by Roger Ross | Mar 29, 2024 | Blog
One day, for no apparent reason, a piece of Scripture set up camp in the back of my head. It would waltz into my morning devotions to say “hi” but wasn’t satisfied with such an obvious setting. It chose to show up at night, during a meeting at work, or in a...
by Roger Ross | Mar 22, 2024 | Blog, Discernment, God's call, God's will, Prayer, Spiritual Discipline
It blew my socks off. In a recent post, I shared the dark struggle that led to my first 8-day silent prayer retreat. At the time, I was so depleted, I couldn’t think straight. Seeing my distress, my spiritual director shared something no one had ever mentioned...
by Roger Ross | Mar 15, 2024 | Blog
I avoided it for years. Early in ministry, I began to take two-or-three-day retreats for prayer, journaling, and recalibrating my relationship with God. In the constant blur of local church ministry, they became a spiritual oasis that refreshed my soul. At the time,...
by Roger Ross | Mar 9, 2024 | Blog
What do you have trouble believing? Maybe you’ve heard people say, “I’m not an exercise person.” “I’m simply not good with money.” “I’ve never been creative.” “God knows, I’m not a leader.” “You know, I don’t really matter that much.” Most of us are all too familiar...
by Roger Ross | Mar 2, 2024 | Blog
“My mandate is joy,” says Pastor Jerry Eze. “God specifically said to me that I have a mandate that everyone who walks through our door must have joy.” Pastor Jerry Eze Pastor Jerry is so serious about joy, in 2013 he planted a church in Abuja, Nigeria called Streams...
by Roger Ross | Feb 23, 2024 | Blog
We had one more thing to talk about when she left. “No problem,” I thought. “I’ll call her on her way to work.” On any other day, that’d be an easy fix. But that morning, it was impossible. ATT’s sudden and unexplained network outage shut down all incoming and...
by Roger Ross | Feb 17, 2024 | Blog
It was a quest. When I left high school, I headed for Illinois Wesleyan University for a single purpose: to become a Marine Biologist. Doesn’t everyone go to a small, United Methodist-related college in the middle of the continent to study marine life? Things were...
by Roger Ross | Feb 9, 2024 | Blog, Discernment, God's call
If someone had told me in Jr. High that I would grow up to be a pastor, I would have gone into a corner and cried. The most clueless, out of touch people I knew were pastors. In fact, most of the Methodist pastors I’d run across were old, bald and boring. I figured...
by Roger Ross | Feb 1, 2024 | Blog
“I’m afraid my church is going to die.” It was the tearful confession of a leader who loved her church but didn’t know how to stop its 30-year decline. For many pastors and church leaders, this story is all too familiar. A place once bustling with...
by Roger Ross | Jan 27, 2024 | Blog
Under it. That’s the way I’ve felt most days. Understaffed, under-rested, and under a deadline. Of course, I’m not alone. Douglas Adams of Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe fame said, “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” My...
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