The Pastor’s Family

Steve Brown June 02 2009 - 2 Comments

If you’re keeping up with the video thing each week, you know that I’ve started a series on the pastor’s family. And if you’re like me and saw that, you winced.

There is no place where pastors feel more guilt than they do about their families. And, not only that, I’m not sure that the family problems we face as pastors are even “fixable.” Maybe they can be better and maybe we can “get Home before the dark,” but the nature of our calling and the attendant pressures of that calling require that we change what can be changed, accept what can’t be changed, have enough wisdom to know the difference…

…and fake the rest.

As I go through the video stuff on the pastor’s family (more…)

Keeping Your Job

Steve Brown April 03 2009 - 3 Comments

Dan Allender says that grace is so incredibly radical that most of our congregations can’t deal with it. He then said that a pastor has to give it out in little pieces until the kids are through college.

Last night, I was teaching a course on grace at the seminary and realized that what I was teaching the students was dangerous stuff. Not only that. I realized that if they bought it, lived it and taught it, I was setting them up for a lot of pain and maybe even for some career adjustment…i.e. losing their jobs.

So I gave the students (more…)

A Mean Streak

Steve Brown February 13 2009 - No Comment

If you’ve seen the last video, I’ve started talking about politics in the church.

If that subject doesn’t make you wince, you probably need to spend some more time with Jesus. And if you don’t think that politics is necessary in the church, you need to spend some more time with Paul.

I’ll probably say this in the video series but just in case I forget, one of the important spiritual gifts for a pastor to have is a “mean streak.” Well…uh…maybe that’s not the best way to put it. But then again, maybe it’s best to use the harsh ascription and then let the Holy Spirit’s gifting sand it down a bit.

But with that being said, it does worry me sometimes that so many pastors, in their efforts to be kind and Christlike (a good thing), end up being a target for neurotic people whose calling in life is “get the preacher.” (more…)

Going “Home” Again

Steve Brown January 23 2009 - No Comment

This past weekend I did what Thomas Wolfe said one couldn’t do—I tried to go back “home” again. I went to Miami, my “home” for so many years and the place I think of when I think of “home.” I spent a couple of days with a group of pastors and then, on Sunday, preached at the church where my former associate (Kent Keller) is pastor.

I discovered that Thomas Wolfe was half right and half wrong.

I don’t do nostalgia very well and don’t much want to do it well. It’s sort of like going into a bakery when you’re on a diet. Why do it? You can’t eat anything there anyway. I always thought that it was best to wait on nostalgia until retirement or closer to death. Then you can remember. Until then, it’s best to keep moving.

Not only that. We have a “selective” remembering process. We remember the good stuff and filter out the bad, so that the girl one dated in high school looked like Marilyn Monroe, one’s prowess in sports was astounding, and the music and fun never stopped…when in reality, the girlfriend looked like your ugly aunt, you couldn’t make the team, and there was more confusion and pain than music and fun. (more…)

Bah, Humbug! (Sort Of)

Steve Brown December 17 2008 - No Comment

We sent out a video a week or so ago to people who had given a gift to Key Life over the past year. I thanked them for the gifts and the prayers, and then mentioned this new website and some of the things we’re going to do with it. The response we received was overwhelmingly positive.

But there was one person who wrote: “Pastors don’t need your website. They need to be faithful with the truth and stop compromising!”

I’m already a Scrooge at Christmas and, frankly, that didn’t help.

Then I thought it could be worse.

I could be a pastor.

Then I thought it could be worse than that.

I could be a pastor and have that man as a member of my church. (more…)