I have been a pastor for about 15 years now and it has mostly been a fantastic journey with some of the best people on the planet. I did not attend seminary or have much formal training when I started out, but I sure wish someone had told me these ten things in the beginning.

1. Sheep bites can’t kill me, but the gnawing will make life miserable a few days each year.

2. No matter how hard I try, I will always be tempted to measure my success by attendance numbers.

3. The best thing I can do to build and grow God’s kingdom is to be myself and not compare myself to others.

4. It takes a long time to become old friends so nurture and cherish the old friendships God has given me.

5. I will only have as much spiritual authority as I am willing to submit to myself. Independence will destroy me but there is power in submission.

6. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Challenge people to go deeper even when the message is unpopular.

7. My brain will always feel like scrambled eggs on Sunday afternoon so don’t make any major decisions until Tuesday morning.

8. Some people will only trust you after a really long time of proving yourself and another group will never trust you no matter what you do.

9. Don’t feel guilty about taking a Sabbath. It was not a suggestion.

10. I will never regret spending time with my family instead of saying yes to a church meeting that someone else could lead.

I hope this is helpful to other young leaders who are launching out into ministry. What are some of things you wish someone had told you before you started ministry in the local church?

Twitter and Facebook provide huge opportunities to have conversations, to share ideas, to promote products and events, and to share the random thoughts of everyday life. Pam and I are realizing more and more, though, that we have to be super careful about our posts because they can be misinterpreted and misquoted.

Not long ago, I posted a comment about the number of tattoos on the Denver Nugget players. It was just a little late night sarcasm, but it prompted a lot of angry responses from people who also have tattoos. I regretted sounding judgmental because that is not who I am.  Last fall, after the Cowboys lost an early season game, I made a derogatory remark about Head Coach Wade Phillips and a wise man in our church kindly corrected me.  Since those two posts, I have tried to use a bit more wisdom and discretion in what I put online for all to read.

Since Twitter allows for only 140 characters, we often cannot fully explain what we are thinking, thereby leaving a lot of room for misinterpretation. Here are some rules I try to follow.

1. Don’t post about things that happen in the bathroom. Enough said.

2. Don’t post when you are angry or hungry, especially when you are both.

3. Don’t post stuff that points out physical or mental deficiencies in others.

4. Don’t post stuff about movies or songs that contain material that others may find offensive.

5. Don’t overhype an event. Promotion is fine, but hype is not classy.

I cannot tell you how often I have had to delete something I was about to post because it broke one of these rules. I have never regretted a deletion, but I have regretted a number of posts. I love social media and have made a lot of connections with people that I would have never met otherwise.  Like any good thing, it can become a snare if we are not wise with its use.  What are some of the rules you follow with social media? What are some of the mistakes you have made that the rest of us could learn from?

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine …” – Ephesians 3:20

I have a pretty big imagination and I have some friends who are crazy creative, but I wonder if any of us are asking for the big stuff like we did when we were younger and less cynical. This passage in Ephesians says God is able to do a lot more than we can ask or even dream up on a sunny day.

What happened to our fierce faith and bold determination? Have we surrendered our idealism and settled for pragmatism? I believe in common sense living and making decisions based upon facts, but the Kingdom of Heaven requires us to live by faith, which means we have to take risks and rely on things that are not seen. It actually pleases God for us to live like this.

Life tends to drain us of this tenacious faith. The economy tanks and we run for the foxholes to wait it out. The pressures of paying a mortgage cause us to think in 30-day cycles instead of looking further toward the horizon and imagining all the possibilities that may exist. We ditch our five-year vision plans and strategically survive instead.

Recently, God has challenged me to pray for some big stuff. I am asking Him for a donated Dream Center building that is bigger than we think is needed and better than we deserve so we can pastor our city. We don’t have the money or the staff to even operate a Dream Center, but we do have the vision and the courage to ask for a miracle.

What big prayers should you be praying right now? Have you settled for foxhole living or have you started dreaming big again? My prayer is that all of us will regain our fierce faith and live with bold determination because God is able to do immeasurably more than we are asking or imagining.