Today, I’m starting a new weekly series on my blog called ‘Modern Day Heroes of the Faith’.

Many of us have ‘heroes of the faith’, Christian men and women who lived their lives in such a way that we can easily point to them as examples of how Christians should live.

The problem is, most of our ‘heroes’ lived a long time ago.

Many of us struggle to listen to and obey the voice of God and probably some of our friends or co-workers would even be surprised to know we are Christians. My modern day ‘heroes’ are people I see who have found a way to live out their faith and still be in the world.

I have interviewed some of my heroes and I hope, through this series, to show you why they’re my heroes and help us all gain some wisdom and understanding from them about how and why they do what they do.

Trey Morgan

My first hero is Trey Morgan (Blog | Twitter).

Trey is a pastor in Childress, Texas and has really impressed me since I first met him online a year or so ago with his commitment to Christ and his ability to juggle traditional ‘pastor’ activities with being a great husband, father and friend.

I have had to split the interview into two. The second half will be posted tomorrow.

The Interview:

Trey, you’re a pastor, a runner, a father of lots of boys, a husband and a friend (among other things). You seem to constantly be doing weddings and funerals or going to one of your son’s sports events or writing blog posts or running or doing myriad other things. How do you find time for it all and how do you manage to minister to people when you’re so busy?

One of the things I’ve found in ministry is that you don’t have set hours. You may go to the office everyday for a while, but when you’re home you’re still “on call.”  It has taken me many years of ministry, and lots of mistakes, to finally feel like I can manage my time well.  As busy as I stay, the one thing I’ve always tried to do is remember that ministry is about people. Jesus was in the people business and I too must be in the people business. When I no longer put people first, I need to get out of ministry. I feel like the best way to manage my time is to get my things done in the office that I need to do, and get out into the community (where people are).  Let me also confess that there are times when I need a little break from people and hide out by not answering the phone, getting out of town or by having some quiet time with my family.

You have had two bouts of cancer. That’s got to have been pretty hard on you. Is it hard to keep believing that God loves you when he allows you to go through stuff like that? How do you keep your faith in the midst of such adversity?

My battle with cancer is one of the toughest things I’ve ever dealt with. I never blamed God, but it did test my faith. My biggest fear wasn’t dying, but the possibilities that if I died my boys would not know (or remember)  as their father. My own father passed away when I was just a boy, I never really knew him. I didn’t want the same thing to happen with me and my boys. Cancer caused me to re-prioritize my life. I’m thankful that God gave me a chance to reevaluate what was really important in life. I wish everyone could experience the reality check I experienced, but I would never wish cancer upon anyone. (See Trey’s blog posts about cancer here)

You run. A lot. As a Christian, do you really think that God wants us to be wasting time doing stuff like that when there are people with needs that we should be meeting or who need to hear the gospel?

First, let me say, I love running. It’s good for me mentally, physically and spiritually. But if I let it dominate my time or my life then it becomes unhealthy.  Personal time is both healthy and needed. And since I get up at 5 a.m. for a run, I’m not allowing it to get in the way of other things. Let me add, nothing is wrong with hobbies, but if I was running, playing golf, playing games on the computer, blogging, tweeting or Facebooking, (etc.) for hours and hours everyday, yes, I’d have a BIG problem with that. I have to monitor myself and the time I spend on the computer so I don’t let it get out of hand.

Trey’s interview will be continued tomorrow. Come back then to learn about Trey’s thoughts on how great pastors are, sex, God’s sense of humor and making it to th finish line….