News Articles in First Person

He has risen! As you celebrate this Easter season, please remember your many IMB missionaries on the field. In some areas, like where we live in the Asia-Pacific Rim, it’s the perfect time to explain the true meaning of this holiday.

“Impossible things are only impossible alone.” Though I was shaving and only halfway paying attention to the radio advertisements that were droning on in the background, that line caught my attention.

Proverbs 16:9 illuminates an idea we easily forget: we make all the plans we like, but the Lord directs, or establishes, our steps.

Forced pastoral exits are crippling thousands of churches every year, as these sobering statistics prove:

I recently made a wallpaper image for my phone, computer and external monitor. It reads: “Jesus is Lord. I am not.”

Many years ago, when I stepped out of pastoral ministry into executive leadership, I was overwhelmed and knew I would not survive without spiritual support. I decided to write a column in the Northwest Baptist Witness asking for people who were already praying for me to form a prayer team. Note the careful qualifier – people who were already praying for me.

Remember Martha? She was industrious, illustrating the adage that no one works harder than someone trying to prove she’s the only one doing anything. She was a pioneer of competitive baking, petitioning Jesus to check the scorecard and note her lead over Mary.

After pastoring in a fog of clinical depression for several months, I came very close to walking away from the church I was pastoring and the ministry altogether. I had been pastoring for 22 years at the time and was burned out and fed up—mostly with myself.

On Sunday, Feb. 18, Sarah and I traveled to Sioux City, Iowa, to celebrate the retirement of Bob Dillman, my former associate pastor at Southern Hills.

If there’s ever been a time in Southern Baptist life when we’ve needed an example of how to move forward in cooperation, it’s now.