One of the things that aggravates me about Black History month is whoever is telling the story always leaves out the importance of the church in the Civil Rights movement.  We’ll be told about the leaders of the early civil rights movement such as Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King, Jr. What you won’t be told is most of these men, including King and Abernathy were Baptist preachers. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was planned in the basement of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery where King was pastor.  The songs  sung by the marchers were hymns, songs the marchers lea ..read more

“Pay attention!” “Eyes on the board!” “Where’s your head?” I heard all of these (and many more!) when I was growing up. I had (OK, have) a very short attention span. Focusing on anything for any length of time has always been a challenge to me. If I’m going to study for a sermon, I’ve got several tricks I use to make sure my attention stays where it needs to. Some days, I’m more successful than I am on other days. Not paying attention is a growing and dangerous problem in our culture. People drive and text. Others try to carry on conversations while they check social media. Meeting attendees c ..read more

Most pastors, when they come into a new church, begin to try to understand the rhythm of the congregation. How does this church handle its budget? How do they reach out to their community? How do they plan worship services and do discipleship? What do they do at Christmas? At Easter? Figuring out how a church works usually takes about a year. The pastor has to go through everything once. Then, the pastor will work with the church’s leadership team to tweak the processes of their new church over the next year. For a lot of pastors, this will be considered a successful ministry. Did you notice a ..read more

When you “retire” as a minister, you really don’t retire at all. People still think you’re somehow obligated to respond whenever they reach out. I’m no longer on the church’s payroll, but for some reason, I’m still having coffee with friends who “need to talk,” answering questions from leaders who forgot how we handled a problem several years ago, and yes, I’m still doing funerals. So, even when you retire, you’re still “pastor” to a lot of people.  It’s a little more difficult when you stay in the church you led for 32 years.  Yes, I left my position in the church, but I didn’t go a ..read more

I got some interesting feedback from my previous post. Several people were surprised to hear of a church handling a leadership transition is such a healthy and even joyful manner. Some were concerned my continuing presence would hamper the leaders of the new pastor. Others were thinking my presence might stifle new ways of thinking. I could see that and the leadership, including the new pastor, and I have talked about this at length. We have established strong boundaries and opportunities for those same leaders to be able to tell me my presence is no longer helpful. I’m pretty self aware, so c ..read more

The other day I was having lunch with a friend. “Can I ask you a question,” he said. “Sure,” I answered. “I have a friend who loves Jesus. She really does, but she’s never going back to church. There has been too much water under the bridge and she’s too disillusioned to ever trust organized religion, but she told me the other day how much she missed going to church. She missed seeing the people and having a place to belong.” I asked where she lived and we talked about churches I knew in the area. I offered a few churches and pastors that were in that area. Each time I mentioned a name, he sho ..read more

After I announced that I would be stepping down from my role as Senior Pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church, the question people asked me the most often was, “When did you decide to retire?” My honest answer? About 45 years ago. I’ve talked to a lot of pastors who have told me that they could never see themselves retiring. I get it. I love what I do, but nothing lasts forever — including being the pastor of a great church. For one thing, churches change. Churches are living and breathing organisms. They grow up. They mature. They change, and sometimes what the church becomes doesn’t match who th ..read more

When I started talking about my retirement earlier this year, my wife had one concern.  “What are you going to do with all those books?” Most wives want to know what the husband plans on doing when they don’t have a full time position demanding all their time. Not Jeannie. Other wives want to make sure their husbands stay active and engaged with some purpose or passion. Not Jeannie. She had only one question. What are you going to do with those books? Now, she phrased it in different ways, but it was the same question. Sometimes she would say, “You know, you should give your books to ..read more

The other day, I was having lunch with a good friend who pastors a nearby church. His best friend had recently died and it was hitting my friend particularly hard. He had to stop and compose himself several times during our lunch. “I’m sorry, ” he would say, “but this one is hitting me harder than most.” Funny thing about being a pastor. We minister at a lot of funerals, but we don’t ever get to go to a funeral. If someone dies, the family will call us and we’ll go see the family, plan the service and tend to the pastoral care needs of the family. When the day of the service comes, we’ll lead ..read more

Have you noticed every nativity scene is set up in basically the same pattern?  Is there a class you have to attend to be qualified to lay out Baby Jesus and His entourage?  Do you need to earn a certificate before you can place everyone in the scene? Think about it. Don’t they all look the same? First, there’s a barn with hay stuffed in the windows and half fences connected on the sides of the little stable. Baby Jesus is in the manger in the center of the scene, Mary and Joseph will be placed on either side of Jesus.  There will be a sheep, a cow and a donkey placed close by b ..read more