Barnabas Piper's Blog, page 39

You Need More Curiosity in Your Life

“Curiosity killed the cat.”

As much as I might wish this to be literally true about cats, the saying is a warning about the dangers of curiosity. Curiosity is often deemed to lead people into precarious places and down risky paths. It gets us into trouble and tempts us to stick our noses where noses have no business being.

When we look around at the world, especially from a Christian perspective, it looks like a dangerous place. It’s unjust, unclean, and poisonous in millions of ways. In such a scary and complicated world, it seems like curiosity only serves to lure us out into the danger, and possibly to an untimely demise.

While the world is a risky place, it’s important to remember that we aren’t cats. We don’t have to go through every open door and climb to the highest point of everything. We don’t have to pounce on everything that moves. We have minds and souls, not just animal instincts. While curiosity can be a threat to the life of a cat, for Christians it ought to be a life-enhancer.

Curiosity and Discernment

Curiosity is the strong desire to know and to learn. When Christians are curious, they grow in knowledge and their ability to rightly discern situations.

Discernment is the ability to judge what is right and wrong, what is good and bad. Christians are called to dwell on things that are honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable (Phil. 4:8), but how do we identify those things? In our world it can be hard to tell; almost nothing is black and white. In nearly every interaction we must be able to discern what is pure and lovely, what is honorable and true, and what is not.

Curiosity drives us in this process. We wonder and ask from a place of truth-seeking. Our curiosity, if godly, isn’t the thing that leads us into sin. It’s the thing that helps us recognize and avoid it, while celebrating the things that are good.

Jesus calls his followers to be in the world as he was, but not of the world. We’re to be of his kingdom, defined by it and living according to its standards, while loving our neighbors as ourselves. To love our neighbors we need to learn about them and their different cultures. We cannot fulfill this mission without being curious.

Curiosity and the discernment it begets enable us to plunge into culture, soak in it, but not be defined by it. It helps us love our world without being destroyed by it.

How Curiosity Anchors

But isn’t the world still dangerous? Won’t all this curiosity get us into trouble? The world can often seem like an evil tempter, beckoning us to our downfall. It’s scintillating and intoxicating, fogging our minds and numbing our senses. Think of Vanity Fair in The Pilgrim’s Progress, or how the White Witch’s Turkish delight so entranced Edmund in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

No question, the evils of the world are a powerful gravitational pull for our sinful hearts. To say we’re to be curious about the world denies none of this. Neither does it downplay the risks and dangers.

Instead, proper curiosity about the world opens our eyes to the wiles of the world and provides the discernment we need to fight against them. Curiosity about God anchors us in God’s strength as we learn more, seek more, and see more of him. Curiosity drives us to seek out truth and discern right from wrong. Curiosity isn’t a dangerous trap; it’s the thing God uses to make us wise so we can avoid the traps of sin and live freely for him.

[image error]For more on  curiosity, the Christian life, and interaction with culture check out my book The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life

This article was originally published at The Gospel Coalition and is used with permission.

New Happy Rant: Fecund Culture War Strategies and Complementarian Jerks

In this episode of The Happy Rant Ted and Barnabas (sans Ronnie) do what they always do and wander to and fro through a variety of topics:

OUR NEW BOOKS
Fecund, as a word and as a lifestyle
Can we even win the culture war?
What even is the “culture war”?
Complementarian jerks
Punching in our weigh class

NEW BOOKS

[image error]Ted Kluck has released a new book, The Outstanding Life of an Awkward Theater Kid: God, I’ll Do Anything―Just Don’t Let Me Fail. In his typical insightful, humorous, genuine manner Ted tells a story that will resonate with your nostalgia and your children’s present life. It is funny, heart warming, and truly encouraging. You will love it and your kids will too.

 

[image error]Barnabas Piper has Re-released his book The Pastor’s Kid: What It’s Like and How to Help. Written from a PK on behalf of PKs for pastors and for the church, it offers pointed critique and diagnosis but also hope in the grace of God. Being a PK brings unique struggles, and this books seeks to address them in a way that brings about change and hope and restoration.

