issues, and make no mistake, our total destruction, or at least our free way of life is under direct attack and our president cares more about preserving our nation than his reputation. That is a man of character and honor.) There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January. In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January. That’s just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq . Many people say that President Bush shouldn’t have started this war, but they fail to realize that: 1) FDR led us into World War II. While Japan did attack us, Germany never attacked did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost … an average of 112,500 per year. 2) Truman finished that war and started one in Korea, even though North Korea never attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost … an average of 18,334 per year. 3) John…

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