My favorite thing about the World Cup hasn’t been any particular game thus far, but watching videos of the world discover America for the first time.

• It seemed to begin w/ a German fan named Freddy who’s been road-tripping across the South, and the whole internet has followed along — a Waffle House at one in the morning, a Buc-ee’s that left him just standing in the parking lot staring.

• A woman from Sweden tried ranch dressing and basically declared a national emergency back home: “Europe, we need ranch — immediately.”

• A group from Japan came to Texas, discovered barbecue, and were beside themselves.

• Down in Houston, thousands of Dutch fans dressed head to toe in orange paraded two and a half miles through the streets to the stadium, turning the whole city into a sea of orange.

• And up in Boston, the Scots brought a tradition of their own — they’ve been putting traffic cones on top of the statues. George Washington, Paul Revere, all of them, crowned with an orange cone. And here’s the thing: instead of being offended, Boston loved it. One local wrote, “My state won the lottery with Scotland. We don’t want them to leave.”

That’s what got me. Underneath the ranch dressing and the traffic cones, what these visitors kept talking about was the people. A group of fans got off their bus and found total strangers grilling food and just handing it to them, welcoming them in

Somebody put it perfectly this week: “If you want to hate America, watch the news. If you want to love it, go to a Waffle House at one in the morning.”

The World Cup has done in two weeks what politics / news / celebrities can’t seem to manage… to bring people together to celebrate good things and enjoy offering one another hospitality. No doubt, there are still problems in this world, but I hope when you watch these videos you realize how blessed we are… and in our blessing it is a joy to bless others.

So before we open God’s Word this morning, let’s bring all of it — the joy, the laughter, the longing for a world a little more at peace — to the One who made every nation under heaven.

The Question We’re Afraid to Ask Out Loud

Most of us have asked this question at one time or another — we’ve just been a little afraid to admit it:

Why do the people who cut corners seem to come out ahead?

You know the situation. You’ve watched somebody bend the rules, step on people, ignore everything you were taught about honesty and decency — and they end up with the promotion, the bigger house, the easier life. Meanwhile you’ve been trying to do the right thing, trying to live with integrity, trying to follow Jesus — and it feels like you’re the one getting left behind.

If you’ve ever felt that, you are in very good company. Because three thousand years ago, somebody sat down and wrote Psalm 37, about that exact feeling. It also belongs to a group of Psalms that I want to introduce you to this morning — the Wisdom Psalms.

A Different Kind of Psalm

Now, when most of us think about the Psalms, we think about prayer or about praise. “The Lord is my shepherd.” We think about pouring out our hearts to God.

But there’s a group of psalms scattered through the book — Psalm 1, Psalm 34, Psalm 37, Psalm 49, Psalm 73, Psalm 112, the great big Psalm 119, and 127 and 128 — that don’t quite work the same way. These are the Wisdom Psalms, and they read less like a prayer addressed to God and more like an older, wiser believer sitting down next to you and saying, “Let me tell you what I’ve learned about life.”

They use the tools of the wise:

• Proverbs. “Better than” sayings — better a little with the Lord than great wealth without Him. Questions that stop you in your tracks.

• Beatitudes — “Blessed is the one who…”

• Pictures from nature — trees and grass and chaff in the wind. They’re teaching you something.

The Wisdom Psalms wrestle with one big, stubborn tension — the very one I started with this morning:

Why do the wicked prosper while the faithful suffer?

They don’t pretend the problem isn’t real. Instead, they say: hold on. Lift your eyes. God will, in the end, vindicate the righteous and judge the wicked — and when that day comes, it will be clear that the way of wisdom, the way of covenant faithfulness to God, was the right road all along.

In other words, wisdom in the Bible isn’t mostly about being clever. It’s about learning to live in step with God’s ways — trusting that His law, His character, His timeline can be trusted even when the scoreboard of this present moment seems to say otherwise.

Here are a few steps Psalm 37 gives us to navigate these situations.

First, Name the Struggle (vv. 1–2)

Listen to how it opens:

“Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.” (Psalm 37:1–2, NIV)

“Do not fret.” And if you read on through these opening verses, the psalmist says it again. And then again. Three times in nine verses: do not fret, do not fret, do not fret.

Now, you don’t keep telling somebody to calm down unless they’re worked up. The repetition is a window into the heart of the people this was written for.

• They were anxious.

• They were stewing.

• They were lying awake at night chewing on the unfairness of it all.

• The psalmist knows his audience — and his audience is us.

And notice what he does first. He doesn’t scold them for feeling it. He names it. He says the quiet part out loud: yes, you are tempted to fret over evildoers. Yes, you are tempted to envy the people doing wrong. That word “envy” stings a little, doesn’t it? Because if we’re honest, sometimes it’s not just that injustice bothers us — it’s that part of us wishes we had what the evil or unrighteous ones around us have.

This is watching injustice flourish in real time and feeling it gnaw at you. And the Bible doesn’t flinch from it. So, step one in the way of wisdom is simply this: tell the truth about where you are. You can’t trust your way out of a struggle you won’t even admit you’re in.

Second, Take the Antidote (vv. 3–6)

But the psalmist doesn’t leave us there in the stewing. He hands us an antidote. And it’s not a feeling — it’s a set of actions. Listen:

“Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this.” (Psalm 37:3–5, NIV)

The Antidote Is a Progression:

Trust. Delight. Commit. Let’s watch how that moves. It’s a progression, and each step takes you deeper.

Trust. It starts with trust — this is not the passive, sigh-and-give-up kind of trust. This isn’t “Well, nothing I can do, guess I’ll just let it go.” No. “Trust in the Lord AND do good” — the two go together. It’s an active leaning on the living God while you keep your hands busy doing what’s right. You don’t stop living well just because somebody else is getting away with living badly.

Delight. Then it moves to delight. “Take delight in the Lord.” Now we’ve gone from a decision to a relationship. From trusting God’s hand to enjoying God’s face. And there’s a promise tucked in there: “he will give you the desires of your heart.” People love to quote that part. But notice where it sits — it comes after you delight in the Lord. Because when you truly delight in God, He begins to reshape your heart to align with what God desires. The envy starts to lose its grip. You stop wanting what the wrongdoer has, because you’ve found something better.

Commit. And then it lands on commit. “Commit your way to the Lord.” Roll it onto Him. Hand Him the whole road, the whole journey, the whole outcome you can’t control. Trust … to delight … to commitment — each step pulls you in closer to God and a little further from the anxiety.

Supporting Scriptures:

This is exactly what Proverbs tells us too:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5–6)

And it’s what Peter means when he says,

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7)

The fretting heart and the trusting heart are reaching for the same throne — one is clutching its worry, the other is handing it over.

Third, Get the Long View (vv. 7–9)

And then comes the part that I think is hardest for us. Verses 7 through 9:

“Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret — it leads only to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.” (Psalm 37:7–9, NIV)

“Be still.” “Wait patiently.” And there it is one more time: do not fret. The psalmist circles back to where he started, but now we understand why he can say it. Waiting isn’t doing nothing. Waiting on the Lord is one of the bravest, most active things a believer can do, because it means you’ve handed the timeline over to God.

When we envy the prosperity of the wicked, we’re judging the whole story by one chapter. We are looking at the scoreboard at halftime and assuming the game is over. And the psalmist says: it isn’t. “Those who are evil will be cut off.” What looks permanent is actually passing — like grass, like green plants that wither. The view changes depending on where you’re standing in time.

That phrase — “those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land” — should sound familiar. Because a thousand years later, a young rabbi sat down on a hillside in Galilee and said,

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5)

Jesus was quoting Psalm 37. He picked up this very promise and put His name behind it. The meek — the ones who trusted and waited and didn’t grab — they’re the ones who win in the end. Jesus staked His own teaching on the wisdom of this psalm.

So, waiting becomes an act of faith, not a sign of defeat. When you wait on God, you’re not losing. You are declaring that you believe His timeline is bigger and better and longer than yours.

So How Do We Use These Psalms in our journey of faith?

1: Name your struggle.

When the unfairness of life has you worked up, don’t bury it and don’t pretend a good Christian never feels it. Open Psalm 37, or 73, or 49, (see handout) and let the psalmist say the quiet part out loud for you. These psalms give you permission to be honest with God about the things that gnaw at you.

2: Retrain your reflexes.

Trust, delight, commit. That’s not just poetry — that’s a discipline. When the envy rises… choose the next faithful action ANYWAY. You keep doing good. You keep delighting in the Lord until your wants start to change. The Wisdom Psalms are meant to be lived in, returned to, until their grooves become your instincts. As a mentor told me years ago…

3: Lengthen your view.

When all you can see is the present moment and it looks unjust, these psalms lift your chin and point you down the road — to a God who sees, who judges rightly, and who keeps His promises in the fullness of time. They teach you to be still and wait, not because you’re weak, but because you trust the One holding the whole story.

The way of the world says: grab what you can, fret about the rest, and trust no one.

The way of wisdom — the way these psalms teach, the way Jesus Himself walked — says something different: Trust the Lord. Take delight. Commit your way. Be still. And wait.

The grass withers. The unfaithful’s advantage is shorter than it looks. BUT those who hope in the Lord will inherit the earth. So do not fret. Lift your eyes. Your Father is not finished, and neither is your story.

pastorheather.com

A Masterpiece - Saturated in Holiness

When we step into this work or making disciples and reaching out to the world, we are participating in God’s great restoration. We hear this profound desire captured beautifully in Charles Wesley’s timeless hymn, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling. In the opening lines of that great hymn, Wesley gives us a prayer that serves as the heartbeat of this entire movement:

“Fix in us thy humble dwelling.”

When God fixes His humble dwelling inside of us, He transforms our broken hearts. And that transformation anticipates a new creation, where every valley is raised up and every wrong is made right.

This leads to a breathtaking masterpiece. Revelation 7:9 gives us a vision of the end:

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”

This is the ultimate result of the mandate given in Genesis. When we multiply, we are actively populating that great, heavenly multitude.

In a very real way, this is a picture of the Christian life. We, who are created in His image, are invited not just to sit back and watch God’s power at work in the world. We are invited to jump in, to get our hands messy, and to be a part of the holy work.

Back to Fingerpainting

When I found the boys naked and covered from head to toe in cobalt blue, I tried to wash them off with the water hose. That didn’t work. It got the chunks off, but they were still blue. Then I carried them to the bath, where we tried soap, vinegar, baking soda. Nothing worked.

They were still blue.

Did I tell you that this was a Saturday? At the time Jon served as the pastor of a big, fancy, downtown church. And that next morning on Sunday, we went to church with BLUE children.

Saturated in Holiness

When we participate with God, we become saturated by His holy love… The evidence of His grace gets all over us, and no matter how much the world tries to ignore it or scrub it off, it makes us stand out.

Here is my prayer for all of us…

• May our lives be so “saturated” with God’s holiness that we cannot hide it.

• May we stand out because of the joy and transformation within us.

• May our hearts burn within us for a world that needs to know Him.

• May we spend the rest of our days joining the multiplying work of God

• And may we joyfully look to the day when we finally stand before the throne, united with that multitude in unending praise.

Invitation & Prayer

Faith: If you have experienced faith for the first time tonight. Or you have the faith of a servant and long to have the faith of a son/daughter…

Hope: If you long for assurance of your salvation, for God’s spirit to commune with your spirit that Jesus didn’t just die for the world — he died also for you…

Love: If you long for His Holy Love to become contagious through you. If you long for God to give you a heart for the lost…

…I want to invite you to take a measurable first step in that direction today. Talk with your pastor, a trusted mentor or friend. And pray for God to guide your next steps… He goes before you!

To watch the entire message:

pastorheather.com

Painting Others - Multiplying Grace

God is inherently a God of multiplication. He doesn’t keep His goodness to Himself. He desires to share it abundantly. You can see this thread woven throughout scripture…

• In Creation, He spoke forth a universe of unimaginable complexity, creating us in His image and saying in Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful and multiply...”

• In the Call of Abraham to make a great nation.

• In the Incarnation, He left heaven to walk among us, multiplying His presence by offering us God in flesh.

• In Jesus’ mandate to us in the Great Commission, Matthew 28:19-20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations...”

• And In the Spirit, He poured out His power on all who believe, multiplying His presence all over the world (in us).

This intentional, messy, beautiful work of multiplication is what God has been doing since creation. God doesn’t need us to bring about His purposes, but we are so blessed because He has chosen to do this life transforming work through us!

It’s a lot like a parent inviting a child to help out with chores or a project. It may not be the most efficient or effective in getting the job done, but the experiences together… that’s where relationships are born and transformation happens. God loves to be with us and gives us the pleasure of being on the front lines of His kingdom work… and what a joy it is for us!

Multiplication in Real Life: Michael’s Story

A few years ago, my youngest son Michael (pictured far right above) was a junior in high school, and he was lamenting to Jon and me that our family was “weird.” None of his friends were believers. He felt isolated. He knew he needed Christian community, but he struggled to connect with the people at our church.

