This week I get to introduce you to my friend Laurie … also known as brunettekoala. A few things I love about her: She uses European spelling. She has a wonderous Scottish accent. I get to go to church with her at Central’s Facebook Campus. We share a love for teen moms. Make sure to check out her blog.

1. What is your role in leadership/ministry?

In March 2009, I offered to jointly take on the role of coordinating a Christian pregnancy crisis centre with my friend, Sarah, in the city where we both live in Scotland. I had been working there already for 18 months.

2. What is your favorite thing about your role?

I love the variety that comes with this job. No week is the same. One of my favourite parts of my role is heading up the education work. Most of the time this is in high schools, but in the last year I had the chance to speak at the Scottish Christian Medical Fellowship conference with my friend, Joy who heads up a pregnancy crisis centre in Aberdeen. That somehow led to me running a training day with CMF and PRIME International to teach doctors, medical and nursing students from all over Scotland some of the tools we use in our centres to help their patients in pregnancy crisis in a compassionate way which doesn’t compromise their Christian beliefs.

3. What is the most challenging thing?

This is a spiritual battle. We’re in the frontline dealing with a social issue which is surrounded by controversy. It doesn’t get talked about in churches much at all, and we get so little support from them. Every day we face discouraging and heartbreaking situations which most people don’t want to think about. It is emotionally and spiritually draining, and it’s tough sometimes to keep going. We also face a lot of distrust from secular organisations and health care providers because of the assumptions they can make when they find out we’re Christians.

4. What do you wish someone had told you before you started in your area of leadership/ministry?

I started training in Aberdeen before the centre there had even opened, so we were all in it new together and had a great support from churches all over the city. The churches there really work together and support each other, and you can see the fruits of that in so many ecumenical ministries up there. Coming back here was a shock to my system as the churches here aren’t quite so united. I wasn’t prepared for that.

5. What do you wish others in leadership knew about your specific area?

The challenge of it. How important it is. That is something that is based on biblical truth that needs to be taught and shared in both actions and words. It’s so easy to say whether something is right or wrong, but it’s a whole other thing to be that change or to help people in really difficult situations so they do have an alternative option to abortion.

6. How has God used your leadership to grow and change you?

I’ve really learned that God is strong in my weakness and the power of prayer. Just before I started training as a pregnancy crisis advisor my faith was majorly tested when I found out I might not ever be able to have children. God just gave me such peace, and I quickly realised Satan was really going to try and stop me from being part of this ministry in any and every way he could. But God is bigger and greater.

7. If you could pass one little piece of wisdom to someone else in the same leadership role, what would it be?

Get to know your bible. Your bible is your one and only offensive weapon in battle. When I was a student I used to have different passages and verses that God had spoken to me through stuck all over my wall and mirror so I’d read them and meditate on them while drying and straightening my hair every morning. Sometimes when I feel I’m being dragged down by lies and discouraging stuff, I speak aloud those verses. It’s a bit like what Jesus did in the desert when he was tempted by Satan. And a bonus gem which a bloke called Mike Pilavachi taught me (and 1000s of others) in the summer of 2002 – leaders don’t have it all sorted. They go through struggles and they’re imperfect just like everybody else. Realising that was immensely liberating! God doesn’t necassarily call the equipped. He equips the called.

A few weeks ago I was having lunch with a few friends and when the bill arrived someone asked a simple question, “Does anyone have a pen.”  I’m the type of person who usually knows exactly what’s floating around in my purse and knew there were a couple of pens hanging around the bottom.  So I started fishing around and low and behold I started realizing I had more than just a couple pens… in fact I had about 10 Crosspoint.tv pens in my purse.

Yes, 10 pens I had inadvertently taken from our church.

I laid them all on the table and responded to my friends by saying, “Don’t judge me, but it looks like I seem to have acquired quite a few of our church pens.”  I’m thinking I might need to up my tithe to help cover the cost of missing pens!

What’s one way you know you’re a pastor’s wife?

Our friend, Jessica, tweeted this a few days ago:

It’s funny how we put on masks to impress people, but they like us better when they are off.

Yep. Right on.

Thoughts? So why, when we know this is true, do will still keep putting those masks on?

Buckle up.

Imagine yourself in the Back to the Future Delorean, or the Dr Who Phone booth, or whatever kind of time machine suits your fancy.

Now, what historical time period would you most like to visit? And … I’m going to assume that we’ve all already traveled to the years 0-33 AD, so cross that off your list.

I’m quite torn. I love history and read historical books most of the time.

I think in the end curiosity would get the best of me and I would have to go back to Victorian England to see if my Romanticism of that era is anywhere close to accurate. And I would want to walk through those estates and attend balls at them. But I would stash make-up in my purse, because I just couldn’t be running around without that.

All right … what year do you enter into your time machine?

We just posted the virtual gatherings for the first couple of months next year.

Here is a little sneak peek:

In January, we’ll be having a live Q&A chat that will be open to everyone. The details and link can be found here.

