Our Father in Heaven,
In recent days we have felt cool mornings and evenings, signaling for those in the Midwest the upcoming end of summer and the beginning of fall. It makes us aware of the long, dark and cold winter that will soon be upon us. Before that however, we get to enjoy a colorful fall season, with joyful fall festivals, sweaters, football, cider, pumpkins, raking leaves, and everything else that goes with this wonderful season. And we shouldn’t forget to notice the beauty of the changing sunlight and lengthening shadows.
It seems like it was just last week that I saw the first signs of the green corn and soybean plants breaking through the fields of our rich Illinois soil. But of course, it’s actually been much longer than that. Some of the fields have already been harvested, and those that remain are brown, and will soon be harvested and laid bare until next spring, should the Lord not return by then.
The leaves on the trees that I see on my afternoon walks are changing from green to red, orange and yellow each day. The burning bushes, and the red sunset maple in our back yard, planted in my mom’s memory now more than twenty-seven years ago, will soon be a spectacular show of red.
Father, you are so faithful. Each day the sun comes up in the morning, and sets in the evening. Throughout the year we get to experience the seasons of spring, summer, fall and winter. The great hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness” by Thomas Chisholm tells us:
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
We thank you for your faithfulness, your wonderful creation and for this fall season. We thank you for the new morning mercies you provide us:
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
In Jesus’ precious name I pray,
Amen
I remember reading David Wells’ excellent 1993 book No Place for Truth: Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology, in which he wrote that the average pastor stayed at a church about three years. These days, the average is only slightly longer, about four years. This month, our church will celebrate 30 years of faithful service from our lead pastor, Bob Smart.
When the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was formed in 1788, it adopted (with minor revisions) the Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms (1647), as its secondary standards (the Bible itself being the only infallible rule of faith and practice). As an officer in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), I took a vow to “sincerely receive and adopt” these confessional documents “as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures.”
One of my favorite John Maxwell quotes (though he certainly wasn’t the first to say it) is “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” I love the quote and have repeated it often to those I mentor over the years. This statement is true in many walks of life, as a friend, pastor, mentor, politician, etc. In this article, I want to look at what this means between a leader and their team members. Teams generally aren’t going to be impressed with a leader’s prior experience, results, reputation and advanced degrees until they are convinced that the leader cares about them as an individual. What are some ways that a leader shows their followers that they care about them? Here are 4 ways: 
