I’m excited to announce my new book, “Toxic Soul: A Pastors Guide to Leading Without Losing Heart” will be released on July 11.
Written with my brother Jeremy Isaacs, Toxic Soul is a book for pastors and church leaders. We’ve spent our life around pastors.
The other day a buddy of mine sent a group text to me and another guy that said, “I love you guys.”
I stared at the phone for a few seconds a little rattled; I wasn’t sure how to respond. Obviously, the appropriate response was, “love you too.” And if we had been face to face I would have had no problem saying “I love you” back, but for whatever reason, at this moment texting “I love you” to another dude was intimidating. It felt like the equivalent of sending heart and kiss face emojis.
Recently I bought a new car, a 2008 Maroon Ford Escape. I’m sure this has happened to you too, but after I purchased the Escape I see other cars exactly like mine everywhere!
I never noticed maroon Ford Escapes before mine, but now I can’t not see them. I’m not crazy, it’s neuroscience, it’s called “The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon” coined by Alan Bellows.
If Easter Sunday was a big day for your church, you are most likely still riding a high right now. It’s common to break attendance, salvation, and baptism records on Easter, and there’s no substitute for the feeling of a full room.
Recently I took my kids to one of those indoor trampoline parks. We’ve been several times before but decided to try a new business on this occasion. When I started to pay the bill, I noticed the price was higher than the place we regularly visit. I was informed each of my children had to purchase $2 “Altitude” socks. I insisted it wasn’t necessary, but it was required, so I paid the $6.
Let me start by acknowledging the fact the TV preacher you saw that one time came across really cocky, and seemed to only care about getting your money.
I’ll even concede the fact you’ve seen a few Facebook videos of preachers who gel their hair and wear sequenced shirts, looking more like Rick Flair than Jesus.
I have a friend. She’s in love with a man who is the father of her children. They’ve been together for longer than most married couples I know, but they’re not married.
You wouldn’t know they weren’t married unless you asked or saw their driver’s licenses with different last names. They live together, have children together, and share a bank account, but they aren’t married because if they tied the knot, she would lose all of her government subsidies. I know what you’re thinking, you’re probably picturing a lazy, entitled woman who doesn’t want to get married so she can keep getting free groceries but buy her kid’s expensive tennis shoes and iPhones, but that’s not true. The government covers her medical insurance since, technically, she’s a single mom, and the medical costs of her child with special needs is several thousand dollars a month. There’s no way she could afford the cost on her own.
Tell me if this sounds familiar to you. You’re sitting in your car waiting for the police officer to come back with your license and registration.
Whether or not he gives you a ticket is a toss-up. At the moment, based on the fact that he didn’t smile when you attempted a small joke, you would put your current odds at around 80/20 you’re getting a ticket.
Jesus made an interesting, actually confusing, statement in the middle of one of his sermons.
It was one of those statements a preacher makes in passing, then moves on leaving the audience scratching their head.
I remember when I told my mom I was going to marry a pastor, and the first words out of her mouth were, “He better not move you away from me.” Much to her dismay, her question became a self-fulfilling prophecy, and I found myself living five states over, away from home, at twenty years old.