Why Didn’t Jesus Sink Peter’s Boat?
A minister friend of mine posted a Facebook status describing how God gets your attention when you neglect Him. He said God puts a “dent in your savings account” or “sends a drought to your farm.” Really? So God only knows how to get our attention by sending pain and suffering? Seriously? Jesus never got [...]
Jumping the Track
Years ago a man stopped me in the hallway at the Children’s Pastors’ Conference in San Diego and told me he was looking forward to reading my book about the Kidz Blitz story. He said he was interested in how Kidz Blitz came to be. “I don’t have a book about the Kidz Blitz story,” [...]
Goals Gone Bad
Long term goal setting is the best way to miss open doors. I don’t set long term goals. They say I should, but I don’t. Not because I am lazy, but because I flat out don’t believe in setting long term goals. Someone recently asked me, “Roger, where do you see yourself in five years?” [...]
Roger Swears an Oath
Recorded at a monastery in Ontario, Roger explains that he has sworn to not bathe or shave until he has completed his tell-all book, The Kidz Blitz Story.
The Monastery
This is the monastery in London, Ontario where I am currently hidden away to complete writing The Kidz Blitz Story. Not actually sure if anyone will be interested in reading it, but I am enjoying writing the story. Amazed by all that has happened since Kidz Blitz started 15 years ago. I hope the book [...]
Roger at the Monastery
I’m staying at a monastery in London, Ontario this week to finish my book.It is beautiful here. For years people have asked me to write the Kidz Blitz story and for years I have been working on it. A little here a little there. Well, no more delays. The jig is up. I can no [...]
Just a Little Overwhelmed
We purchased an unfinished building on 11 acres of prime real estate in Tampa, Florida. It was to be our new church facility. The building, started 17 years earlier, was about 70 percent completed. We had four months to complete the facility and move in. I was an associate pastor of staff.
Roger’s Rules for a Happy Summer
Summers are automatic; happy summers take a little effort. Revealed for the first time, here are my secrets. You’ll thank me for this in July. Make sure your house/home AC is charged with freon or whatever stuff makes it cold and is currently environmentally approved. Eat watermelon as often as possible. Yes, you will have [...]
Busted in the Cafeteria
As a sophomore in Bible college I was cool, shy but cool. Sauntering into the cafeteria in the dead of winter, I scoped out the room and made my way to the food line. Filling my tray with anything that looked remotely edible, I moved to the condiment table. Wearing a heavy winter coat with [...]
Is It Just Too Hard?
Was life/ministry ever supposed to be this hard? Really? I hear speakers/ministers/evangelists talk like following Jesus is the hardest thing since man landed on the moon. Sometimes I make ministry harder than it needs to be. Sometimes I make life harder than it needs to be. This scripture always (as in every time) blows me [...]
What Do You Want on Your Tombstone?
Top 5 Epitaphs I Don’t Want When something was broke, he fixed it He would have done some really cool stuff but his pastor wouldn’t let him He had good values He was a team player He made money Top 5 Epitaphs I Could Live (die) With He knew God He made things happen He [...]
Top 7 Stupidest Ministry Things I Ever Did
I am sure if I thought more about it could come up with more. These readily come to mind. 1. I put a kleptomaniac on the church board. I pastored the church and helped get Tom the Klepto on our church board thinking that he had grown past stealing. I was wrong. He never stole [...]
A Loving Culture of Redemption
I love that phrase: “A loving culture of redemption.” I don’t know of any better way to sum up a description of what the church is called to be. I have visited hundreds of churches in every denomination, every demographic, every economic level. Churches have a tendency to polarize to one side of the other. [...]
What’s the Rekabite Secret?
I realize that the Bible does not take a hard stand on drinking alcohol. And I know that in today’s Christian culture social drinking is accepted/expected. Hip/cool Christians drink. (Yeah.) And yes, I realize being a follower of Christ involves more than a beverage choice. Well, I am a bit of an old fashioned, stick-in-the-mud, [...]
Why is a Blame…a Shove?
People are attracted to people who make them feel good about themselves. Maybe it shouldn’t work that way, but it does. Maybe we should be attracted to people who can make us better. Maybe we should be attracted to people who can accurately help us pinpoint weaknesses in our own lives. But we aren’t. We [...]
My Unnamed Surgery
I have surgery tomorrow. At 7:00 am EST I enter the Kentucky Surgery Center to have a procedure that I will not name. That’s right. I am not telling what they are doing. I am calling it the Procedure-That-Will-Go-Unnamed. But rest assured if this works like it is supposed to work, I will come back with [...]
Thanks, Jenny
Just wanted to say a quick thanks to Jenny Funderburke for the article she wrote yesterday about…can you believe it…ME! Kinder words have never been said. Just so you know, I’ve sent a copy out to everyone I know: mom, dad, wife, kids, neighbors…Chuck at the gym, Betty the mailperson, Jim the grocery bagger… Seriously, [...]
“The Calling” Goes Arabic
Hey, got some really cool news yesterday! I thought I’d share it with all my blogger friends out there. “The Calling” is an article I wrote back in ’98 in hopes of encouraging other Children’s Pastors like myself. After a series of transitions that took me ultimately from Senior Pastor to “temporary” Children’s Pastor, I [...]
I Met Mike
Last Saturday night I dusted off my Hart Schaffner Marx suit and joined my politically active daughter, Mica, at Ten Lakes Farm in Versailles, Kentucky. There we socialized with the political elite of Kentucky. In the tradition of Kentucky horse farms the home and the farm were both spectacular. Mix that with some extremely wealthy [...]
Culture Shock 101
It turns out that the melting pot culture of Florida is somewhat different than the slow paced culture of eastern Kentucky. Who knew? In 1982 I planted a church in Morehead, Kentucky where I served as lead pastor for seven years. Then, in 1989 I moved to Tampa and planted a church from scratch/nothing. I [...]
Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes
If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less. (Gen. Eric Shinseki) If you refuse to change, you will slowly become ineffective at whatever you do. When you drift into ineffectiveness you will wake up one day to realize that you have become irrelevant. When you become irrelevant nobody cares what you [...]
