Pastor Ray Johnston is a rare and unique individual. He is the guy that big organizations, large churches, and even mega churches often turn to for help when facing serious trouble. For example, Ray was asked to step in as the interim pastor at Willow Creek Community Church following Bill Hybels’ resignation. Ray’s church, Bayside Church in Sacramento, reports 18,000 members spread across several multi-site locations. However, Ray is also unique in that he does not insist on doing the majority of the preaching. He consistently involves and shares both the pulpit and church leadership with a younger team of gifted lead pastors.

Johnston invested seven years in researching and writing The Hope Quotient HQ: Measure It. Raise It. You’ll Never Be the Same. However, the book’s premise is simple: raising your level of encouragement or hope is a key factor in personal and ministry success. Johnston insists,

The single most important thing I do is make sure I stay encouraged. If I’m not encouraged, eventually nothing else matters. If I’m not encouraged, I’ll never be the communicator people who listen to me need me to be. If I’m not encouraged, I’ll never be the person I believe God wants me to be.^[1]

Much of Johnston’s book is devoted to “seven critical factors that, when they are rising in your life, will give you genuine hope …”

The Seven

1. Recharge your batteries. Nobody does well running on empty.
2. Raise your expectations. You don’t get what you deserve; you get what you expect.
3. Refocus on the future. It’s time to throw away your rearview mirror. No one goes forward well when they are looking back.
4. Play to your strengths. Be yourself; everyone else is taken.
5. Refuse to go it alone. Never underestimate the power of support. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto.
6. Replace burnout with balance. Burning the candle at both ends isn’t as bright as you think.
7. Play great defense. Avoid the five toxic hope killers that can threaten your future.

These Seven change everything! Why? Because . . . RAISING THESE SEVEN FACTORS RAISES YOUR HOPE QUOTIENT . . . which CREATES FRESH VISION which UNLEASHES A WHOLE NEW FUTURE! ^[2]

A full chapter of the book is devoted to unpacking each of the seven factors, and there is much more. I highly recommend The Hope Quotient HQ: Measure It. Raise It. You’ll Never Be the Same by Ray Johnston. The book is an easy read with encouraging, instructing, motivating, and convicting content. It is available on Amazon as a Kindle e-book, audiobook, paperback, and also in hardcover.

[1] Johnston, Ray. The Hope Quotient: Measure It. Raise It. You’ll Never Be the Same. (pp. 3-4) Kindle Edition.

[2] Ibid. 37-38.

After twenty years as a lead pastor and an additional twenty years as a “pastor to pastors” as part of the ministry team at the district office, becoming a semi-retired minister has been a big adjustment. To prepare for this new season (as an adjunct college faculty member and interim pastor), I took a brief sabbatical to seek God, completed a doctor’s degree, and worked hard to get my personal finances in order.

While writing my personal growth plan, I discovered James N. Watkins’ book, If You’re Not Dead, You’re Not Done. The book is an easy read. The illustrations are humorous cartoons, and Watkins’ writing has a light-hearted tone. However, the book’s primary message is profoundly important: “If you wake up, God has something meaningful for you to do that day. If you’re not dead, you’re not done.”

Watkins encourages his readers to join “Agers Anonymous.” He suggests ten steps he believes are essential for becoming a “satisfied, significant, and saintly senior.” A section of the book is devoted to each of the ten steps, with 3-5 short chapters of encouraging content in each section:

1. Acceptance of aches, pains, and all the other unmanageable consequences of aging
2. Anticipation of a brighter future as we live fully in the present
3. Courage to face each new day without fear
4. Curiosity to keep exploring this amazing world and stay young by learning new things
5. Faith, hope, and love from Bible study, prayer, and fellowship with God and others
6. Forgiveness by making amends with anyone we have a grudge against or have called “an old goat”
7. Gratitude for God’s love and care, replacing all our wrong attitudes toward aging
8. Joy through asking God to swap our complaints with things that help us experience his joy
9. Optimism by deliberately choosing positive thoughts based on God’s “good, pleasing and perfect will”
10. Significance realized by being energized with God’s power and living out these ten steps daily

James Watkins’ goal is “to continue doing what he loves to do until at least his hundredth birthday.”  If You’re Not Dead, You’re Not Done: Live With Purpose At Any Age is available on Amazon for less than ten dollars in paperback or Kindle e-book.

I read a lot of good books. However, I occasionally read a book so good it is a MUST-READ. TOTAL FORGIVENESS  by R.T. Kendall is one of those books. EVERYONE should read this one—even if you rarely read an entire book. The message is relevant for every Christian. But it is essential for everyone involved in ministry as a pastor, teacher, or Christian leader.

No matter how faithful, skilled, loving, well-intentioned, and caring you are, if you are involved in ministry, you will be HURT. Some of the hurts will be accidental and unintentional. Still, some wounds will be the result of on-purpose, unfair, mean-spirited, and very personal attacks on your leadership, your ministry, your character, and even your family.

