Secular leadership/personal development gurus have written some pretty good books.
And while some of their ideas can be imported into the pastorate, you and I both know they don’t have a clue about the realities of local church ministry.
There’s also some solid content written by megachurch leaders…who might have more staff than you have Sunday morning attendees!
They too live in a different world than most of us.
My first pastorate was in a small, northern community, population 2000...and shrinking.
As you can imagine, it was kinda hard to translate church growth ideas birthed in California into my setting!
Not to mention the productivity advice of incredibly gifted, occasionally workaholic leaders, blessed with executive assistants, researchers, ghost writers and big budgets.
I had to figure out another way to keep from crashing and burning!
And thankfully, I did.
Then I began teaching my own little “life-planning” system.
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, so I wrote it all down and it became the book Release: A Wilderness Adventure of the Soul.
Next, in a quest to get my head clear about disciple-making, (our core task as pastors and Christian leaders), I did an intensive study on the traits of a disciple.
Once again I taught it, and based on the consistent positive response, wrote it all down and published DNA of a Christ Follower.
These life-planning and disciple-making ideas, along with other principles I’ve gathered and adapted to my life and ministry over the years, all come together in Priority Pastor.
This training is about more than simply: