Between Monday and Sunday

Face it, the thing that makes us want to quit the ministry more often than anything is our spouse's struggle with their role in it. A fascinating and engaging article in The Wall Street Journal caught my eye and my imagination yesterday. In fact, I read the entire article to my carpool pal and LifeWay colleague, Chris Ediger. The article, titled "Our Better Halves Sometimes Expose Our Worst Side," basically says that we should not seek business or career advice from our spouses. The article's author, Jared Stanberg, maintains that the love and support we receive from our family is invaluable for our well-being and our ability to do our work and advance in our career. However, because our spouse knows very little about what actually goes on at work or in our work world, they often provide faulty, short-sighted, and potentially disastrous advice. He calls them "badvisors" and recommends getting workplace advice from elsewhere. Mr. Stanberg quotes David Maiste...

One e-mail has remianed in my inbox all week because I wasn't sure what to do with it. In Bob Buford's latest e-newsletter he deals with the topic of Why the Wealthy Don't Give More . It's very helpful, especially for his "half-timer" or successful over-50 audience. His main takeaway is that the really rich are aware of three main risks to giving their money to charities. These risks are Fear – of not having enough, Failure – even embarrassment, and Doing more harm than good . I think he's on to something. In my years serving as a pastor a pastor in Hawaii, I had a chance to meet many Christian men and women who had been entrusted with wealth beyond my imagination. I feel that after years of struggling and agonizing over how to relate to, encourage, and disciple those who have great wealth, I still don't have the answers. However, I feel I learned a few lessons I'll share with you... 1. Treat them as individuals, as fellow believers, and as equal...

In case you walk by my office and my head is laid back, my mouth wide open, and I appear to be contemplating the ceiling tiles through my eyelids, please read this article from RealAge.com before you wake me... When You Snooze You...Win! "A daytime doze is a stress buster and heart protector. Just 30 minutes midday, three times a week, is all you need. Middle-aged working men who did just that cut their risk of a fatal heart attack and other heart problems by a whopping 37 percent." While you are there, be sure to check out their RealAge Test to see how old you really are! Once you take the test and get the results, they will give you ideas of how to lower your Real Age. It was very helpful and inspiring for me.

Over at Baptist Press , David Jeremiah, pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church and founder of Turning Point for God , comments on 1 Peter 3:15, "always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you." ( HCSB ) He shares a simple outline. Knowing God's Word ... gives assurance of salvation defeats Satan’s attack enables us to witness to others helps us know our heavenly Father You can read the whole commentary on Baptist Press - Know for an answer

I just posted a new article in the "Pastor as Missionary" area. Let's Worship Magazine editor Matt Tullos sticks tongue in cheek to take a funny look at church growth. He says, "For some people, church growth can be rather tedious. There’s the parking problems, the new people to get to know, the reduction of political power due to the influx of new people that don’t know you, the extra wear on the carpet, the noise of young children, the overuse of bathroom facilities . . . you name it." So he shares 25 Easy Ways to Curb The Annoying Problem of Church Growth My favorites are ... If your auditorium slopes downward to the platform give every kid under 12 a handful of marbles before the service. Replace the pictures of former pastors with pictures of Larry, Moe, and Curly. Before the offertory hymn have the worship leader scream,“Show me the money!” Use the “American Idol” format for staff hirings. Read all 25 and share it with your fellow ministers...

Greg Heisler is Assistant Professor of Preaching and Speech at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and author of a new book published by Broadman and Holman Publishing Group called Spirit-Led Preaching: The Holy Spirit’s Role in Sermon Preparation and Delivery . I stumbled on to his blog at spiritledpreaching.com today and found some excellent resources. I don't want you to miss his article on The Expository Method In the article Heisler says, “I believe the aim of all preaching is the glory of God through spiritual transformation. More specific, the goal of a Spirit-empowered, expository ministry of the Word of God is to change lives through preaching that engages the mind, inflames the heart, moves the will, and engenders faith in the hearer.” While the alliterative style of this article is a little “old school” for me, he really has strong content here. I’ll list the main points of his article but you’ll want to read the whole article to get what he means by each point. ...

One of the new LifeWay authors is Michael Zigarelli . I've been telling my pastors this year about his great study for Adults called Freedom from Busyness: A Biblical Remedy for Busyness and his amazing book for pastors called The Minister's MBA: Essential Business Tool for Maximum Ministry Success . I posted an article that Michael sent me this week - it's from the leader helps section of Freedom from Busyness and is some of the best stuff on how to lead a small group. Read The Art of Leading Small Groups Blessings, Craig Pastors Today