My dad, calling Monday to check up on me and our weekend, offered a word of encouragement. “The Monday after Easter is a beautiful letdown,” he said, and I knew what he meant.

After the emotional high of Good Friday and Easter-morning services . . .

After all the weeks and weeks of planning every element to perfectly communicate truth and hope. . .

After the energy spent setting up, tweaking technology, and expending every possible ounce of energy again and again for the several services and every age group in multiple locations . . .

It was good to rest.

I thought about the day after Christmas or the day after our wedding. Such days are often just another normal day, except we’re more tired than usual. But I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t settle for that after Easter.

Actually, Monday was a celebration for me. The tomb was still empty Monday. It will still be empty this Sunday. In fact, the empty tomb of Christ will remain as proof of his power and provision until the day I die. And it seems to me we should see the days after Easter as a beautiful opportunity. The ground has been plowed. Now is the time to nurture growth and hope in the hearts of all those quickened by the message of Jesus.

Church, Leadership, LifeTrevor DeVageApril 7, 2021jesus, easter, notjustanothersunday, lead, leader, church, church leaders, cross, beautiful, opportunityComment

4 THOUGHTS THAT GIVE ME PASTOR PARALYSIS

Craig Groeschel’s Winning the War in Your Mind has led me to see thoughts I sometimes have that definitely are not good. See below, and I think you’ll find application not only for pastors like me, but every Christian. Lies like these poison leadership and every kind of spiritual progress. Let me tell you what I mean.

3 THINGS THAT HAPPEN WHEN WE LEAD FROM FEAR

Everybody’s afraid of something, and that’s not always bad. Fear of falling keeps us away from the edge of a cliff. Fear of wrecking (or getting a fine) stops us from ignoring a red light.

The last eleven months have sparked fear in the world in which we live.

Fear of a virus.

Fear of politics.

Fear of one another.

Fear of the unknown.

But when fear drives how you lead, your ability to lead will suffer. Here’s what I mean.

Church, Leadership, LifeTrevor DeVageFebruary 24, 2021fear, lead, leading, leader, feed, bleed, organization, complacency, missional, mission, misguided, bible, scriptureComment

MOVING FROM BITTER TO BETTER

Leaders in any organization, but especially in the church, spend so much time in bitterness management. Life Church pastor Craig Groeschel once said the thing he deals with more than anything else as he tries to grow a great church is lawsuits and negative people. Thankfully, he finds ways not to focus on such problems, because what you focus on is what you fall on.

I’ve decided not to make negatives my focus. I want to concentrate on making people better, not bitter.

And I’ve come to realize that the first way to do this is to work on making myself better instead of bitter. Most of the bitterness in the people I encounter began inside of them. Their own view of themselves and their personal circumstances created the bitterness that then spills out into the situations they enter. I want to be better than that. Concentrating on better always leads me upward. Slipping into bitter leads to a never-ending downward slide. Me being bitter doesn’t make me better, and it surely does nothing for those around me.

Church, Leadership, LifeTrevor DeVageFebruary 10, 2021better, bitter, leader, leadership, church, relationships, love, love one another, life, bitter to betterComment

WHAT WE NEED MORE THAN ANYTHING IN 2021

Two years ago, I received a Facebook message on Christmas Eve that I’ve been thinking about this week. A member of our church, a young woman who would not live to see the next year, wrote to thank me for our service that night and one song in particular. All of us hear “O Holy Night,” every Christmas, again and again. But that year, one lyric lifted my friend’s spirit: “A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.”

That hope is what she needed that Christmas.

That hope is what her husband and kids would need just a few short days later.

That hope is what we preached at her funeral a week later.

That hope is what every reader of this blog needs in 2021.

Trevor DeVage

copyright 2018

SOCIAL