Get Your Coffee

[image error]WE ARE COFFEE MOGULS AGAIN. We’ve joined forces with Redbud Coffee, based out of Auburn IL, to bring you deliciously roasted and beautifully packaged coffee. Check out their variety of roasts and be sure to use the code HappyRant at checkout to get a 10% discount off your purchase.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order your Redbud coffee
Connect with Ted, Ronnie, or Barnabas to speak for your church, organization, or event
Support the podcast through our Patreon page . This helps us cover production and hosting costs so we can keep this thing rolling

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen via just about any podcast app/streaming service out there
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #302

7 Things a Pastor’s Kid Needs from a Father

Pastors, your position is a demanding one, and those demands bring unique struggles on your family. A pastor’s wife bears a great burden, but she usually enters into the ministry willingly. A pastor’s children, though, are carried on the current of their parents’ calling. It is often a life of singular struggle and uncommon needs. These struggles often stem from the failures of the father. This isn’t to cast full blame on pastors for their children’s problems. But it is to say that pastors need to work to be good dads.

My own father has worked hard at this. He had his blind spots and weaknesses, and they have been a source of tension between him and me. But to this day, in his 33rd and last year of pastoral ministry, he has never stopped trying to be a better father. As I wrote this I thought of his failures, yes, but I also thought of successes. Lots of them. I also thought of dozens of conversations with fellow PKs about such struggles and their own relationships with their fathers. So know that my writing does not stem from bitterness of heart or some jaded desire to expose a good man’s faults. I love my dad. My desire is to see struggles avoided or defeated for other pastors and PKs.

So here are seven of the most significant ways a pastor can be a good father to his children. Pastors, your child needs . . .

1. A dad, not a pastor

Yes, you are called to pastor your family, but PKs want a dad—-someone who plays with them, protects them, makes them laugh, loves their mom, gives hugs, pays attention, teaches them how to build a budget and change the oil and field a ground ball. We want committed love and warmth. We want a dad who’s not a workaholic. It’s hypocritical to call your congregation to a life of love, sacrifice, and passionate gospel living while neglecting your own family. If a mortgage broker or salesman works too much at 60 hours a week, so do you. Leave work and be present for your kids. Your children will spit on your pastoring if they miss out on your fathering.

2. Conversation, not sermons

Sermons are an effective way to communicate biblical truth to a congregation, but not to your kids (or wife). Preaching at your children will stunt their view of Scripture, dull their interest, and squelch what passion you are trying to stir. Speak TO your children about the Bible in a way that’s interesting, applicable, and conversational. Help them see the Bible as a normal part of life. Rather than teach lessons, imbue your conversation with biblical worldview to help your children shape their life lenses. That way they’ll think they, too, can interact with this important book. Sermons at home separate them from the Word by implying that only the learned can understand it.

3. Your interest in their hobbies

Jonathan Edwards may be your homeboy or Seth Godin your muse, but your first-grade daughter doesn’t give a flip. Her love language is playing Barbies and dancing to Taylor Swift. Your son wants to build a Lego fort, beat you soundly at Modern Warfare on Xbox, or learn how to run a 10-yard out pattern. Your hobbies are yours alone, but engaging your children’s interests speaks love that matters deeply to them.

4. To be studied

It gets harder to share time with kids as they get older. So study them as hard as you study your Greek lexicon. They’re more important, anyway. Would your high school son appreciate going out to pizza with you or chilling on the couch and watching college football on a Saturday afternoon? Does your teenage daughter want you to take her shopping or to coffee? Maybe they don’t want recreation but just help—-so talk through their friend challenges or algebra problems, whichever are the most pressing. LEARN these things, even if it seems like there are no right answers. Teenagers are hard; they treat parents like idiots all the time. But these acts, when done consistently, add up. Make them a pattern so that when your kids are done thinking you are a moron they have a path to walk with you.

5. Consistency from you

No one can call hypocrisy on you faster than your kids (and wife), and nothing will undermine you in the home faster. If you stand in the pulpit on Sunday and talk about grace after spending Friday and Saturday griping at your family, grace looks awfully cheap and unappealing to your son in the second row. If, however, you treat your son as if you need his grace and forgiveness for your crappy attitude, it may open a door to God’s grace. (And use phrases like “crappy attitude”; it sounds more like you actually know what you’re apologizing for.)

If you act like the great shepherd in the pulpit but the hired hand who runs away at home, your children will see church and all it entails as phony because you are phony. If you encourage a life of joy but are morose or exhort your people toward a life of sacrifice but are lazy and spendthrifty, nobody will notice faster than those in your home. To your family, your interactions with God and them are far more important than your Sunday sermons.

