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Month: June 2018
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From North Dakota to New York City
What a blessing it was to recently celebrate my wife’s 50th birthday! As a pastor, perhaps in any profession and certainly in life, your spouse is your greatest attribute or your greatest anchor; your greatest blessing or your greatest barrier. I am thankful my wife is my greatest attribute and blessing. Prairie Heights Community Church has grown from a few people in our living room to weekly impacting over 2,500 people in Fargo and Bismarck. While the sole reason for that is through the grace and power of God, the number one “human” factor is because of the skill, leadership, partnership and commitment of my wife.
For her 50th birthday we went on a trip to a part of the United States we have never visited. For two North Dakota kids to travel to Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York City was incredible.
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Day of Healing
When I think of what it takes to be a great dad, one of the key characteristics is a consistent commitment to connect with your children; to get into their world, their turf, their interests; to discover and discern their needs and hear their perspective; to be a great listener even when you are tired.
As parents, it takes great self-leadership to connect with our children, but there is a powerful potential unleashed when we authentically connect with them.
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Does anyone care?
Our 4th-grade daughter Brooke started Taekwondo in January and she has learned several self-defense patterns. She will ask me at home, at the grocery store, anywhere the two of us are together, “Dad, can I show you my new pattern?” Children love to have their mom or dad, grandma or grandpa, watch them roller-blade, play T-ball, play a video game or jump on the trampoline.
The truth is that at every age we like to be watched. When we are in a group photo who is the first person we look for? Ourselves! But to be a great leader, we have to move from “watch me” to “connect with others.”
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Lead yourself well
In the early 1990s I was working as an electrical engineer at Burns and McDonnell and attending seminary, studying to be a pastor. I will never forget a conversation I had on the phone with my mom as a frustrated student. As a math and science fan, seminary was brutal for me. I was required to read books and write papers. I was overwhelmed with school and the thought of perhaps, some day, being a pastor.
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