When the Cat is Away...

Our senior pastor left yesterday morning for Europe. He'll be gone for almost 3 weeks teaching at a seminary in Spain, and one in Slovakia.

I think it's a pretty cool thing to serve with a pastor who bleeds what he talks about on Sunday morning. Most pastors have a hard time giving up "their pulpit" for one Sunday, much less three in a row. But Ken feels as though he can preach a better sermon by living it out in Europe than he could just talking about it here every week.

We talk a lot as a church about being externally focused. We talk about our belief that our goal as a church is not to get everyone out there in here, but to get everyone in here out there. What better way to reinforce that than by the senior pastor spending a good chunk of time out there?

It's not just Ken. Every pastor at McKinney is expected/encouraged to go on a short-term mission every year. There is budget money set aside to help pastors get out there. To me, that is one of the strongest things McKinney does. Sure, our pastors are gone from time to time, but I think it makes us stronger. It helps us remain a church that is externally focused, and constantly resets our perspective to remind us there's something going on that is bigger than us.