6. Grace to fail

Pastors speak much about grace. It is the basis of our salvation and the source of hope. But when the rubber meets the road, do you offer enough of it to your children? PKs feel enormous pressure to be “good” and to be confident in all things biblical. But we are often not good and often lack confidence in biblical realities. We sin and doubt like everyone else, but when we do, the road to restoration and peace often feels like an impossible one to travel. Are we allowed the same grace to fail and to doubt (assuming you preach grace to your congregation)?

7. A single moral standard

One of the graces PKs need is a single moral standard. Too many PKs feel the pressure of their fathers’ priestly profession in our moral lives. The pastor and elder qualifications in 1 Timothy and Titus feel like a threat: “If you screw up, your father not only looks bad, he will be out of a job.” But those standards are the same ones that every Christian should be held to (other than the ability to teach). Nobody else’s dad is at risk of being unemployed if his kid is rebellious, but mine is. The additional pressure to be morally upstanding does not help my heart. It creates a convoluted soul environment in which temptation to rebel and temptation to be a hypocrite battle the desire to honor Jesus and my dad.

You have heard that it was said PKs should be holier than their peers, and their parents should raise them better, but Jesus says to us all, “Be holy for I am holy.” So it should be.

[image error]For more on serving pastors’ kids well and the challenges they face check out my book The Pastor’s Kid: What’s It’s Like and How You Can Help.

This article was originally published at The Gospel Coalition and is used with permission.

 

New Happy Rant Sports: Future of Baseball and a Home Run Derby Recap

In this episode of The Happy Rant Sports Podcast Ted and Barnabas break down the following:

Our optimism (or lack thereof) about the baseball season
The 1993 home run derby featuring awesome names, awesome hair, awesome biceps, and more.
Do we need steroids to save baseball again?
What we would bring back from the early 90s for baseball

NEW BOOKS

[image error]Ted Kluck has released a new book, The Outstanding Life of an Awkward Theater Kid: God, I’ll Do Anything―Just Don’t Let Me Fail. In his typical insightful, humorous, genuine manner Ted tells a story that will resonate with your nostalgia and your children’s present life. It is funny, heart warming, and truly encouraging. You will love it and your kids will too.

 

[image error]Barnabas Piper has Re-released his book The Pastor’s Kid: What It’s Like and How to Help. Written from a PK on behalf of PKs for pastors and for the church, it offers pointed critique and diagnosis but also hope in the grace of God. Being a PK brings unique struggles, and this books seeks to address them in a way that brings about change and hope and restoration.

Get Your Coffee

[image error]WE ARE COFFEE MOGULS AGAIN. We’ve joined forces with Redbud Coffee, based out of Auburn IL, to bring you deliciously roasted and beautifully packaged coffee. Check out their variety of roasts and be sure to use the code HappyRant at checkout to get a 10% discount off your purchase.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order your Redbud coffee
Connect with Ted, Ronnie, or Barnabas to speak for your church, organization, or event
Support the podcast through our Patreon page . This helps us cover production and hosting costs so we can keep this thing rolling

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen via just about any podcast app/streaming service out there
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #43

How To Pray For Pastors’ Kids

Why exactly is it that pastors’ kids (PKs) need prayer? What makes them so special? Actually, nothing. They are just like all their peers—the same weaknesses, the same proclivity to sin, and made in the image of God, too. All in all, PKs are a pretty normal bunch.

And there you have it, the reason they need prayer: they’re normal. Yet when you put normal people in uniquely challenging circumstances, things get difficult, and growing up in a family wherein the father’s vocation is full-time ministry is definitely uniquely difficult.

A pastor’s family often functions as the “first family” of the church, setting the bar in all things spiritual and moral. They are the exemplars of ministry and life. They’re always being observed, and with that comes expectations. The church expects certain behaviors and personas from their leaders’ families.

So you can see why it is that a pastor’s kid could use some extra prayer. Growing up is a challenge all by itself—learning, growing, hormones, identity crises, unrequited love, sports heartbreak, relational drama, school, spiritual life, siblings, parents, and more. Now imagine doing all that while a church watches, expecting you to be a good little Christian. Where can a PK hide? Where can she hide her mistakes and her insecurities? More deeply, where can she connect with Jesus deeply and genuinely, not as just another expectation?

Most people in the church love the pastor’s family. They have no intention of adding to the pressure or pain of PKs, so what can they do to ease the burden? More than anything, the church can pray.

