Blogs

What is Coaching?

“Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional ...

Courageous Leadership!

Leading is both an honor and a privilege! It comes with rewards and hardships. Anyone who wishes to lead well, ...

Just Keep Worshipping !

I’m continuing the idea from my last blog on worship! Do you realize worship has the ability to literally change ...

Just Worship!

What do we do when we’re so tired, hurt, or angry that it’s hard to get out of bed in ...
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Peter Walks on the Water: Lesson Three

“Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the ...

Peter Walks on Water: Lesson Two

“He said, “Come!” So Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw ...

Peter Water Walks – Lesson One

"Peter, suddenly bold, said, 'Master, if it’s really you, call me to come to you on the water.' He said, ...
/ #onlygod, faith, leadership, Uncategorized

Peter Walks on Water!

“Peter replied to Him, “Lord, if it is [really] You, command me to come to You on the water. He ...

Why Water Walkers???

Over the next few blogs I want to share about a group I’ve created for pastors called ‘Water Walkers’. As ...
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Perfect Peace!

I’m continuing the 31 day prayer challenge; in which a group of us are focusing and praying one verse per ...
/ #onlygod, #peace, faith, trust, Uncategorized

Giving God Our Firsts!

This week I’ve been asking the Lord how I can give Him the first and the best of me. He’s ...
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First things, first!

In the first weeks of the first month of this New Year, I’m thinking much about Firsts. What does it ...

Praying Scripture

I’m finishing the first week of a 31 day prayer challenge put out by Kim Avery (www.kimaverycoaching.com), which includes a ...
/ faith, prayer, scripture, Uncategorized

2018 – A Fresh New Chapter

The beauty of a new year is just that, it’s NEW! It's an opportunity to turn a new chapter and ...
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The Gift of Balance in Our Work/Ministry Life

Mark: I believe work is important and beneficial, but it isn't a separated secular or sacred thing that our Christian community ...

The Gift of Balance: Me Time

Our conversation continues as we focus on giving ourselves permission for 'Me Time'... Mark: I've become more aware of the importance ...
/ #metime, #solitude, balance, rest, Uncategorized

The Gift of Balance: Balancing Forgiveness, Grace and Expectations in Marriage

John: Besides making decisions together and balancing giving and getting, what other commitments are there between you and your spouse? ...
/ #marriage, balance, Uncategorized

The Gift of Balance in Marriage or Singleness

John Gregory, Mark Stanifer and I continue discussing balance and how it applies in the married or single life. John: ...
/ #marriage, balance, Uncategorized

The Gift of Balance: The Tech Dilemma

In a technology saturated society, how have you found balance as a family? Mark: We have taken a very conservative ...

The Gift of Balance: Family Life Continued

2) How have you approached spiritual formation in your family that is balanced between legalism and "letting them find their ...

The Gift of Balance Series: Family Life

John, Mark & Tonya continue their discussion, turning their attention to balance in the family! 1) What are the most ...

The Gift of Balance Series: Our Personal Journey Continues

If you didn’t read the first blog in this series, this is a transcript of a Friday morning phone call ...
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The Gift of Balance: Our Personal Journey

I was recently asked to join two other coaches in discussing what balance looks like in key areas of our ...
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Preventing Leadership Exhaustion through Healthy Friendships!

“It is lonely at the top!” But is it supposed to be? Is that the example that the Lord has given ...

Preventing Leadership Exhaustion by Nurturing Our Kids

Several years ago while I was still in seminary, I listened to a traveling evangelist share this story at a ...

Preventing Leadership Exhaustion by Nurturing Our Marriage

Marriage can be the best and most difficult relationship we have. Why? No one else on this earth is closer ...

Preventing Leadership Exhaustion through Relationships

We are hard-wired to be in relationship. Each of us was created in the image of God and the very ...

Preventing Leadership Exhaustion: Handling a Crushed Spirit!

I recently conducted a survey with those in pastoral ministry asking what topics they would be open to discuss in ...

Preventing Leadership Exhaustion; What’s Your EQ? (2)

This week I want to discuss the last two components of emotional intelligence; empathy and social skill. These two areas ...

Preventing Leadership Exhaustion; what’s your EQ?

In the mid–1990’s Daniel Goleman introduced the term ‘Emotional Intelligence’ into the leadership world. He said it was twice as ...

Preventing Leadership Exhaustion; Overcoming Disappointment!

One final word on preventing leadership exhaustion through nurturing our spiritual relationship, then I’ll turn my focus on nurturing our ...
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Preventing Leadership Exhaustion through WAP!

