The following is an article written by Warren Wiersbe. You can find other articles by him at 2ProphetU.com. This is a free service for pastors provided by Pastor Michael Catt and Sherwood Baptist Church.
Pastors hurt because God wants us to become more like Christ
“If the world hates you,” Jesus told His disciples, “keep in mind that it hated me first. . . . If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:18, 20). If we aren’t careful, the world can get into the church and attack us through leaders who seem to have good testimonies. Peter must have pained Jesus deeply when he told him not to go to the cross, and Jesus called him “Satan” (adversary) and told him he was thinking the world’s thoughts and not God’s thoughts (Matt. 16:21-28). During my sixty plus years of ministry, I have personally experienced and seen others experience the devil’s attacks through mean members and obstinate officers.
But keep this in mind: when the world and worldly Christians attack you, they are treating you the way sinners treated Jesus, and this is a compliment! Paul called this “participation in his sufferings” (Phil. 3:10). We have been promoted! After all, God’s purpose for all of His people was that we might “be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). Sometimes the Father has to prune us for our own good (John 15:1-4), but He is never nearer to us than when He is cutting away the things that are hindering our fruit-bearing.
There is in every church at least one person who is like sandpaper and whose “ministry” is to criticize the pastor and in the name of the Lord make his life miserable. Yes, the elders may have to deal with such people biblically, but let’s admit that God might use their abrasiveness to remove some of the faults from our own lives and polish us for greater service. “Another poor sermon!” a church member snarled at a pastor friend of mine as the man left church each Sunday morning. My friend, now in glory, simply smiled and said, “The Lord bless you!” and prayed for him. When the weekly fault-finder ended up in critical condition in the hospital, my pastor friend visited him faithfully, and one day the man broke down, apologized for his meanness and asked God and my friend to forgive him.
At least twice, Jesus told his disciples, “Servants are not greater than their master” (John 13:16; 15:20). Do we really believe that statement? Our Lord’s preparation for His priestly ministry in heaven included far more than “sandpapering.” He was lied about, laughed at and ridiculed by religious people who should have known better; but He was also illegally arrested, brutally whipped and shamefully crucified. There are places in our world today where faithful servants of God are experiencing similar sufferings and are even being slain; but for the most part, we in the Western world are spared. However, the fiery tongue that James wrote about (3:3-6) still burns, spreads and destroys.
So what does the pastor do?
To begin with, when it comes to pain in the pastorate, expect it. Your first year in a church may be a honeymoon, but don’t be surprised if the honey is one day replaced with a bitter cup of suffering. As Peter wrote to the saints in the first century, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). To ask God, “Why me?” may bring His response, “Why not you? Are you better than Moses or David or Jeremiah or Paul or My Son?” It isn’t necessarily a question of deserving or not deserving; it’s a question of our needing polishing and perfecting. “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). Godliness invites persecution and if we practice James 1:2-7, trials can result in even more godliness.
Accept it is the second order of the day, but “not reluctantly or under compulsion” (2 Cor. 9:7), for, after all, every cup of suffering is personally and lovingly mixed by the Father. “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:11) A very dedicated Christian leader who had experienced a great deal of suffering and sorrow said one day, “My Father loves me too much to harm me, and He is too wise to make a mistake.” For us to try to run away from ministry trials is to ask for more trials. Remember Jonah?
Our third step ought to be to examine the matter honestly. Perhaps we unwittingly said or did something that offended others, and they have just as much right to feel pain as we do. The local church is a family of faith, and there are misunderstandings even in the most devoted and disciplined families. On more than one occasion I have had to apologize to congregations publicly and to individuals privately, including staff members. Let’s examine our own hearts to make sure we aren’t afraid, angry, making excuses or running away from responsibility.
Step four will take much faith: enlist this experience to work for the glory of God and the good of the pastor and people. If we sincerely believe Romans 8:28, then we should have the confidence that there is a divine purpose behind even the most painful misunderstandings or family conflicts. We may have times when we feel that God has forsaken us, but we know better and cling to the assurances written in Psalm 23:4 and Hebrews 13:5, 6. Joshua blundered when he ran ahead of the Lord and attacked Ai and also when he made a covenant with the Gibeonites, but the Lord enabled him to use both of these mistakes for Israel’s good (Joshua 8, 9). God’s grace means that we can make our mistakes work for us!