THAT THEY WOULD KNOW JESUS

One of the most significant challenges PKs face is a true connection with Jesus Christ. All the knowledge and trivia and Bible memory doesn’t equal a saving relationship with Christ. On the contrary, sometimes knowing all that good stuff actually tricks PKs into thinking they have one. So many PKs know of Jesus, but all the morality, expectations, and knowledge blind them to His heart-transforming reality. Only a miracle of the Holy Spirit revealing Jesus to someone can truly save. Pray this miracle, that Jesus would be visible through all the stuff that happens in His name.

THAT THEY WOULD FIND THEIR IDENTITY IN JESUS

When people grow up under significant expectations, it is natural to gauge themselves by those expectations. Am I what I am supposed to be? Am I pleasing the right people? PKs see themselves as what others want them to be instead of what God made them to be. For PKs, those standards often look very “Christiany,” very moral, very “churchy.” Christian kids know they are not to measure themselves by “worldly” standards but rather by biblical ones, and these churchy standards sure look biblical. But something is amiss. Meeting churchy standards still feels empty.

Why? Because it is the wrong place to find one’s identity. A follower of Christ is a new creation in Jesus. With that comes freedom to live a life made full by honoring Jesus instead of a life made harried by meeting expectations.

THAT THEY WOULD LOVE THEIR FAMILY

Pressure crushes things, and a cracking family is one of the devil’s favorite ways to undermine a pastor’s ministry. It’s an exploitable weakness and a nerve to be jabbed. When a PK crumbles under the pressure of ministry, she often blames her parents. (Sometimes they even deserve it for heaping that pressure on.) More subtly, the practice of being “just so” for the church can carry over into the home and stilt relationships. Instead of honesty, transparency, trust, and love, there is a void between family members.

THAT THEY WOULD LOVE THE CHURCH

PKs see more of the ugly in a church than anyone but the staff does. They see how ministry can pull apart their families. All the expectations can frustrate and embitter them. That’s why some PKs rebel and abandon church altogether. On the other hand, PKs get to see the best parts of the church too—deep friendships, changed lives, needs meet, souls transformed. Pray that the good would outweigh the bad, that they would recognize that there is bad everywhere humans gather, and that the church provides hope and richness like nowhere else.

FOR GRACE

People who grow up in church hear all about grace but often know very little of it. It is God’s grace that reveals Jesus and connects a PK to Him. It’s grace that overcomes and redeems the failures of family and church. It is God’s grace flowing through the church to the PK and through the PK to the church that enables the relationship to flourish. Grace is the thread that ties each of these needs together and the means by which God can grant them. Pray for the miraculous grace that covers a multitude of sins, restores the fallen and the bruised, and ties God’s people together.

This article was originally published for Ligonier Ministries.

[image error]For more on serving pastors’ kids well and the challenges they face check out my book The Pastor’s Kid: What’s It’s Like and How You Can Help.

New Happy Rant: Artsy Personalities and the Creative Process

In this episode of The Happy Rant Ted and Ronnie (sans Barnabas) wander to and fro through a variety of topics:

Record making vs. book writing
Collaboration vs. loner creation
Ministry vs. creative work
Dealing with editors
Collaborative music listening
Things we wish we’d changed in our work
Bogus expectations
Time away to write

TED’S NEW BOOK

[image error]Ted Kluck has released a new book, The Outstanding Life of an Awkward Theater Kid: God, I’ll Do Anything―Just Don’t Let Me Fail. In his typical insightful, humorous, genuine manner Ted tells a story that will resonate with your nostalgia and your children’s present life. It is funny, heart warming, and truly encouraging. You will love it and your kids will too.

Order Your Coffee

WE ARE COFFEE MOGULS AGAIN. We’ve joined forces with Redbud Coffee, based out of Auburn IL, to bring you deliciously roasted and beautifully packaged coffee. Check out their variety of roasts and be sure to use the code HappyRant at checkout to get a 10% discount off your purchase.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order your Redbud coffee
Connect with Ted, Ronnie, or Barnabas to speak for your church, organization, or event
Support the podcast through our Patreon page . This helps us cover production and hosting costs so we can keep this thing rolling

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen via just about any podcast app/streaming service out there
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #301

New Happy Rant: Aging, Wise, and Bespoke

In this episode of The Happy Rant Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas do what they always do and wander to and fro through various topics:

Ronnie turns 50
Perspectives on aging – realism, enjoyment, and expectations
What do we get excited about
Becoming “the old guy”
Fight the powers that be
Done with “bespoke”

BARNABAS’S FORTHCOMING BOOK

[image error]As discussed in today’s episode, Barnabas has a new book releasing later this year, Hoping For Happiness: Turning Life’s Most Elusive Feeling into Lasting Reality. This book seeks to throw off both the unrealistic expectations that end in disappointment and the guilty sense that Christians are not meant to have fun. He shows how having a clear view of the reality of the fall and the promise of redemption frees us to live a life that’s grounded, hopeful, and genuinely happy.

