Mental Musings

General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) has been credited with the famous phrase, “War is hell.” No matter how war has been depicted in books, songs, and movies, there is nothing glamorous about war. War is the physical result of a spiritual condition. My father, Lt. William James Poole, Ret. USN, served his country for 22 years. He graduated Valedictorian from the Traveler’s Rest High School in Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina. He then entered the navy as a Seaman fresh out of high school. While stationed in Rhode Island, my father somehow met Jane Louise Hearn, who was living in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. They fell in love and married before he was transferred to Florida where my sister was born. My father attended Perdue University and graduated after 4 years just 9 ours shy of completing his master’s in Electrical Engineering. The Navy would not allow him to take any further classes, so he had to delay his master’s until many years later. During that time my br...

Every time you turn around somebody is asking you to give money to help with some cause. Many people just get tired of hearing groups beg them for money; especially when they cannot afford to make a commitment to give a significant amount of money toward any cause, no matter how worthy it is. As a church planter I am learning even more about how difficult it is to get churches, groups, and individuals to give financial support. I hate begging people for money, but the cost to start a new church is expensive. That cost is just a drop in the bucket for the costs to run an established church. And since church plants are more successful in reaching lost people than established churches, that cost is definitely worth supporting. But how do you get that support when most churches are very focused on their own budget needs and many families are not willing to sacrifice large amounts of cash? For decades marketing experts had determined that the average person considered anything ...