When we, or those we love, are unfairly wounded, it is easy to feel justified in holding on to the hurt. Kendall captures our natural response in the book’s subtitle, “When everything in you wants to hold a grudge, point a finger, and remember the pain—God wants you to lay it all aside.”

Kendall writes from painful personal experience. For twenty-five years, R.T. pastored historic Westminster Chapel in London, England. He followed Rev. Martin Lloyd-Jones, one of the most gifted and influential preachers of the 20^th century. Early in his ministry at the church, Kendall and his wife were deeply wounded by a devastating and unfair personal attack. Hoping for a sympathetic ear, Kendall shared his hurt with a minister friend. However, Kendall was shocked by unexpected words of reprimand, “RT, you must totally forgive them. Until you totally forgive them you will be in chains. Release them, and you will be released.”

WHY is it essential to TOTALLY FORGIVE and lay it all aside? A few brief excerpts illustrate some of the book’s key principles:

• “I had to make an important decision: Which do I prefer—the peace or the bitterness? I couldn’t have it both ways. I began to see that I was the one who was losing by nursing my attitude of unforgiveness. My bitterness wasn’t damaging anyone but myself.”
• “I have come to the conclusion that the primary way we grieve the Spirit in our lives is by fostering bitterness in our hearts. I say this because it is the first thing the apostle Paul mentions after warning us not to grieve the Spirit:”
• “Social scientists are discovering that forgiveness may help lead to victims’ emotional and even physical healing and wholeness. …one of the primary discoveries of these studies is that the person who gains the most from forgiveness is the person who does the forgiving.”

There is much more in this powerful book. I feel so strongly about its value that I bought extra copies and keep one in my car to give away whenever I meet a person struggling with forgiveness. The book is available on Amazon in hardback, paperback, Kindle e-book, and as an audiobook.

I love reading books that make me think. While completing my doctors degree at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, there were many. My first class was advanced hermeneutics (principles for correctly interpreting Scripture) with Dr. Bob Eby. The class was demanding and was much like jumping into the deep end of the pool. The books were challenging and difficult to read. However, Misreading Scripture With Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien, was a delightful exception. Wow. The book really opened my eyes and made me think about the unconscious biases we bring to the Bible because of American culture.

Reading the Bible is a Cross-cultural Experience

Perhaps you’ve never thought about it, but reading the Bible is a cross-cultural  experience. Scripture was written in a different land, in a different time, in a different language (Greek or Hebrew), with different customs and behaviors. It was a very different culture than we have in America. Richards and O’Brien insist, “The most powerful cultural values are those that go without being said.” The authors go on to helpfully explain, “When a passage of Scripture appears to leave out a piece of the puzzle because something went without being said, we instinctively fill in the gap with a piece from our own culture—usually a piece that goes without being said. When we miss what went without being said for THEM and substitute what goes without being said FOR US, we are at risk of misreading Scripture” (emphasis added).¹

Is YOU singular or Plural?

A fascinating example is the simple word “you.” In American English, the word can be used in either a plural sense (speaking of a group) or singular sense (speaking of an individual). In English the spelling remains the same. Greek and Hebrew are different. Both clearly indicate whether  the “you” is singular or plural. American culture emphasizes the rights and privileges of the individual. Greek and Hebrew cultures typically had a collective emphasis on the entire family, clan, group, or community. It is easy to think that every “you” we read in the Bible applies to us as an individual. However, the original language makes it clear that in many Scriptures the “you” is a plural and the advice, admonition, or promise is intended to apply to an entire group or the whole church.

Romans 12 is Not for “Lone Ranger” Christians

For example, Romans chapter 12 is not intended as teaching for “Lone Ranger” Christians who don’t think they need to be in fellowship and relationship as part of a church to experience God’s perfect will. Instead, the chapter is full of great teaching about how every member should present their bodies (note “bodies” is plural) as living sacrifices and be transformed in how they collectively think so that instead of conforming to the surrounding secular culture, “you (again this “you” is plural referring to the entire group) may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2, NRSV). Wow, what a thought! An entire church can discern and become everything God wants it to be! The rest of the chapter emphasizes how an individual should not “think of yourself more highly than you ought to think” (Romans 12:3, NRSV), and verses 4-9 emphasize how much we need the gifts that we and other believers can and must rightly exercise for the benefit of the entire group.

Maybe “YOU-ALL” is not so Silly

This deficiency in the English language is one that some regions have tried to address (to the amusement of the rest of the country). For example, southerners often say “you-all” in an attempt to refer to an entire group or family. When I pastored a church in western Maryland, the local people would sometime say “you’s” to indicate a whole family or more than one person. Frankly, this single concept is such a big deal that an entire follow-up book was written to go deeper on this important issue.²

I highly recommend Misreading Scripture With Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien. It is a book that will make you think—and perhaps help you think better when it comes to understanding Scripture.

¹E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013), 12-13, Kindle.

²E. Randolph Richards and Richard James, Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes: Patronage, Honor, and Shame in the Biblical World (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2020), Kindle.