Finally, take the long view by faith. God doesn’t always settle everything immediately and it takes time for heartaches to heal. Don’t put your personal pastoral pains on center stage where they can take control of your life. Keep them in the wings, but don’t try to deny them or pretend they don’t exist. Talk them over with a close friend or family member and pray together. Sharing burdens halves them; sharing joys doubles them.
Over the long haul, pastoral pains have helped me discover deeper divine resources and to develop a more sensitive heart toward others. Jesus is still able to “bind up the brokenhearted” (Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18, 19), and matters that haven’t been completely settled here on earth will be finally settled in heaven when we see His church “without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:27).
Whatever we do, we must not allow the enemy to accuse us and then convince us that we ought to leave town or even abandon the ministry. Let’s keep going so that one day we’ll be able to say to the Father, as did Jesus, “I have brought glory to you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4).
It’s always too soon to quit.
© Warren Wiersbe
March 28, 2010
When the Pastor Hurts (Part 2) :: Warren Wiersbe
The following is an article written by Warren Wiersbe. You can find other articles by him at 2ProphetU.com. This is a free service for pastors provided by Pastor Michael Catt and Sherwood Baptist Church.
Pastors hurt because they care
During our Lord’s three years of ministry, He sought to teach His disciples what they needed to know in order to carry on the work after His return to heaven. One of the most difficult lessons in the curriculum was the cultivation of a tender heart, and the record indicates that the apostles failed the test more than once. When parents brought their little children to be blessed by Jesus, the disciples rebuked them and told them to go home! Jesus rebuked His disciples, welcomed the parents and blessed the children (Mark 10:13-16). A Canaanite woman begged Jesus to deliver her daughter who was possessed by a demon, but Jesus seemed to ignore here. Desperate for help, the mother turned to the disciples, and they told Jesus to send her away because she was a pest! But she persisted and Jesus rewarded her faith and delivered her daughter.
“Do you want to know how to remove all problems from your church?” I used to ask the students in my seminary classes. “It’s quite simple: just get rid of the people!” There would be a brief silence, and then somebody would say, “But if we have no people, we have no church!” They got the point. The solution to people problems and problem people isn’t to get rid of people but to cultivate caring compassionate hearts and do what we can to assist.
When Jesus looked at people, He had compassion on them and sought to help them (Matt. 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34). As we serve, whether we wear clerical garb, leisure garments or business clothes, we must always obey Paul’s commandment in Colossians 3:12 — “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” These garments of God’s grace are always fashionable. We must preach the truth in love (Eph. 4:15) and be certain that the love Christ motivates us (2 Cor. 5:14). Why? “Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:8).
Caring is costly, but not caring is even more costly. Indifference to needs hurts us more than it hurts the people we ignore and it only makes the problems worse. The isolated servant soon develops a hard heart and becomes an insulated servant and then a mere religious robot. I recall a gifted leader who made it clear that he never wanted to hear any problems from his staff, neither personal problems nor ministry problems. His philosophy of service didn’t work and eventually he had to be replaced.
A friend said to me, “The most sensitive thing in ministry is a compassionate heart,” and I can never forget it. But once we have sought and found a shepherd’s heart, it makes our work much easier. Love never asks if a person is “worthy of help” or if a painful situation “merits our attention.” Do we want our Father and our High Priest to adopt this kind of attitude toward us? “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). We may discover that a problem we think is monumental is really trivial, but the God who sees a sparrow fall knows how to handle the trivial matters as well as the major problems.
Pastors hurt because they are leaders
“Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel,” the king of Aram told his commanders, and this is excellent strategy (1 Kings 22:31). If the enemy can confused the leaders, cripple them or remove them from the field of battle, their absence is bound to weaken the army and perhaps lead to its defeat. Moses was frequently attacked, not only by outside enemies but even by his own people, including his brother and sister. While supervising the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah was repeatedly maligned and threatened, and the enemy managed to put agents inside Jerusalem and even in the temple area!
During these many years of ministry, it’s been a great privilege for me and my wife to know and minister with some of God’s great servants. The better we got to know them, the more we learned of the battles they had fought and the burdens they were carrying. I have the names of several Christian leaders in my prayer notebook and I pray for them daily. Early in my Christian life, I foolishly thought that my service for Christ would immunize me against Satanic attacks, but I soon learned I was wrong. The enemy aims at Christian leaders, and pastors are high on his list.
