An Easy Way To Help Your Pastor

My most insecure moment as a Pastor is immediately after preaching. Even though my main preaching objective is articulating what I sense the LORD saying, I often find myself asking, "Did my message connect? Did I totally screw up my sermon? Was my zipper down that whole time?" 

"Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up."  

Proverbs 12:25

Having a group of people watching, processing and criticizing every word you say is stressful--especially when people's lives are on the line. Yes, most of us preachers have spent a lot of time on stage, but we are still human and have insecurities. Thankfully, there are people who encourage me immediately after preaching. Hearing an uplifting word after speaking means the world to me, and I'm sure it will for your pastor too. A positive word lets Pastors know their efforts are not wasted. 

I encourage you to encourage your pastor immediately after every sermon. 

This small gesture will produce strength, passion and motivation for future ministry. If you want to effectively encourage your pastor, follow these 6 simple tips.

6 Tips to Help Encourage your Pastor After Preaching

1. Encourage Immediately

The moment right after speaking is the most insecure. Approach your Pastor as soon as you can to say something kind. Encouragement a week later is good, but immediately is better if you want to neutralize the "insecure moment."

2. Send a Personal Message

Put your encouragement in a text message, email, card or on a piece of paper. I still read notes people gave me 10 years ago. Something as permanent as a written message will uplift your Pastor for years. 

3. Say Something Specific

After a sermon, people tell me, "Good job." Almost always, I then ask, "How did God use this message to impact you?" I want to know the specific parts of the message or delivery that caused it to be good. Find a quote, story or joke you found particularly exceptional and let your pastor know. 

4. Quote Your Pastor On Social Media

Once you have a quote, put it on Social media and tag your pastor. Even better if you incorporate the Pastor's quote with an original picture! I look forward to reading these every week. 

5. Share Transformation Stories

If God did something in your life or someone else's, please let your Pastors know! Most people got into the ministry because they want to see lives changing, so let them know it's happening. Pass on the testimonies. Don't assume the Pastor has heard any good reports. 

6. Save Constructive Criticism for Later

Growing as a preacher is one of my main focuses in life. Feedback is my friend, but only after a minimum of 12 hours after preaching. Please don't bring up negative feedback during the most insecure moment of a preacher's life!

Conclusion:

This blog seems very narcissistic and the product of a "selfie" culture. This may be true, but, ultimately, the main affirmation I want to hear is "Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant." Knowing that our sermons are making a difference, on this side of eternity, isn't just flattery though. It's confirmation that God is using us and changing lives. 

Please, encourage your pastor after he or she preaches. Your five seconds of kindness makes a huge difference and costs very little. 

QUESTION: What's holding you back from applying this every time you hear a sermon?

Tongue Scrapers Eliminate Bad Breath [Practical Stuff #1]

To my wife’s joy, the tongue scraper I bought two months ago helped my breath smell better. I’m a preacher, so I try to impact people with my words. Unfortunately,  my jokes, and content did not deliver the strongest impression—my breath did.

I knew my breath was bad, but nothing I tried really worked to prevent it:

·      Brushing

·      Flossing

·      Not having an empty stomach

·      Mouthwash

The Wife Test

So I tried a tongue scraper, and my wife, who has no problem telling me when my breath is bad, said it worked wonders. I asked her to give me a quote concerning this difference.

“I can’t even smell your breath anymore!”

That’s all the proof you need, folks. Nobody is more aware of my breath than my wife (we kiss).

What is a Tongue Scraper?

This is the tongue scraper I use,

Basically, a dirty tongue contributes to 90% of bad breath. That’s why my traditional attempts (brushing, flossing, etc.) did not work. This tool scrapes the bad breath content off of your tongue.

All you do is scrape the white stuff off your tongue. Simple.

Smell it, and you’ll most likely agree your bad odors come from the white gunk.

If you’re a preacher, or someone regularly holding a conversation, get a tongue scraper. It’s less than $5 and makes a huge difference! You’ll see that people will talk to you a lot more than they used to. 

LOST MY GIRLFRIEND!

GAINED A FIANCE!

Last Saturday, my girlfriend Amreitha Richelle Miller agreed to marry me, and I'm so happy! We've been dating more than 2.5 years, traveled all around the world, and are ready to take the next step. She's an amazing woman I have incredible chemistry with, so taking the step was a no brainer.

I want to remember our engagement story forever, so it will forever be documented through this blog!

THE ENGAGEMENT STORY:

Three months ago, I bought an engagement ring and got the blessing from Amreitha's father to propose. In order to ask her to be my girlfriend almost three years ago, I went all out. I asked her to model for a photoshoot of mine, then surprised her with seven stations around Colorado Springs that each had roses and a letter on parchment explaining the most significant parts of our relationship. This time I wanted to be just as romantic, but not as complicated--though still extravagant.

Over the last two weeks, Amreitha gathered 25 people to diet until Christmas. Her and I eat strict diets all week and cheat on Saturdays. We planned on eating at Fat Lorenzo's, our favorite pizza place in Minneapolis on the Saturday of Nov. 5th.

She had no idea I planned proposing that day, and I wanted it to stay that way. She asked if we could take pictures in the park (I'm teaching her photography), and we did. After taking pictures, we walked over to our Pizza place, and then the real planning kicked in.

At Fat Lorenzo's, while she wasn't looking, I wrote down our reservation name, as well as 5 fake reservations. Because we were "fifth" in line, we waited to be seated for 20 minutes. Acting like I was sick of waiting, I said to Amreitha that we should order the pizza to go, and assured her I knew the perfect place to eat it. She reluctantly agreed (it was kind of cold), but she showed readiness for spontaneous adventure. Little did she know how much adventure it would be! I ordered the pizza to go, and to her astonishment, the pizza was ready in five minutes. She shouted, "we should order our pizza to go all the time if it's always this fast!" Little did she know, I organized the proposal with the pizza guys, and they prepared the meal way ahead of time.