In February, we are doing another set of Virtual Roundtables. It will be open to all women in occupational ministry. Including Pastor’s Wives, ladies on church staffs, missionaries, etc. You can see the information and sign up by clicking here.

And of course, we have some other really exciting things in the planning phase, so pray for us and we keep looking for ways to connect and encourage you!

Gonna be a great year around here!

Sometimes my “give-a-hooter” breaks. This usually happens when I’m emotionally spent, or I’ve over committed our calendars, or something like that.

I don’t see that Jesus had a broken “give-a-hooter” though.

He had far more people needing him, people pulling on him, pressure, criticism, etc than we will ever face. There must have been times when He was completely spent. But the Bible says that He was moved by compassion for people … over and over again.

So I think it is time I toss my “give-a-hooter” in the trash all together. I need to make sure that no matter what is going on in my life, I don’t let it hinder the compassion that I should have for people.

A few months ago I wrote I discussed how I got here and mentioned I view life as a path where we get one stepping stone at a time.  One of those stepping stones for me was walking through StrengthsFinder 2.0 and evaluating my strengths.  I hadn’t done a test of this intensity in a few years and I found it important to revisit some of my God given strengths.

The test defines your five highest ranking strengths and the book is loaded with hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths.  Here’s my list…

Harmony
People who are especially talented in the Harmony theme look for consensus. They don’t enjoy conflict; rather, they seek areas of agreement.

Positivity
People who are especially talented in the Positivity theme have an enthusiasm that is contagious. They are upbeat and can get others excited about what they are going to do.

Consistency
People who are especially talented in the Consistency theme are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same. They try to treat everyone in the world with consistency by setting up clear rules and adhering to them.

Communication
People who are especially talented in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.

Empathy
People who are especially talented in the Empathy theme can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others’ lives or others’ situations.

The book includes a more in depth analysis of each strength as well as how that strength plays out in life…. how it effects your leadership, how you respond in certain situations, and gives you ideas for action.

I think a test like StrengthFinder 2.0 is vital as we’re defining our roles, evaluating how we can support our husbands and giving God our best.   I’ve rediscovered somethings about myself that allow me to appreciate who God created me to be.  I’ll be honest, I spend way too much time focusing on my weaknesses rather than valuing my strengths.  In fact my favorite quote from StrengthFinder 2.0 is…

From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths.

Have you taken a this test or a similar one lately?  I’d love to hear where your strengths lie.

A couple of years ago I heard I guy speaking about all the things that he had learned since becoming a Sr Pastor. He talked about all of the things he thought he had known or understood … and about how wrong he was. Oh my word … could I relate. Many times I’ve thought I should go back and apologize to former Sr Pastors that we worked for, because I thought they should have handled something differently, or didn’t have a clue, or should do something better.

I thought I knew what it was like to be in their shoes.

I was wrong.

I didn’t then … but I do now!

Anyway, one of the things he talked about was leadership being like the layers of an onion. As his level of leadership changed, he moved more and more to the outer layers of the onion. He hadn’t realized that all the while he had been leading in his various roles, he was being protected by the outer layer of that onion … the Sr Pastor. And once he became that outer layer … well … he saw things in a whole new light.

I don’t even know if that makes sense … but it is interesting. Very interesting.

We have lots of Impersonators around Vegas. I mean, who wouldn’t want Elvis to marry them, right?

We often hear from people that Jud looks like a couple of different famous people. I think it is pretty funny since I can’t see it. I’ll let you guess who and then I’ll post it in the comments. But I don’t ever get that … ever.

But not too long ago, I was sitting at the Taco Bell drive-thru window and the guy with the headset said, “You look like that girl in Pulp Fiction. I’m sorry …. I’m so sorry. You do, but I’m sorry.”

I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of this. I couldn’t decide if he was apologizing to me or Uma, but either way he was apologizing … profusely.

I think it must be the hair … or the Pulp Fiction dance that I’m sure I would rock at.

So … I’m wondering who people say you look like. What famous person could you pass for? Or if you needed to hire a celeb to play you in a movie, who would it be?

In-N-Out has the best stinkin’ burgers around. If you haven’t been to the West Coast to check them out, you’ll just have to trust me.

They also have amazing customer service. Most of the time there is a little guy standing next to the ordering speaker at the drive thru. He takes your order face-to-face and makes sure that it is correct. Then you head to window 1 to pay. There they double check your order to make sure that everything is right, and take your money. Then you head to window 2, driving by windows where you can see them cutting potatoes for fresh fries. At window 2, they triple check your order with a smile and give you boxes full of deliciousness.

I’ve never gotten anything messed up in my order. The workers are incredibly friendly and courteous despite the fact that they are woking fast food and wearing little paper hats. I think they know that they are cooking up the best burgers ever.

If that can happen in a little fast food chain, how much more so in the church. For those of us who have the absolute joy to be working at and serving in the church, giving people Someone way more valuable than special sauce, it might be good to be reminded of our attitudes and our interactions with people.

Yes at times it can be hurtful. And at others exhausting. But it is, first and foremost, an honor to get to serve others and God in this way.