Priority Pastor

Slaves Who Think They’re Free

Here’s a transcript of the above podcast episode:

Welcome to Piority Pastor my name is Daren Wride. I just came across a quote that was actually mentioned by a person in a podcast I listened to just the other day. A quote from Harriet Tubman, who was a lady who born into the slavery back in 1822 and escaped to freedom and then helped rescue many others from slavery. Just a fascinating individual.

I read up on her a bit after I came across this quote. Even the intro in Wikipedia is fascinating and she’s obviously an incredibly amazing woman. The quote that this fellow mentioned in this podcast was a quote from Harriet Tubman where she said “I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”

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Memo to Lead Pastors

I’m a lead pastor. I have many friends who are lead pastors. And there’s something I just need to get off my chest.

Here’s an episode from my podcast (with the edited transcription below) “Memo to Lead Pastors.”

Hi this is Daren Wride and welcome to Priority Pastor.

I’ve got today just a quick memo to lead pastors, senior pastors, in some cases that might be executive pastors. It’s anyone who has staff that answers to them in a paid role.

And the memo is simply this. Don’t be a jerk. Just don’t. Don’t Be a Jerk.

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A Simple Way to Improve Your Speaking

Shorter, MOre Focused, Communication

I recently started a mentoring relationship with a young pastor.

We’ll call this fella Benji because that is in fact the name of his dog. So I’m sure he’ll be good with me referring to him as Benji. He must like the name.

Benji is a wonderful fella. He’s got solid character, a great Christian heritage with grandparents and parents in ministry. And he’s a natural, comfortable, up-front kind of speaker. He’s also a musician. He’s got lots of skills and abilities. Most importantly of course is the fact that he’s got character as well, that he’s a solid follower of Jesus Christ. That makes it easy and makes pouring into him worthwhile.

A few weeks ago he preached a sermon, and as I do whatever I’m working with someone, I evaluated his sermon. I took several pages of notes as he preached.

When I meet with someone to evaluate their sermon I don’t dump the whole load on them. I say “I’m just going to make a few observations but then I’m going to boil it down to one thing to work on for next time.”

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Addressing Spiritual Challenges

Discerning and Addressing Spiritual Challenges Part 2

Once you become aware that there is a spiritual component to a challenge you are facing, how do you then address it?

The short answer is “Prayer.”

My wife is an intercessor and the foundation of her praying is scripture. She is constantly in the Word looking for ideas and direction on how to pray for me, our children and grandchildren, the church, friends who don’t know Jesus, and whatever else she is led to pray about.

If you are a pastor or praying for a pastor, 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus are like an extended prayer list.

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Discerning Spiritual Challenges

Discerning and Addressing Spiritual Challenges, Part 1

You can’t solve a leadership problem simply by praying more
You can’t solve a spiritual challenge with leadership savvy or charisma alone.

We know that every challenge is a “spiritual” issue in the sense that there is a spiritual interface or component to everything. For example, money is a spiritual issue.

But I find it helpful, in the intensity of life and ministry to identify if an issue or some component of the issue is primarily a technical issue or a spiritual issue.

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