Priority Pastor

How to Use a Time Windfall

August 17, 2020August 17, 2020 by Admin

Let’s think for a couple of minutes about what to do if you get a time windfall. If all of a sudden due to some circumstances, job change, a move, a pandemic or something, you all of a sudden have more free time.

One of the principles I want to bring to bear is what to do if you have a financial windfall. One of the things that you ought to do, for instance, if you get a raise of 5% is don’t raise your standard of living by 5%. You should raise your standard living by 2.5% and save or invest the surplus. So you never increase to the same level of your financial gain. You try to always save a portion of that gain.

The Surprising Trait that Wins Over Pastoral Search Teams

August 10, 2020August 10, 2020 by Admin

I have learned a lot about how churches search teams and elders boards look for new lead pastors. In my role as a transitional pastor and transitional coach, I’ve been able to see the other side, not just the side of the pastor applying, but the side of the search teams, boards of elders and the churches and how they deal with applicants.

Sometimes it’s a little scary to see how they process applications and kind of exegete what they think the person is saying, and not always accurately. There’s a language it seems that pastors have, a ministry language that is more like a code that we use which are not fully understood by people who aren’t pastors. It’s kind of left me, in some cases, wondering how does search even happen when a pastor is not involved on the receiving end of the process?

Video Sermons: How to Prepare, Record and Produce Your Sermons

July 13, 2020July 6, 2020 by Daren

Since I’m currently involved in two different churches, delivering seven video sermons per month between the two, recording and producing them completely on my own, I’m making twice as many mistakes as most pastors when it comes to virtual preaching.

But I’m also learning twice as fast (I hope!)

By the grace of God, I had a few things in place before virtual church services and sermons became necessary:

Church Growth, Health…or Survival?

July 6, 2020June 29, 2020 by Admin

I came across a quote by a long-time pastor that was in a newspaper and it said this: “In the first five years of ministry I had a sign on my desk that read Win the world for Christ. My second five years of ministry I put up a new sign that said Win one or two for Christ. And then now, later in my ministry I have a sign on my desk that says Try not to lose too many.”

I thought that was kind of funny, but I think a lot of people are facing that reality right now. On the church level, I’ve seen the church go from the Church Growth movement of the ‘90s into Church Health, which I think was actually a step in the right direction. But in a lot of ways, we find ourselves today in Church Survival mode.

Self-Care Tips for Stressful Times

June 29, 2020June 18, 2020 by Admin

What do you do to protect yourself to function at a sustainable level of time and energy when things are unsettled and stressful?

This is a season of unsettledness in the world and in the churches I’m serving in as well. There’s a lot of unsettledness in search process and other churchy kind of things that lead to instability. There are a few things I’ve found that are important to do to maintain my own capacity to function in the midst of the instability, and not be overwhelmed or overtaken by it, and really become a contributor to the instability.

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