We prayed hard. We asked God to intervene, and God looked with favor on Michael.

Over the next year and a half, things began to change drastically! Michael began sharing his faith, and his friends were so open to the gospel. Knowing they needed a discipleship group, I went out on a limb and asked a believing neighbor if he would be willing to disciple this rag-tag group of young men. He jumped at the opportunity, and they began meeting every week in his garage.

Before long my tattoo-artist son and his group of tatted, pierced, dreadlocked friends were traipsing into church late (lol) every Sunday, looking for rest for their anxious and weary souls. Our church embraced them. Within a year and a half, almost all of his friends became believers, and I had the profound privilege of baptizing most of them.

I stand amazed at how God heard that pain — Michael’s pain, but also Momma’s pain. God provided a mentor. God was present, working through Michael as he shared his faith.

Multiplying through the Church

This is what Acts 2:42-47 looks like in the 21st century. The early church multiplied exponentially because they devoted themselves to teaching, fellowship, and prayer. They lived with such joy and generosity that it attracted others to their community.

While holy love is the fuel, John Wesley knew that multiplication required a structure. He didn’t just preach; he organized. The Wesleyan revival grew because of a commitment to “social holiness”—a communal pursuit of Christlikeness (society mtgs, class meetings, and bands) (not to be confused with ‘social justice’).

We are called to do the same. If we are going to multiply, we must embrace the mandate of Ephesians 4:11-12:

“To equip the saints for the work of ministry...”

Although most of us here are not vocational church planters, every one of us is called to multiply. This means…

• Taking seriously our own transformation.

• Preaching faith until you have it.

• Praying for assurance (inward spirit and outward fruits).

• Looking around at what God is doing and joining Him in those places.

• Looking for ways to disciple others and unleash others to be disciple-makers.

• Calling out the gifts in others and entrusting leadership to them.

Whatever your role at church or in the community… multiply yourself! If you train up others to do everything you are doing, I promise you will be blessed.

Friends, Disciples are called to make Disciples. Churches are called to send disciples, leaders, church planters, missionaries, and ministry partners into the harvest.

Don’t know where to start? Begin with prayer. Reach out to your conference office.

But, do me a favor…. REFUSE to do NOTHING.

A Life Marked by Grace

When we are so overwhelmed by the infectious goodness of God’s love, we can’t help but share it. We start to invite others into it. We start to paint those around us. Friends, family, strangers. It doesn’t matter! You come close enough, you’re going to get painted! Because the one true and living God has changed me forever, and I can’t help it!

Reflection Question

Have you started painting others yet? What is keeping you from sharing this abounding, holy Love with others?

To watch the entire message:

pastorheather.com

Painting Yourself - Holy Love

Love is the telos—the end goal of the Christian life. Scripture tells us that one day when we are forever with God, faith and hope will pass away, but love will remain. This is why Love is the greatest of the three.

However, we must not be naive. When we use the word “love” in a 21st-century context, people fill it with an American cultural definition along these lines:

A deeply personal, emotion-driven bond rooted in individualism, mutual fulfillment, and personal choice.

But Wesley was careful to clarify a dozen times over: we are talking about Holy Love.

Holy love is the perfect conjunction of God’s holiness and His boundless grace. Where is the best expression of this holy love? It is at Calvary. It is the humble, sacrificial surrender of Jesus Christ offering Himself for us.

In us, it is a love rooted in transformation, where we willingly and joyfully embrace the ways of Jesus.

This holy love operates through a specific rhythm of grace. We are saved by free grace—the grace that justifies us and breaks the power of sin. But sanctifying grace—the grace that pushes us out into the world—is ‘co-operant’. It requires our active participation.

As we see in Ephesians 2:8-10:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith... For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”

This means our faith is not static… it isn’t a noun, but a verb. We are called to live actively, shaping every action around a worldview rooted in Christ’s transforming love.

That Holy Love is like the paint that begins to spread.... once we have experienced the marks of faith and hope, we realize... “oh, I like this! I really like this!” And we start to bathe ourselves in it. We want that Holy Love all over us! It gets messy! But we don’t mind. Put it all over me!! I’ll take more!

A Life Marked by Grace

Faith and hope are the first strokes of God’s paintbrush on the soul. Love is what we long to immerse ourselves in. And soon it becomes more than just paint on the surface. It becomes a driving force within us, full of abundance and joy, that only finds a semblance of fulfillment when we share it with others.

Reflection Question

Where do you see the marks of love adding more to your life?

To watch the entire message:

pastorheather.com

The most desperate prayers I’ve ever prayed weren’t for myself. They were for my children.

Some of you know exactly what I mean. You’ve watched someone you’d give your life for make the choice you begged them not to make, walk the road you prayed they’d never walk. And you can’t stop it. So you do the only thing left. You get on your knees in the dark and cry out: God, get ahold of their heart. How long, Lord? How long?

I’ve prayed that prayer with tears I didn’t know I had, when I had no words left, just that ache. Some of those prayers God has answered. Some I’m still praying. This Psalm 13 is for both.

If you’ve ever loved someone enough to lie awake over them, you already know the language we’re studying this morning. You may not have known it had a name—or that it was welcome in the house of God. But it is. It’s called lament.

How Long, O Lord?

One of the great treasures of our heritage is this conviction: that salvation isn’t just a transaction. It’s a relationship. We know the altar of first faith. We know the initial crisis moment, the dramatic conversion. And thank God for those.

But here’s my question this morning: what happens when you get up from the altar? How does God move us from a simple belief in Jesus to a faith solid enough to make it through the storms of life?

In my own walk with the Lord… I suffered spiritually far more as a young believer than I do now. Because when you first start surrendering your life to God, you begin to see what a mess you really are. But after years of surrendering, I’ve had a lot of practice trusting Him. I still fail—but even in my failure, I run to Him faster now, and trust His mercy more than I ever did. Most of my real growth hasn’t happened on the mountaintop. It’s happened in the valley. And I’ve found no better companion for the valley than the Psalms.

There’s a prayer in the Psalms many of us have prayed, but few of us were ever taught to pray. It doesn’t begin with “thank you.” It begins with a question that sounds almost like an accusation: “How long, Lord?”

• If you’ve ever stared at a hospital ceiling at two in the morning...

• If you’ve ever lain awake waiting to hear a wayward son or daughter come through that door...

• If you’ve ever sat across from an empty chair and wondered where God had gone...

...then you already know the language of lament. You just may not have known it was welcome in prayer.

But here’s the good news, church: God doesn’t just permit this prayer. He inspired it. Nearly a third of the Psalms are songs of lament. A third! These are not failures of faith. They are expressions of it.

Psalm13

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes ... But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.

Six verses. That’s all. And a whole journey of the soul.

Charles Spurgeon said that whenever you look into David’s psalms, somewhere in there you see yourself: “You never get into a corner but you find David in that corner.” Meaning, you never get into a predicament (‘corner’) that David hasn’t already been in. So, let’s follow David into his corner. And don’t be surprised if we find ourselves there too.

The Shape of Lament

Lament happens in four movements: the cry → the complaint → the request → the turn. Let’s watch them unfold.

1. The Cry: Bring Yourself As You Are

Look at how this psalm begins. Not with composure. Four times—four times in just two verses—David cries out: “How long? How long? How long? How long?” That fourfold repetition reveals a heart in deep anguish. And right there is our first lesson:

We edit our prayers, don’t we? We take our pain and translate it into acceptable church language before we dare bring it to God. David doesn’t. He addresses God directly—and then he accuses Him. Of forgetting. Of hiding His face.

Now hear me: had God forgotten David? No. God says through Isaiah, “Can a woman forget her nursing child? ... Surely they may forget—yet I will not forget you.” David only felt forgotten. But here’s the holy thing: when God seems to hide His face—tell Him so. Because do you see what David’s complaint really is? It’s a confession. He’s saying: I still believe You’re there, and I believe You should care. The atheist has no one to shout at! So David turns toward God, not away.

So, When the pain comes, don’t wait until you feel “spiritual enough” to pray. Turn toward God in the rawness. The polished prayer can wait. The honest one can’t.

2. The Complaint: Three Wounds

After the cry comes the complaint. And David names three wounds.

• Trouble with God—who seems to be hiding His face.

• Trouble within himself—he must “wrestle with my thoughts,” carrying sorrow day after day.

• And trouble with his enemies—who keep triumphing over him.

Don’t rush past that middle one. David was turning his problems over and over inside his own mind instead of looking up. And the more we chew on our troubles, the more bitter they become. The answer to discouragement is not found by digging deeper inside ourselves. It’s found by looking up—to the Lord.

When when we find ourselves in similar situations, tell God exactly what’s wrong. All of it. Don’t edit the pain into something tidier than it is. Naming it before Him—that itself is an act of trust.

3. The Request: Give Light to My Eyes

Now watch this. David doesn’t just vent. He turns his complaint into a request: “Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes.”

He knew his feelings—powerful as they were—weren’t showing him reality. So he asks for light. And right there is the difference between holy lament and plain despair: despair talks about God; lament talks to God—and waits for Him.

After you’ve named the pain, dare to ask. Pray it just like this: “Lord, give light to my eyes.” Because the problem is often not just your circumstances. It’s the way your pain has distorted your sight.

4. The Turn: Lament, Not Despair

Now we come to the hinge of the whole psalm. Verse 5: “But I trust in your unfailing love.”

That little word—but. Three letters. One of the most important words in all of Scripture. And notice: what changed in David’s circumstances between verse 4 and verse 5? Nothing. The enemy is still there. The sorrow has not lifted. And yet—David turns.

Here’s the difference I want you to carry home. Lament and despair can sound identical—same tears, same hard questions. But they have different destinations. Despair ends in hopelessness and cynicism. But lament rises—into deeper trust. For the Christian, lament is never holy whining; it is, at the end of the day, a song of hope.

So how does David turn? He remembers. “Your unfailing love”—God’s covenant mercy. At his lowest, David couldn’t lean on God’s justice; that might have condemned him. But he could always lean on God’s mercy. And so can you. When you can’t trust anything else, trust the unfailing love of God.

An illustration from my own life

Let me tell you about a valley of my own.

Jon and I have been married thirty-one years now. But I have to be honest about how it started. Those early years were hard. And bless Jon’s heart—what that man went through being married to me in the beginning! He had to go through the hard part to get to the good part.

I say it with a smile, but it’s the truth. That season I felt like my own “how long, Lord?”—where the easy thing would have been to give up. But we didn’t. We stayed. We let God do the slow, day-after-day work of knitting us together. And now—fast forward all these years—do you see what a fine wife he has now! Lol. Look what he would have missed if he had given up. Look what I would have missed.

Here’s why I tell you that. The turn from lament to trust is not always a feeling that shows up by Tuesday afternoon. Sometimes it’s a decision—a decision you make in the dark and live out for years before you ever see the harvest. David writes “but I trust” in one verse, and we read it in less than a second. But living it can be the work of a lifetime. You have to go through the hard part to get to the good part. Life is not always fair—but God is good.

And there’s a prayer I’ve learned to pray in those in-between seasons, when the problem is still unsolved:

“Lord, I can’t wait to see how You work this out.”

Do you hear the trust in that? It hands the outcome to God before the outcome arrives. It says: I don’t know how this ends—but I know who holds it. That’s the turn—spoken out loud, right in the middle of the waiting.

And here’s the secret of lament: memory is an anchor.  An anchor doesn’t calm the sea—it doesn’t move the ship or quiet the water. It holds you steady while the storm rages. And that’s exactly what remembering God’s faithfulness does. David’s circumstances haven’t changed; the waves are still crashing. But he reaches back and takes hold of something fixed—”your unfailing love”—and it holds him steady right there in the storm. Feelings like the waves;  rise and fall, and you can’t trust them to hold anything. But what God has already done? That’s fixed, and that’ll hold.

So watch what David does next—”my heart rejoices ... I will sing the Lord’s praise.” He doesn’t wait until he feels like rejoicing. He commands his heart: heart, get busy rejoicing!

Now a pastoral word. Not every lament resolves quickly. Psalm 88 ends in the dark—no sunrise in sight—and God put that one in the Bible too. So if you can’t yet say “but I trust”... if you’re still stuck in the “how long”... the staying is allowed. The “yet” of faith is sometimes the work of years, not minutes. And God is patient enough to sit with you in the long night.

“But I trust in your unfailing love…” (Psalm 13:5)

When you can’t feel your way to hope, remember your way there. Rehearse God’s unfailing love. Keep a record of His faithfulness. Tell your own heart to sing. And if the turn won’t come today? Keep showing up to the God who waits with you.

What Next?

So what has Psalm 13 given us? A path through suffering—neither fake cheerfulness nor hopeless despair. David cries out honestly. He names his pain. He asks boldly—”give light to my eyes.” And finally he turns, anchoring himself in the unfailing love of God.

