Tweet We moved downtown… After we became empty-nesters, Cheryl and I sold the house where we raised our boys and purchased a condominium in the downtown area of our city….
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Over the next few months, I’ll be interviewing some great business leaders. They may or may not be leading Christian companies, but they will be high-level leaders in successful organizations. I think there are helpful things to learn for us in the church world from those leading outside the church.
I begin with Mark Schoenwald, President and Chief Executive Officer at Thomas Nelson. I have met Mark on a couple of occasions and each time he left a great impression on me in a casual setting. I understand he is a runner, which makes me identify with him, but I also gather from our causal encounters that he is professional, methodical, kind, and wise. Mark recently replaced the well-known Michael Hyatt as CEO of Nelson. From the outside, it appears Mark will approach the position different from Michael. I was interested in learning from Mark’s leadership.
Here is an interview with Mark Schoenwald:
Tweet The last two years have been a season of change in my life. I’ve experienced a change of perspective as we’ve transitioned into being empty nesters and I’ve experienced…
I don’t do much marriage counseling these days. I have a master’s in counseling and spent a few years almost exclusively doing counseling, but the size of the church and my role leading and developing the staff takes more of my time now. As a pastor, knowing that my opportunity is limited in offering on-going counseling, I have learned that it is important to assess the health of the marriage early in the counseling process if I have any hopes of making progress.
Here is one method I found helpful. I ask each spouse to answer this short questionnaire separately:
This is a note to the church shopper, especially those who can’t seem to find a place to call home. You want to have a church family, but nothing seems to connect with you. You’ve tried every flavor of church, but none match you taste.
My desire would be to see you loving your church experience. No church is perfect, but if you will follow a few tips, you may find exactly the right fit for your family. Here is my best advice. Don’t give up until you’ve tried all of this process, because each step is necessary to achieve the best results:
If you are looking to connect with a church:
Another week has come and nearly gone…
It felt like a normal, almost typical week…
At times it seemed so scattered and chaotic at times that I wondered if I had accomplished anything.
That’s “normal”…
I decided to look back at my calendar to see what I had actually done
Here are some highlights from a “typical” pastor’s week:
Tweet This week we continue looking at The Roman Road, as it has been called, a brief walk through the book of Romans, that when combined, can help a person…
There is a special moment of worship that happens occasionally where I sense so strongly the presence of God that all the troubles of the world disappear. I don’t have a care in the world except the glory of God. I call it a sacred place…for a sacred moment… It doesn’t last long, but it lasts long enough that it changes me in that moment! It certainly renews my faith and strengthens me for the journey of life.
I’ll be honest, it doesn’t happen as often as I would like, but it happened twice this week.
It doesn’t seem to be something I can plan. If it were, I’d stay in that place and moment, but I’ve discovered there are a few things that might trigger such a time:
I love to surround myself with leaders. Often, when we think of leaders, we consider those with great experience in the field in which he or she is leading. They are the experts, they have experience, they’ve been tested, and they are ready to encourage followers. Of course, experience is never a bad characteristic for a leader, but there is one trait that I look for in a young leader even before knowledge or experience.
I believe: