I had the privilege of interviewing a pastor today; one who got saved after he graduated from seminary and pastored a few churches.

How cool is that?! Listen to my Leighann McCoy podcast and you'll get to hear Rick Nelson's story next week. This week I posted an interview with Dr. Chuck Lawless who shares with us a great definition of spiritual warfare and discusses the battle to believe. You will love this conversation as well.

Back to Rick. As he was sharing, I thought how hard it must have been for him to overcome the humility of admitting to his congregation that he'd been leading them all this time and he wasn't even saved. And then, I got to thinking about how hard it is to live our faith authentically as we lead ministry. 

I want to encourage you today with these 3 truths:

1. It's okay to struggle in your own prayer life while you urge others to pray.

One of my favorite Bible stories is the one that tells of Jacob's tussle with God near the Jabbok...

I don't usually use this blog page to promote events, but today I'm doing just that because I believe that the

ABSOLUTE BEST THING YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR CHURCH THIS YEAR IS TO OPEN A PRAYER CLINIC!

There are a few things we can do that make a really big difference in LOTS of things we can do. And one of those is this...

Come to a Prayer Clinic Open House 

In fact, come to our next one! We are hosting a special Open House for people who serve on Sundays. That would include pastors, prayer leaders, associational missions directors, pastors' wives, women's ministry leaders and any one else who believes that God responds in power when His people pray.

The next Open House for the Prayer Clinic will be held at Thompson Station Church in Thompson Station, TN on Wednesday, August 3 from 10:30-1PM. 

The day includes: Teach My Heart to Pray book, meeting with the highly trained and amazing Prayer Clinic team at Thompson Station Church, some extra surprises, lunch and time with me...

We call them all sorts of things. They used to be "Sunday School." Then we decided to offer them at other times throughout the week and we wanted people to know they were welcome to come, so we called them Connect Groups, or Life Groups, or House Groups or ... it's not important what we call them, it's important that we participate in them! 

At our church we encourage ALL our members to connect in a Life Group. For we tell them that they will grow the most in their faith when they do life together with other believers.

Our small group ministries are the lifeline of our churches.

When people get out of the auditorium and into a group, they become more than a spectator--they become a participant. It's like moving from the student section in the football stadium to the sidelines and exchanging your team colored sweatshirts with the uniform itself.

We live out our faith as disciples of Jesus in small groups. 

And this is why I'm committed this year to bring PRAYER to life in...