Next, I took her to my 1982 Dodge Ram Prospector, and blind folded her. This blind folding did not raise her suspicions because I have done this before to surprise her with different areas of Minneapolis. We drove about 10 minutes away from the cities, and arrived at our amazing destination.

Finding the perfect location proved to be the most difficult part in planning the proposal. When I found this place, my search stopped.

The Old Cedar Bridge is an abandoned registered historical place that is deteriorating but cannot be destroyed (like my biceps.jk). This is only 10 minutes away from the heart of Minneapolis, but it feels like you are in the middle of a wetland wilderness area. Amazing!

Amreitha, still blindfolded, arrived at this site totally unaware of the beautiful surroundings (now enhanced by the sunset). This place is not technically legal to visit, so I led over and under a few fences while she was still blind. This felt like a ropes training course!

At one point, the bridge completely breaks off, and a small plank is the only way to get across. I didn't know how to lead her across this, so I hoisted her over my shoulder and walked foot over foot to the other side. She really trusts me! One slip and we would have forever been part of this historical beauty (dead).

[Video: Walking across the plank]

Once we made it to my set destination, I handed her my iphone and said, "Please listen to this song." For the last three weeks, I've been working with my friend Elliot Johnston at Red Chair Studios to record a song for the proposal. We recorded some horrible music, scrapped everything, did it again, and then finally pulled something together. He is amazing, but I am not used to singing in a studio! Yikes. Plus, it's quite intimidating singing for a trained classical singer like Amreitha who has performed at Orchestra Hall with acts like Vocal Essence, the most award winning choir in America!

She listened to the song, smiled, but still had no idea I was proposing.

She gasped after hearing the pre-chorus: "I can't wait anymore, you must know that I love you so. You're the one, you're the one, you're the one."

[Here is the song]

Only Girl [Amreitha Proposal] by pradeepanjeeva

She gasped because this is the first time I've ever said, "I love you," to her. When we started dating, I committed to not say, "I love you," until I proposed, and not kiss until we've married. So far so good. It's been very difficult at times, but this engagement has renewed my fire for purity.

Like I said, she gasped, began crying, laughing and feeling all sorts of emotions. Watching her face during this part, blindfolded as it was, is my favorite part of the night.

I got down on my knee, asked her to take the blindfold off, and in the heat of this romance, she couldn't untie it! So, I helped her, then got back on one knee, gave her a speech none of us remembers, and asked her to marry me!

SHE SAID YES! We screamed, hugged and twirled in utter joy! My life has consisted of many ups and downs, and I'm so thankful to begin a life with girl of her caliber. Ten years ago, I never would have thought I could be so lucky.

Then she began noticing her surroundings, and this is what she saw:

We cuddled under the blankets, drank Ginger Beers, and tried to eat pizza. We were, however, to excited to eat much! After dreaming, talking about the details of the night and how excited were were to spend the rest of our lives together, we warmed up over drinks at a nearby coffee shop.

To cap the night, I had one more surprise lined up. Yet again, we got in the truck and took away her sight. She opened her eyes to see about 30 people from our community celebrating and cheering for us! What a better way to celebrate a great night and tell the story to a bunch our important people while the moment remained fresh. I only invited the majority of the people to the party the night before, so I was extra amazed to see all our friends!

Little did I know, my family planned to surprise my surprise. Moments after the initial surprise, my sister,   Amreitha's older sister and brother in law walked in the door. They traveled all the way from California and Kansas to party with us! Such a rush. I had no idea.

We gathered everyone, told the story and celebrated the night away! What a perfect day.

I didn't find out until after that my setup/teardown crew (Myka and Josias) got stopped by the police for trespassing on a historical bridge. Myka told them that I was proposing, and their stern demeanor transformed into giggles and smiles while asking, "Did she say yes?" Love wins!

Thanks for everyone who helped out and showed up! Shout out to Dayna, Josias, Myka, Elliot and Casey, Chamindika and Kenji, our special guests from different states, and so many others who supported us! You all truly made this a special day.

This is awesome!

Below I have posted more pictures and the full proposal video!

Pictures and video by Dayna and Josias.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN9vwhWfqJ0]

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Mexicans Defeat French!

Festivals are awesome. This weekend, I went to the Cinco De Mayo festival on Saturday morning and the Festival of Nations of Sunday. The Friday preceding the festivals, I had family night.

I love family night. Right now, I’m greatly appreciating the importance of friendship. Not just friendship, though. I’m talking about the knitted heart, likeminded, like spirited, challenging, comforting, I’d kill for you kind of friendship.

Family night is my chance to connect with people who I’ve known and have known me for as long as I’ve lived.

My best friends are scattered through out the world, but I have my family. These weekly gatherings are glue and life to me.

I still miss my friends, though.

While missing my friends, I’ve mediated on Proverbs 18:4:

“A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Building community, specifically man community is something I love to do. So I need to be friendly. That’s specifically why I’ve planned a man night coming up (if you’re interested, send me a message).

A good friend is something worth fighting for. Every experience, success and adventure is greatly highlighted when you’re doing life with the people that are life.

If you want to hear an awesome sermon about this, here’s one from my pastor. When it’s all over, nothing is more important than your relationships. Check it out HERE (I’ll put a link here it is online).

Anyways, here are a few pictures from the Cinco De Mayo Festival.

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World Cup

Sri Lanka is beating India in Cricket. Blogrimage on hold.

...................................

Continued:

What a shame. Sri Lanka lost. No comedy in that :(

Sister's Respect

Sometimes I try so hard to get my sister's respect. This is another failed attempt in India. Maybe jumping rope will work.