Some of you know that I’m writing a series of posts on the pastor’s joy challenge. As surprising as it is to many good people, it’s actually very challenging for many solo or senior pastors to be consistently – or even mostly – joyful. You might call this a “dirty little secret” of pastoral life. […]
The Pastor’s Joy Challenge – Part Two: 14 Reasons Why Pastoral Joy Is A Challenge
I realize that folks who haven’t served as vocational pastors of churches might be surprised by the titles (and the contents) of these posts I’m writing. “Pastors having trouble with joy? Really? I thought they were the most joyful people on earth.” And maybe we should be. But – for the most part – we’re […]
The Pastor’s Joy Challenge – Part One: Why Your Joy Is So Important
The images are unforgettable: Let’s start with Karl Malden, playing the formidable Reverend Ford in the 1960 film, Pollyanna. As our 11-year old, innocent, orphaned, heroine1 cowers in terror in her pew, the Right Reverend begins his sermon by thundering that “DEATH COMES UNEXPECTEDLY!” As the story unfolds, the amazing Pollyanna manages to transform some […]
Ten Ways An Interim Pastor Can Jumpstart The Revitalization Process
Before we can consider the role of the interim pastor in church revitalization, I think I would do well to clarify who these guys are that I’m talking about. Broadly speaking, there are two categories of interim (or some say, “transitional”) pastorates: The exploratory or trial interim pastorate is undertaken by an individual who is […]
The Heart Of A Great Revitalizer
My post today is a book review, sort of, but please don’t change the channel too quickly. If you are part of a church which needs revitalization, this post will help you. Studying Brian Croft’s, Biblical Church Revitalization (Solutions For Dying And Divided Churches), will likely help you greatly. I’m going to give you some […]
When Majoring On The Majors Becomes A Major Problem
I’m a big believer in majoring on the majors. For a local church, majoring on the majors means loving God and people and faithful obedience to the Bible while we’re pursuing our one God-given mission of making disciples. For a denomination, majoring on the majors probably means helping its churches to be what I just […]
The Pastors Who Should Pursue Church Revitalization In A Cohort
I’m just now (June, 2026) wrapping up a one-year revitalization cohort with four great pastors from three states. It has been a joy. I have learned a lot from these guys and I’m pretty sure that they and their churches have each been helped significantly. We met via Zoom, once a month for 12 months, […]
Why Did A Good God Send Me To Pastor A Bad Church? (Conclusion)
I would guess that most pastors have believed, at one time or another, that they have been sentenced to serve as the pastor of a “bad church.” The problem is inherent in the job itself: In the best-case scenario, serving as the solo or senior pastor of a church is a challenging role. In far […]
Why Did A Good God Send Me To Pastor A Bad Church? (Part Three)
Back in the 1990’s, I attended the same big, wonderful pastor’s conference year after year. I often showed up at the conference in tough shape physically, for it was always held during the peak days of my “big-time” allergy season. I would cough all night – sleeping in a storeroom at times so as to […]
Why Did A Good God Send Me To Pastor A Bad Church? (Part Two)
Back in my childhood there was a TV show called “Queen for a Day” which I watched with my mother when I was home sick from school. Each show was a contest between women – mostly housewives (we called them back then) – who had endured miserable lives, dealing with one catastrophe after another. After […]
Why Did A Good God Send Me To Pastor A Bad Church?
I recently dedicated four posts to the question of “Why would a good God send us a bad pastor?” (Click here for the first of the four.) I followed it up with a post on how to recover from a “bad pastor” and what a church member should and should not do if his church […]
What Can We Do About Our “Bad Pastor”?
“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.” Psalm 133:1 This is my sixth post in six weeks on the subject of “bad pastors.” I’m putting the term in quotation marks because we’re dealing with a subject which is – admittedly – highly subjective. A “bad pastor” is a pastor which […]
Recovering From A Pastor Disaster
The parsonage was empty…again… This time it was left a little dirtier and messier than it was a year ago. It looked like somebody had departed in a hurry, and they had. The rookie pastor’s first year with the church turned out to be his last year with the church. He loaded the moving truck […]
Why Did Our Good God Send Us A Bad Pastor? (Part Four)
Here’s the last “bad pastor” horror story I’ll share for a while: Even before I completed the interim pastorate, Donna and I were beginning to have concerns about the new long-term pastor who had taken my place. He had expressed anger with our church members for not hosting him as enthusiastically as he thought they […]
Why Did Our Good God Send Us A Bad Pastor? (Part Three)
I’ve heard my share of horror stories about bad pastors. Very few of them are as unfortunate as one I was involved in personally. Near the end of an interim pastorate, when we were just getting our pastoral search team organized, our church was approached directly by a young man who seemed like God’s special […]
Why Did Our Good God Send Us A Bad Pastor? (Part Two)
One week ago, we began wrestling with this painful question. While I’ve seldom had it put to me as bluntly as my title, I’ve heard little speeches like the following, several times: “We prayed and worked through our pastor search process but the guy we got was not what we were looking for or expecting […]
Why Did Our Good God Send Us A Bad Pastor? (Part One)
I confess that no one has ever put it quite that bluntly as my title, but I’ve heard a number of softer versions of it over the years. It usually sounds something like this: “We prayed and worked through our pastor search process but the guy we got was not what we were looking for […]
The Kind Of Prayer That Downloads Church Revitalization, Part Two
Last week’s post, The Kind Of Prayer That Downloads Church Revitalization, Part One, focused on five, big, surprising conclusions on the subject of church revitalization. The best way to reintroduce my subject might be to reintroduce myself. I began attending and fell in love with a small evangelical church at age twenty, one year after […]
The Kind Of Prayer That Downloads Church Revitalization, Part One
I don’t pretend to be the authority on the subject of church revitalization, and I’m not sure that anybody else is either, but I think I’m on to something. I’ve studied the subject seriously and I’ve listened to great stories from great people. In two posts I’m going to briefly share five of my most […]
“Playbook” Chapters I Need To Add: Welcome Young Families And Children
Just a note: In 2025 we launched “The Revitalization Playbook.” The “Playbook” is similar to the ones used by football coaches on the sidelines. The coach’s playbook contains all the plays that the coach is confident that his team can run. Conditions on the field determine which play he chooses next. In my “Playbook,” knowing […]
“Playbook” Chapters I Need To Add: Help Your Church Process Its Pain
Just a note: In 2025 we launched “The Revitalization Playbook.” The “Playbook” is similar to the ones used by football coaches on the sidelines. The coach’s playbook contains all the plays that the coach is confident that his team can run. Conditions on the field determine which play he chooses next. In my “Playbook,” knowing […]
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