Honest Thoughts from a Pastor

05/18/2024

05/16/2024

Churches often bring in interim pastors, but not as many bring in interim worship leaders. With worship wars still alive and well, it may be wise to bring in an intentional interim worship leader, especially during a tender time in a church’s history.

When I took my first church music role, I never planned to stay in church music long. Almost twenty-eight years later, here I am. This Sunday, I will finish my fourth interim worship role in 27 yea…

04/20/2024

In light of Mandisa’s passing, I couldn’t help but share how God used her music in my life.

Around 9:00 this morning, I received a text from my dear and long time friend, Dustin, which said, “No, not Mandisa!” Not sure what he was saying, I jumped online to search and discovered she passe…

04/19/2024

Sometimes, God’s answers to us are quite obvious. It’s just a matter of trusting, obeying, and leaving the results to Him.

I have had a ton of things on my mind in recent weeks. The leadership I seem to be getting from the Lord doesn’t quite make sense to me yet again, so I set out today to pray at my favorite place in…

04/17/2024

Should You Beg Them to Stay? If someone threatens to leave your church or organization, is it really worth it to beg them to stay? Here are a few of my observations.

If you add up the number of people who have left the churches I have served, you would probably count a few hundred people collectively. The reasons are rather entertaining. The music was too loud,…

03/29/2024

Train wreck ahead!

I was always told that if the devil landed in a church, he would either land in the nursery or the choir loft. As you would probably guess, he was stirring strife in the music ministry. This was an…

03/22/2024

My first big ministry lesson - Watch out for the back stabbers!

I had a blog reader reach out to me about sharing some of my ministry experiences, specifically how I handled difficult situations. I will let you know up front that I can tell you more about what …

03/11/2024

I’m feeling prolific in my writing today😂. Here are some thoughts about people’s issues with pastors, including some of my own.

I remember my first memory of a pastor – It was Pastor Alan Moor at Alexander Baptist Church in Portsmouth, Virginia. He was a thin, older man from Tennessee, and his accent gave it away. I r…

03/10/2024

A letter to my 100 year old self (an interesting self-reflection)

Write a letter to your 100-year-old self. MercyMe, the Christian artist, sang the song “Dear Younger Me.” This prompt is asking me to write a letter to my “oldest me” at age 100. Like to read it? H…

02/19/2024

Ever wonder why pastor’s kids are perceived as being hellions? Here are some thoughts from two decades of raising ministry kids.

I was audience to a discussion about preacher’s kids recently. It was the usual negative conversation about how “horrible” they are. Because my kids have grown up in ministry, I’ll give you a glimp…

01/29/2024

We all love praying for ourselves. We may even take it a step further and pray for the sick. What about praying for the people who hurt us? Your ex? Your estranged parent? The friend who betrayed you? There is power in intercessory prayer, and you would be blown away by what God would do in your life if you prayed for the difficult people.

Several years ago, I covered the entire book of Job in one sermon. Obviously, I didn’t cover every verse, but I did hit the major highlights of the story. When I prepared that message 16 years ago,…

01/02/2024

I added some more sermons and a worship clip yesterday. I pray God uses these to touch hearts.

It’s been about 6 months since I added any sermons, but I sat down yesterday and added a handful of sermons from when I pastored Oasis Church, plus I also added one recent worship leading clip my w…

01/01/2024

Let me challenge you with a challenge God gave me!

Within the last few weeks, I’ve been assessing my life A LOT! I’ve asked God and myself a ton of questions. The question that has resounded in my mind is, “Why do I do what I do?” Some of what I do…

10/02/2023

A recent story from my life and ministry that proves that the “unknown” can turn out quite beautifully. To those who may be resenting the unknowns of your life, there is hope because God is doing things we cannot see.

Has God ever led you to do something and it seemed like everyone questioned it except you? That happened to me this past Spring. I was getting ready to enter into my third year of pastoring Oasis C…