Serving pastors and professional church workers in 
the SELC District of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Links
Click the button below to go to the My Mental Health section of the Concordia Plans website
JourneyTalk is an archive of conversations and presentations on the spiritual life presented by Dr. Chris Cahill at various Pastors Conferences and other venues. 

On this page

  • "You Don't Have to . . . " slides
  • Documents and Reports
  • My "Best Practices" in Pastoral Ministry

Documents and Reports

An article from the American Heart Association about what we should be aware of as our hearts grow older.

My "Best Practices" in Pastoral Ministry

  • Offered to the 2011 SELC District General Pastors' Conference
                In no particular order.  These “best practices” are mine.  They may not work at all for you.  Don’t swallow mine – or anyone else’s – hook, line, and sinker.  Test them according to the Father’s love for you and who He has made and called you to be.  With that said . . .

    ·        Bless children whose parents bring them to the Communion rail.  Remember to bless the ones who are still in the womb (put your hand gently on the mom’s head).
    ·        Do not talk down to children.  Instead, kneel down and talk to them with respect, as equals. 
    ·        Hold babies as often as possible.
    ·        Try to get between seven and eight hours of sleep every night.
    ·        Love your congregation members deeply, but keep crisp boundaries at all times.
    ·        Stay as far away as possible from the church lawn mower, the church snow blower, the church furnace room, and the church finances.
    ·        Demonstrate to your family in as many ways as possible that they are more important to you than the business of the church.  Demonstrate to the families of the church that they, too, are more important than the business of the church.
    ·        You might be "the man in charge" but it's the secretary who really knows what's going on.  Treat her with respect.
    ·        Find at least one other pastor that you can be friends with, more than just on the Internet.  Someone you can have lunch with monthly.  Perhaps a small group that you can meet with to talk to, gripe with, laugh with, cry with.  You need friends who are not congregation members, who will understand what you are going through, who will lift you up in prayer and in fellowship.  Forget “accountability”; seek "mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren."
    _        Have a Father Confessor, a Spiritual Director, a Mentor, a Spiritual Friend, or another pastor you can confide in and seek guidance and wisdom from. 

    ·        Best resource for sermons - the shredder.  Once you've preached it, shred it.  Notes and outlines, too.  Never look back. 
    ·        Best programs for stewardship, evangelism, VBS, . . . .  There aren’t any best ones.
    ·        Best gift for everything we do in ministry - Sabbath.  Sabbath is about intentionally being alone with the God who loves me without condition or demand.  It is about setting aside hours at a time for no other reason than to know that my purpose is in His love.  It is about finding significance in His eyes when no one else is even thinking about me.  It is about knowing that He understands me and values me to the depths of my being, during hours in which no one is giving me a second thought.  It is not about a “day off” – it is about deeply knowing that I am loved and cherished by the Father.  When I lay claim to being the Beloved of the Father I truly am in Jesus, I am freed from the desire to be filled with the love-not-love of others – and Sabbath is the gift the Father gives me as His Beloved.