This weekend two men from Hickory Grove and I will head to Las Cruces, New Mexico for the 24^th annual Bataan Death March memorial marathon. It is a grueling run made all the more fun by the 35lb pack and the mountainous terrain. But as demanding as it will be, it pales next to the horrors our young men faced 71 springs ago. Some have asked why I run this race (this is my 4^th time, although first with the pack.) I mean, after all, I am not a veteran and I don’t know anyone who was at Bataan, and frankly, I have a lot going on as a pastor. So why subject yourself to such an event. Here are a few reasons:

1. History: I love history and I will have a chance to shake hands with a handful of men that survived the Bataan Death March when they were little more than boys. They won’t be with us much longer.

2. Mortality: It is good now and then to find your limitations, to run till you drop or lift till you vomit or work till you fall over. Finding the ceiling on one’s own ability is a good reminder of mortality. This weekend, I will run on what I one day will become, dust. It’s good to be reminded of that from time to time.

3. I’m soft: I sit in a soft chair, sleep on a memory foam soft bed and I eat soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies. I will run this marathon in a soft pair of New Balance shoes. The night before, I’ll eat a big meal and sleep in a comfortable bed. Along the route there will be water stops manned by encouraging volunteers with a band playing and a crowd cheering at the finish line. And even with all those niceties, I will be lucky to finish it in an upright position. Seventy one years ago, men made of sterner stuff, traveled almost 3 times as far with no shoes, no water, no food and no hope and lived to tell about it. I cannot begin to fathom how they did it. It’s good to be reminded of how soft I am and how tough they were.

4. Honor: In some small minuscule way, running Bataan honors all of those that have sacrificed. Not just the greatest generation but all of the men and women that have laid down their lives, many of which never picked them up again. I have tremendous respect for all of them and this is a tangible way to remember and honor them.

5. A metaphor for life: We all carry some type of weight, burden or pressure; just like the pack I will be carrying this weekend. And often times the key to finishing well in life is just like the key to finishing Bataan. Just keep going, keep moving, standing underneath the pressure, feet sore but solidly planted and moving one in front of the other. Stay the course, finish the race and then take your rest.

I look forward to a great weekend at White Sands Missile Range and hope to come back reminded of some things that will help me be a better husband, father, and pastor.

Armed with all that knowledge it can be tempting to tell everything you know. After all, you ARE the expert and your expertise should be on display, and that is where we get in trouble. The temptation to put your knowledge on display can be cloaked under the wholesome desire to teach. I’ll be the first to admit there is a dearth of doctrinally sound exegetically robust preaching out there and our first priority is to “rightly divide the Word”, but don’t try to impress people with your intellect. Sunday is not about having the preacher’s knowledge on display; Sunday is about the glory of Christ on display.

We must resist holding resources back or making it sound like we have some sort of esoteric knowledge back behind a secret curtain. Resource your people, point them to good blogs, websites and books. Let them know what you are reading, how you prepare and why you handle a passage like you do. As you strive to exalt Christ, preach the bible and equip your people, hope they walk away Sunday after Sunday further impressed with Christ and not with you.

Besides, you are probably not as smart as you think you are.

I enjoy the time and thought that goes into making sure my shoes are shined and my shirt is pressed. When I lace up my shoes, and I always preach in hard-bottom lace-up shoes unless I’m wearing boots, I double-knot them in preparation for a morning of intensity. When I head into church on Sunday mornings, I mean business. The Gospel is going to get preached.

I am not at church to lounge, impress, or be thought of as “cutting edge.” I’m there to work, and the prevailing theme of my occupation is to point people vigorously to the God of the Bible. I cannot do that in a pair of flip-flops while drinking a latte.

Some will say that I need to dress in a relevant way. I think that’s true. My problem is that the congregation I lead ranges in age from 10 to 100. Besides, I think fashion relevance is overrated. Don’t misunderstand me: Hickory Grove is not a stuffy or even traditional church. Most men will not have on a tie — much less, a suit. All walks of life in all manner of dress are represented on any Sunday at HGBC, and we’re all worshipping the same Lord together.

Style is not the issue nearly as much as modesty is — that’s a different blog post altogether. I’m not seeking to make the “Sunday best” argument or pleading for us to return to fashion of yester-year. I just like to preach in clothing that bespeaks the gravity of my task. I take that task seriously. When I crank down the Windsor knot and lace up my cap-toes, I know it is time to go to work.

So there’s a little insight into the mind of Clint Pressley, preacher.

You steward a living Gospel that makes dead men alive and foul men clean!  How can you not be excited?  The church – with all of its potential craziness – belongs to the Lord, and He has given us the chance to earn a living serving Him by leading the church to become His spotless bride.

If you can’t throw yourself into the life and ministry of your church, then find something else to do.  If you can’t love the church with a consuming, unbalanced affection, then you need to turn in your Bible.  The church of the Lord Jesus is what we do, what we live for, and how we glorify God in returning our lives in service to Him, thankful for His grace to us.

We feed sheep.  As undershepherds called of God to that task, we care for the sheep in our flock.  Shepherds also carry a staff, and sometimes it’s necessary to employ the staff to keep the flock together and moving in the same direction.  But we don’t neglect to feed them because we’ve tired of the task or become distracted by the promise of a greener pasture.

Pastor brothers, you have one life.  To the glory of God, fling that life into loving, serving, prodding, and leading the church of the Lord Jesus – looking forward to your reward in eternity to come.

I am privileged beyond belief to call Hickory Grove my home and to serve alongside some of the godliest men and women. I believe that the prayers of faithful people in our church are being heard by a mighty God, and He is moving! These are great days at HGBC.  I serve at North Campus as Worship Leader. My family and I are blessed each week by the outpouring of affection and adoration to the Lord by our faith family.

