If you and I were to sit down for a cup of coffee, you’d probably not notice anything out of the ordinary about me. I’d come across as stable and fairly put together. And, largely, I am. Outwardly I’m settled, albeit subdued. But apparently my body has been keeping score, according to Dr. Bessel Van...Read More

Sometimes leaders’ actions are deadly. Their words get peopled killed, they kill ideas, they kill relationships. Maybe not via premeditated murder but, for sure, through negligence. I hate writing this. I have been stewing for days since the terrorism and seditious attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.  I have wanted to reflect in...Read More

You know how Google and Amazon and Facebook and the whole internet knows what to send you? How you watch one YouTube thing about some dude cutting down a tree, and for months your feeds are overrun with videos of lumberjacks and sawmills? (This is happening to me in real time.) Well, right now it...Read More

Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…Alfred Tennyson I’m straining to hear that whisper. It’s faint, but I think I hear it. Hope is never a luxury. It is essential. I shudder when I think that relief may be deferred much further into the new year. That...Read More

Dancing through life Skimming the surface Gliding where turf is smooth Life’s more painless For the brainless Why think too hard? When it’s so soothing I chuckle every time I hear those lyrics in the song Dancing Through Life from the hit Broadway show Wicked. It’s sung by a rather glib and cocky young man...Read More

I’m on a bit of a roll talking about leadership. A calling that leads to some form or title of leadership has always fascinated me, and the development of leaders has always been a concern of mine. So, you can imagine how much I’ve been thinking about that topic recently. Good, courageous, intelligent leadership is...Read More

I hear you. After I wrote last week about what I believe is the hardest leadership job in the world, some of you pushed back. Some suggested parenting, specifically mothering, is the toughest job. Others suggested teachers have it the hardest. You might be right. But I still contend that carrying any title that comes...Read More

I’m about to return to church. I retired from pastoral work on May 31st of this year, 2020, after a 42-year ministry career. The agreed upon plan was for me to distance myself from our church for 6 months to allow time for the new senior pastor and the church to acclimate without me hanging...Read More

I’ll bet you feel like you are in “The Land Between”. I do. That phrase is the idea behind Jeff Manion’s book of the same title. It is so evocative. You are neither where you were nor where you are going. It describes my current life well. After 42 years of doing the same thing…pastoring...Read More

I’m not talking about social media influencers, people who have mastered the art of Tik Tok or Instagram or any of the other platforms to get us to buy or think differently. No, I’m talking about that man or woman who, by their presence, exerts an almost mystical effect on others. They inspire movement. They...Read More