19 Tuesday Aug 2014
Posted in 7SD, jeremy, jeremy mcgarity, pastor Jeremy, seven church
I do a lot of weddings. I am really thankful to be a part of someone’s BIG DAY! I love being around joy and weddings are always full of joy. Weddings are a BIG DEAL, and they are a BIG DEAL to God. I found this article by Marshal Segal to be a good one on why your wedding is still something worth wanting. The target audience is those who are single but anyone can get something out of the article.
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/your-wedding-is-still-something-worth-wanting
31 Saturday May 2014
Posted in 7SD, church, Church Leadership, God., jeremy, jeremy mcgarity, leadership, mcgarity, pastor Jeremy, patience, retreat, seven church, seven sd, sevensd church, Uncategorized
I’m currently attending the final residency phase of my Doctor of Ministry program and I’m working on my final Doctoral Project. I’ve been digging in to research on pastoral burnout and how it effects churches all across the nation. With 80-85% of churches declining or dying across America and with pastors leaving the ministry every day– there is a clear correlation between pastoral burnout and church decline . I’ve been shocked to read the latest research and find that last year over 1,700 pastors quit or were forced to leave the ministry every month…I’m gonna say that again…every month. That number is rising…
My project is focusing on the causes and correlations between burnout and decline in churches and the correlation between healthy pastors and healthy growing and multiplying churches. If we lose our leaders the research is showing we lose our churches. Since we trust Jesus’ words that his “yoke is easy and his burden light”
— what is causing such burnout among church leaders? So far, the research is that crushing expectations, no time off, always in “crisis mode”, wanting to please people and wanting to always be “On” and the pressure of putting together a good message for Sunday are all factors in burnout, moral failure and quitting amongst pastors in America. My goal is to help pastors and churches and find preventative methods and cures.
Here’s where you can help. If you know of a burned out pastor- either currently out of full time ministry or formerly burned out but back at it- please let me know by emailing me jeremy@7sd.org. I would like to interview pastors and leaders and draw some conclusions and provide some solutions.
Gracias and peace,
11 Thursday Apr 2013
Posted in 7SD, church, jeremy, jeremy mcgarity, pastor Jeremy
Tags
Check out this idea on quick but effective and in depth prayer
http://justinlathrop.com/2013/03/26/adopting-the-140-character-prayer/
22 Monday Feb 2010
Posted in God., jeremy, jeremy mcgarity, language of God, pastor Jeremy
“Silence is the language of God”- Thomas Keating
I’m learning about the importance of silence and solitude. I’ve taught on it for years and I’ve practiced it periodically. I want to flip that sequence.
God will not compete with our noise. He will not shout above the constant barrage of electronic stimulants and information overload. He does not push His way in to get our attention. He waits. Think about that. God waits for you and me.
He waits until we’re quiet enough in mind, heart, and soul, and then He speaks. 1 Kings 19 always reminds me of this….God speaks in a whisper.
He waits until we’ve prioritized Him. He waits until we’ve cleared our cluttered schedule to carve out space for Him (that sounds so ridiculous when I realize HE IS THE ONE WHO GIVES US TIME IN THE FIRST PLACE). Still, He waits.
So often, in my hurry, it’s as if God is speaking another language. I can’t translate the dialect He’s speaking.
It takes pure discipline as I’ve focused my time in silence before Him. Every thought must be held captive and pushed aside so I can have a clear mind, no distractions. My mind goes so many places for several minutes until finally it gets quiet. It’s in the next several moments that I meet with my Lord. These are good times. These are soul healing times. These are times of refreshing. It’s in these moments of silence that I can translate the language of God
In these moments I am reminded that I am not God, He is. I am not in charge, He is. All my hurry and all my worry is just me taking charge, it’s just me taking control. I need silence as a constant reminder that God is God and I’m not.
So, I’m learning. I don’t want to burn out, soften up, or lose to the enemy. So, I’ll do the waiting. I’ll listen to Psalm 37 and wait on the Lord, it’s the least I can do, He’s waited on me for so long.
17 Thursday Sep 2009
Posted in blog, emergency room, jeremy mcgarity, pastor Jeremy, patience
Life is so much about patience. Waiting in an emergency room is a good reminder that the world does not hurry for my needs. I think we turned down the wrong hall somewhere because this is clearly NOT the emergency room. This is the “it says emergency room outside but that is so hypothetical…room.”
We have been ushered, like a legless turtle, down the hall into a room where I’m listening to doctors and nurses guess at the amount of sedative they just gave the patient behind curtain 6…which is terribly comforting at this hour.
The better news is I’ve been sitting in this chair which at some level has become part of me except that it is a really uncomfortable part. It’s like sitting naked on broken sea shells.
Our pregnant pause is past 5 hours. It’s 2:00am now and there is no sign that Riley will get his stitches any time soon. His chin looks a lot like and opened oyster right now. Ah, but the time will come soon enough, patience, oh sweet patience. It could be worse.
Soon, I will see the sun will come up, or soon The Son will come back, not sure which one will be first but am anticipating the second much more than the first and at this point don’t want to be sitting in sea shells when the first happens. However, if it so happens that it is the sun before The Son, I shall remain patient.