And here’s why it matters: if we treat the church as a place only for celebration, we rob our people of the necessity of lament. But for the Christian, lament is never the end of the story—because all of life is finally framed with hope. Our deepest lament and God’s greatest victory meet at one place—the cross of Jesus Christ. There, once and for all, God proved that He does not hide His face from His children.

So this week, when the “how long” rises up in your throat—don’t swallow it. Pray it. Name your pain. Ask for light. And then, when you’re able—even if your voice shakes—reach back, remember His unfailing love, and say it with David:

“But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.”

Let’s pray.

pastorheather.com

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Opening Story

Years ago, when my boys were little, I made the mistake every parent eventually makes: I bought finger paint. One Saturday, while Jon was doing a funeral and baby Michael was asleep, I set the older two up outside with cobalt‑blue paint and big sheets of paper. I checked on them every few minutes while I went about my house cleaning… until I walked out and found them completely naked and absolutely covered—head to toe—in bright, electric, cobalt blue!

Hold that image for a moment: drenched, saturated, unavoidably marked.

Because this is what grace does.

Opening the Paint - Faith & Hope

Faith

It all begins with Faith.

John Wesley made it abundantly clear: saving faith is not just a mental assent. It is not just nodding your head at historical facts about Jesus. True faith is a sure trust and confidence in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

And what is the fruit—the immediate consequence—of that kind of faith? It is power over sin. Wesley defined sin in this context specifically as a “willful violation of a known law of God.” The Apostle John writes in his first epistle that this is precisely how the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: those born of God are marked by not committing sin.

This is the glorious liberty of the gospel that Paul writes about in Romans 6 & 8. The good news is that we have freedom not only from the guilt of sin, but we are also freed from its power. What we absolutely could not do by ourselves in our own strength, we receive entirely by the grace of God.

Does this mean we will never make a mistake? No. For John Wesley mistakes and willful sin are completely different. But as theologian Dr. Kenneth Collins puts it:

“Willful sin should be the grave exception in the Christian life, and not the rule.”

Hope

When our faith frees us from the power of sin, God does not leave us guessing about our standing with Him. He grants us the second mark of the new birth: Hope.

In the Wesleyan tradition, hope is not just crossing your fingers and wishing for the best. Hope is absolute, joyous assurance. It is the testimony of the Holy Spirit echoing in your soul, confirming in you that you ARE a beloved child of God.

John Wesley understood this hope as a delicate balance of two witnesses. First, there is the direct witness—that internal, unmistakable whisper of the Holy Spirit speaking to your spirit, saying, “You are mine. You are forgiven.”

But Wesley knew that human memory and emotions are weak and fickle. We can easily forget, and the enemy can convince ourselves of things that aren’t true. So, God gives us a second confirmation: the indirect witness. This is the visible fruit of the Spirit in our lives. It is the undeniable evidence of our ongoing transformation.

Wesley warned that we desperately need both.

• If we rely only on an internal feeling, we risk spiraling into delusion or fanaticism.

• But if we rely only on checking off outward boxes, our faith becomes a cold, dead formalism.

True, Living Hope is found where those two witnesses collide—where the Spirit’s internal voice is validated by the visible transformation of our lives. And it is from this grounded, secure place of Hope that our hearts are finally ready for the ultimate mark of the new birth.

A Life Marked by Grace

Faith and hope are the first strokes of God’s paintbrush on the soul. We open the paint and God marks us, shapes us, and prepares us for the greatest mark of all: holy love.

Reflection Question

Where do you see the marks of faith and hope beginning to color your life?

To watch the entire message:

pastorheather.com

Royal Psalms?

We are in our 3^rd Sunday of the message series called “Usable Psalms: Practical ways the Psalms shape our lives.”

The Psalms are meant to be stepped into, not just learned. We place ourselves within them, and as their words fall upon us, they resonate in the deepness of our souls. The Psalms are a heart project not a head project. We are not meant to pull out a Psalm and apply it to our lives. We are meant to apply our lives to the Psalms.

One of the early church fathers, St. Athanasius (Letter to Marcellinus) explained that the Psalms are mirrors of our souls. As we sing and recite the words, God does something different in us…

• Whereas Peter tells us to repent, the Psalms show us how.

• Whereas the NT tells us to praise God, the Psalms show us how.

• Whereas Paul tells us to confess our sins, the Psalms show us how.

• We can learn to trust and have faith in God through the Psalms.

• We can find words to express our frustrations, grief, anger to God through the Psalms.

• The Movements of our own souls are reflected in these.

If you want your prayer life to take off… learn to pray through the Psalms. You will be blessed!

Royal Psalms are those that deal with kingly things, either God as King, or his anointed one on the throne of Israel, or looking forward to the eternal reign of a King from David’s line. Let’s take a look at each of these.

God as King

Royal psalms that focus on God as King—often called the “YHWH‑kingship psalms”—celebrate God’s sovereign rule over all creation, all nations, and all history. They proclaim that the Lord alone reigns, judges with righteousness, and brings order, justice, and joy to the world.

Examples include: 47, 92, 97, 99.

Hear these words about God as King from Psalm 47…

5 God has ascended amid shouts of joy,

the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets.

6 Sing praises to God, sing praises;

sing praises to our King, sing praises.

7 For God is the King of all the earth;

sing to him a psalm of praise.

8 God reigns over the nations;

God is seated on his holy throne.

9 The nobles of the nations assemble

as the people of the God of Abraham,

for the kings of the earth belong to God;

he is greatly exalted.

God’s Anointed King - Human on the Throne

A number of Psalms are concerned with the king of Israel—his role, calling, responsibilities, and relationship to God. These psalms were used in Israel’s worship life to pray for the king, celebrate his reign, or affirm God’s promises to the Davidic dynasty. They center on the divine calling of Israel’s king to be faithful to God and carry out his purposes over Israel but also within the world.

Examples include: 2, 18, 45, 72.

Here are some verses from Psalm 72 where the psalmist is asking God to bless the king on the throne…

1 Endow the king with your justice, O God,

the royal son with your righteousness.

2 May he judge your people in righteousness,

your afflicted ones with justice.

3 May the mountains bring prosperity to the people,

the hills the fruit of righteousness.

4 May he defend the afflicted among the people

and save the children of the needy;

may he crush the oppressor.

5 May he endure as long as the sun,

as long as the moon, through all generations.

6 May he be like rain falling on a mown field,

like showers watering the earth.

7 In his days may the righteous flourish

and prosperity abound till the moon is no more.

8 May he rule from sea to sea

and from the River to the ends of the earth.

God’s Anointed King - Eternal Reign

Still more Psalms focus on the eternal reign of God’s anointed or “Son”, highlighting God’s promise to establish a forever‑king from David’s line—one whose rule is marked by justice, righteousness, and divine authority (just like God). These psalms look beyond any earthly king and point toward a future, ideal ruler whose kingdom will never end.

Examples include: 2, 45, 89, 110.

Let’s take a look at Psalm 89…

3 You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one,

I have sworn to David my servant,

4 ‘I will establish your line forever

and make your throne firm through all generations.’

27 And I will appoint him to be my firstborn,

the most exalted of the kings of the earth.

28 I will maintain my love to him forever,

and my covenant with him will never fail.

29 I will establish his line forever,

his throne as long as the heavens endure.

35 Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness—

and I will not lie to David—

36 that his line will continue forever

and his throne endure before me like the sun;

37 it will be established forever like the moon,

the faithful witness in the sky.”

Notice the royal themes converging… Covenant with David; David’s descendants as kings forever; firstborn or begotten son; eternal covenant; eternal dynasty.

In a number of places the role of the king is also described with these roles…

• Mediator between God and his people = Priest.

• One who speaks truth into the world on behalf of God = Prophet.

So, these Psalms take a promise made to David and the People of God that his reign would last forever… God’s reign through a special anointed one who would uniquely act as prophet, priest, and king. Justice will finally come. Everything will be made right through the reign of this Messianic figure. Many of these became known as Messianic Psalms (many going beyond the Royal ones)! Psalms that foretell of the this unique King.

And as Christians we believe these were ultimately fulfilled in the person of Jesus. Not only do we see the Psalms pointing forward to this Messianic figure, but we also see the NT writers explain and attribute actions and words of Christ to these Psalms. They understood Jesus life and ministry in terms of the fulfillment of these Psalms.

Here are a few psalms that find their fulfillment in Christ:

How All This Matters

And this brings us to the question… What are the practical implications of these Royal Psalms? What do they mean for us today?

We don’t really have kings today. At least I am not a king; nor is my family royalty. I suspect the same could be said of you and yours.

So it might be a stretch for many of us to see how these Royal Psalms can be practicable, or ‘usable’?

There are in my mind three things these Psalms teach us for our everyday faith…

1. Unshakable Security in a Chaotic World

The first practical implication is absolute structural stability for our life. Earthly leaders, political systems, and personal circumstances constantly change and fail. Because Jesus is the eternal King who cannot be dethroned, our ultimate security does not depend on worldly stability.

What does a chaotic world bring to us…

Loss of control. When circumstances suddenly shift (job change, project uncertainty, system failures, personal life changes) we start to feel a loss of control over the situations in our lives. And this refrain is often expressed with fear, “I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

Our Unshakable Security = our foundation isn’t tied to outcomes we manage, but to a fixed, unchangeable reality of God’s goodness and mercy.

Anxiety about the future. A chaotic world brings worry about economic conditions, leadership decisions, long-term life direction. This over time produces a low-grade stress in our lives that bubbles just beneath the surface. Other may not see it, but we know it’s there, and it weigh us down.

Our Unshakable Security = our need for predictability is replaced with permanence. God’s authority is set because Jesus is on the throne.

Identity pressure. When our identity is tied to performance, success, or roles (job, parent, friend), we feel the pressure to maintain or prove our worth.

Our Unshakable Security = when we allow the reality of God’s Kingship to transform our lives, it stabilizes our need to prove ourselves. Fluctuating performance conditions no longer influence who we are. We can be confident in who we are, because we are children of God.

So, really, this is the gist of it… When we come to the Lord through the Psalms, we can stop living in anxiety about the future. When global or personal crises hit, these Royal Psalms remind us that the cosmic throne is already permanently occupied.

2. Bold Access to God in Prayer

The second practical implication of the Royal Psalms for our faithful living is a bold access to God in Prayer.

In the Old Testament Royal Psalms, the Davidic king (along with the priesthood) is portrayed as the mediator between God and the people. But normal people could not enter the Holy of Holies, the very presence of God. Only one person could enter there and only one time per year. The deep presence of God was protected and limited.

However, because Jesus is the perfect Davidic King who is also our High Priest, and he was the perfect Sacrifice, the barrier between us and God is permanently destroyed — the curtain was torn in two.

A new way of Praying. So, we can pray with relentless confidence. We don’t have to outsource our prayer life. We don’t have to get cleaned up before approaching God. We don’t have to have it all together. Because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we can walk directly into the heavenly throne room with our hurts, doubts, and confessions because our King invites us in.

3. Active Participation in Justice and Mercy

Psalm 72 outlines parts of the job description of the Davidic King: defending the afflicted, saving the children of the needy, and crushing the oppressor. In doing this they are reflecting the very heart of God. As followers of Jesus, we are called to embody the culture of His kingdom here on earth. As we say in the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday, “Your Kingdom come; your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”

Living Justice & Mercy. When we allow the Psalms to wash over us in prayerful transformation, the outside world is seen with eyes of compassion. We begin to look for the vulnerable in our community—the lonely, the poor, the immigrant, or the broken. Serving them is not optional; it is the direct expression of living under Jesus’s righteous rule.

Where are you today?

So, the question these Royal Psalms bring to us… where are you today?

Are you…

• Living in chaos and need some internal unshakeable stability?

• Struggling in prayer and longing for a deeper connection to God?

• Wondering how your life is making a difference?

Maybe it’s time to pray the Psalms.

pastorheather.com

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How a new pastor engages a team can significantly shape both the effectiveness of the ministry and its broader Kingdom impact. One helpful framework is the Situational Leadership Model from Ken Blanchard’s Leading at a Higher Level. This model enables leaders to assess a team’s developmental level and adapt their leadership approach accordingly.

While it is not the only leadership framework available—and has been expanded, adapted, and complemented by other models—it remains one of the clearest and most practical tools for guiding teams and leaders of teams. Other resources, such as Patrick Lencioni’s work on team dynamics (which I love), add valuable insight as well. However, the strength of Situational Leadership lies in its simplicity and versatility. It provides leaders with a straightforward way to evaluate where their team is and determine how best to engage them for growth and effectiveness.

A Personal Note

Looking back, I wish I had developed stronger team leadership skills earlier in my ministry. It would have significantly improved my effectiveness as a pastor. Instead, I encountered several challenges that, in hindsight, were largely due to my lack of a clear framework for engaging teams:

• I sometimes avoided engaging certain teams because I assumed they did not want my involvement.

• I over-functioned within already healthy teams, unintentionally undermining their ownership and momentum.

• At times, I stepped across unspoken boundaries without recognizing it.

