My mother was a great caregiver. If you were going through a hard time, you wanted my mom around. She was strong, protective and compassionate. She could handle the nosy neighbor who wanted to know too much and then rock an upset child. She could be as strong as she needed to be and then as gentle as you needed her to be. She was something else. My mom taught me to bring paper plates and cups to a family going through a hard time. Everybody brings food, she said, no one brings anything to eat it on. In the church where I grew up, my Mom was the first call for most of the people in our church.

Everybody is in the attention game. Everybody is trying to grab a few minutes of attention on one of the screens that is always in front of our people. Getting people to pay attention to a sermon on any given Sunday morning has always been difficult. Now, it’s almost impossible.

Most church members wonder what the church staff— especially pastors — do all week. After all, all the preacher does is preach a couple of times on Sunday and visit the sick in the hospitals. How hard could that be?

A recent Wall Street Journal article, “The New Age of Entrepreneurship: 70-79,” points out that as more and more people are living longer, they are also working longer. More than that, more and more people in their 70s are starting businesses. Using their experience, training and education, they are beginning companies that solve problems and yes, make money. They have found traditional retirement to be boring and want to do something different. Only this time, they want to call the shots. They want to work with the people they want to work with and do the work they find meaningful. So, to be their own bosses, they start their own businesses.

When I was in high school, my math teachers made me show my work. When our class was given a test, we were given a sheet filled with problems and the best teachers would leave plenty of blank space on the test paper to work out the problems. Why? Because according to my teachers, knowing how to work the problem – knowing how to do the math – was as important as getting the right answer.

Most people are shocked when they realize God didn’t give Adam the whole world, he only gave Adam the garden. In fact, God never gave Adam ownership of the garden. Adam is placed in the garden to work the garden and tend to it. Humanity is introduced into God’s story as stewards, God never deeded the garden to Adam. The garden and everything in it always belonged to God. Adam was accountable to God for the health of the garden. Adam and Eve were never responsible for everything; they were to take care of the garden where God had placed them. Humanity was never responsible for the whole world.

In my revivalist tradition, we spent a lot of time talking about heaven. I can’t count the number of sermons I heard about the pearly gates and streets of gold. I heard about how it was going to be when we gathered with all of our loved ones who had gone on before us in the Lord. What was it going to be like to see your mother or father, your brother or sister, your husband or wife – or even your child (assuming they had all accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior) – and to never be separated from them again? Wasn’t heaven going to be something! All of our pain and suffering will be gone forever! No more injustice! No more heartache! Don’t you want to join us?

I’m a very blessed man. I have several friends who have become brothers over the years. Guys who have been there for me. I would take a bullet for these guys. They would take a bullet for me. I know that. They know that. These guys encourage me, hold me up and hold me accountable. I’ll go to the wall for any of these guys.

Barnabas wasn’t his given name, it’s just what everyone called him, his real name was Joseph. Somehow, in all of the dealings with the disciples and the early church, people found him to always be a source of encouragement and hope. We all know people like Barnabas, they always make us feel better about ourselves. These people are always upbeat, and always confident that we’re on the verge of something great.

When the Apostle Paul told the Philippians to imitate him as he himself imitated Christ, I was initially very uncomfortable with Paul's instructions to the young church. To me, the statement sounded a little conceited. Was Paul saying the only thing the young Christians in Philippi needed to do was to act more like Paul. I didn't understand how Paul could say such a thing.

Beginning is often the hardest part of doing anything. We all want to be in better shape, but we never seem to get to the gym. We want to write our novel but never write the first sentence. We want to engage our neighbors and friends with the good news of Jesus, but we can never find a good place to start the conversation. We want to preach the gospel to our lost communities, but how do we start? What’s our opening line?

Several years ago our church did a time audit. We looked at how many times a week and what times we asked our people to be at church. We were stunned by what we discovered. Our church, supposedly the most pro-family organization in town, was the most anti-family organization in the way we functioned.  We wanted everyone there on Sunday morning. We wanted children and students back on Wednesday nights and parents and Bible studies throughout the week. We cluttered Saturday mornings and Sunday nights with special events and filled the rest of the week with committee meetings.

One of the challenges of working in a local church, and from what I’m finding out about every level of leadership, is there is so much to do, no leader has the time to think about things. There’s no time to look at trends, numbers, and future opportunities and challenges. Every day is so crammed with things that must be done, there’s no time to think about anything else. This is doubly true for those who lead local churches. 

The doctor looked up at me as he placed a stack of papers on the desk in front of him. He sighed and slowly said, "Mr. Glenn, I can tell you with 100% confidence that your mother has Alzheimer's."

My mom used to tell me I couldn’t go swimming until I had let my lunch settle. According to her, it took exactly thirty minutes for my food to settle before I could get back into the water. If I got back into the water too fast, I would get sick, cramp up and die a terrible death. I’ve never fully understood her logic and sometimes, I’m not sure if that was even true. I think it was just her way of telling everyone to take a break and get a little rest. 

Local restaurants celebrate their “farm to table” practice of sourcing their food items from local farms. Sometimes, the restaurant will name the farmers in their menus. Dairy products are from this farm and eggs and chickens are from this farm. The restaurants are celebrating the absence of a middleman in the food preparation process. We know who grew this food and you, our customer, knows who prepared this food. 

If you’re a sports fan like I am, you pay attention to every aspect of the game. You want to know about the offensive game plan and the defensive schemes concocted to stop the offense from moving the ball. You want to know the stats – down to the most obscure detail. The difference between winning and losing is found in those details no one else watches. Talk to any successful coach. They can drown you with details of their team’s plays. 

He would wait for me at the end of every service. With his Bible open, he would talk to me about the text I had just preached. He would point out subtle nuances of the Greek text and of course, he would talk to me about how he had preached this same passage. Every Sunday we had the same conversation. 

Most pastors I know live for Sunday morning. They can’t wait until the congregation shows up and all the singing is done so they can stand up and share with the church all they’ve learned in preparing for the sermon. They want to tell the congregation about the uniqueness of the verbs used in this passage and how the ancient context informs the subtle nuances of the text.

A few weeks ago, a young pastor called me and asked if he could talk to me. We set a time to meet and as we sat down for coffee, he handed me an envelope. On the front of the envelope was this pastor’s name and his address at the church. There wasn’t anything else on the envelope. No return address. No initials on the back flap. Nothing.