Yoda

A few months ago I quoted something a friend of mine had written about me on his blog where he referred to me as "the Yoda of church planters". For the uninformed, Yoda is a key part of the Star Wars movies. He is nine hundred years old and trained Jedi warriors for more than eight hundred years.

I guess Gary was taking another swipe at my age while commenting on the fact that I do offer occasional advice to church planters and others.

Today was a day for that. I had phone calls from pastors in three different states, each of them asking for some input on situations they are currently facing.

One is feeling exhausted and spiritually empty; another is contemplating a change of location and looking into renting a movie theater; the third has just had an assistant pastor resign suddenly and create a whole bunch of problems.

There are times when ministry is particularly difficult and occasions when every pastor feels overwhelmed either by specific problems or the magnitude of the overall task at hand.

I don't pretend to have all the answers, but I do care. That's true for the people in the great church that God is allowing me to pastor right now too. I'm not the fount of all wisdom for them and I don't have the solution to every problem, but sometimes people aren't looking for a wiseguy, they just want a friend. I can do that!