When I made the transition to being a senior minister, I hoped that my summers would slow down a bit, and somewhat take on a sense of normalcy. I hoped that I would settle into an established routine that would flow from week to week, and day to day.

Looking back, I wonder what possessed me to dream such dreams.

This summer has been as busy as I’ve ever experienced, and I haven’t even made it to a single week of camp!

Life has thrown a few big curve balls our way this summer. In the realm of ministry, I’ve decided to try to make my preaching even more expositorily focused. That is causing me to take more time to study while preparing my messages. I’ve been to five funerals in the past couple of months, preaching four of them myself. Camp season is in full swing, and Vacation Bible School is right around the corner.

On a more personal front, life has been busy as well. One of our vehicles died, and I had to purchase a new one. Our other van is facing a dire diagnosis now, too. Another member of our family, my mother, is now facing cancer, with surgery and treatments in the near future. My oldest daughter is working on getting a driver’s permit. And we are expecting another child. This will be our seventh.

That’s right. Seven.

Pile all of that on top of normal family requirements, normal ministry responsibilities, and studying for my master’s degree wherever I can fit it in, expecting this summer to be calm was a very crazy idea.

And even though my time has been so overwhelmingly filled, it has been a good summer so far. Even though we are facing some challenges, the blessings that God has poured into our lives have never been more obvious than they are right now. Some of those have resulted in lessons learned. Others are lessons in process. And still others are simply reminders and opportunities to rest in his care, especially when the van is sitting on the side of the road with the hood up and smoke billowing into the air.

Somewhere, in the back of my mind, a little voice is calling, saying “These circumstances will make some good posts in the future.” So I’ve been writing them down, and eventually, my lessons learned will probably show up here and there. Once I get far enough from them to view things objectively.

In the meantime, and in case you missed them, here are my top seven posts for the month of June:

1. 6 Characteristics Of A Good Communicator
2. The Difference Between Purpose, Vision, and Mission
3. How To Take Notes While Reading The Bible
4. Why A Daughter Needs A Dad
5. Why You Need To Develop A Philosophy Of Ministry
6. Trying A New Bible Reading System
7. My Current Philosophy Of Ministry

This month held no new surprises. Each of these posts consistently makes the list. However, the next seven posts with the most traffic saw several articles that haven’t made the list in a while, if ever. So, some posts have staying power, and I’m starting to see some traffic increase on some of my other material as well. That’s good.

The bad side of this is that none of these are recent things I’ve written. Each of these, all of the top fourteen or fifteen, are several months old or more. It’s not until further down the list that any of my more recent material is found. That could be that it just takes some time for the traffic to increase to the levels of my tried and true posts. On the other hand, it shows me that I need to work on the promotional side of things. So, my next targets will be in the areas of SEO and promotions.

In the meantime, here are my seven (or eight) most recent posts, not including the Coffee Break posts, or the series on memorizing 2 Timothy.

1. Book Review: Titus For You by Tim Chester – Review
2. Book Review: 1 Enoch, The Hermeneia Translation – Review
3. Book Review: 1 Enoch, The Hermeneia Commentary, Volume 1 – Review
4. Understanding The Purpose Of Man (Psalm 8) – Bible
5. Book Review: Be The Dad She Needs You To Be, by Dr. Kevin Leman – Review
6. A Study In Contrasts (Psalm 1) – Bible
7. Helping Other Succeed – Leadership
8. Waiting On The Second Coming (1 Peter 4:7-11) – Bible

Looking at that list reveals two things. I’m reading a lot, and reviewing a lot. But I need to be writing more.

This gives me some specific goals to strive for in the coming months as well.

My favorite posts from June were the two posts based on psalms: A Study On Contrasts, from Psalm 1, and Understanding The Purpose Of Man, from Psalm 8. Over the next few weeks, I intend to take a look at several other psalms that have impacted my life. Keep an eye out for those.

Even though things are busy, and will probably stay that way for a while, I’m looking forward to what may be just around the corner.

Have a great month!

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