Brian Richards

Age yourself by naming an MLB shortstop you grew up watching. I’ll start: Derek Jeter.

Since someone tagged me, I will come out of Twitter hibernation. 1. For starters, antiquated polity to assess, train and ordain pastors. If churches are 10 years behind culture, denominations are 50 years behind. 2. Qualified men removes half the church (not a fight I want to start, but worth noting). 61% of churches are women and you won't ordain women so... 3. Limited experiences for youth and children in church to have intense ministry experience - mission trips, camps, retreats, conferences. Maybe these still happen but I see a clear line between people who have had these formative experiences as teens convert into pastors. 4. Back in my day (old man cough) they did altar calls for people who may sense a call to ministry. Maybe we need to bring that back. Or maybe not, let's just not be weird about it. 5. The emerging generation can point a cell phone at their face and stream on YT and get 10x (or 100x) the ears to listen v. being in a pulpit. Not saying that makes them a pastor (it doesn't) but you'd be a fool to think they're reaching less people. 6. Boomer pastors who refuse to retire (some due to pride, some due to not saving for retirement) thus clogging up the pipeline. No 25 year old wants to be an associate pastor for a 62 year old who thinks he has 13 more years in the tank. 7. Already mentioned in a 1 but dropping 50k+ on an M. Div when your earning potential caps at 70K is a losing bet. 8. We still have a limited view of what a pastor is (or can be). Jesus called fishermen, but most churches want want a 35‑to‑45‑year‑old man with an M. Div (D. Min preferred) who is a biblically qualified, spiritually blazing shepherd‑scholar who preaches expositional sermons with TED‑talk charisma, casts decade‑long strategic vision while praying without ceasing, juggles million‑dollar budgets with CFO precision, leads collaborative teams with both servant hearted humility and decisive apostolic authority, handles every conflict with tear‑soaked compassion, mobilizes an evangelistic army before lunch, innovates like a start‑up founder after dinner, and still has energy to disciple toddlers, counsel marriages, post on social media, and host pot‑luck small groups nightly in his home that his wife made from scratch. Yeah I wonder why no one wants to be a pastor.

NFL Rookie of the Year Finalists

From 776 BC when the first Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece until today this without question is the worst “No Call” in the History of Sports…and it happen 6 years ago today January 20th. 2019!