Priority Pastor

Pastors Are Quitting

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I was just looking at some of the data from a couple different Barna surveys of pastors from last year and where they’re at in relation to their ministry. They asked the question, have you given real serious consideration to quitting being in full-time ministry within the last year in January of 2021 and 29% said yes. Then by October 38% were saying yes. And of those under the age of 45, 46% of them were saying yes.

The way the question is worded, it’s not saying have you felt like quitting some days, which I think all of us do no matter what our job is, but the question was real serious consideration to quitting being in full-time history. That’s really quite significant. They’re actually looking for a way to leave ministry.

The question is why is that? Why do you think it is? I know in my world, anecdotally, as we’re seeing pastors leaving churches, most of the pastors I’m seeing leaving a ministry are also leaving the ministry, at least the vocational pastoral ministry.

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Delete The App

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For a few days last week my phone was driving me crazy. It would be good most of the day and then every evening it froze up on me. I could reboot it and it would work for a couple minutes, then it would freeze. I couldn’t figure out what was going on and it was driving me bonkers.

Finally, I did what you’re really supposed to do and I started playing with apps and looking at which apps were on, trying to turn some on and some off. At one point I got a notification from the nightlight app that it was having an issue. That was the clue because it was the blue light filter that I had set to come on at nine o’clock in the evening, and I realized that’s when my phone was seizing up.

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Profit First For Churches

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The book Profit First by Mike Michalowicz has been revolutionizing the way small business owners manage their finances. In this episode, Daren speaks with bookkeeper Graham Utz about church financial management and how Profit First can be applied to the way churches manage their finances. 

Sermons vs Sermonettes

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I’ve been thinking lately about a quote from John Stott in his book “Between Two Worlds” where he makes the comment that sermonettes produce Christianettes. It’s one of those classic books that you just never get rid of. If you Google that quote, you find all kinds of articles and discussions about what is a sermon versus a sermonette.

But the question I’ve been mulling on in relation to that is, does the length of a sermon make a sermon more or less effective? And in this context, is a longer sermon a better sermon? Is a shorter sermon, a sermonette, less effective?

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Spiritual Direction – Kenda Reimer

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Today I’ve got an excerpt of an interview I did with Kenda Reimer on the Disciple Making podcast. Kenda is a spiritual director in Squamish, British Columbia and the excerpt I’m playing here is one that is tied to spiritual direction and Christian leadership. I think you’ll find it interesting and might get you digging into this topic a little bit further.

If you want to know more about Kenda you can find her at explorewatersedge.ca and also soulformation.org will tell you more about spiritual direction. So we’re going to jump into the middle of the conversation with Kenda Riemer on spiritual direction.

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