• Some teams struggled due to a lack of clear purpose, and I was not equipped to provide the direction they needed.

• Other teams drifted from the church’s vision, and I failed to step in with timely or wise leadership.

As I began to apply the Situational Leadership framework, my experience in ministry changed significantly. Leadership became more engaging and, frankly, more enjoyable. I started approaching teams with a simple but powerful question:

“How can I be the best leader for you?”

This question provided insight into how each team understood itself and clarified how I could best support them. Teams began to grow in meaningful ways—adult discipleship groups engaged in more constructive dialogue, guest ministry leaders took ownership and succeeded in new initiatives, and emerging leaders stepped forward with enthusiasm. Much of this progress stemmed from a more accurate assessment of team development and a more intentional approach to engagement.

Just as importantly, this framework reduced the pressure I felt as a leader. I no longer believed I had to carry everything myself.

Over time, these principles extended beyond the local church. I applied them while serving on the board of a youth organization, where I witnessed significant growth, and they ultimately influenced my transition into a new phase of my career. I continue to rely on these principles (and hone them) in my work today.

My hope is that even a brief introduction to this framework will help you engage your teams more effectively and lead with greater clarity and confidence.

Team Development Levels

We start at the foundation: where the team is, it’s collective maturity as a team. Counterintuitively, these Development Levels go from right to left, ‘Developing’ to ‘Developed’. Quick tip: Red = not great; Green = awesome!

D1 – Low Competence, High Commitment (Enthusiastic Beginners)

• Characteristics: Little to no experience with the task. High enthusiasm, motivation, and optimism.

• Risk: Overconfidence without capability.

• Example: A new group of volunteers eager to serve but lacking experience.

D2 – Some Competence, Low Commitment (Disillusioned Learner)

• Characteristics: Gaining skills but still inconsistent. Confidence and motivation begin to drop.

• Risk: Frustration, discouragement, or self-doubt.

• Example: A team who realizes the work is harder than expected.

D3 – High Competence, Variable Commitment (Capable but Cautious Performer)

• Characteristics: Strong ability and experience. Confidence is inconsistent; may hesitate or need reassurance.

• Risk: Lack of confidence or reluctance to take full ownership.

• Example: The team can execute well but second-guesses decisions, so they deliver sometimes or hesitates to take action on their own.

D4 – High Competence, High Commitment (Self-Reliant Achiever)

• Characteristics: High skill, confidence, and motivation. Able to work independently and take ownership.

• Risk: Minimal; requires autonomy rather than oversight.

• Example: A trusted ministry team who consistently delivers results aligned with the vision.

Leadership Styles

Now we look at the leadership styles that engage best with the various team development levels.

Directive Behavior (= Task Behavior)

Directive Behavior — the horizontal axis — is about telling followers what, where, when, and how to do tasks. It primarily involves one-way communication, structuring, controlling.

• Focus: Task accomplishment, defining roles, setting goals, providing structure.

• Actions: Telling, showing, planning, close supervision, one-way communication.

• Key Idea: “Do this, the way I showed you, by this time”.

Supportive Behavior (= Relationship Behavior)

Supportive Behavior — the vertical axis — involves two-way communication, listening, encouraging, and developing followers’ confidence and commitment. Primary actions may include facilitating, praising, and collaborating.

• Focus: Building confidence, fostering motivation, developing skills, encouraging involvement.

• Actions: Listening, praising, facilitating, encouraging, collaborating, providing emotional support.

• Key Idea: Building trust and mutual respect through two-way communication and involvement.

How They Combine (The Four Styles)

Leaders use a combination of Directive and Supportive behaviors to match the follower’s/team’s development level, moving from high direction/low support for beginners to low direction/high support (or even low on both) for more competent, committed individuals.

• S1: Directing (High Directive/Low Supportive): For new learners needing clear instructions.

• S2: Coaching (High Directive/High Supportive): For learners gaining competence but losing confidence; explains and encourages.

• S3: Supporting (Low Directive/High Supportive): For capable but inconsistent followers; leader facilitates and listens.

• S4: Delegating (Low Directive/Low Supportive): For fully competent and committed individuals; leader empowers and trusts.

How does this look in real life?

New Volunteer in Children’s Ministry. You have a new volunteer who is ready to help out wherever needed. She is a 17 year old high school student, who feels called to help with children on Sunday mornings.

Which quadrant do you think she is in? And what leadership style will you need to employ in order to ensure she has a great ministry experience?

• Not helpful: Say thanks via email. Tell her what time to show up. By the way, “You’re leading the 3 year-olds class.” “You do have your own curriculum, right?” Then you follow up on Monday to see how everything went.

• Good leadership: You call to see what experience she has and what she hopes to do in children’s ministry. You provide specific details of arrival time, duration of work, and appoint a current leader to work with/mentor her. You send her a written set of instructions on using the check-in system (though her contact will walk her through all that too). You give her curriculum links, and let her know she may be assisting for a season before she is teaching.

• Leadership Quadrant: S1: Directing (High Directive/Low Supportive).

Hospitality Team takes on the Coffee Bar. Your Hospitality Team has decided to start a coffee bar during Sunday mornings and apply the proceeds to the Missions team. They are experienced members of the church, and collectively they requested a meeting with you to get your feedback and guidance on the new endeavor.

What development quadrant do you think the team is in? What leadership style will be best suited to interact with them?

• Not helpful: At the meeting with the Hospitality Team, you pull out the folder you had from another church on leading coffee ministries. You convey to the team, this is how they need to do it, step by step. Then you begin asking who will be doing which tasks.

• Good leadership: You realize they have been working together successfully for years, but this might be a new, unknown territory for them. So, in the meeting, instead of going straight to “guidance” and “direction”, you ask them, “How can I help?” or “What do you need from me with this new endeavor?” You listen, affirming them, and ask them questions to help them process decisions, especially when it comes to navigating the permission structures in the church. You encourage them in their purpose and point out how they are living into God’s vision for this church.

• Leadership Quadrant: S3: Supporting (Low Directive/High Supportive).

New Evangelism Team Starts. You have a few people who are excited about starting a new Evangelism Team. After an initial conversation with you, they land on their vision of creating a team that empowers other teams and individuals within the church to reach people outside the church. If someone has a vision, the team will help fund it, come alongside to ensure it gets done, and champion it.

What development quadrant do you think the team is in? What leadership style will be best suited to interact with them?

• Not helpful: You know the team members are very mature spiritually and are really good at the things they choose to take on in the church. Your confidence in them is high, so you tell them to do what they need to do and keep you posted. Then you focus your efforts elsewhere, happy that someone is doing evangelism.

• Good leadership: In your conversation with the Team, you help them think through processes and possible outcomes — e.g. reach 100 new families this year. You leave the decisions of ‘how’ to the team. Then you let them get to work. On Sunday morning a few weeks later, you check up on them to see how their latest efforts are going and if they need anything from you. You encourage them and thank them for doing God’s work.

• Leadership Quadrant: S4: Delegating (Low Directive/Low Supportive).

Discussion

What other real world scenarios can you think of? How did you see the leader/team relationship working in those? Based on the framework above, how will you change your approach to ministry teams in your local context? Add your comments below.

pastorheather.com

Thanksgiving

Today we are continuing our series, The Usable Psalms, looking at how these ancient Hebrew poems are designed to be practical tools—daily prayers that shape our actual, everyday lives.

And today, we’re talking about Thanksgiving.

Now, if you’re like me, when you hear the word “thanksgiving,” your brain instantly defaults to a holiday in November where turkey and ‘fixins’, football, and everyone naming one thing they’re grateful for are part of the tradition.

But the Bible talks about thanksgiving completely differently. In the ancient scriptures, a Psalm of Thanksgiving wasn’t just a polite “thank you” note to God or one day of celebration. It was an intentional resistance against forgetfulness. It was a testimony of rescue.

Left to ourselves, our hearts naturally drift. We have a spiritual “default settings” issue. If we aren’t intentional, our attention drifts toward two major heart-killers: fear and envy.

• We look at the future through the lens of fear—worrying if we will have enough.

• We look at our neighbors through the lens of envy—wishing we had what they have.

Fear and envy shrink our world. They make us hyper-focused on what is missing. But the Psalms of Thanksgiving do something radical: they reshape the heart by pulling our eyes away from what we don’t have, and directing our attention toward the goodness of who God is. They train us to remember God’s faithfulness and resist our natural spiritual amnesia.

And today we look at Psalm 100 as a window into all the Psalms of thanksgiving.

The Shape of the Psalms

To really understand why Psalm 100 is so powerful, we have to look at where it actually sits in our Bibles. Because this series is called The Usable Psalms, it’s helpful to know that the ancient editors of the Bible chose the order of these poems very intentionally.

Many people treat the Book of Psalms like a spiritual storage cabinet—a random collection where someone threw 150 independent songs, and you just reach in and pull one out depending on your mood. But the design is much more brilliant than that. The Psalter is actually an intentionally constructed literary temple.

It was woven together by ancient editors (between 400-200 BC) right after God’s people had gone through the devastating trauma of the Babylonian exile. They had lost their physical temple in Jerusalem. They were hurting, scattered, and confused. So, God gave them a literary temple—a prayer book arranged into five distinct sections to mirror the five books of the Torah, acting as a lifelong guide for theological reflection and prayer, and an invitation to enter God’s holy presence absent the actual physical temple.

There is a beautiful, macro-movement across this literary temple. If you read it from beginning to end, the first half of the book is dominated by laments—cries of pain, confusion, and anger about how broken the world is. But as you journey through the books, the laments begin to give way, culminating in a massive, five-poem crescendo of pure praise at the very end. The book itself teaches us that biblical faith does not ignore our pain, but it is always forward-looking, driving us toward hope.

And Psalm 100 sits right at a crucial turning point at the climax of Book 4. Book 4 was written specifically to respond to the crisis of the exile. It was written for an anxious, fearful people. Right at the heart of Book 4, the editors grouped together a sequence called the ‘Yahweh Reigns’ Psalms (Psalms 93–99)—songs that boldly declare:

“No matter how chaotic the world looks, God is still on the throne.”

Psalm 100 is the glorious, triumphant finale of that entire royal sequence.

Psalm 100

Let’s read this together and look for its brilliance:

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Did you notice what is missing?

In almost every other Thanksgiving Psalm in the Bible—like Psalm 30, 32, or 40—the writer spends time looking back at a specific, personal situation of distress. They tell you about the pit they were in, the sickness they suffered, or the enemies chasing them. They give you a narrative arc of danger, a desperate petition for help, and then a specific rescue.

But when you walk into Psalm 100, there is no personal distress narrative. There is no recollection of trouble. There is no account of a private deliverance.

Why? Because the editors placed it here to carry a massive, universal scope. It lifts its eyes entirely above individual circumstances and invites all the earth to step into the literary temple. It integrates the nations of the world together in worship, transforming what could be a forced, begrudging recognition of God into a free, joyful song of praise. It says to the entire world:

You don’t need a recent, perfect, trouble-free week to thank God today. The mere fact that He made you, that you belong to Him, and that He is good—is reason enough to shout for joy.

Gratitude: How It Reshapes Us

Even though Psalm 100 is simple in its vocabulary, it is deeply theological, moving intentionally from exhortation (what to do) to rationale (why we do it). And this movement is exactly how it reshapes our anxious hearts today.

It Reorients Our Posture

“Shout for joy to the LORD... worship the LORD with gladness... enter his gates with thanksgiving!” (1-2, 4)

Thanksgiving is not a passive opinion we hold in our heads. It is an active, kinetic discipline. The Psalmist tells us how to access God’s presence: through the gate of thanksgiving. If you try to approach God through the gate of complaining, or the gate of demanding, you remain stuck in the courtyard of your own anxiety. Gratitude is the key that opens the door to intimacy because it forces us to actively express His goodness.

It Corrects Our Focus (Verses 3 & 5)

When we step through that gate, our focus is completely corrected:

“Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his...” (v. 3)

“For the Lord is good and his love endures forever...” (v. 5)

This is the ultimate antidote to our default settings of fear and envy.

Envy says, “I am the center of the universe, I am in control, and I deserve what my neighbor has.” Psalm 100 corrects our identity: “You aren’t God. He made you. You are a sheep in His pasture.” There is immense freedom in remembering you are the sheep, not the Shepherd. You don’t have to carry the weight of managing the universe; you just have to trust the One who does.

Fear says, “The future is unsafe, and God might abandon me.” Psalm 100 anchors us in God’s unchanging character: His essential goodness, His chesed (Hebrew word for covenant, steadfast love), and His generational faithfulness. Hardships will come—the exiles knew that all too well—but God’s character is an immovable rock.

Challenge

Church, gratitude is not a denial of our hardships. The Book of Psalms proves that God welcomes our honest laments. But thanksgiving is a daily discipline that ensures our hardships do not get the final word. It reorients the soul toward trust.

How do we make Psalm 100 a “usable” Psalm in our lives this week?

