Discussing finances isn’t my favorite part of ministry. Yet the reality is that our church community has practical needs that require financial support. Our staff, building and the ministries we cherish all depend on faithful giving. Like many of you, we’ve seen our expenses climb significantly over the past couple of years. For example, the cost of insurance on our building has tripled in the past five years. When the cost of living increases for your household, it affects our church family in the same way.

What truly excites me, however, is viewing giving as an essential part of our spiritual journey. “But since you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you – see that you also excel in this grace of giving.” (2 Corinthians 8:7)

I’ve witnessed something remarkable over the years. When someone begins contributing to our Church’s basic needs, something transformative often happens. That initial step of financial stewardship frequently becomes a gateway to deeper generosity and spiritual growth. What starts as helping “keep the lights on” can blossom into a profound expression of discipleship.

While I may never be entirely comfortable discussing money, I speak about it now not just for our Church’s financial health but for something far more critical – your continued growth as a follower of Christ. My prayer is that this Easter season, each one of you might excel in the grace of giving.

All of life involves interpretation. ALL OF IT!

Yes, as Christians, our primary emphasis is on the proper interpretation of the Bible. But there is so much more that impacts our lives.

You interpret your spouse’s actions and words. They said they don’t care where we eat as long as it’s fast and not expensive. Your job is to now interpret that into a dinner that makes them happy.

Your friend stopped texting and no longer appears to want to hang out, so you have to interpret what that might mean to your friendship.

There is a person in the Church community who invited you into their home. They have never done that before. What does that mean?

Numerous times, I have found that the source of conflict in our lives is not what someone said or did; it is how we interpret it. Quite often, we misunderstand their intentions and usually assume the worst. You think they meant it for harm, and they intended it for good. You believe that comment was a backhand slap to the face when they had not thought about your situation at all. You simply misinterpreted their intentions.

Accurate interpretation is required for reading the Bible, but it is equally necessary for understanding the people who follow that Bible.

That sounds harsh for a pastor to say, but I cannot emotionally care about everything. I do not have the fortitude to care about every little thing that happens in my Church community.

I care deeply about a few things. I invest my life in projects that I believe represent my most significant contribution to God’s kingdom. My time goes to my faith, family, preaching, staff and Church leaders, and events that connect people with Jesus.

For us to care intensely about a few important things – whether people, plans, or projects – we must also decide what we won’t care about. What doesn’t deserve my time, energy, and emotion?

Without boundaries, we eventually become a mile wide and an inch deep. And sadly, we’ll discover that no one really cares about us either.

One struggle for people of faith is seeing their Church through today’s eyes.

We tend to lock into the time we came to know Jesus. We look back at music, the preacher, and even the décor as being the best at the time we became Christians. Our emotional attachment to the methods of that time is unseen but clearly present in our hearts. Without articulating it, people begin to see the Church today as “less than” when they were younger.

With time, we stop innovating, and we stop being creative in our worship of God. We lock into our favorite era and never leave. We begin to become crawdads, as one preacher put it. “We back blindly into the future and look longingly into the past.”

The Church must continually evaluate only two things: First, is it true to God’s word? Second, is it about reaching people with the gospel and helping them become fully devoted disciples of Jesus today?

Our commitment to Jesus and his mission must be bigger than our love of the past if we want our Church to be vital today and still effective tomorrow.  

I was talking with a 73-year-old preacher. He is still going strong for the Lord as he leads his congregation through his preaching and teaching. As we talked about his life, ministry, and schedule, he told me that he blocks out all of Tuesday and Wednesday mornings for study. He puts a note on his office door so that he is not disturbed, and he spends hours reading, thinking, and praying.

It would be easy for him to coast in his life and career. He has read enough and has stored more knowledge than he will ever be able to share. Why keep studying? He wants to continue growing his understanding of the scriptures and the ways of the Lord.

When I asked him about it, he confidently stated, “I believe filling your mind with scripture is an act of worship.” Growing in his Bible comprehension is a way for him to show his love for Jesus. Every day, he wants to love a little more and grow a little more.

At what point do you know enough as a follower of Jesus that you can stop learning? If someone ever reaches that point, I will be sure to write a post about it.

I have been flipping through my old notebooks of blog ideas. My oldest one goes back to January of 2017. I have over eight years of ideas scribbled on those pages. There are thoughts about life pre-Covid, during the pandemic shutdown, and afterward. Page after page is filled with one or two lines of concepts that I thought would one day make a good post.

