Writing

This blog helps pastors and church leaders foster spiritual discernment and maintain a healthy work-life balance, offering reflections and practical advice to lead with clarity and purpose rooted in a strong connection with God.

Clarity

I have been thinking a lot about this discernment process in recent weeks. I have had the opportunity to use it in more than one context. As I reflect on the ways that we have used it at First Baptist Church Muncie, I am astounded by the placid en...

70 sextillion stars

Today, I am preparing a homily for funeral. Fred Shulze passed away last week. Fred was the organist at First Baptist Church Muncie for almost 40 years. He was also a professor at Taylor University and Upland, Indiana. I will be reading from a psa...

Pressure

I enjoy listening to podcasts while working out. While on the elliptical, I enjoy watching video podcasts. One of my favorites is TED Talks. Gifted speakers present on various topics. The shows are usually less than twenty minutes. This weekend, I...

Risk

As I prepared to write a post for this week, I decided that I would publish the article that I wrote for our monthly newsletter. Here is the February article for the monthly newsletter at First Baptist Church Muncie: When I was engaged in my doct...

2013 Updates

I have been privileged to be able to use the discernment process from my doctoral work variety of settings. We have used it in our local church setting for a number of important decisions (staffing, Sunday morning schedule change). As I look into ...

Anxiety

This week in worship, we are in Philippians 4:4-7. As I usually follow the lectionary during the season of Advent, this text was not one of my choosing. Yet, it is particularly applicable to our context. Yesterday alone, I directed two people to t...