God equips His leaders through their personal study of the Word, their meditation and prayers, as well as through whatever formal education He provides. But the school of suffering is the graduate school of Christian service. If you read Christian biography and autobiography, you will learn that some of God’s most effective leaders suffered in many ways, but from that suffering they learned more about God, themselves and their ministry than they could have learned any other way. The burdens helped to balance the blessings and keep them from falling over!
In his famous Yale Lectures on Preaching, Phillips Brooks points out that ministers must be preachers in order to have authority and they must be pastors in order to have sympathy. “The preacher who is not a pastor grows remote. The pastor who is not a preacher grows petty.” It takes more than scholarship and sermons to build a church. It takes the personal ministry of loving shepherds with caring hearts.
In his sermon “Going Up to Jerusalem,” based on Luke 18:30, Phillips Brooks said: “O, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come in you by the grace of God.” Doing God’s will, come what may, is the nourishment that gives us the strength we need to carry on the ministry (John 4:31-34).
© Warren Wiersbe
Pastors hurt because they care
During our Lord’s three years of ministry, He sought to teach His disciples what they needed to know in order to carry on the work after His return to heaven. One of the most difficult lessons in the curriculum was the cultivation of a tender heart, and the record indicates that the apostles failed the test more than once. When parents brought their little children to be blessed by Jesus, the disciples rebuked them and told them to go home! Jesus rebuked His disciples, welcomed the parents and blessed the children (Mark 10:13-16). A Canaanite woman begged Jesus to deliver her daughter who was possessed by a demon, but Jesus seemed to ignore here. Desperate for help, the mother turned to the disciples, and they told Jesus to send her away because she was a pest! But she persisted and Jesus rewarded her faith and delivered her daughter.
“Do you want to know how to remove all problems from your church?” I used to ask the students in my seminary classes. “It’s quite simple: just get rid of the people!” There would be a brief silence, and then somebody would say, “But if we have no people, we have no church!” They got the point. The solution to people problems and problem people isn’t to get rid of people but to cultivate caring compassionate hearts and do what we can to assist.
When Jesus looked at people, He had compassion on them and sought to help them (Matt. 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34). As we serve, whether we wear clerical garb, leisure garments or business clothes, we must always obey Paul’s commandment in Colossians 3:12 — “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” These garments of God’s grace are always fashionable. We must preach the truth in love (Eph. 4:15) and be certain that the love Christ motivates us (2 Cor. 5:14). Why? “Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:8).
Caring is costly, but not caring is even more costly. Indifference to needs hurts us more than it hurts the people we ignore and it only makes the problems worse. The isolated servant soon develops a hard heart and becomes an insulated servant and then a mere religious robot. I recall a gifted leader who made it clear that he never wanted to hear any problems from his staff, neither personal problems nor ministry problems. His philosophy of service didn’t work and eventually he had to be replaced.
A friend said to me, “The most sensitive thing in ministry is a compassionate heart,” and I can never forget it. But once we have sought and found a shepherd’s heart, it makes our work much easier. Love never asks if a person is “worthy of help” or if a painful situation “merits our attention.” Do we want our Father and our High Priest to adopt this kind of attitude toward us? “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). We may discover that a problem we think is monumental is really trivial, but the God who sees a sparrow fall knows how to handle the trivial matters as well as the major problems.
Pastors hurt because they are leaders
“Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel,” the king of Aram told his commanders, and this is excellent strategy (1 Kings 22:31). If the enemy can confused the leaders, cripple them or remove them from the field of battle, their absence is bound to weaken the army and perhaps lead to its defeat. Moses was frequently attacked, not only by outside enemies but even by his own people, including his brother and sister. While supervising the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah was repeatedly maligned and threatened, and the enemy managed to put agents inside Jerusalem and even in the temple area!
During these many years of ministry, it’s been a great privilege for me and my wife to know and minister with some of God’s great servants. The better we got to know them, the more we learned of the battles they had fought and the burdens they were carrying. I have the names of several Christian leaders in my prayer notebook and I pray for them daily. Early in my Christian life, I foolishly thought that my service for Christ would immunize me against Satanic attacks, but I soon learned I was wrong. The enemy aims at Christian leaders, and pastors are high on his list.
