Author Archives: Matthew Winters

Critics…gotta love them, right? The truth is we all have them. If you are in leadership, you have a ton of critics. Many struggle with the idea of critics in the church, but we quickly forget that people act like PEOPLE FIRST and Christians second. While we can be so quick to get frustrated withContinue reading “Considering Your Critics”

When social media became the craze over 15 years ago, I reluctantly got onto MySpace. Most younger people don’t even know what that is. It became unpopular as quickly as it became popular. When Facebook came out, I was slow to join. It took me years to do anything with it, but it eventually becameContinue reading “Social Media Friendships”

Social media can be a lot of fun. It can also, however, be full of opinions. Some of those opinions are on target, and some are pretty far-fetched. Yesterday, I had both. Both individuals called me out, and I was left alone to process the comments. The first comment was a bit out there. IContinue reading “Called Out on Social Media”

All I can say is that 2021 was full of difficult decisions. The easiest decision, though still emotional because I was leaving a great church, was the decision to obey God and pastor the church I currently serve. The other decisions were a bit challenging. This post will give you some honest thoughts as wellContinue reading “Difficult Decisions”

If you are like me, you may find yourself needing to transfer a balance from time to time. Our checking account is set up to transfer $1 for each transaction into our savings account. As life happens, we occasionally need to transfer some money from savings back into our checking account in order to preventContinue reading “Some Balances Shouldn’t Be Transferred”

I, like many others, had some wonderful plans for Christmas. This is my first Christmas as pastor of our church, so I was looking forward to this church’s customs and festivities. Then, December 11 came…and along came COVID! It decided to linger in our house for a bit. For a solid week, I did littleContinue reading “Christmas Passed Me By”

When you use the phrase “living the dream” here in the United States of America, people think many different things. They think of having a job with lots of money, owning a boat, a nice house, a nice car, and a plethora of other things. Fat bank accounts and retirement accounts are also among theseContinue reading “Living the Dream”

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of journaling? For me, it’s all the fancy doodling that ladies are so much better at doing than men are. I think of the drawings and calligraphy surrounding the body of what someone writes. I hate to break it to you, but myContinue reading “The Power of Journaling”

I’ll never forget how things happened overnight in 2015. In June, I met my wife. In July, we began our courtship. On September 11, we were married. Remember the song by Bonnie Raitt “Let’s give ‘em something to talk about”? Jennifer and I got everyone’s curiosity up here in the Golden Corner of South Carolina.Continue reading “6 Years!”

Approximately five years ago, I was reaching out in a Facebook pastors group for support. I knew I was still called to be a pastor, but not many churches would touch a divorced guy with a 39 1/2-foot pole. Several pastors commented with their platitudes, but I received a message from a guy who hadContinue reading “Remembering Pastor Ken Fetuao”