“You have to be confident enough to be courageous in the right moments.” – Brian McNamee, Vice-President Amgen, public education advocate and youth mentor. In 1999 I was a young associate pastor for a church in Kansas. My senior pastor was a frail 79 year-old. He wore suits to the office that sagged over his …
Author: ryanfollis
I joke with my dad that he is a “long pauser.” Pauser is not a word, but in my vocabulary it means, “the ability to pause and leave long, uncomfortable silence between words or sentences.” It usually happens while we are talking on the phone or driving together. For example, my father would start a …
Tom Brokaw wrote the book, The Greatest Generation, celebrating the generation that fought and won the Great War. They came home from the war and laid the foundations for our nation’s infrastructure, economy, families and churches. They married in record numbers and gave birth to prosperity. However, like a seventy-year old bridge, society has developed …
Christians share the cause of Christ. By Jesus’ own words it cannot be a private faith. “Go therefore…and you will be my witnesses…and the gates of Hell will not prevail.” And yet when someone says, “separation of church and state,” they might as well say, “if Christians would just keep their faith in the closet …
Table Conversations A pastor’s work is full of indirect opportunities. There are very few moments where a pastor gets to swing the hammer and hit the nail for the last time and see it complete the foundation of faith. Pastoral work involves years of patient prayers and ongoing conversations. In effect, the pastor inquires of …
