A remarkable thing happened to me a few days ago: I had several good ideas and insights that related to my ministry in various ways. Not one, but two clear ideas for future sermon series. An insight about some personal study I've been doing on race and the church. And, if it's not too strong of a word, an epiphany about the challenges of church finance in this climate. Each of these insights and ideas seemed to be of a higher caliber than most of my day-to-day work. And it was noteworthy that there were so many good ideas on a single day, which only happens a few times a year. As a pastor, I frequently find my self focused on two basic types of work. One, I fulfill the basic weekly and monthly duties of my job, as related to worship planning and execution, writing and preparing items for the newsletters and bulletins, dealing with regular administrative work, and seeing to ongoing pastoral care. Second, I "put out fires" and respond to the work th...