I want to challenge you to build a protective boundary around your mind by practicing gratitude at two critical moments: each night before you go to sleep, and each morning before you do anything else. Think of these as the morning and evening bookends of your day.

The Evening Bookend:

Before you close your eyes at night—spend two minutes looking back at your day through the lens of Psalm 100:3. Pray:

The Morning Bookend:

When you wake up tomorrow morning—before you check your notifications or dive into the noise of the day—spend your first two minutes entering the gates of a new day praying Psalm 100:5. Pray:

When we bookend our days like this, we train our minds and our souls to look for God’s grace instead of our own limitations. We stop focusing on what is transient, and we start looking at the King who is eternal. Let’s allow the universal praise of Psalm 100 to reshape our hearts from the moment we wake up to the moment we fall asleep.

pastorheather.com

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Praise

Today’s message was provided by Hayden Gee, Director of Adult and Youth Ministries at Christ Church Methodist, The Woodlands.

Psalm 104:27-33:

All creatures look to you
to give them their food at the proper time.

When you give it to them,
they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.

When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.

When you send your Spirit,
they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.

May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works—
he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

pastorheather.com

Trinity Sunday

Trinity Sunday arrives every year on the first Sunday after Pentecost, usually without much fanfare. Unlike most feast days in the Christian calendar, it doesn’t commemorate an event. It celebrates a revelation—the deepest truth Christians confess about who God is. After the drama of Holy Week and Easter, the fire of Pentecost, and the sending of the Spirit, the Church takes a breath and turns its attention to the mystery that has been unfolding all along: God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It’s helpful to realize this is not a doctrine made up by theologians looking for complexity. It is the Church’s attempt to faithfully name the God who has met us in Scripture and in salvation history. God is beyond time and creation, so finite humans can only approximate an understanding of God based on what He has revealed to us in His word.

Trinity Sunday is the Church saying,

“This is who God has shown Himself to be—and this changes everything.”

What Is the Trinity?

At its simplest and most profound, the Trinity means this: God is one Being in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Or as is more fully defined in our Book of Doctrines and Discipline of the Global Methodist Church:

Christians do not worship three gods. We worship one God who exists eternally as a communion of love. Each Person is fully God, yet each is distinct. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Father. And yet all three share one divine essence. Here is a helpful graphic demonstrating this dynamic reality:

The early Church didn’t arrive at this language quickly. It took centuries of prayer, deliberation, and wrestling with Scripture to articulate what believers already knew from experience.

The Trinity is not a puzzle to be solved but a relationship to be entered. As many theologians will tell you: If you think you’ve fully understood it, you haven’t understood it at all.

Why the Trinity Matters

The Trinity is not an abstract theological idea. It is the heartbeat of Christian faith.

The Trinity tells us what God is like. God is not solitary or distant. God is love—not as an abstract idea, but at the core of His very nature. Before creation, before time, before anything existed, God was already in relationship: Father loving Son, Son loving Father, and the Spirit as the bond of that love.

The Trinity shapes our salvation. The Father sends the Son. The Son gives His life. The Spirit applies redemption to our hearts and empowers us in living it out. Salvation is the work of the Triune God from first faith to fruitful living throughout our lives.

The Trinity forms the Church. We are baptized into the Church in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Church is not a human organization—it is a people drawn into the mysterious, wonderful life of the Triune God.

The Trinity grounds Christian community. If God’s own life is mutual love, self-giving, and unity-in-diversity, then the Church is called to reflect that same pattern. The Trinity is the blueprint for Christian life together.

Why We Celebrate Trinity Sunday

Trinity Sunday is the Church’s annual reminder that Christian faith is not primarily about what we do for God, but about who God is.

We celebrate because:

The Trinity is the foundation of Christian worship. At the core of our worship is the Triune God. Many of our prayers and liturgies not only include ‘Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,’ but every worship service is structured toward this reality of God.

The Trinity is the story of Scripture. From Genesis (“Let us make humankind…”) to Revelation (“Grace and peace… from Him who is, who was, and who is to come”), the Triune God is present. Next time you take Communion in our church, pay close attention to the Prayer of Thanksgiving… it is a recounting of God’s redemption history and promise of ongoing activity according to the three persons of the Trinity.

The Trinity is the mystery at the center of our lives. God is creative in how he engages our lived reality. We don’t fully understand it, but we fully step into the mystery of it. And we experience the unfathomable ways God works in us and around us.

The Trinity is the Church’s identity. Trinity Sunday is a yearly invitation to return to our roots, to remember that we belong to a God who is infinitely beyond us and yet intimately with us.

In the rhythm of the Christian year, Trinity Sunday in many ways stands as a theological anchor. After the sweeping narrative from Advent to Pentecost, the Church pauses—not to look at an event, but to consider the very heart and character of God. Then it steers our lives forward into a season of reaching out to the world empowered by the Spirit.

Living the Mystery

The good news is Trinity Sunday is not about mastering a doctrine. Whew! Rather, it is about being drawn into wonder, then being led into the world as ambassadors (re-presenters) of God. The Trinity is the God who invites us into His life, His love, His mission. To celebrate the Trinity is to celebrate the God who is always reaching toward us, calling us into communion with Him and with one another.

So, let our curiosity and wonder lead us into the very presence of the Triune God — Father, Son, Holy Spirit!

Digging Deeper

Here are a few articles worth reading…

• Why the Trinity Matters by Dr. Sue Nicholson.

• On the Trinity by Ryan Nicholas Danker.

• One in Three by Wayne Schmidt.

pastorheather.com

Leading teams within a local church context can be a daunting responsibility for new pastors and ministry leaders. Many individuals step into these roles without formal training in team leadership. Some groups—such as formal committees—may operate with defined roles, expectations, and established rhythms, often shaped by denominational structures or prior leadership. In these cases, new leaders inherit a framework they must learn and navigate. However, even well-established teams can lack a strong sense of spiritual purpose and momentum. More commonly, teams—particularly ad hoc groups or those formed around individual passion—function without clear guidelines, leaving leaders to define structure, direction, and purpose from the ground up.

How a new pastor engages with a team can significantly influence both the effectiveness of the ministry and its broader Kingdom impact. It is essential to prioritize building trust by actively listening and honoring the church’s history, while also providing clarity around vision and roles. Strong leaders empower others by delegating meaningful responsibilities (not just tasks), foster open and transparent communication, and remain committed to prayer and leadership development. These practices create a foundation for sustainable, healthy ministry growth.

Below are a few thoughts on each of these. These principles are also scalable for use at various levels of leadership — individuals, small task-oriented teams, admin committees, Sunday school or adult discipleship leaders, teams of leaders, and so on.

Building a Foundation and Vision

Listen First: Spend time getting to know people, their roles, and the church’s history. This is especially helpful to gain context into how things are done and the values the group holds. The more you understand the culture in which you minister, the more effective you will be as a leader.

Honor the Past: Respect previous leaders and traditions to build bridges and show you value the church’s journey. Celebrate past successes. Celebrate past heroes. These are the people and happenings that built what you now stand upon. Also, learn to honor the tough times in the past, for these have had a sharpening effect on the church’s identity (even though sometimes churches don’t realize that).

Cast Clear Vision: Regularly communicate the church’s larger mission, values, and future goals to keep everyone aligned and focused on the big picture. Not in a militant way, but in a ‘reminder’ way. If the church doesn’t have a clear ‘vision’, use the most recent version or begin articulating biblical imperatives of mission in light of their history.

Ways to build foundations:

• Surveys of leaders and participants — gauging perceptions at various levels.

• Meeting with leaders individually to hear their story of God’s work in their lives.

• Ask, “How can I be the best leader for you?” Don’t underestimate the power of this question. It will give you an idea of the team’s developmental level (see Part 2) as well as indicate who is open to coaching, etc.

• In every meeting start with a brief reminder of the church’s vision.

Empower Your People

Identify and Develop Leaders: Be opportunistic in finding and mentoring potential leaders for future growth. Begin praying for your future leaders now. Have some sort of qualifications in mind to help you discern who will make a good leader. Possible considerations…

• Spiritually vibrant — Are they passionately pursuing Jesus? Are they regularly engaged in spiritual disciplines?

• Emotionally healthy — Do they have a level-head when it comes to crisis or complexity? Do they respond well in difficult circumstances? Do they avoid gossip? Do they authentically own up to their mistakes?

• Needed competence — Every role and/or task may need a specific set of gifts. Without thinking through what is needed, the tendency is to only look for those whose gifts mirror our own.

What other qualities would you recommend?

Leave a comment

Delegate Ownership: Once you know a potential leader can deliver in small tasks, give them responsibility and ownership for larger things, working up to whole areas (e.g. acolytes, small groups, retreats). Don’t just keep them at the ‘task’ level.

Trust and Let Go: If someone can do a job 80% as well as you, delegate it to them. Focus on the big picture, and provide ‘heliotropic’ leadership — i.e. keep them focusing on the raison d’etre, undergirding the group’s ministry. When we pass on ministry ownership to a new leader, it is tempting to keep coaching at the task level. Change that! Remember the phrase:

Ways to empower your people:

• Ask them to help. Err on the side of assuming everyone wants to help. Don’t wait for them to ask. Also remember: an announcement is NOT an invitation!

• Clarify expectations to ensure they know what they are to do and how they can measure success.

• Follow the EDGE method of training others:

  • E = explain.

  • D = demonstrate.

  • G = guide.

  • E = Empower.

• Check-in regularly to see how they are doing and what they might need.

Foster Healthy Dynamics

Cultivate Trust: Be authentic, transparent, and consistent. Trust is earned slowly and lost quickly. Your character will speak much louder than your competence!

Encourage Open Conversation: Create spaces for honest feedback, discussion, and collaboration. Be careful how you address open conversation. In an unhealthy culture, open discussion often devolves into complaining or gossip or placing blame. Plan your questions to keep everyone on task and in a positive, helpful vein. And decide ahead of time how you will react when someone broaches unconstructive complaining or gossip.

Care for Your Team: Celebrate wins, manage meetings effectively, and show care for your team leaders, volunteers, and participants. Connecting with your leaders outside of your meeting rhythm or ministry purview can be an effective way to show you care.

Ways to foster healthy dynamics:

• Have a ‘best practices’ time at leaders’ meetings — share what is working in their groups.

• Ask, “How can we support each other as leaders?” This puts some of the responsibility on the community of leaders to build each other up — we are in this together!

• Celebrate wins by asking, “How has God moved in your group recently?”

• Brain Steering: ask for feedback on an idea you have and might want to try. Receiving initial feedback can help gauge where people are with that idea. ‘Testing the waters’ in this way also helps them realize it may not be a wholesale change — “Oh, he’s just experimenting! Whew.” Lol.

Lead Spiritually

Prioritize Prayer: Make prayer a central, consistent, part of team meetings and personal leadership. There is nothing wrong with opening a team meeting with prayer. Or closing in like manner. But there is something transformative and powerful when you dedicate a good deal of intentional prayer time.

Lead by Example: Model the faith, values, and commitment you want to see in your team. The spiritual tenor of the group is set by the spiritual tenor of its leader.

Ways to lead spiritually:

• Write hand-written notes to your leaders/participants on a regular basis. Let them know you are praying for them. Praise them for how God is using them or what you see in them. (Hand-written notes go a long way to communicate care; don’t send an email — that’s the easy way out. Lol.)

• Ask how you can pray for them. Then do it.

• Don’t just have a prayer. Be prayerful! Maybe it’s a block of silent listening during the meeting. Or perhaps a time to share prayer concerns, then pray over each other. Or even take a whole meeting timeslot and surprise-meet in the chapel; then offer words of encouragement, short worship, and anoint your leaders as everyone prays over each other. (See for more ideas the book Leading with Prayer.)

Discussion

What would you add to this? What are some of your experiences in team leadership — good or bad? Which of the above do you find the most rewarding? The most challenging? Share in comments below.

pastorheather.com

¹Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ²Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.  ⁵One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath….” (-John 5:1-9)

The MegaBus Agenda

A few years ago, I needed to travel to Oklahoma City to see my sister, who was expecting a baby. To save some money and get some much-needed sermon preparation done on the road, I decided to take the MegaBus.

If you’ve ever taken a bus trip, you know the drill. You find your seat, you claim your territory, and you build a little invisible wall around yourself. I sat down, plugged in my laptop, opened my Bible, and got ready to do my work for God. Just before departure, a rough-looking woman boarded the bus and sat directly across from me. She looked like she had lived a hard life, and she looked like she wanted to talk.

I was not looking to meet any strangers that day. I had a sermon to write. I had ministry to do! So, I executed the universal, modern-day sign for “Do Not Disturb”—I put in my earbuds. I stared at my screen. I protected my agenda. Eventually, lulled by the hum of the highway, I actually fell asleep.

Hold onto that image of me on that bus: earbuds in, shutting out the world, desperately trying to protect my ministry and my agenda.

Let’s talk about what happens when our agendas, our plans, and our ministries stop working. What happens when we realize that the weight of what we are trying to accomplish is actually crushing us?

