Pastoring Border Patrol Agents And Immigrants With Evan Wickham

I’m not a Lead Pastor, but I can’t imagine anything more difficult than pastoring in today’s political climate. We feel that these days are unique, but in reality they are not. History has much to teach us.

Occasionally I like to bring Lead Pastors onto the podcast to talk about how they’re navigating cultural issues. My guest today is Evan Wickham. Evan is the older brother of Phil Wickham, also a worship leader and songwriter, and the pastor of Park Hill Church in San Diego, California. Here’s what’s interesting: In his very church, he has a Christian Border Patrol Agent and Immigrant families, both trying to make sense of the times in which we live. Evan’s perspective on how to pastor faithfully is enlightening. What does faithful pastoring look like? How do partisan politics compromise the gospel? Should our Sunday services address the latest issues in the news or should we just stick to the gospel? Is it possible to pastor from the political center?

We can’t escape politics, no matter how much we would like to try. Politics effect how we live together. The Bible is a political book.

Conversations like this rarely make anyone happy but faithful leaders need to step into the tension. Don’t miss the end of the conversation where we talk about worship, songwriting, and the presence of God in our churches. Evan’s challenge were beautiful and surprising.

Topics Covered:

• Deconstruction and staying in the Church
• Why Baby Boomer pastors are not known for letting go
• 3 signs that you are a healthy pastor
• The Matt Walsh vs Evan Wickham social media beef
• How to think about what President Trump is saying and doing
• How to Pastor both right and left leaning people in your congregation
• What the presence of God actually means
• Whether we should pursue revival or not

Resources Mentioned:

• Show Sponsor: Planning Center
• Christ the King of Love by Evan Wickham
• Evan Wickham Substack

Show Sponsor: Planning Center

This episode is brought to you by Planning Center, helping you sync all your ministry details across your whole church.

Planning Center has become so essential to how I manage a team, that it’s almost impossible to consider local church ministry without it anymore.

Today, I want to leave you with a PCO pro-tip.

Does this sound like a familiar situation? It’s the end of the week. You’re about to leave the office when you suddenly think: Did all of our volunteers confirm for Sunday? You scroll through the schedule and sure enough—there’s a gap.

Instead of allowing yourself to spiral into a  panic, try this:

In Services, Planning Center has gap alerts. Turn them on, and you’ll get a heads-up days before service if positions are still unfilled or unconfirmed. No more end of the week scrambling.

Speaking of less scrambling, did you know you can access everything you need for rehearsals right from the Service media player on your phone? Lyrics, chord charts, arrangement notes—it’s all right there, so you’re not hunting for files in the middle of hitting those power chords.

To see what else you can do to make your Sundays easier, go to planningcenter.com/blog.