I haven’t done one of these in a while, but here goes…
– Great day at Calvary today.
– We finished the book of Ruth in a series called, “Second Chances”
– Once in a while, you teach a series that really hits home. This was one of those times.
– Everyone has made poor choices. Everyone lives with some level of regret. Dealing with that is powerful for any congregation.
– I have to say… leading a church, running Church Ninja, and building a building has pushed me to the limit on more than one occasion. Any of these is a full-time job by themselves. Doing all 3 simultaneously is insane.
– Speaking of building… As a pastor, it’s harder than anything I’ve ever done before. Planting a church was easy compared to construction and everything that goes along with it.
– I will say this, the Calvary staff is an amazing group of people. They have been stretched beyond what I thought possible over the last 2 years and they have emerged refined and mature. I couldn’t be any prouder of them.
– I know all Pastors say that stuff about their staff, but we didn’t hire anyone for 2 years while we were raising money for the building and they all did the work of 3 people to keep up with our growth and construction project.
– There was a season early on when writing messages was the hardest part of my week. Now it’s the easiest.  I don’t know if the messages have gotten easier or everything else has gotten harder 🙂
– People ask me all the time if I’m writing. The short answer is no. The long answer is, I don’t any bandwidth to give writing right now. Plus, writing should be birthed out of burden to say something. Every one of my books started with me searching for a book and not finding it. When I realized it didn’t exist, I wrote it. No good book on John the Baptist’s life? I’ll write Elements. No short, simple book for new believers? I’ll write Begin.
– I see lots of guys starting businesses to serve churches. I think it’s great. A word of caution to Pastors… Beware the person selling you something who has never been in your shoes. A guy might know how to get people to click like on Facebook, but if he has never created ads that get people to get in their car and show up to church… Buyer beware.
– Carey and I are watching all the Harry Potter movies. She read all the books. We’ve seen the 1st four. So far they’re amazing. Good stories are hard to find.
– looking forward to a great Easter week. Good Friday message is written. Tomorrow I’ll finish the 1st draft of mt Easter message.
– Praying for all my pastor-friends and pastors I coach to have huge Easter services and reach a ton of people!