If you have your Bibles, open them to the Gospel of John, chapter 5. We are going to look at a man who had been crushed by his circumstances for 38 years, and we are going to look at a Savior who asks him a very provocative question.

The Paralyzing Weight of the World (John 5:1-4)

Let’s set the scene. John tells us that Jesus has gone up to Jerusalem for a festival. He enters the city near the Sheep Gate and comes to a pool called Bethesda.

Listen to how John describes it in verses 2 and 3:

“Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.”

The name “Bethesda” translates to “House of Mercy.” Yet, this House of Mercy was filled with a multitude of broken, desperate people. Why were they there? There was a local belief—a superstition—that an angel would occasionally stir the waters, and the first person into the pool would be healed.

Just imagine the atmosphere of this place. Hundreds of people lying on their mats, their eyes intensely fixed on the surface of the water. When the water stirred, it was chaos. The strongest, or those with the most friends to carry them, would scramble in. The weakest were left on the dry pavement, defeated. Day after day. Year after year.

This is a picture of a people desperately trying to manufacture their own healing. They were relying on their own strength, their own timing, and their own broken systems to get them to the water.

And friends, if we are honest, this is often a picture of us.

We sit by the pools of our own lives, trying to manufacture our own success, our own healing, and our own ministries. We carry the crushing burden of making sure our families succeed, our jobs flourish, and our churches grow.

Recently, I had a profound zoom conversation with Steve Seamands and about 20 others. Dr. Seamands is a theologian and author, and more importantly someone who takes his discipleship very seriously. We were talking about the heavy burden of ministry and the exhaustion that so many Christians face today. He pointed out a brilliant contrast found in New York City.

If you go to Rockefeller Center, you will see a massive, famous bronze statue of Atlas. He is straining, his muscles bulging, his head bowed down, holding the immense, crushing weight of the entire world on his shoulders.

But, if you walk just across the street into St. Patrick’s Cathedral, you will find another statue. It is a statue of Jesus as a young boy. And in His hand, He is holding the world effortlessly, like a tennis ball.

Which one of those statues represents your life right now? Which one represents your ministry?

Too many times, we have taken the burden of the world—the burden of saving our families, fixing our work places / communities, or building our ministries—upon ourselves. We play Atlas. And when we carry a weight we were never designed to carry, we get overwhelmed. We lose our joy. And eventually, just like the people at the Pool of Bethesda, we become completely paralyzed.

Preparation doesn’t exhaust us. Hard work doesn’t exhaust us. The burden of the outcome exhausts us.

The Provocative Question (John 5:5-6)

Out of the hundreds of people lying by that pool, Jesus zeroes in on one specific man. John 5:5 says,

“One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.”

Thirty-eight years is a lifetime. For nearly four decades, this man’s entire existence has been defined by his mat, his paralysis, and his daily failure to reach the water in time. He is the ultimate picture of a man crushed by his own inability.

Jesus walks up to him, looks down, and asks what seems to be an absurd question in verse 6:

“When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’”

Why would Jesus ask a paralyzed man if he wants to be healed? Isn’t it obvious?

No, it isn’t. Jesus knows human nature. He knows that sometimes, we grow comfortable in our paralysis. Our excuses become our identity. To be made well means to accept change. It means giving up the identity of a victim and stepping into the responsibility of a healthy life.

But on a deeper, spiritual level, Jesus is asking him: “Are you ready to stop trying to heal yourself? Are you ready to stop playing Atlas? Are you ready to let go of your agenda and step into Mine?”

When I met with Steve Seamands, he said something that completely confirmed what the Lord has been working in me over the last few years. He said,

“Christian ministry is not asking Christ to join me in my ministry; rather, it is joining Christ in His ministry to others.”

The difference seems subtle, but I promise you, it changes absolutely everything.

Jesus is asking this man, “Do you want to keep playing by the rules of this pool, trying to build your own kingdom of healing? Or do you want to join Me?”

This requires a fundamental shift in how we view the Christian life. The resurrection of Jesus was not just about His physical body being raised from a tomb. His ministry was raised! His ministry is alive and being lived out through our hands and feet today. Christianity isn’t just about reading what Jesus did 2,000 years ago; it is about participating in what He is doing right now. Jesus’ ministry is ongoing. It isn’t ours. Jesus says, “I will build my church.” He never said, “You build it, and I’ll come bless it.”

I wish I could say that I always remember these truths, but too often, I forget. And when I forget, I take the burden back. I play Atlas. I get overwhelmed, I lose my joy, and I end up paralyzed on my mat.

When Jesus asks, “Do you want to get well?”, the very first step toward healing is repentance. We have to repent of trying to do God’s job for Him.

The Shift in Prayer (John 5:7)

Look at how the man responds to Jesus in verse 7.

“‘Sir,’ the invalid replied, ‘I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.’”

Did he answer Jesus’ question? No. He just gave Jesus his resume of failures. He gave Him his excuses. He is essentially saying, “Lord, my strategic plan isn’t working. I need you to help me get into the water. I need you to bless my agenda.”

This is how I used to pray. For years, my prayer life was just a long list of “Help me” prayers.

• “Lord, help me parent my children.”

• “Lord, help me fix this conflict.”

• “Lord, help me balance all of this work.”

Do you hear the exhaustion in those prayers? Those are the prayers of a person trying to hold up the world.

But when we realize that the work belongs to Christ and it is a gift that He wants to use us, our prayers shift. I now pray far fewer “Help me” prayers, and a lot more “Help yourself to me” prayers.

• “Lord, use me.”

• “Lord, what are You doing in this room, and how can I join You?”

• “Lord, please don’t let me get in the way of what You want to do today.”

Mother Teresa understood this beautifully. People would look at her staggering impact on the poor in Calcutta, and they would ask for her secret. Her response was simple:

“I am just a little pencil in the hand of God writing a love letter to the world... and that pencil is awfully dull and in need of sharpening sometimes.”

A pencil doesn’t worry about what words to write. A pencil doesn’t carry the burden of the storyline. The pencil simply rests in the hand of the Author.

Are you resting in His hand, or are you trying to write the story yourself?

The Command to Rise and Surrender (John 5:8-9)

Jesus listens to the man’s excuses, but He doesn’t entertain them. He doesn’t help the man into the pool. He completely bypasses the man’s flawed system.

In verse 8, Jesus speaks a word of sovereign, creative authority:

“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’”

And verse 9 tells us:

“At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.”

Now, let’s pause here for a second, because we need to clear something up. I just spent ten minutes telling you to stop playing Atlas and lay down your burdens. But here, Jesus tells this newly healed man to pick up his mat. Isn’t that asking the man to carry a burden?

We have to understand the difference between a burden and a mat.

The burden is the weight of trying to save yourself, run your own life, or build your own kingdom. Jesus absolutely wants you to lay that down.

But the mat? For 38 years, that mat was this man’s comfort zone. That mat was his identity. That mat was his excuse for why he couldn’t participate in life. Jesus tells him to pick up his mat because if he leaves it on the ground by the pool, he will be tempted to come back tomorrow and lie down on it again!

Jesus is saying:

“I am carrying the burden of your salvation. But you need to dismantle your waiting room. Take your safety net, fold it up, and carry it out of here, because you are never coming back to this old identity.”

He is asking the man to surrender his past identity.

There is a profound spiritual principle here: God-given gifts and identities have to be sacrificed and surrendered before they can be fully used.

Think about the story of Abraham and Isaac. Isaac was a miracle child, a gift given directly by God. But before God could build a nation through Isaac, Abraham had to be willing to place him on the altar. He had to surrender his grip on his identity as a father to let God be the builder of the nation.

Think about Moses. Moses had a shepherd’s staff. It was his livelihood, his identity, his safety net for 40 years in the desert. But when God appeared in the burning bush, what did He tell Moses to do? “Throw it on the ground.” Moses had to let go of his staff, watch it become a snake, and then pick it back up by the tail. From that moment on, it was no longer the staff of Moses; the Bible calls it the “Staff of God.”

Your talents, your intellect, your business, even your trauma or your history—until you surrender them, until you pick up your mat and stop letting it define you, you will stay stuck by the pool. You have to say, “Lord, my past, my present, and my future belong to You. Help Yourself to me.”

When we finally do this—when we remember that the burden of the outcome is His and not ours—something amazing happens. Our boldness and our confidence skyrocket.

Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, experienced this. For a long time, the reach of the Gospel was confined strictly to the coast of China. The inland territories were considered too vast and too dangerous. Hudson Taylor was agonizing over this, carrying the weight of millions of unreached people on his own shoulders like Atlas. He was on the verge of a physical and nervous breakdown.

But then, the Lord spoke to his heart. God essentially told him, “Hudson, I am going to evangelize the inland of China. And if you will let Me, I will do it through you.”

The burden lifted. Hudson Taylor realized he didn’t have to save China; Jesus was already saving China, and he just had to join Him. Taylor went back to China with just a handful of missionaries. By the time he retired, there were 650 missionaries reaching the deep inland of the country.

When you realize the world is a tennis ball in the hand of Jesus, and not a boulder on your shoulders, you can walk into any hospital room, any boardroom, and any broken family situation with absolute, fearless confidence.

Taking Out the Earbuds

The Lord is asking us today:

Are you wanting Me to help you build your kingdom, or are you joining Me in building My kingdom?

Let’s go back to that MegaBus rolling down the highway toward Oklahoma City.

There I was. I had my Bible open, my sermon document pulled up. I was carrying the heavy burden of my own agenda, essentially asking Jesus to come sit quietly and bless my ministry.

And those earbuds? That laptop screen? That was my mat.

It was my comfort zone. It was my highly-spiritual excuse to stay in my own little bubble and actively ignore the broken, hurting woman sitting two feet away from me. I was clinging to my mat—clinging to my identity as a busy minister doing “important work”—so I wouldn’t have to step into the actual, unscripted ministry Jesus was doing right there on that bus.

But the Holy Spirit is persistent. I felt this undeniable nudge to stop what I was doing. So, I took out my earbuds. I closed my laptop. I laid down the burden of my agenda, and I folded up my mat.

I looked across the aisle and simply said, “Hi.”

What followed was a divine encounter. She poured out her heart. She told me her partner had recently left her, she had lost her job, and she had just been evicted from her apartment. She was completely stuck, sitting by her own pool of Bethesda, searching for a way to get her life back together.

I didn’t have to force a sermon. I didn’t have to carry the burden of saving her soul. I just had to be a dull pencil in the hand of God, writing a love letter to a woman who desperately needed to know she was seen.

Eventually, she pressed me to tell her what I did for a living. When I told her I worked at a church, she physically recoiled, asking… “what exactly do you DO for the church?” She was stunned. She asked, “Why haven’t you judged me? Why haven’t you told me I am living a sinful life or condemned me?”

I looked at her and said, “Because you have lived through enough of that already. What you need right now is an experience of grace.”

Just like the man at the Pool of Bethesda, she didn’t need someone to point out her failures or help her navigate her broken system; she needed the life-changing grace that only comes from encountering Jesus. God was doing a healing work on that bus, And the beautiful truth is, it wasn’t just for her. Both of us were experiencing a profound encounter with God. Both of us were experiencing His immense grace. She was receiving the grace of being seen and loved without judgment, and I was receiving the grace of being completely unburdened—freed from my exhausting agenda so I could simply be a pencil in the hand of the true Author.

Church, Jesus is walking through the colonnades of this sanctuary today. He sees exactly where you are lying. He knows the burdens you are carrying. He knows how tired you are of playing Atlas.

He is holding the world in His hands. And He is looking at you, asking the ultimate healing question:

“Do you want to get well?”

Say yes. Repent of carrying the burden. Shift your prayer from “Help me” to “Help yourself to me.” Pick up your mat, fold up your excuses, and leave that old identity behind. Join Him in the glorious, joyful, unburdened work of His kingdom.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus,

Forgive us for the times we have tried to carry the weight of the world on our own shoulders. Forgive us for treating our gifts, our families, and our ministries as our own kingdoms to build. We are so tired, Lord. Today, we want to get well. We lay down the burden of playing God, and we pick up our mats so we never return to our comfortable excuses. We ask that You would help Yourself to us. Make us little pencils in Your hand. Give us the boldness to join You in what You are already doing in our marriages, our families, our neighborhoods, and our world.

In Your powerful and healing name, we pray. Amen.

pastorheather.com

Today, we celebrate Pentecost—the day described in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit descended upon the early believers like a rushing wind and tongues of fire. Pentecost marks the birth of the Church, the moment when God’s Spirit was poured out, transforming frightened, uncertain disciples into bold witnesses empowered to share God’s love with the world.

But as we celebrate this historic outpouring of the Spirit, we also remember a profound personal Pentecost in the life of John Wesley, which happened to occur on this exact day: May 24, 1738.

Before that day, Wesley had been striving endlessly to earn God’s favor through strict discipline, good works, and wearying missionary service. He was doing all the right things, but his faith was driven by heavy obligation. Up until that point, he had the salvation of a servant, but here he experienced the salvation of a son.