God equips His leaders through their personal study of the Word, their meditation and prayers, as well as through whatever formal education He provides. But the school of suffering is the graduate school of Christian service. If you read Christian biography and autobiography, you will learn that some of God’s most effective leaders suffered in many ways, but from that suffering they learned more about God, themselves and their ministry than they could have learned any other way. The burdens helped to balance the blessings and keep them from falling over!
In his famous Yale Lectures on Preaching, Phillips Brooks points out that ministers must be preachers in order to have authority and they must be pastors in order to have sympathy. “The preacher who is not a pastor grows remote. The pastor who is not a preacher grows petty.” It takes more than scholarship and sermons to build a church. It takes the personal ministry of loving shepherds with caring hearts.
In his sermon “Going Up to Jerusalem,” based on Luke 18:30, Phillips Brooks said: “O, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come in you by the grace of God.” Doing God’s will, come what may, is the nourishment that gives us the strength we need to carry on the ministry (John 4:31-34).
© Warren Wiersbe
When the Pastor Hurts (Part 1) :: Warren Wiersbe
The following is an article written by Warren Wiersbe. You can find other articles by him at 2ProphetU.com. This is a free service for pastors provided by Pastor Michael Catt and Sherwood Baptist Church.
When the Pastor Hurts (Part 1) :: Warren Wiersbe
“When doesn’t the pastor hurt?” may be your response to this title, but honest reflection will remind you that there are joys in the ministry that more than compensate for occasional times of pain. Seeing sinners come to Christ, helping people mature in the Lord, studying and teaching the Word faithfully, watching God answer prayer, and sending out workers from the church family to serve others — each of these ministries should be a source of joyful praise in the heart of every faithful servant of God. Paul saw problems in the church at Philippi, but he was able to write to the congregation, “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for you all, I always pray with Joy” (Phil. 1:3, 4). That even included praying for Euodia and Syntyche, two women who weren’t in agreement about something and were perhaps on the verge of dividing the church (Phil. 4:2, 3).
Let’s consider some of the reasons for pastoral pain so that we can better understand how to deal with these trials and turn them into profitable blessings.
Pastors hurt because they are human.
Paul said it best: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay” (2 Cor. 4:7). Superman may be “the man of steel,” but the pastor is made of clay just like the people he ministers to. Angels serve the Lord better than we do, but because they are spirits, there are some things they can’t do; and that’s why God has enlisted people. Jesus had to take on Himself a body before He could accomplish the Father’s will on earth, and He is our example when it comes to handling suffering and service (Phil. 2:1-11; 1 Peter 2:20, 21).
Because we live in clay jars, we experience the normal pains and problems of human life. Like any other believer, in times of trial the pastor must depend on the grace of God for his own good and for the good of his people. What life does to us depends on what life finds in us, and what life finds in us depends on what we find daily in Christ and His Word. The Father “comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Cor. 1:4). No matter how gifted pastors may be, they cannot lead others where they haven’t been themselves. Christian workers cannot afford to act less than human because then they become less than what Christ wants them to be.
Some years ago, a drunken driver going eighty miles an hour hit my car and almost killed me. Until then, I had been a hospital patient only twice, once to have my tonsils removed and once for tests, and both visits were only for overnight. Because of that accident, I spent several days in ICU, a week in a private room and nearly two months recuperating at home. As a pastor, I had visited many accident victims in hospitals and sought to encourage the, but now I was the patient! You can be sure that my ministry to hurting people improved because I had gone through a graduate course in suffering in my near-death experience. It’s remarkable what you can learn lying in a hospital bed, plugged into life-sustaining equipment. I never had that experience in seminary!
From His birth to His death, Jesus ran the full gamut of human experience, and this helped equip Him to minister as our heavenly high priest (Heb. 4:14-16). If Jesus “learned obedience from what He suffered” (Heb. 5:8), why should we ask for an easier way? There are no short-cuts in true ministry. If we want to have an effective pastoral ministry to God’s hurting people, we must expect to pay a price, whether or not others know how much we’re hurting.
The important thing is that we don’t waste our suffering. We preach to others that God has divine purposes to fulfill in their trials, but we need to make that “our trials.” If we are suffering in the will of God, then we must follow Christ’s example and use the experience to glorify God. If we want to minister effectively to hurting people, we must expect to hurt ourselves. We will never graduated from the school of suffering until we see our Lord.
