Category: Thoughts On Life
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New Year, New. . .Me?
“I believe there is a deeper reason: maybe the “better” person desire is as much a heart issue as it is anything else. While we might need to care for ourselves better in a new year, who we are is not less because we are not the person we think…
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On Fostering the Leadership of Young Leaders
The real secret is to be the church. It is to not stand in the way of anyone serving in leadership due to age. It’s to recognize the value in a variety of opinions and to try to give space for authenticity in conversation and idea sharing as much as…
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On Ordination for Vocational Ministry
August 2024 will mark the ninth anniversary of my ordination to ministry by Oakmont Baptist Church in Greenville, North Carolina. As I reflect on that special moment, I can’t but help wonder what ordination looks for the church moving forward. Since long before the birth of the Christian Church, ordination…
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A Call for Christians to Kindness in Our Divided World
A letter to my fellow Christians: In a divided world, choose kindness and grace.
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On Ministers, Friendships, and Stepping Out of the Shadows
“I don’t go to church but, if I did, yours would be the one that I would visit.” This is a phrase I’ve been honored to hear many times over the years that I’ve served as a senior pastor. Even more that hearing it, every person who has said it…
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On the Ministry of Funeral Homes
Most people hope to have no contact with a funeral home until they absolutely have to. Many times such occasions mean someone has died or, worse, you have died. The only exceptions to this rule are those. . .
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On Visioning
Far too often, we get caught on the vision that we’ve held on to for so long that we don’t notice the blurring it causes until it’s too late. In good times, we keep going with everything seeming ok, but when difficulty comes the blurring comes back in full force.
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On Preaching
If you’d asked me twenty years ago if I’d one day stand in front of people week after week and deliver a public ‘speech,’ I would have looked at you like you had four eyes. You see, I was never one who desired the stage. I knew I was called…
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On Burying Friends
Since January 2020, I have now officiated twenty-three funerals of congregants. When I officiated my first in January 2021, I remember being worried because…