That evening, while reluctantly attending a small meeting on Aldersgate Street in London, Wesley listened to someone reading the preface to Martin Luther’s commentary on Romans, a description of the change God works in the heart through faith. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit broke through. Wesley famously recorded in his journal that he felt his “heart strangely warmed.” In that moment, the theological became deeply personal. He finally felt the inward assurance that Christ had died for his sins, and he was adopted as a beloved child of God.

As we come to the Lord in prayer, let us ask God for both the bold, church-birthing fire of Pentecost and the quiet, life-changing flame of Aldersgate.

Come, Holy Spirit, and fill us with your love. Open our eyes to see your presence all around us— in the stillness of this sacred space and the noise of our streets, in our highest joys and our deepest struggles.

Come, Holy Spirit, bring wholeness to the sick, comfort to the grieving, and inspire our warring world to seek peace. Give rest to the weary and stir within us a living hope in the mysteries of Christ’s resurrection.

Come, Holy Spirit, and revive your church. Just as your holy fire descended at Pentecost, pour out your Spirit that we might feel our hearts strangely warmed. Grant us the deep assurance of your grace, that we may trust in Christ alone. Liberate us from complacency, transform our minds, and fill us with an overflowing love for you and our neighbors.

Gracious God, give us a glimpse of your kingdom emerging around us. It is for your kingdom that we now pray, filled with your Spirit.

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When my boys were small, we had a simple phrase of three imperatives we thought would be helpful life principles. These were to serve as guidance for our boys as they grew up and faced different things in life. So, we would remind them often…

• Love God

• Love others

• Help people do the same

By the time our boys became teenagers, this helpful trifecta devolved into:

Just don’t do stupid stuff!

I suspect some of you might be in that stage now.

But all of you are entering a new chapter of your life. Over the next five years you will learn more than you ever thought possible. You will launch a new career. You will begin the regiments of adulthood, like paying bills. And at some point, you will wonder how your parents got so smart. Lol.

But today I want to share with you a verse in scripture a mentor in college shared with me. It was a challenge to remind me what’s most important.

“And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.” (John 17:3)

Jesus was praying over his closest followers the night before he was to leave them. He would, after this, be arrested, tried and killed, then raised from the dead. But he wanted his closest followers to know what eternal life was… to know God the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one sent by the Father. This was the goal of following Jesus — to know God through Jesus!

When we make this our driving purpose, God has a way of smoothing things out for us. As the proverb says:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Pressing in to Him who is Life, we don’t have to be afraid of our future. Our decisions will be guided by the Holy Spirit. And when tough times come, we will be strong enough to maintain composure and walk victoriously.

Plus, look around… the people in this church are your spiritual family. Anytime you are going through tough circumstances, you have a family to help you. Just about everyone here has been where you are. And they’ve seen the roughest parts of life you have yet to experience. You should lack for no wisdom with this church family.

So, as you enter this new chapter of your life… be who God created you to be! Make knowing Jesus your driving purpose! Make a difference! Change the world!

But remember… Love God. Love others. Help people do the same.

And don’t do stupid stuff!

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C.S. Lewis served in the trenches in WWI and lived through the Nazi bombing of England in WWII. He knew war, and he saw the horrible realities of its death. Reflecting on why we honor those who died in war, when everyone dies at some point, he explains:

“War does something to death. It forces us to remember it.”

My father and grandfather were Veterans. Two of my sons have military experience. My oldest was deployed on the Texas/Mexico border and was affected by unspeakable things, still not nearly as gruesome as war. And no matter how necessary, war is not good.

So, I will forever pray for peace and the end of all wars! Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!

Yet I am immensely grateful for those who served and gave their lives as a sacrifice for freedom.

It is not a bad thing to remember death. Death reminds us how precious and fleeting life may be. Even the Psalmist declares:

“Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.” (Psalm 92:12)

Other versions read ‘Teach us to number our days.’ When we do that, we gain a new appreciation for everything life. We learn wisdom. We make decisions in the here and now that have significant impact in our lives. We don’t take things for granted. We live better and more eternally-centered. We love more intentionally. Because sometimes death is the greatest teacher of life.

And when it comes to Memorial Day, we face a strange dynamic… it’s a time to celebrate the arrival of summer, enjoy the good weather, play with friends, and rest from work. But it is also a time to remember those who gave their lives for our freedom. Sacrifice of such magnitude has a theological virtue within it:

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (1 John 3:16)

Please don’t let this holiday go without a sober reflection of the price paid for freedom!

Please don’t let this holiday go without praying for peace — in the world, in our communities, in our hearts!

What does war do to death? I will remember it!

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If you’ve been following along recently, we’ve been exploring a simple, practical way to change the world right where we live. It’s based on the acronym B.L.E.S.S.:

If you’ve been practicing those first four steps, you’ve likely built a bridge of genuine trust with someone in your life. But here is the reality: 

A bridge is only useful if something crosses over it. 

We have shown them the gospel; eventually, we must tell them the gospel. That brings us to our final S — Share your story.

The Chain Reaction of Grace

There is a famous quote often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi: 

“Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.” 

It sounds wonderful. But honestly? It’s incomplete.

The Apostle Paul makes it crystal clear in Romans 10 that words are necessary. He starts with the ultimate, beautiful promise of the Gospel: 

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (v. 13).

But then, he reverse-engineers the process of salvation:

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”(Romans 10:14)

It’s a chain reaction of grace. They can’t call on Him if they don’t believe. They can’t believe if they haven’t heard. And they can’t hear unless someone tells them.

People cannot guess the gospel of Jesus Christ just by watching you mow a neighbor’s lawn. Your actions are incredibly important—they make the gospel believable! But your actions alone do not explain why you are doing them. If we stop at serving, we are being good neighbors, but we are falling short of being faithful witnesses.

The Beauty of the Messenger

In verse 15, Paul continues: 

“And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”

Think about feet in the ancient world for a second. They didn’t have paved roads or closed-toe sneakers. They walked in sandals on dirt roads shared with horses, mules, and camels. First-century feet were dirty, calloused, bruised, and smelly.

Yet, Paul looks at these dusty feet and says, “How beautiful!”

Why? Because what makes the feet beautiful aren’t the shoes, nor is it a pedicure. It’s the message they carry.

When you hear the word “Evangelism,” what words pop into your head? You probably think you have to be outgoing, talkative, bold, a Bible scholar, highly charismatic, or a spiritual giant. Because of that, we get paralyzed by fear. We fear rejection. We worry about making things awkward. We feel totally unqualified.

But what if your struggle with evangelism comes from approaching it in a way that doesn’t align with how God actually created you? What if evangelism doesn’t require you to be an assertive, talkative debater? What if, instead, God is looking for someone who is caring, generous, discerning, a good listener, genuine, and intentional?

A gentle, patient approach to sharing your faith is incredibly powerful. You will reach people that a loud, assertive approach simply can’t reach, because you are taking the time to be slow and steady, to build deep trust, and to be consistent.

We need to reframe how we view evangelism:

• We don’t have to be bold, just authentic.

• It’s not about an overwhelming personality; it’s about your presence.

• It’s not about being preachy; it’s about being personal.

• It’s not about pressure; it’s simply an invitation.

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Listening-Guided Evangelism

So, how do we actually do this? The Apostle Peter gives us the perfect instructions:

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15)

Notice what Peter says. He doesn’t say “win every argument.” He doesn’t say “force the conversation.” He says be prepared to explain your hope, and do it with gentleness and respect.

This is Listening-Guided Evangelism. We move away from memorized scripts and move toward listening. We ask questions to better understand the individual and to discern open doors. You can simply ask, “Did you grow up with a faith background?” And then, with an inner posture of prayer, you just listen.

Look for a “story intersection”—a place where their current struggle overlaps with what God has brought you through.

Timing is everything. Don’t try to push evangelistic efforts at the wrong time. Recognize holy moments. It might be a quiet moment in the car (car conversations are priceless!), while sharing a task, or when the room clears out and it’s just the two of you.

When that holy moment opens, you share your story. You don’t need a theology degree. Just use this simple, three-part framework:

1. Before Christ: What was the internal struggle of your life? (Keep it brief).

2. Meeting Christ: How did Jesus change things? What was the turning point?

3. After Christ: What difference does He make now? You don’t have to say your life is perfect. Speak the truth gently: share that you have peace, you are forgiven, and you have hope.

You Are Sent

Frederick Buechner famously said, 

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” 

Your spiritual gifts—whether hospitality, encouragement, or compassion—are not an end in themselves. They are an avenue for God’s grace to be poured through you.

The great evangelist D.L. Moody was once criticized for his methods of sharing the gospel. His response was brilliant:

“Frankly, I sometimes do not like my way of doing evangelism. But I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it.”

Let’s stop making excuses for not doing it, and start trusting that God will use us exactly as He made us. You are sent. You are called to share Jesus with the people you know—to invite them into your life, to coffee, or even just handing out a word of encouragement to those God highlights to you.

Practice This Week

Pick one of these to try this week:

• One written outreach: Send an encouraging, prayer-soaked text or a handwritten card to a friend.

• Focus on listening: Listen more deeply to a family member or co-worker this week, actively discerning open doors.

• Ask one deeper question: During a normal conversation, take a risk and ask a deeper question about their life or their background.

An Invitation

If you are reading this today and realize you’ve never actually responded to the invitation yourself, Romans 10:13 is for you: 

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

If you want to call on His name today and receive His forgiveness, I want to lead you in a simple prayer. But before we pray, I need to be completely clear about something: there are no “magic words” in Christianity. God is not grading your vocabulary or looking for a secret formula. He is simply looking at the posture of your heart.

If you are ready to surrender, you don’t need a perfect life; you just need to ask Him to be your Savior. You can use these words as your own right now:

If you prayed that prayer and meant it from your heart, heaven is rejoicing. And for the rest of us, may God give us beautiful, willing feet this week. You are sent!

(P.S. If you gave your life to Christ recently, I would love to hear from you. Please send me a message or leave a comment!)

Let me know in the comments: 

Which of the “fears” of evangelism (feeling unqualified, fear of rejection, not knowing what to say) resonates most with you, and how does reframing it as “gentle and respectful listening” change your perspective?

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“Success is 1% vision and 99% alignment.”

Vision is a funny thing with churches. Some churches thrive on it, and it gives them their reason for existing, fuels their mission and helps them grow to deeper realities of being the community of God. Some churches have done so many ‘visioning’ processes, they’ve become tired, suffering from vision-fatigue.

But vision is essential for churches. As Proverbs 29:18 demonstrates:

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

Vision is not announcing what the church should do. It’s not creating a statement or set of objectives. Nor is it something only the Pastor possesses.

Vision is discerning what God is already stirring in the people.

Pastors are Curators of Vision, Not Owners

One of the most common mistakes pastors make—especially early in ministry—is assuming that vision is something they must create and then announce to the church. But when pastors become the sole visionaries, the vision often dies when they leave. In many congregations, it dies before they leave.

Churches can get caught in exhausting cycles of “vision swings”:

Pastor A arrives with a strong sense of direction and gathers a group of supporters. Pastor B arrives later with a different passion, a different emphasis, and a different set of champions. Pastor C arrives and tries to blend the two or start something new. Over time, the congregation becomes tugged in multiple directions, worn down by competing priorities, and quietly discouraged by the revolving door of “the next big thing.”

But when the church owns the vision—when the people themselves discern what God is calling them to—it becomes generational. It has longevity. It has spiritual weight. It has staying power. And it becomes something far more beautiful than anything a single pastor could manufacture.

Because the truth is this:

The people in your church love God. They hear from God. They can articulate what God is stirring. They want to see His work done in their community.

When pastors trust that, the best kind of vision begins to bubble up from within the body.

A pastor’s role, then, is not to be the architect of vision but the curator of it—one who gathers, listens, shapes, and shepherds the discernment of the people.

Here’s what that looks like:

Listen.

Spend time with your people. Hear their hopes, fears, frustrations, and dreams. Invite them to listen to one another. Create spaces for story‑sharing—because collective storytelling is often where the Spirit’s fingerprints become visible.

Discern.

Wrap everything in prayer. Guide the congregation in asking:

• What is God calling us to do?

• Who is God calling us to be?

• What is the right timing?

• What is the right order?

• What is the right posture?

Discernment is slow, holy work. It requires patience and spiritual attentiveness.

Articulate.

Help the people put words to what they are sensing. Sometimes this becomes a formal statement; sometimes it’s a shared set of commitments or values. The form matters less than the clarity.

Shepherd.

Vision is always spiritual formation. It shapes hearts, not just plans. Pastors shepherd the people through the process—encouraging, challenging, grounding, and reminding them of God’s faithfulness.

Align.

Vision that emerges from the people usually works its way upward. That means pastors help committees, ministry teams, and leaders make adjustments so their work aligns with the shared vision. Alignment is where vision becomes reality.

Empower.

