Of course you have. We all have. Some of us have begged, implored, and pleaded with God to move in a particular manner and been left feeling like our prayers fell on deaf ears. In my experience, one of the primary reasons people struggle to believe in the goodness of God is unanswered prayer

Imagine you walked into church one Sunday and everywhere you looked were zombies. Not real zombies, of course. Because of course, there aren’t real zombies, or are there? Anyways... 

Imagine you walked into a worship service one Sunday and everywhere you looked were zombies.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “The work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and the most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called.” I’m so thankful to be a preacher. It’s my favorite part of being a pastor. While I love the act of preaching, I often find the art of prepping sermons tedious. I love to study and preach what the Lord gives me. It’s the blood, sweat, and tears in between that makes me long for the time when I was a vocational coffee maker.

We've all read them.

Some of us have even posted them - smug, condescending, even vile and angry blog comments. The comment section of a blog is often a cesspool of sinful speech.

And now begin the justifications.

"It's not sinful speech! They're wrong. Their doctrine wasn't just right. They don't think like I do. I don't like their opinion. I don't like their preaching, music, philosophy of ministry..."

I get it. 

It's pretty normal for Ryder to follow dinner with some sort of weapons demonstration. The lightsaber is typically his weapon of choice. He has three...

Why?

Because you just never know which one you're going to need, of course.

When God's Word goes forth is does exactly what God wants it to. There is never a time when the Bible is proclaimed to no end. The Scriptures succeed exactly as the Spirit would have them.

Because we believe these promises about God's Word, we seek every opportunity to share it. One of the ways we do this is by reading Scripture in our services, out loud, over our church.

We've all experienced one of those seasons we simply didn't believe we could endure. One of those seasons where life was hard and we were so tired we just weren't sure we could take any more. A sickness. A job loss. A divorce. A death. The seasons change, but the fatigue remains.

I don't know about you, but my prayers tend to be more fervent in these seasons. Typically, they sound like this: "Lord, please deliver me out of this season. I can't take any more. I just want this to end. Please make it stop!"

"Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary."

You've most likely heard some version of this quote, often attributed (incorrectly) to St. Francis of Assisi. The problem with this quote -- other than the fact that St. Francis never said it -- is that it forces an unnecessary, unhelpful, and unbiblical dichotomy between displaying the Gospel with one's life and declaring the Gospel with one's mouth.

While I wholeheartedly agree that Christians should live exemplary lives that display the work of the Gospel, the Bible doesn't hold this up as the definition of evangelism. Until you open your mouth and actually tell someone the good news about Jesus, you have not done the full work of Biblical evangelism.

In many churches, the most thankless job is that of the pastor's wife. Though the pastor alone is paid, the pastor's wife is often still saddled with a host of responsibilities and expectations. She is expected to be a model wife, nurturing mother, friend to everyone, run a women's ministry, throw every baby shower, and cook every meal. These expectations are often unfair, unhelpful, and most importantly, unbiblical. "Pastor's Wife" is not a secret third office of church leadership. The Bible contains no job description for the pastor's wife, which is why extra-biblical expectations are often placed upon her.

Pastoring in general and church planting in particular can be a roller-coaster ride of emotions. When we planted Redemption, I didn’t thoroughly think through the emotional nature of what I was doing. In building relationships with a growing number of church planters, I've learned that this reality isn't isolated to me. As I reflect on my own journey in church planting and on the conversations I've had with other planters, there seem to be three emotions common to church planting.

The Bible has no shortage of amazing stories. Stories of God’s providence, provision, and protection of His people. Stories of God coming through for His people when all else had failed and circumstances appeared dire.

The story of Joseph is a prime example of this. I’ve been reading his story in Genesis 37-50 lately, and I continue to be amazed at this picture of God’s providence in Joseph’s life. I’ll summarize it for you, but you should really check it out yourself.

Preachers face a lot of pressure these days. We live in a day and age marked by easy access to an amazing caliber of preaching. This means the bar is set extraordinarily high for the average preacher. It's intimidating to know that your audience podcasts pastors like Mark Driscoll, Andy Stanley, James MacDonald, Steven Furtick, Matt Chandler, and John Piper throughout the week and then shows up to hear you on Sunday.

Pastors should be working hard to preach the best sermons possible, but the best sermon is only as good as the audience listening. Preaching is a two-way street. The preacher is responsible for preaching well, and the audience is responsible for listening well.

Listening is a lost art in our culture, so how should we listen to a sermon?

Leaders have a God-given desire to grow. Within the heart of every leader lies a perpetual dissatisfaction for what is, and a desire for what could and should be. This includes the leader's own leadership ability. Every good leader I know desires to be a better leader than they currently are.

Here are four ways to grow your leadership:

In early 2006, I was working as a Worship Pastor at a church about 40 minutes from where we planted Redemption.

One Tuesday night, as I sat in one of the many meetings that pastors attend each week, I heard God speak to me more clearly than ever before. Before you panic, I'm not someone who "hears God speak" every day. This was an experience I had never had before and one I haven't had since. God said three things:

It was Tuesday and, like any other Tuesday, I was sitting at my desk, Bible open, wrestling with the upcoming Sunday's sermon outline. In short, I was being a good pastor, doing the hard work of preparing to put another meal on the table for my church family. In the midst of my faithful stewardship of the pastoral responsibility God has given me (said in a pompous and sarcastic tone), I received the following text message from my wife:

Recently I met up with Dave Heiniger, our new deacon over Student Ministry, to talk vision for this new area in our church. As we talked, he highlighted three things students need from their volunteer leaders. I plugged them into Evernote because I immediately realized that these are three things every person, not just every student, needs to feel from their pastors.

I think most would agree that “chaos” is a fitting description for what we experience on a day-to-day basis. The constant onslaught of never-ending to-do lists, errands to run, kids to shuttle, meetings to attend, meals to make, and deadlines to hit leaves us worn out and willing to do almost anything to simply experience a few moments of calm in the chaos. Yet, if you don’t do the hard work of intentionally seeking to pursue calm, you may move from being worn out to burned out. Burnout is the quickest way out of whatever mission God has called you to.

So what do we do? Here are four ways to find calm in the chaos of life:

I was so mad. I couldn’t believe they had the nerve to say that to me. Who did they think they were? What was most frustrating was that no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t shake the angst I felt after the conversation. I couldn't shake it because they were right. When I started to ask myself WHY I felt the way I did, I didn’t care for the answer WHY revealed.