Church leaders often ask me about what we do for our pastor’s wives—how we connect them together and what that connection looks like tangibly. My wife, Kaye, has a huge passion for pastor’s wives, and she runs point on gathering them together and caring for them. Here is Kaye on how it works. Before becoming…
Pastors
2 Reasons Succession Demands Intentionality
Five years ago, February 2018, is when I received the first inquiry about my interest in becoming the next senior pastor of Mariners Church. I became the senior pastor that September and since that moment have received a lot of questions from other leaders about succession. My predecessor, Kenton Beshore, and I are convinced that…
3 Reasons Preachers (and Christians) Should Say “I Don’t Know” More Frequently
I am teaching a theology course to some amazing people at our church on Wednesday nights. We offer four different “Deep Dive” courses and the one I am currently teaching is Deep Dive: The Story of God which walks through the Bible as one overarching Story. At the end of each session, I do a…
5 Leadership Reminders from Launching 4 New Congregations
In early 2019 we set plans, as a leadership team, to launch one new Mariners congregation in Orange County each year for the next five years. Orange County is filled with 3.2M people spread out through 34 cities, and we believe Jesus loves each person and each city. We were in early stages of planning…
2 Things We Must Do Because the Bible Calls us Sheep
Our dog Roscoe sometimes wanders away from home, but thankfully he is smart enough to come back home or even smarter to go to Brian and Marianna’s home – friends of ours who live on the next street. Roscoe likely prefers their home to ours because when they watch him for sometimes, they feed him…
4 Types of Itching Ears and What Pastors are Charged to Do
Technology experts have said that humanity is doubling its data creation every 18 months, and clearly one implication is that there is an article online somewhere right now to further validate and affirm anything you already believe or desire to believe. We have seen this tangibly throughout the pandemic – as there are articles citing…
6 Groups of People Pastors Will Be Preaching to This Christmas
You likely noticed that people started decorating earlier for Christmas this year. Earlier than they decorated in previous years. Many of my friends have commented on this reality. If you were already in the “before Thanksgiving” decorating camp, you may have started even earlier in 2020. If you were in the “wait until the day…
3 Reasons Ministry Leaders Will Leave “Vocational Ministry” During the Pandemic
In the last month I have been on several zoom calls with pastors who I am in “learning communities” with and the subject of pastoral turnover has been surfaced. Early stats are being thrown out as to the number of ministry leaders (not just senior pastors) who will leave vocational ministry during this pandemic and…
Important Interview on Succession With William Vanderbloemen
I recently sat down with William Vanderbloemen of Vanderbloemen search group to talk about succession. William is who helped Mariners through the succession planning, which ultimately led to me coming to Mariners as senior pastor two years ago. I think the interview is important because I ask some common questions people have asked me since…
Colliding Data Points and Why Your Church Leaders (Likely) Aren’t Idiots
Your church leaders are likely not idiots. Yes, of course, that is possible. There are foolish leaders in all types of roles, and all of us are fully capable of making unwise choices. But just because your church leaders are not making the same call you would make does not mean they are idiots. When…