Walking The Walk

I preached the final installment of "Forged In Faith" on Sunday.  I preached on the topic of Love. You can watch all of those sermons on our website at Muncie Baptist Church . I talked a lot about forgiveness, because it is one of the most common issues I see on a regular basis as a pastor--our inability to let things go.  And it leads to all kinds of problems in our families and our workplaces and in our community.  We struggle to let anything go.  We have to be right!  All the time!   And if you look at our culture today, you'll see what unforgiveness looks like in the real world. It looks like anger. It looks like division. It looks like conflict. It looks like judgement. It looks like grievance.   One of the comments I got on my message Sunday came from a non-believer with a strong opinion that Christian ideas like "forgiveness" are no longer relevant.  Of course I disagree with that, but just for the sake of argument let me make a n...

Many of us have trouble establishing a consistent prayer life. We know it's important, but between work deadlines, family commitments, kids events, etc.  Well, finding time can be a challenge. The picture we often form in our mind of an effective prayer routine is spending an uninterrupted hour of time dedicated to that early in the morning. That's my routine--but I'm a pastor.  Before I was a pastor I had the same challenges as everyone else finding that time consistently.   Here's a few things I did to build a daily prayer habit into my busy life: 1. I Anchored Prayer My Existing Routine Instead of trying to create a brand-new chunk of time out of thin air, I added prayer and Bible reading to things I was already doing. Morning Coffee:  I've always started my day off with a few quiet moments and a cup of coffee.  It wasn't very hard to open my Bible and read during that time.  I enjoyed that time so much I actually started getting up a little earlier...

" Satisfy   us in the morning with your unfailing love,  t hat we may sing for joy   and be glad all our days." ~Psalms 90:14 One thing I had a tough time adjusting to when I retired from the university and became a full time pastor was the unpredictable nature of ministry.  Every day is different.  And that's not something I was used to. There wasn't a lot of variation in my day to day routine up until I retired almost two years ago now.  I did the same things week to week.  I had the same weekly meetings and monthly meetings and quarterly meetings.  There wasn't a lot of variety in the routine. Then I retired, and I went about turning full-time ministry into a routine.  I set up office hours when I would be at the church and available.  I blocked out time in my calendar to work on my Sunday message.  I blocked out time on my calendar for meetings.  I had time on my calendar to go visit people at home or in the hospital. ...