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Mentor Week: The Pastors

Mar 17, 2010 Print This Post

This week, I am dedicating my blog posts to people who have mentored me in one way or another over the last year or so. Today, I’ll chat about The Pastors. These are pastors across the country who have influenced me a ton and some of them have no idea who I even am.

Larry Osborne, North Coast Church

I really can’t talk about mentors without talking about Larry. He pastors the pioneer church when it comes to the video multi-site model. For two years, I was part of a group of youngish pastors put together by Leadership Network. Larry served as one of our mentor pastors. Every six months, we would get together and learn from him for a few days. Ever since I met him, Larry has always been available when I need help. He has advised me on operational issues, marriage issues, staff issues, book-writing issues, and on and on and on. He has helped Riv in more ways than anyone can possibly know.

Francis Chan, Cornerstone Church

I subscribe to a lot of teaching podcasts…I often have them on in my car or when I am working out. Many of the podcasts I download, I never listen to. Some, I listen to on a semi-regular basis. But I listen to nearly all of Francis Chan’s. His humility, his humor, his honesty…they are all super refreshing. He challenges me greatly as a pastor more than anything.

John Piper, Bethlehem Baptist Church

Oddly, I don’t listen to many of John Piper’s messages. Not sure why that is, really. However, I have probably read more of John Piper’s stuff this last year than anyone else. Many of his books are available for free online and he blogs continually over at Desiring God.

Dave Gibbons, New Song Church

Dave Gibbons pastors a worldwide multi-site church. Yes, you read that right. My first reaction to this was, “what?” But I have grown to love his vision. While we definitely come from different theological camps, I have learned a ton from him about the world around us. This past year, I have been reading and listening to Dave a lot when it comes to the idea of “Third Culture.” I don’t have time to get into that here, but it’s significant stuff for the church to be paying attention to.

Bob Deffinbaugh, Community Bible Chapel

Bob pastors a small church in the Dallas Texas area. I stumbled onto his writings on Bible.org while doing message prep quite awhile ago and I love the way he handles Scripture. Often, when someone asks me a question about some theological point or another I just send them a link to one of Bob’s papers. I learned a ton from him as I worked on my recent series on the Psalms. Do yourself a favor and check out his writings.