When you prepare a sermon, you are creating content that you plan on delivering well. But preaching’s far more than just developing content and then delivering it well. It’s deeper somehow, and richer. And the reason that is so is this: the love of a shepherd.

Over the past couple of decades of ministry, there have been many people who have been a gift. People who jump in, who serve, who give, who encourage; people who bring a smile to my face when I see them.

A this-is-not-our-home post seems fitting for the day after an election here in America. I’m putting the finishing touches on it a few days before the election, so it’s not written based on any particular outcome.

Peter addresses his first epistle, "To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia…” (1 Peter 1;1, ESV). An exile is someone who is away from their home, staying in another place with the expectant hope that they will return.

I almost didn’t write this post.

The main reason is that it feels like most leadership writers have written on the content you’re about to read. If you follow a lot of ministry or leadership blogs, this may not even been the first article you’ve read on the topic this week.