Sponsors

Check out Communion App, a multi-platform (iOS, Android, and Web) communication platform specifically designed to create a private, safe environment for regular communication between church members. The Communion App does this, in measure, by restricting membership and access to the application to only official members of the church. Thus creating a safe environment to share one’s life and heart with the others in the church.

Order Your Coffee

WE ARE COFFEE MOGULS AGAIN. We’ve joined forces with Redbud Coffee, based out of Auburn IL, to bring you deliciously roasted and beautifully packaged coffee. Check out their variety of roasts and be sure to use the code HappyRant at checkout to get a 10% discount off your purchase.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order your Redbud coffee
Connect with Ted, Ronnie, or Barnabas to speak for your church, organization, or event
Support the podcast through our Patreon page . This helps us cover production and hosting costs so we can keep this thing rolling

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen via just about any podcast app/streaming service out there
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #300

3 Things Pastors’ Kids Need From Their Churches

Everyone in church notices the pastor’s kids. People don’t think about noticing them, it just happens. I grew up as a PK, the son of John Piper, and even I notice PKs. It’s almost impossible to avoid. They’re like the first children of the church.

Don’t think you notice them? Here’s what it looks like.

You know things about their personal lives you don’t know about any other kid in the church: where they’re going to college, who they took to prom, that they just got braces, that they got pulled over for speeding last week. You make comments about their behavior to them or to anyone else. “Did you see his new tattoo?” “You can’t talk like that; you’re the pastor’s kid.” “Can you believe she wore that to church?” “Pastors’ kids should know better than to run in church.” You expect them to speak out in Sunday school, to pray, to lead. You have a tacit standard for them as PKs. You hold them to a higher standard than their peers in church, and you’re not even trying to do so.

What you might not realize is how this makes PKs feel.

They feel like people are always watching. The fact that you know personal things about them makes them hyper aware of you watching, listening, knowing.

They feel like there is no room for mistakes. People watch them. People tell them how to act. People have a standard for them. What pressure! They know they’re going to screw up, but how can they with everyone watching?

They feel as if they have to have it all together, to have a firm faith and a solid family life. No room for questions or doubts. No chance to wonder or wander. No struggles allowed. And really, who could they ask any way?

But you can help them. You can encourage PKs. Here are three ways.

1) Let PKs be themselves.

For better and worse, let PKs be themselves. One of the hardest parts of being a PK is being what others expect you to be without ever being able to find out who you are. Remember how you came to faith? Remember how you’ve grown in faith? I bet it was through struggles, through mistakes, through seeing the profound grace of God when you needed it most. I bet it came when you connected with Jesus in the deeply personal way instead of trying to be perfect or live up to someone else’s expectations. That’s exactly what PKs need—the room to connect with Jesus like that. And it might be a winding road with mistakes along the way, in fact it probably will be. But that’s OK.

2) Don’t ask anything of a PK you wouldn’t ask of anyone else.

One of the hardest things about being a PK is being known of by so many people you don’t know. It’s compounded when you interact as if you’re friends even though they can’t even remember your name. When you delve into their personal life, it doesn’t feel like friends talking; it feels like an invasion of privacy. Even more so when you demand that they act a certain way. When seven boys are sprinting around the church lobby, why stop the PK? When all the high school girls are dressing a certain way, why call out the PK? Step back and realize that you might be unwittingly piling expectations and scrutiny on them even though your motives are pure.

3) Befriend them as a friend, not as a novelty.

PKs need friends they can trust, friends who care nothing about their last name and everything about their personhood. They need friends who will love them for who they are not because of their daddy’s position in the church. They need friends who will help them, push them, listen to them and not judge them. These kinds of friends are the ones around whom PKs can begin to figure out who they really are, who God really is, and what it means to love Jesus in a personal way, not just a way that meets expectations.

