Remember that since we are all redeemed sinners, we all have shortcomings. Every pastor has his flaws, and even if we tend to forget them, we should not set any one pastor up as the index by which all other pastors are measured. Christ alone is our standard.

I’m not saying you have to conceal your personality, and I’m not saying that you can’t have fun, and I’m not saying you can’t let your inner child out every once in a while. But I am saying that there are times and places for such things and when you’re in a prominent place, such as the pastorate, you need to think deliberately about how you conduct yourself.

I’m not saying that retirement is wrong—do as the Lord leads. But I’m really grateful that as a minister, so long as my mind stays sound (there are doubts already), then I can continue to labor well beyond retirement age.

Admitting that you don’t know something has two positive outcomes: (1) it becomes an opportunity for you to learn! (2) You show your congregation that you don’t know everything but that you’re willing to learn.

Never give up hope—always prayerfully intercede on behalf of the lost, and as long as they have breath in their lungs, never cease to tell your unsaved loved ones of the gospel of Christ.

We should always seek to help the needy, but we must be wise in how we assist people. It could be that by failing to do your due diligence and ask questions, you give money to someone and make their life worse, and then you run out of money and can’t help the person who genuinely needs it.

I don’t want to decide significant theological issues based upon how well someone presents their case, the tone of their voice, the color of their tie, or their ability to disembowel an argument with a slash from their sarcastic wit. There may be a place for carefully executed public debates, but for me, I’d rather invest my time and resources in reading written debates in books

Part of the danger with loudmouths is they haven’t recognized that knowledge divorced from love is empty; this is why they frequently cause trouble in churches. Their ultimate concern isn’t for Christ and his church but themselves.

In the pastorate you need wisdom to know when to ignore criticism and when to take it to heart. This is one of the reasons why as the pastor, or any person for that matter, you need to be in constant prayer to ask Christ to give you boldness and confidence to ignore inane or baseless complaints on the one hand, and to have humility to accept valid criticism with grace and charity on the other.

If our heavenly Father considers every one of our concerns, both big and small, in prayer, should we not listen to our children in all of their concerns, both big and small?