Let the people own the vision. Nothing demotivates a congregation faster than an over-functioning pastor who feels the need to direct every detail. Sometimes the most strategic thing a pastor can do is be intentionally absent from a meeting so the people step into leadership themselves.

There are more nuances, of course, but the heart of it is this:

Pastors steward the visioning process; they do not control it.

And in prayerful discernment, God will lead the church into a vision that is both Spirit‑breathed and community‑owned.

One more thing…

Sometimes the wisest move is to bring in outside voices. When the pastor is always the “expert,” the congregation grows weary. But when pastors become co‑learners, the people come alive.

Recently, when we were forming an Evangelism Team, we took nine people to an evangelism conference. They were inspired, challenged, and energized. Then they began discussing what they learned, where God was leading, and how our church could faithfully respond. Jon and I weren’t the experts—we were fellow travelers. And that made a huge difference.

Strategic Planning Is Slow, Faithful Work

Real strategic leadership in the church is rarely flashy. It’s not a grand unveiling of a five‑year plan or a dramatic pivot that suddenly “fixes” everything. It is slow, faithful, prayer‑saturated work — the kind of work that honors both the pace of the Holy Spirit and the lived reality of the people you serve.

Real change is one degree at a time.

Most churches don’t turn on a dime; they turn like a large ship — slowly, steadily, and with intention. One degree of change, sustained over time, can completely alter the destination. Pastors often underestimate the power of small, consistent shifts: a new conversation, a clarified value, a healthier staff rhythm, a renewed focus on discipleship. These small moves accumulate. They shape culture. They create momentum. They build trust.

Real alignment is built through trust.

You can have the most compelling vision in the world, but if people don’t trust your heart, they won’t follow your lead. Alignment is not achieved through persuasion or pressure; it is earned through presence, consistency, and relational investment. People align with leaders they believe are listening, discerning, and genuinely seeking God’s best for the church. Alignment grows when leaders communicate clearly, celebrate small wins, and keep the mission in front of the congregation with patience and humility.

Real leadership honors the culture before trying to change it.

Every church has a story — a history, a set of values, a way of doing things that has shaped its identity. Wise pastors take time to learn that story before attempting to write a new chapter. Culture is not an obstacle to overcome; it is the soil in which new growth must take root. When leaders honor the past, listen deeply, and understand the rhythms of the congregation, they can discern what needs to be preserved, what needs to be pruned, and what new life God may be calling forth.

Strategic planning in the church is not about control — it’s about discernment. It’s about helping the people of God listen together for the voice of the Spirit, move together toward a shared future, and trust together that God is already at work ahead of them. It is slow, faithful, relational leadership — the kind that lasts

Adaptability Is a Spiritual Discipline

Adaptability isn’t just a leadership skill — it’s a spiritual posture. It’s the willingness to hold our methods loosely and the mission tightly. It’s the humility to recognize that the world we minister in today is not the world we were trained for twenty years ago. And it’s the courage to trust that the Holy Spirit is already ahead of us, inviting us into new terrain.

What worked 20 years ago may not work today.

The church of the 1990s or early 2000s lived in a different cultural moment — different rhythms, different expectations, different assumptions about faith and community. Many of the tools that once bore fruit now feel outdated or ineffective. That doesn’t mean the gospel has changed; it means the landscape has. Faithfulness today requires curiosity, experimentation, and the willingness to ask, “What is God doing now, in this moment, with these people?”

Pumpkin patches don’t resurrect declining churches.

Nostalgia is a powerful force in congregational life. When anxiety rises, churches often reach for the familiar — the event that used to draw crowds, the program that once brought in young families, the tradition that “always worked.” But resurrection never comes from repeating the past. It comes from discerning where new life is already breaking through. Adaptable leaders help congregations grieve what was, celebrate what remains, and embrace what could be.

The world has changed — and ministry must change with it.

People’s schedules, attention spans, spiritual questions, and expectations of community have shifted dramatically. Digital spaces matter. Intergenerational ministry matters. Trauma‑informed leadership matters. Hospitality looks different. Evangelism looks different. Discipleship looks different. Pastors who thrive are those who refuse to cling to outdated models simply because they feel safe. They listen, learn, and adjust — not out of fear, but out of love.

Tod Bolsinger’s Canoeing the Mountains says it well:

“When the terrain changes, you must learn to lead off the map.”

Lewis and Clark expected rivers. They found mountains. Many pastors today feel the same. The maps we inherited no longer match the territory we’re navigating. Off‑the‑map leadership requires discernment, experimentation, and a deep trust that God is not surprised by the landscape. Adaptability becomes an act of faith — a declaration that we believe God is still guiding His church.

Pastors who thrive are pastors who adapt.

Not because they are trendy or reactive, but because they are attentive. They are listening for the Spirit’s whisper. They are watching for signs of life. They are willing to release what no longer bears fruit and embrace what God is birthing next. Adaptability is not abandoning tradition; it is stewarding the mission with wisdom, courage, and hope.

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“I wish it were just preach, teach, marry, and bury.”

If only.

Pastoral leadership is gloriously varied — and sometimes hilariously so. In many churches, the pastor is simultaneously:

• Preacher.

• Counselor.

• Administrator.

• Vision‑caster.

• Landscaper.

• Tech support.

• Web designer.

• Custodian.

• HR manager.

• Spiritual director.

• Event host.

• Crisis responder.

And that’s just before lunch. Lol.

A Week in the Life

Here is a sample week for me: funerals, courtrooms, hospital calls, staff reviews, worship planning, Alpha course prep, pastoral care, onboarding newcomers, navigating unhappy classes, welcoming denominational leaders, enrolling my son in school, unpacking from a move, and hosting my mom from out of town.

This is the life.

This is the calling.

This is the beautiful, chaotic, holy mix of Word, Order, Sacrament, and Service.

Yes, there are times when I think it would be nice to work a 9 to 5 job, clock in, clock out, go about my hobbies in the evening. The busyness can get overwhelming at times. But really, there is something bigger in life, more meaningful, deeper, spiritually enriching… and it is living into this calling, even with its unpredictability and at times variegated roles.

Modeling Healthy Leadership

A mentor once told me most jobs demand three or four core competencies. If you excel at those three or four, you will be successful. These core competencies drive the expectations that are put upon you by your boss, your coworkers, your clients.

In ministry, however, an average pastor is expected to take on 12 to 14 core competencies and exhibit a high degree of accomplishment in all of them. This, my mentor would say, is what drives burn-out… the unrelenting and unrealistic expectations placed upon the pastor.

And this is a prime reason why pastors, of all leaders, should give great attention to modeling healthy leadership.

Healthy clergy are:

Led by calling. Remember your first love for God and God’s people.

Shaped by spiritual practices. Don’t stop feeding your soul. Your mental health depends on it. Your family depends on it. Your church depends on it.

Nurtured in holy friendships. Become close to and vulnerable with people who can hold you accountable. Some friendships will burgeon from within your church. Cherish those. Some things wouldn’t be wise to share with church members; so having deep friendships outside of your church is not only healthy, but necessary.

Resilient. Learn to bounce back. We tell our staff members it’s ok to ‘fail forward.’ Try new things, make mistakes, but learn from them and become better because of them.

Courageous. In pastoral ministry this rarely looks like grand, headline-making heroics. Instead, courage is nurtured best in the quiet, daily resolve to lead with conviction, truth, and vulnerability—even when it means facing conflict, making unpopular decisions, or navigating the emotional weight of a congregation.

Lifelong learners. Don’t ever stop learning. If you knew everything, you’d be God. And we all know you’re not! Haha. Seriously, though, there is always something more to learn about yourself, interacting with others, scripture/theology, the world around us. Take time to keep your curiosity fed.

Invitational leaders who empower others. There is nothing more discouraging than a pastor who is so gifted at ministry he or she doesn’t need anyone else to help. You may have met someone like that. But too often, we are exactly like that, albeit maybe in a more subtle way. We are trained for leading congregations, and to some degree we might be the expert in the room. But if we are unwilling to enable others to own and lead ministry, we will quickly learn how lonely we are.

Delegation Is Not Optional

That’s probably a good tie-in to this next part… learn to Delegate!

You are not the only leader God has called.

You are not the only one with gifts.

You are not the only one responsible for the mission.

Ask people about their passions.

Invite them into ministry.

Empower them.

And be clear about expectations — or you’ll find yourself accidentally volunteering for someone else’s idea. Sounds silly, but I’ve seen it (too often, lol).

Leading Staff Is Its Own Universe

There is nothing more rewarding than sharing ministry with people who are called, gifted, and committed to the mission. And there is nothing more frustrating than sharing ministry with people who are called, gifted, and committed to the mission. Staff leadership is beautiful and maddening — often in the same afternoon. Every seasoned pastor I know says the same thing:

Leading staff is the most complex part of ministry.

It truly is a universe of its own.

Here’s a helpful dynamic to keep in mind:

Horizontal covenants build community.

As disciples of Jesus, we are brothers and sisters. We share life, bear one another’s burdens, and walk together as equals in Christ. When we serve on staff, we partner in ministry as co-laborers.

Vertical covenants build accountability.

Employment adds hierarchy. Tasks are delegated. Supervisors lead; employees carry out the work. This doesn’t diminish our shared identity in Christ — it simply adds structure, responsibility, and boundaries.

Pastors must navigate both and guide their staff on navigating both. The challenge is knowing when to lean into the horizontal and when to honor the vertical. Is it wise to vent about your boss to church friends? Is it helpful to share staff frustrations in your small group? Is it appropriate to process a coworker’s decision with a church member?

The horizontal covenant reminds us we are family in Christ.

The vertical covenant reminds us we are also colleagues with boundaries — and sometimes, lips need to stay buttoned.

There is much more that could be said here. I haven’t even hit on guarding your family, holding boundaries with grace, or serving with joy. Each of these could be it’s own seminar.

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“It is not a job. It is a lifestyle.”

If you’ve ever tried to explain to someone what a “typical week” looks like for a pastor, you’ve probably laughed. Or sighed. Or cried. Or all three.

Pastoral leadership is beautiful — and it is heavy.

The Time Commitment Is Real

When my husband and I were in our first year of ministry, we were in a small town in Texas in a world before cell phones and social media. Once on our day off, I asked Jon to run to the store real quick to pick up a couple things we needed for dinner. The only grocery store in town was 2 miles down the road, when he didn’t come back right away, I began to worry. I thought, he can’t be taking that long.

After about an hour Jon arrived back home. “Where were you!?” As it turns out, he met one of his church leaders on the bread isle. And they had a very significant pastoral conversation that couldn’t be cut short. Then he was getting milk, and someone who overheard him talking on the bread isle was now asking for prayer. Then someone in the parking lot caught up to him to introduce themselves and chat for a bit.

One 15 minute trip to the store took over an hour. Why? Because ‘pastoring.’ And though each of those interactions was a divine appointment, his wife (me!) was home needing him to return. Lol.

Pastoral work is not neat and tidy. You don’t ‘clock in’ and ‘clock out.’ Ministry spills into evenings, weekends, hospital rooms, text messages, funerals, board meetings, and the sacred interruptions of people’s lives.

And that’s just during the week! Sunday is game day, so even if you are not working as long, it is just as intense, probably even more. And game day comes every seven days whether you’re ready or not.

The Emotional Weight Is Even Heavier

Here are some sources of emotional load in ministry:

• Caring for people in crisis.

• Navigating staff conflict.

• Managing finances.

• Handling PIPs.

• Bearing gossip, betrayal, or disappointment.

• Carrying compassion fatigue.

• Holding the spiritual temperature of a congregation.

The list could go on!

Emotional weight is the invisible load of worry, grief, or responsibility that drains your energy, influences your daily decisions, and manifests physically as tension or exhaustion. It can also come from unresolved internal struggles many pastors carry — like seeking parental approval or needing to be affirmed for accomplishment. Sometimes our own self-expectations contribute to our emotional weight.

Pastors absorb more emotional energy in a week than most people realize. It’s holy work — but it’s costly work. It can weigh on you and become a huge burden. And if it’s not dealt with in a healthy way, it can lead to burn-out, health issues, destructive behavior, and severed relationships.

Your Spiritual Health Is Not Optional

A burned‑out pastor cannot shepherd a flourishing church.

Read that again!

Then do these things:

• Stay on your knees.

• Learn Sabbath.

• Find a band or small group.

• Guard your heart fiercely.

Learn Sabbath. Let’s revisit that one.

I wish I had learned earlier in my ministry the art and life-giving rhythm of Sabbath. Sabbath brings rest, so you not only learn to take off your heavy burdens for a bit, you learn to let Jesus carry them (sounds trite, but it’s true!).

Sabbath also brings renewal, reminding you of your first calling, so you are energized to get back in the game. The re-centering, re-focusing, reminding work of intentionally spending long periods of time with God is now a non-negotiable for me.

If I am not a pastor connected to the One, True, and Living God, then my church will suffer. And I will suffer. Intentional Sabbath is the best prevention of burn-out.

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