Pushing Pause

Friends! 

As you may have noticed, I haven’t written anything for several weeks! I’ve been spending some time praying and discussing with others whether or not I should continue to write with the same consistency that I began this newsletter with. To be candid, it was hard to keep up and began to encroach on the thing I actually feel called to–being a local church pastor. 

When I first thought about writing, my biggest concern was that it would potentially pull me away from The Well. Even if that pull was just slightly. While I want to aid the broader church, and I think the Lord has an avenue there in the future, the more I’ve reflected, the more I feel like it isn’t the time to pursue that, mainly because it would strip away time from people that I feel deeply called to. Like, I love our church, and God is doing ridiculous things here right now! 

Changing Rhythms

So, I will still write, just not bi-weekly. For the present season, I will use this platform primarily for supplemental content better done in writing that directly serves our church. Although I hope others will also benefit deeply!

What About the Book?

Candidly, this doesn’t help my book writing process at all! It works against it! I also feel a lot of peace from the Lord that when the time is right, he will reveal this. But that time is not now. The one thing this process showed me is that I can write in a way that is helpful for the broader church. But once again, I, like, really love my local church! And I want to mainly invest relationally here. 

Perhaps in a few years, when my kids are older or when there is not as much work and effort needed directly from me to do what I would argue is a far bigger impact—church planting—I will pick up the rhythm and begin to pursue this again. I’m not sure.

Additionally, (transparently) I wasn’t gaining enough momentum for my potential agent/publisher to be happy with. Marketing myself right now feels like a negative thing for our church, which is so intentionally not about an individual or their gifting but about each of us as a whole. That as well felt like it was working against the calling I have to our church. 

While I do think long-term this could be a good outlet for The Well, particularly with regards to church planting (if I am more widely known, we can attract potential church planters, and then equip, train, and send them out!), I don’t think that season is today. 

How Are You Feeling About That?

Wow, thanks for asking! Honestly, the achiever and performer in me wants to just keep grinding, because I do feel like I can. A lot of that feeling I can easily identify as pride! Ironically, the book I’d begin writing is on calling. I know what I feel called to most—the local church! It’d be weird to forsake that calling to write to the broader church (once again, at least right now). That is not true for everyone, but it is true for me in this season. 

My wife, who has been my editor, said, “If you want to include a teaching moment, this would be a great spot to talk about the importance of the local church, and of people getting involved in their local church, because of how great it is.” Yes and amen! 

So, besides the part of me that likes to win, I’m feeling great about pushing pause. 

Podcasts, Sermons, Etc. 

You can keep up with me and The Well regularly through other means. We have our Well Said podcast, our weekly sermons (which I teach about 60% of the time), and there will inevitably be other things. 

Love yall. Hope this continues to be an encouraging platform.