[image error]For more on serving pastors’ kids (and their families) well and the challenges they face check out my book The Pastor’s Kid: What It’s Like and How to Help.

This post was originally published at ChurchLeaders.com

Pastor’s Kids, If I Knew Then What I Know Now . . .

I wouldn’t worry so much about what other people think.

People’s opinions are only that—opinions. They shouldn’t dictate what I do or don’t do, especially when it comes to my lifestyle. I still struggle with this as a grown man with my own family. Once upon a time it was what kind of music I listened to or what words I used. Now it’s more like how I spend my money or raise my kids.

I’ve only been able to get comfortable looking directly to the Bible for a standard within the last few years, realizing there are lots of things church people freak out about that God doesn’t. If I had found peace living up to God’s standards instead of people’s standards, I would have been a whole lot happier and avoided a mess of trouble I got myself into.

I’d dig into God’s Word with the purpose of knowing God better.

The Bible is a great story, not just a Sunday school curriculum. And it’s alive! I was so used to hearing about and being surrounded by Scripture that I missed its wonder. It took a major breakdown before I could come back to the Bible and see that it’s so much more than lessons, theology, and morals. It’s a narrative of God’s redeeming power and love. It’s a revelation of His character and work, and the Holy Spirit speaks into the fiber of our hearts if we’re willing. The Bible was a burden before I realized this; now it’s life!

I’d dream big and not feel guilty about it.

It’s ok to do something “secular” with your life. Secular is a distinction that church people made up to protect the sanctity of the church. What it really did was create a hierarchy between “Christian” work and “unchristian” work.

What matters is whether you are able to do what you do in a way that honors God. Do you have a mind for business? Go to Wall Street. Are you an artist? Paint a picture of something beautiful (and it doesn’t have to be Jesus). Love journalism? Get that gig with the New York Times or The Atlantic.

God gave you gifts and passions so you could maximize them and He would get the glory from you, his beautiful created child.

I’d bask in God’s undivided attention and affection for me.

God likes you. I’m sure you’ve been told that God loves you, but do you realizes that He likes you? I didn’t. In my world, the theology was so big and heady that I was often amazed by God and in wonder of Him, but not close to Him.

You may have come from a background where God was talked about mostly as a judge, so you fear Him or fear displeasing Him. But God really likes you. He enjoys you as a child.

I have two little girls, and they’re much more than my responsibility. I don’t just provide for them and keep them in line. I enjoy them. They make me really happy. And I want them to know it. And God feels like that toward His children, except to infinity and with perfection.

I wouldn’t even think of giving up on the church.

No matter how much it hurt you, church is worth sticking with. Maybe it’s not the church you grew up in, but finding one where you can be honest with your struggles and hurt is worth it. Finding one that will embrace you is worth it.

Just make sure it’s a church that puts Jesus first and not you or anyone else. You can’t afford to leave the church. You need it and it needs you. Your soul was made to be part of a community of souls, not solo. Stand by the church. The Bible call’s it Jesus’ Bride, and I have a suspicion He cares an awful lot about her. So should we.

[image error]For more on serving pastors’ kids (and their families) well and the challenges they face check out my book The Pastor’s Kid: What It’s Like and How to Help.

New Happy Rant: Solving America

In this episode of The Happy Rant Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas sort of do what they always do and wander to and fro through a few select topics:

What is there to be hopeful about in America?
Eschatology and the end of America
What is the upside of all this upheaval?
What are our fears?
Hypocrisy and Bravery online

Sponsors

Check out Communion App, a multi-platform (iOS, Android, and Web) communication platform specifically designed to create a private, safe environment for regular communication between church members. The Communion App does this, in measure, by restricting membership and access to the application to only official members of the church. Thus creating a safe environment to share one’s life and heart with the others in the church.

Order Your Coffee

WE ARE COFFEE MOGULS AGAIN. We’ve joined forces with Redbud Coffee, based out of Auburn IL, to bring you deliciously roasted and beautifully packaged coffee. Check out their variety of roasts and be sure to use the code HappyRant at checkout to get a 10% discount off your purchase.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order your Redbud coffee
Connect with Ted, Ronnie, or Barnabas to speak for your church, organization, or event
Support the podcast through our Patreon page . This helps us cover production and hosting costs so we can keep this thing rolling

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher
Listen via just about any podcast app/streaming service out there
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #299