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I’d been at this church about a year. It was my second full-time work. I was twenty-four years old. The elders told me I’d been doing a good job as their preacher and they were going to give me a raise. The only raise I’d received was when I was twelve years old. I was…
Email from last week: I recently got turned to your blog so I hope you will understand if you have written on the subject but I did not read it. We recently completed our preacher search and are looking forward to welcoming the new preacher and his wife. We are doing a meal, but do…
When I ask wrong questions, I will get unhelpful answers. Which would be the most productive question for elders to ask in the following sets? Please select one and consider a helpful response… What’s wrong with the church that they won’t talk to us? …or… How can we become so welcoming and approachable that people…
I remember those early years. As I entered the building each Sunday morning, I was greeted by the treasurer in the foyer. He had my check in an envelope. He presented it to me in front of everyone. Then followed comments — week, after week, after week: “Where’s mine?” “How much is it?” (Easy to…
I didn’t post Monday afternoon. My mother, Annette Barber, was diagnosed with cancer May 31. Hospice started services June 1. Mother died June 15. I returned to Sikeston to preach Sunday and returned to Centerville Monday. We’re making preparations for her funeral Thursday. My son, Jerrie Wayne, and his family have been preparing a month…
Brian Jarrett graduated from Freed-Hardeman College in the spring of 1985 and came to Dalton, Georgia, to serve as an intern during the summer. He did an excellent job and endeared himself to the Central church. Brian is now pulpit preacher for the Hartsville Pike church in Gallatin, Tennessee. From left to right: Bob Sidwell, Jamie…
We had a hard working group for the 7th New Shepherds Orientation Workshop. It was a beautiful drive around the Northern border of the Smokies the weekend of August 25-27. This is one of the most culturally diverse congregations I’ve visited. The Spanish and English worship together. Their website is in both English and Spanish….
I enjoyed having my elders evaluate me yearly. I want to know how my overseers see me. I won’t know unless they tell me. Unless they write it, I may forget. Unless we discuss what they wrote, I may not understand clearly. I recently received this email request from an elder friend: “It is time…
I am intrigued, guided, informed, strengthened, weakened, and sometimes made wiser by observing, making, breaking, and changing rules. I’m not discussing in this post rules in the Bible. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind (Philippians 3:16, NKJV). I…
I received this email from a preacher friend: Could you answer the following questions for me in order to assist me with a sermon this week. We’re doing a “Church Growth” series – and the next lesson is on Ministerial Renewal. Perhaps my answers to him would provide a “mustard seed” of how to encourage…