Author Archives: Michael D Johnson

Dear Pastor, What do you do when your friends, parishioners you love and respect, people who support you in every other way, don’t show up to Bible studies, worship services and ministry events that you have planned? I’m not talking about people who are on the fence, running from God or openly antagonistic towards you,Continue reading “When they don’t show up”

Dear Pastor, Here is the difficult news: you will always have someone who thinks you should be doing something different than you are.  Don’t worry about that. You don’t live or minister to make them happy. You aren’t seeking their approval. You won’t stand before them on judgment day. There is something that is commonContinue reading “When they don’t approve”

Dear pastor, What do you do when you are discouraged? Aimless? Lifeless? What do you do when you are tired? Stressed? Feeling like you just don’t have any strength left? What do you do when you just don’t know what to do? My guess is that you have asked these questions a few times inContinue reading “So many tough questions”

If there was only one message that I could give to people, it would be this.  There is a misnomer that God only comes to bless your life and give you gifts, abundance and fulfillment. In one sense people far and wide have come to adopt a “health, wealth and prosperity” gospel without realizing it. Continue reading “Pursue peace with all men, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord”

So many of us simply want love, acceptance and approval from the people around us. The problem is that people may not offer acceptance without certain conditions and their approval of our choices and beliefs may not actually help us to become better versions of ourselves.  In this article I want to talk about howContinue reading “Seeking acceptance, handling disapproval, and overcoming a prejudicial culture”

I want to be like certain people I have met or watched over the years. I want to be like Fred Rogers. I want to be like the fictional character Father Brown. I want to be like my Uncle Warren. What each of these men have in common is a gentleness and compassion and whatContinue reading “Seeking to be a God-honoring, faithful and effective pastor”

Still on this earth… So, you are still here too, huh? I guess we could sit around and discuss why we are still here. As a matter of fact that probably would be a very good use of our time (so long as we come to some truthful conclusions and then do something with thatContinue reading “Are you still here?”

Dear Pastor,  I imagine that if there were a book of all the greatest prophets, pastors and missionaries since time began, it would be far lengthier than any of us could imagine and I believe there is a great likelihood that your name would be recorded therein. In fact, there is likely only one wayContinue reading “The best pastors ever”

Dear Pastor, Do you ever find yourself wondering if you are doing everything wrong? You know, do you take a step back and look at all of your activity for the Lord and His church and ponder if you are doing the right things or if what you are doing is actually working?  I knowContinue reading “Am I doing it wrong?”

Dear Pastor, I want you to think of yourself as a conduit, a carrier of the Lord to people. Think about an aqueduct or viaduct…it’s sole purpose is to get the water to people. Yes the Romans created some impressive and beautiful aqueducts that 1000s of years later still draw attention to their genius andContinue reading “Conduits of the living water”