Here is what I discovered as I read through those books. The same issues exist no matter what year it is. There are descriptions of people struggling with God, the Church community, the pastor, the Bible, and one another. There are insights into how we relate to our spouses, children, coworkers, and other Christians. Every page has something about the Bible, understanding faith, and how our beliefs impact our lives.

The calendar may change, and technology might improve with it, but the basic needs of humanity, as they relate to God and his word, remain the same. It is no wonder why the Bible affirms, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever” (1 Peter 1:24). No matter how much things change, the more they stay the same. Whatever is grounded in the Bible will always be applicable.

Today is April 1st, and I was taught that it is the day of the “April Fools.”

My brother would make up wild stories and tell me first thing in the morning. I would believe every word. Then he would laugh and say, “April Fools.”

In the book of Proverbs, there are three categories of people. First, there is the naïve. These are people who have no idea what to do in life, but they keep doing things. Second, there is the wise. These people know the right thing to do, as instructed by God, and they do it. Third, there is the fool. These are people who know the right thing to do, as instructed by God, but they ignore it and do whatever they want.

A fool in the Bible is someone who does whatever they want and then is surprised when things do not work out well. These people exist all year round, not just today.

One preacher said to a group of preachers who were visiting together, “I preach and teach the Bible as it should be taught, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book.”

I know his intentions were pure, but his statement was misguided. He mistook the method for the message. The unintended result is that people begin to equate the two. Then, people think that when you change the method, you are also changing the message.

Through the years, I have encountered numerous people who have come to hear me preach and check out our Church. Afterward, they will tell someone, occasionally me, that they enjoyed the program but wanted to attend a Church that did more “Bible teaching.” When I ask questions about this statement, they inevitably respond with, “We need someone who preaches straight through Bible books.” When they say that, they are mistaking the method and the message.

More than once, I have irritated a colleague who boasts about their style of preaching by saying, “Oh, you preach straight through Bible books, just like Jesus and Paul did.”

Then, I share this information with them. There is a sermon from Jesus in Luke 4 where he reads two Bible verses from Isaiah 61, and then he uses a story from the life of Elijah and one from the life of Elisha. It is a topical sermon about God’s grace to everyone. In Acts 17, Paul is in Athens, and he preaches using their own statues and philosophers before telling them about the resurrection of Jesus. We have zero examples of them taking a Bible book and walking through it page by page.

I firmly believe my sermons are full of well-thought-out and correctly interpreted Bible and theology. In fact, I spend hours reading, praying, and preparing for each sermon. I attempt to give strong Biblical sermons every week, but I rarely preach straight through a book in the Bible.

The issue is that the message remains consistent with the word of God and not how it is presented. The message is far more important than the method, and the moment we cannot differentiate the two, we are setting ourselves up for ungodly attachment to a particular style as being better.

The most essential part of any Church is preaching the Bible as truth that reveals God to us and Jesus as our resurrected savior. If the way we present it aligns with the Biblical story, the method doesn’t matter. In fact, the method will keep changing from generation to generation – and that is completely acceptable.

I was reading through the Bible and thinking about my role as a preacher and leader of my local congregation. I realize that if I do my job really well, then there will be little evidence that I was here.

My job is not only to teach people the Bible but I am also called to show them how to read it and understand it themselves.

My job is to love people by showing them Jesus so that they can then love Jesus and not me.

My job is to equip the people in my congregation so that they can do ministry with their gifts and abilities. I am not called to do ministry for them but to equip them.

My job is not only to make disciples but to raise up a generation of disciple-makers.

My job is to help people live like Jesus, and they will make good choices on their own in the future.

If I am leading a Church the way God desires, then I am totally dispensable. I am only here to help the people become all God wants them to be as a community and individuals.

Perhaps one mark of a truly great leader in the Church is that no one misses them after they are gone.

Whenever someone tells the followers of Jesus about a tragedy, one of the most common responses is, “They will be in my thoughts and prayers.” Whoever says that simply means that they will be thinking about the situation, and sometimes, they will pray to God.

Quite often, this is the best we can do. We cannot go to the people who experienced this painful event and offer counseling or do anything to help them improve their situation.

I do wish that these same people, like me, would have an alternate statement. I think there should be an equal response of, “They will be in my prayers and actions.” Whenever someone is close to the situation or whenever there is practical help that we can provide, then I hope we, as Christians, are doing it.

While there are nonbelievers who say that offering thoughts and prayers is a worthless gesture, I would suggest that prayers are valuable and that the only thing that helps no one is the thoughts. Combining prayers and actions is a winning combination. Ask God to do the miraculous while we handle the ordinary work.