Archive for category The Innovative Pastor

Ground-breaking, pioneering, original, new, inventive, modern are all words from my handy little Word program Thesaurus that can be used for “innovative”.  There are striking contrasts between the words “innovative” and “Thesaurus” which sounds more like an extinct dinosaur than a book. Read the rest of this entry »

I sometimes wear a black sweatshirt with a big white guitar pick on the front, and Pick Jesus is written on the pick. An older member stopped me and blurted “RICK Jesus?” I was confused until I saw that one of the hood strings was lying across the “P” in “Pick,” making it look like an “R.” I moved the string and said, “No, Pick Jesus.” Read the rest of this entry »

An innovative pastor to me, is one who is willing to learn from others who have been or are going where I’ve never been and would like to go. Read the rest of this entry »

I am far from innovative.  I get accused of having “original” ideas.  However, I must confess that I am far from original or innovative. Read the rest of this entry »

I have pastored over the last 17 years all the Free Will Baptist churches in the state of Delaware. Just so you will know, that is only two churches. Read the rest of this entry »

The word change strikes terror in the heart of every pastor, because even the most minuscule alteration in scheduling, programming, or methodology brings catastrophic reactions from a local church. Read the rest of this entry »

The culture we live in reinvents itself every 18 months to three years.  Myspace out.  Facebook in.  Email out.  Text messaging in.  Brown out.  Green in.  You get the idea.  The rapid rate of change is incredible for those of us who sit on 16th century benches singing 18th or 19th century songs.  The question for me, and I love to wrestle with it, is how do you cast a vision and set goals in an ever changing cultural context? Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone is different. Every church is different. That’s OK. None of the disciples were identical.  God uses our differences and abilities to reach all the people.  If we were all the same, we would only draw a certain segment of society and that would hamper the efforts of any denomination and Christianity as a whole. Read the rest of this entry »

Will Carl make the right decision?  You may not have seen the Disney movie, “Up”. In short, by attaching thousands of balloons to lift his home, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen expects to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America. As soon as he lifts off, he realizes he is not alone on his trip. Read the rest of this entry »