pastormilan

Almost Everything I Learned About Growing a Church Was WrongA pastor’s journey from platform to presence, and what I found on the other side of church growthPAUL DAZET, A WOUNDED HEALERAPR 21, 2025 What if success wasn’t the goal, and healing was?In 2008, I was a young pastor leading one of the fastest-growing churches in our denomination. We followed the Willow Creek model: sleek branding, powerful worship, relevant sermons, clear pipelines for growth. Metrics mattered, and we were crushing them.Then cancer came.I shaved my head before…

Searching the Byways “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.  9So go into the highways and byways, and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast.’  10And those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all they found, both bad and good; and the wedding was filled with guests.  Matthew 22:8-10 [TLV]  “It is the most challenging and most rewarding ministry I have ever been a part of.”  Those are the…

Camp season is here.  Hundreds of our students will be packing up to go to Camp Chula Vista for an unforgettable and life transforming experience. They will have fun but, most importantly, they will experience the presence of God and be challenged in their faith.  Life long friendships will be forged. I am calling on the churches of Alabama to have a season of prayer beginning May 26 - June 16 for the camps.  Pray for students to be saved, to be called to ministry, to…

     Cutting wood to heat our log cabin of a house was a chore every Saturday at our home.  I usually did not mind because I wanted to be warm on cold nights.  But on this particular Saturday I was anxious to get finished because I had plans.  I had a date to take my girl friend to see “Love Story”. What could go wrong?  What went wrong was the tree dad was trying to cut down hung up in another tree.  Now we have to get the tractor involved…

As I close this last year’s chapter of my life I thank you, Father, for the blessing of your presence in every moment of every day. When I was troubled or frightened or anxious or afraid you did not abandon me. You gave me confidence and strength to walk into and through the storm.  In the normal, regular every day moments you were walking with me even when I was not aware of your presence.  When I was joyful or happy or peaceful you rejoiced with me.  You…

    I was 9 years old when I experienced the most frightening moment of my young life.  Our family car was stuck in a snow drift late on a dark, freezing night along with my brother, sister, mom, dad, and my baby brother.   Our family had left home in Chattanooga early that day to visit my granny, my dad’s mother, in Nashville for Christmas.      We left her house late in the afternoon to make the two-hour trip to Elkwood section road in Madison County, Alabama to visit…

Alabama Church of God welcomes Jerry and Veronica Roesly as new pastors to Penton and Opelika.

     Who is on your list?  What list?  Your thankful list.  Who has influenced you, helped you, supported you, prayed for you?  I was in a tight spot.  My truck was stuck in mud on a back road in a place that would look very suspicious to suspicious minds.  The gossip that could be generated if my predicament became public knowledge would be an embarrassment to me and the small church I pastored.      Who could I call on to help but not be judgmental and keep it quiet. There was person…

     I was shocked by conversations I had with several young people this week.  They are confused about the tragedy in Israel.  They told me they are being taught in school and by their friends that somehow Israel deserved their people being killed because of the Palestine situation.  This idea is a lie.  The massacre of innocent people on October 7 has nothing to do with the Palestine people. They despise Hamas.  Hamas is now using them as human shields.  Their lives mean nothing to Hamas.  Hamas’ intention is to kill Jews…