In my previous blog I talked about the need for keeping our first love, first. In this blog I’d like ...

Preventing Leadership Exhaustion – Our First Love!

The most important step in preventing leadership exhaustion is keeping our first love, first! Actually, this is the only way ...

Preventing Leadership Exhaustion!

I love pastors! I love their heart to care for others, to bring the Word of God to a hurting ...

Archived: Shame!

Shame; the big barrier to freedom and joy! Every time I sit with someone that opens up and tells me ...
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Archived: The Crux of Christianity

What does it mean to be a Christian? Should those who claim Christ as their savior look and act differently ...

Archived: Letting Go!

I’m sitting at the Boston airport getting ready to fly out with my husband and leave our 19 year old ...

Archived: Shame

Shame; the big barrier to freedom and joy! Every time I sit with someone that opens up and tells me ...

Archived: No More Dead Religion!

Recently I was made aware of a story that very much upset me. A man, I’ll call Tom, whom had ...

Archived: Philippians 4:4-9

“Rejoice in the Lord Always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”(4) Rejoice means to show great joy or delight. Paul ...

Archived: Physically Balanced

There are so many directions I could go in with this blog, I had to remind myself why I started ...

Archived: Relationally Balanced!

We are hardwired to be in relationship. Each one of us was created in the image of God and God ...

Archived: Emotionally Balanced

Being balanced emotionally starts with our thoughts! Our emotions are fickle, they are the caboose of the train following where ...

Archived: Spiritually Balanced

Living a balanced life, in my opinion, starts by living balanced spiritually. In order to do that we need to ...

Archived: Balance

‘Balance’ has become a buzz word in our society, today. Yet I’m not sure most of us understand what it ...

Archived: No Fear!

I want to follow up my previous blog on our response to the recent headlines in the news. Just as ...

Archived: What Should Our Response Be?

Recently I found myself feeling sick to my stomach as the news played some vile words delivered by a local ...

Archived: More Accountability!

I want to follow up my previous blog with a few more thoughts on accountability. I believe we need to ...
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Archived: Accountability, isn’t a dirty word!

“Have it your way”, “Just do it”, and “I did it my way” are slogans, songs, and a prevailing attitude ...

Archived: More Authenticity; UGH!!

“Mom, you get upset if I don’t take your advice and do things the way you want me to do ...

Archived: Authentic Communication

Communication is the number one issue I deal with in my counseling practice. Healthy communication involves so much more than ...

Archived: Communicating

Keeping in line with my last blog on listening; I want to share a bit more on healthy communication. As ...

Archived: Listening!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “the first service one owes to others in the community involves listening to them. Just as our ...
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Archived: I do what I don’t want to do!

“ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I ...
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Archived: Talking to My Teen: HELP!

It’s happening again; I speak the words and somehow they pass through an invisible funnel that cruelly changes their meaning ...
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Archived: Jesus Get’s It

It’s very early Easter morning and I can’t sleep. Do you ever feel so overcome with emotion that thoughts just ...
/ prayer, Uncategorized, Worry

Archived: Cancer Prayers

I am sitting here at the airport after saying goodbye to my dad, thinking over the many conversations we had ...
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Martha & Mary – Pt. 2

What Martha did Right! In continuing the discussion on Mary and Martha from Luke 10: 38–42, I want to focus on ...
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Martha & Mary Lessons

Luke 10: 38–42 shares the story of Jesus and His disciples visiting the home of Mary and Martha in the ...
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Archived: The Lord’s Prayer

I have been reading a small book written over 300 years ago by Madame Guyon, called Experiencing God through Prayer ...
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Archived: Our Self Esteem (pt. 2)

In part one I talked about how we all place a value on our self, but sometimes that value isn’t ...
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Archived: Our Self-Esteem (pt.1)

Sometimes we erroneously say that someone has ‘no self-esteem’. Every one of us has self-esteem. One definition says, ‘self-esteem reflects ...
/ Self Esteem

Archived: We Are Valuable!

We are a driven society! So many are on the move; going, doing, working, trying to do more, earn more, ...
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Archived: Knowing God

We’ve been inundated with formulas of how to pray, how to do spiritual warfare, how to read the Word. Many ...
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Archived: Mistaken Identity??

In the previous blog I talked about the Lord’s love for us; His unconditional love that we can’t earn nor ...
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Archived: God just loves us, period!

I’ve been praying a lot about what the Lord wants me to write and I feel He keeps saying the ...
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Archived: “Beginning Blog”

First off, thank you for opening this blog and choosing to read it. I want to say I’d like this ...
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