Each time we meet, it is an opportunity for us as a part of creation to glorify the Lord. You’ve heard several of our staff say from time to time that we will always sing songs TO GOD or ABOUT GOD. No other criteria are as important as those.  We are blessed to have a pastor who believes in the power of God’s Word so much that when we leave a service, we have heard more about Jesus and the life-changing power of the Gospel than anything else.

As a worship leader, I reinforce that with the music selections. Our services have a flow about them that takes us from adoration and praise all the way to confession and repentance. We believe there is nothing more urgent than that: bringing people to the throne of God as He leads us to turn our hearts to Him. We will not sing songs that don’t pertain to either Jesus or the Gospel.  Here’s how a given Sunday service is structured:

The Call to Worship: Returning to the Things of the Lord.  Ephesians 2:11-14 gives us a clear picture of how we were away from God and then how we can be close to God. This invitation from the Lord to draw close to him causes an overwhelming feeling of joy as we begin to sing.  We are to ask the Lord to look inside of us to remove those bitter roots that Pastor spoke of in last week’s message.  The Lord’s work in our hearts then brings us to repent and turn to Him.

Our Confession: Giving Adoration to the Lord. We then confess with our mouths that Christ is King.  He is the Source of everything that we have and all that we need.  When we clap our hands in applause at the end of a song, it shouldn’t be for the band or the singers; we are agreeing together (as a chorus of “amens”) on what we just sang in worship.

Pastor’s Sermon: a Message from God’s Word. During the sermon, we hear about the Lord and how we are to live. The Gospel is always presented during these times of Bible study. Pastor Clint does not preach on topics, only to tack on the plan of salvation at the end. His message, straight from the Word, has the story of redemption and restoration for all people. From there, we respond.

Invitation: Repentance and Faith. Romans 8:12-14 urges us to turn away from our sinful nature in response to the Lord. I once heard someone say that worship is our unrestrained, uncalculated response to the greatness of God. If this statement is true, then we will respond to his invitation by surrendering our lives to Him. By the end of the service, the Gospel has been laid out so plainly in both Word and song, thus completing a true experience and encounter with the Creator of the World.  We can then rejoice and give thanks for what He has done by the power of His Word.

These are some of the thoughts that go into putting a service together. There is intention in our services: to honor the Lord and give Him our sacrifice of praise. We want to give all glory and honor to God every time we meet.

It’s a good reminder for me — and for all of us — that the words we’re reading together and preparing to exposit are alive and enduring and applicable to our lives. Reverence for the Word of God is absolutely necessary for me as I seek to remain faithful to what it says when I put together a message. Clarity in presenting the Gospel is a weekly prayer focus of mine. Here are some more:

How are you praying for your pastor?

Since I was in the seventh grade, all I have wanted to do is to “be a preacher.” Throughout middle school, high school, and on into college, I never wavered from that desire. My call to preach was clear then and has been ever since. I took my first church at the age of 23, having only been married 8 weeks. I didn’t know anything about being a pastor; all I knew was that God wanted me to preach, and so I started preaching and never looked back.

I have the greatest job in the world, but some days are better than others. Pastors are human; we need the Lord to get us through every day of ministry as we sow into broken lives around us and follow through on His command to make disciples while living the example we’re trying to set.

Here are some ways you can pray for your pastor.

— Family. I want to be the husband and father that God called me to be. My family is my first ministry, and they deserve my loving leadership. Pray also for my family, that they will honor Christ and that my sons will grow in their faith and love for the Lord and for His church.

— Personal Holiness. 19th century pastor Robert Murray M’Cheyne said “the greatest need my people have of me is my own personal holiness.” I believe that to be true.

— Love for the Sheep. If I am going to be an effective undershepherd, I need to have a Christ-centered love for the church. I want to live out 1 Peter 5 in a way that honors the Lord and His people.

— Focus on Doing God’s Will. “Never read your own press,” goes the old saying. For the pastor, compliments and flattery can become delusions of grandeur very quickly. Likewise, enduring long seasons of disparaging complaints breed discouragement and fear. I need to stay grounded in the Word and confident in the Lord’s leadership. Pray that He will light the way before me and not let me step off of it.

Let’s start with those.  Will you pray for your pastor this week?

As I got ready to come to church this morning, the shiny people on the local news were pleading with me to rush home this afternoon in order to watch the ongoing saga of yet another large church pastor caught in a scandal.

This is just a new refrain in the same old song sung to the tune of money, sex, and power. Leadership of a large organization begets hubris, which magnifies the leader’s depravity, and “every temptation common to man” scores again. (For strength, read Matthew 26:14 and 1 Corinthians 10).

It hurts me to hear of fellow pastors embroiled in scandal. It damages the Church Universal and injures the cause of Christ because it steals our credibility as Christ-followers.

But it’s more than just the bad press… sin and its horrific consequences remind me of the fragile state of the redeemed human. There is life-altering danger in one unguarded moment. To my pastor friends:  One stupid decision can wreck your life. It’ll wreck your family and your church.  And generational sin (your kids and grandkids having their lives altered by your stupidity) will wreck your family tree.

The truth of this is “But for the grace of God, there go I.” I am not immune to temptation. I pray every day that the Lord would protect me from myself; that I might not give in and find my family and my church picking up the pieces of a bad decision.

So, Preacher Man, build some accountability into your life. Go to bed early; get up early. Make sure the Bible is the first thing you read, and prayers are the first and last words you speak every day.

And for good measure, splash on some Aqua Velva before you leave the house. It’ll repel the opposite sex and pesky Carolina mosquitoes.