Pastoral Ministry

I’ve been having an Affair

It is no longer a secret. I have shared this information with people who are close to me and now I share it with everyone. When my wife and I sat down to talk I didn’t know what to expect. She just looked at me with very little emotion. Every so often she nodded showing she agreed with what I was saying or that she was already aware of what I thought was a secret. It’s not that I had the affair in secret, no, it was quite the contrary. Everyone who has seen me in the last 30 years or so, has not only seen me with me affair partner but has for the most part thought we were happy together. They also saw me with my wife and we were happy too, so they said nothing.

(more…)

911 – What Is The Nature of Your Emergency?

“I am looking for someone.” “When did you last see them?” “It was quite a while ago.” “When were you expecting to see them?” “I was hoping to see them Sunday.” “I’m sorry sir, but the person is not missing until they haven’t shown up, we cannot help you with someone you are supposed to see. This is an emergency number set aside for many things including people who can’t be found but your case has not happened.” “But I can’t find this person.” “Sir, I believe there is some misunderstanding. Let me clarify some things. You can’t find someone you are supposed to meet on Sunday?” “Well, yes, sort of.” I can’t find the person today for Sunday.” Okay, I think I understand, you were supposed to meet up with this person Sunday, but you can’t find them today.” “Yes, you got it, can you help me? Our worship drummer is away and no one else can play from the church, it’s an emergency, please, I can’t find a replacement, I am desperate, I’ll take anyone…” “Sir, this line is for emergency calls only…” “It is an emergency, we have no drummer…”

(more…)

I Am The Tower of Babel

I had dreams of being more, of building up to heights never seen before. I had a plan that I could complete, that would make me complete. I would put everything I had into it, and in time, it would make me everything I wanted to be, everything God created me to be, but it all came crumbling down.

(more…)

Transition – Discovering God’s Call for Your Church

Many of you know that my calling is to a very specific field of ministry in the church. I am a transitional pastor. I help congregations discover God’s call for their collective of Christ followers. I met Bruce Cormier and his wife Lesia at my last transition. Together we, the collective of Christ followers called Cornerstone Christian Fellowship – Mimico and myself, set out on what ended up being an 18 month journey to understand what God was saying about the future of our church. We had a building. We had a small in-person congregation of about 30 and a similar sized online group who, in their younger years had attended in person. It took me 18 months to get to this point and Bruce managed to say it in just over 1500 words!

This little church has close to doubled in size and continues to grow under their new permanent pastor. The biggest question we needed to answer was about the building the church owned. As you read this, maybe your church needs to ask itself the same question they were asking:

(more…)

The Epistle of Jeremiah the Prophet to the Modern Church – Sheep Stealing

It is considered the biggest offence a church/pastor can commit. Those accused of committing this offence often are unfazed while those behind the accusations feel wronged in ways that cannot be measured. Do some churches set out to steal sheep? Some. Do some churches have sheep go missing because they aren’t being good shepherds? Some. Do some sheep change sheep pens because the grass is always greener in some other sheep pen? Some. Do some sheep look for a new shepherd because the one they have isn’t shepherding at all? Some. Is the type of sheep stealing that the modern church concerns itself with actually something God is concerned about? Sometimes.

(more…)