This episode will include:
- During the hard days, there were a lot of personal attacks on you, some of the most heartbreaking parts of the podcast; however, are when you talk about the impact on your family. One listener wrote in and asked how you and your wife separated the roles of being a pastor and pastor’s wife from the roles of being dad and mom. Can you talk about how you did that?
- Part of the time of transition at First Baptist involved downsizing our staff. You talk about this in episode 5 and reference it again in episode 6. One listener wrote in response to this information and asked about the nuts and bolts of hiring and firing in a church context. Particularly, they asked about the use of NDA's. They wanted to know if it's biblical for Christian churches and organizations to use NDAs and if that’s part of our hiring and firing process at First Baptist.
- One listener wrote in response to all the sinful behavior that occurred toward you and our church during the time of transition. They asked about the role of church discipline at this time. Were any members pursued or disciplined by the church for their divisive behavior?
- In episode 6, you encourage people to not have a consumer mentality with church but then say it is okay for some people to leave when the preferences that brought them to the church in the first place have been radically altered but the core might still be faithful. These two things seem contradictory, could you help me think through more of the details of what you are trying to say?
- You said in the leadership podcast this week about mistakes you made that you should have left because of the weight it was on your family. There are many pastors who are constantly evaluating this in their lives. Can you give some principles on evaluating when this is too much on their family?
- There are people listening to this podcast, who have unrestored relationships but who deeply desire restoration. I know that is part of your story. What encouragement would you give people in a similar position to you?