Tag Archives: pastors

A Mini-Interview with a Trappist Monk – for pastors/leaders

The following is a six minute interview with Father Meninger, a Trappist monk for the past 52 years. We have just finished 4 very enjoyable days with him at New Life. Perhaps the greatest challenge for us as leaders is to drink from an interior life with God sufficient to sustain our activity/work for Him. Lessons from the Trappists, one of the most contemplative monastic orders, enable us to step back and examine our leadership from a fresh perspective. Enjoy this brief interview or, for more in-depth insights, click here for a full 40 minute sermon in which I interview Father William.

Pornography, Sexuality, and the Church

The Statistics Are Staggering: 66% of Internet-using men between the ages of 18-34 look at online porn at least once a month (1) 55% of pastors admitted to participating with porn online. (2) Over 40% of women on line are involved in problematic cyber behavior. (3) The largest consumer of Internet pornography is the 12 to 17 year old age group. (4) 90% of male teens 15-17 years old will view pornography this month. 34% of them will become addicts. Since meeting Ted Roberts, founder of Pure Desire Ministries www.puredesire.org a few months ago, I have been conducting an informal survey with pastors, leaders, and others to determine if above statistics are true. Sadly I am now convinced they are. I spent time with Ted Roberts in person this past weekend. I was challenged and sobered once again at the enormous challenge we are confronting in our sexually charged and addicted culture – both. Read more.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Pastor/Leader Life Cycle

I just completed an Updated/Expanded version of The Emotionally Healthy Church that is to be released in February, 2010. So this led me to quite a bit of reflection on what is the process for pastors and leaders to engage EHS, especially now that 30+ churches (as of last spring) have finished the Church-wide initiative. 1. Begin the Journey The most important thing we can do is to engage the message in our own lives, and to apply personally the powerful biblical themes explored in this book. Begin reading Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (Nelson, 2006) and/or The Emotionally Healthy Church (Zondervan, 2003 and 2010). Remember, we lead out of who we are. 2. Introduce to Leadership (EHS in Small Group) Gather a small group of your key leaders around The Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Workbook (Willow Creek Publishing, 2009) and begin providing an experience for your leaders to “go beneath the tip-of-the-iceberg” in. Read more.

Reflections on Singapore Leadership Conference, July 2009

Geri and I have just begun our yearly, summer “sabbatical” rest (our old term was “vacation”). We are in Thailand, beginning to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Yet we wanted to take a few moments and share with you several highlights from our time in Singapore at the Eagles Leadership Conference where we spent the last 6 days. 1375 delegates (pastors and leaders) from 19 countries attended this very well-run, powerful conference. Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand were the top four countries represented. Geri and I did a plenary session around our story and the main insights of EHS. This was followed by a full day workshop for around 200 leaders, and then 2 shorter workshops around “The Leader’s Spouse (by Geri) and Insights of Monasticism for the 21st Century (me) on the final day. We were very well-received and felt greatly honored. We also learned quite a bit. The following are a few. Read more.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Conference Online

We are now in the midst of our Pastors/Leaders Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Conference at New Life Fellowship in Queens, NY. Geri, myself, and the rest of our staff had a wonderful time with Pastors/Leaders and their spouses yesterday at our pre-conference. We are looking forward to the next couple of days in journeying together toward healthy God-centered lives and marriages. I have asked Drew Hyun, one of our associate pastors who also serves on our Teaching Team, to connect you with the blogging/twittering that is going on at the conference. If you’d like to follow real-time updates on our conference (as well as updates from the pre-conference yesterday), you can click below at the following link: www.twubs.com/ehsconf For those of you on twitter who would like to join the discussion, you can use the hashtag “#ehsconf” and include it in any tweet that you post. Meanwhile, there is a list of blogs found at. Read more.

God and My Blackberry

I cancelled my blackberry internet service yesterday. For the last year I have been able to receive e-mails at any time of the day or night. I was told it would make me more productive, effective. It would save me time. No one talked about its impact on my soul and rhythm. Actually, it hasn’t worked for the last month and I realized how much I loved not having it. I loved not checking e-mails during my daughter’s soccer practice as I waited in the car. (She is in junior high and prefers that her ‘uncool’ Dad keep a very low profile). I loved not looking at it in traffic. I loved not looking at it in the office. If it was the time to check e-mail, I simply chose to look at it during work hours. If we are going to follow Jesus in the 21st century as leaders and model a contemplative life,. Read more.

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