© Warren Wiersbe
When the Pastor Hurts (Part 1) :: Warren Wiersbe
“When doesn’t the pastor hurt?” may be your response to this title, but honest reflection will remind you that there are joys in the ministry that more than compensate for occasional times of pain. Seeing sinners come to Christ, helping people mature in the Lord, studying and teaching the Word faithfully, watching God answer prayer, and sending out workers from the church family to serve others — each of these ministries should be a source of joyful praise in the heart of every faithful servant of God. Paul saw problems in the church at Philippi, but he was able to write to the congregation, “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for you all, I always pray with Joy” (Phil. 1:3, 4). That even included praying for Euodia and Syntyche, two women who weren’t in agreement about something and were perhaps on the verge of dividing the church (Phil. 4:2, 3).
Let’s consider some of the reasons for pastoral pain so that we can better understand how to deal with these trials and turn them into profitable blessings.
Pastors hurt because they are human.
Paul said it best: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay” (2 Cor. 4:7). Superman may be “the man of steel,” but the pastor is made of clay just like the people he ministers to. Angels serve the Lord better than we do, but because they are spirits, there are some things they can’t do; and that’s why God has enlisted people. Jesus had to take on Himself a body before He could accomplish the Father’s will on earth, and He is our example when it comes to handling suffering and service (Phil. 2:1-11; 1 Peter 2:20, 21).
Because we live in clay jars, we experience the normal pains and problems of human life. Like any other believer, in times of trial the pastor must depend on the grace of God for his own good and for the good of his people. What life does to us depends on what life finds in us, and what life finds in us depends on what we find daily in Christ and His Word. The Father “comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Cor. 1:4). No matter how gifted pastors may be, they cannot lead others where they haven’t been themselves. Christian workers cannot afford to act less than human because then they become less than what Christ wants them to be.
Some years ago, a drunken driver going eighty miles an hour hit my car and almost killed me. Until then, I had been a hospital patient only twice, once to have my tonsils removed and once for tests, and both visits were only for overnight. Because of that accident, I spent several days in ICU, a week in a private room and nearly two months recuperating at home. As a pastor, I had visited many accident victims in hospitals and sought to encourage the, but now I was the patient! You can be sure that my ministry to hurting people improved because I had gone through a graduate course in suffering in my near-death experience. It’s remarkable what you can learn lying in a hospital bed, plugged into life-sustaining equipment. I never had that experience in seminary!
From His birth to His death, Jesus ran the full gamut of human experience, and this helped equip Him to minister as our heavenly high priest (Heb. 4:14-16). If Jesus “learned obedience from what He suffered” (Heb. 5:8), why should we ask for an easier way? There are no short-cuts in true ministry. If we want to have an effective pastoral ministry to God’s hurting people, we must expect to pay a price, whether or not others know how much we’re hurting.
The important thing is that we don’t waste our suffering. We preach to others that God has divine purposes to fulfill in their trials, but we need to make that “our trials.” If we are suffering in the will of God, then we must follow Christ’s example and use the experience to glorify God. If we want to minister effectively to hurting people, we must expect to hurt ourselves. We will never graduated from the school of suffering until we see our Lord.
© Warren Wiersbe
March 18, 2010
Shepherd the Flock of God
I spend a lot of time with pastors. I love pastors. I was one for 26 years so I have an affinity and affection for those called to "shepherd the flock of God. As a state missionary for the Georgia Baptist Convention my job naturally connects me with pastors and churches. This is where God has me and I would not want to be anywhere else.
There is no higher calling than that of being a pastor. When I became a "denominational missionary" I took a step back in the sense that I no longer pastor a church. While a pastor I came in contact with some of the finest people I have ever known. I have built relationships with people and cherish those relationships. There have been victories and defeats as well as joys and sorrows. I have walked with people through storms and valleys. I have stood with some in the moment of victory and blessing and with those same people as they "walked through the valley of the shadow of death."
Peter writes, "Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and withness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; not yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:1-3). I encourage you to read on.
Peter had been there. He had been with Jesus, he had denied Jesus, he had been forgiven and restored by Jesus. He had stood against Jesus (Mt. 16:23), stood with Jesus (Jn. 18:10) and stood for Jesus (Acts 2). The Lord had told him that the enemy had requested permission to sift him like wheat, but that He had prayed for him. God used all of the experiences of Peter's life to prepare him for the calling that had been placed on his life. In spite of all of Peter's liabilities God brought him through. He was well qualified to tell us as pastors to "shepherd the flock of God among (us)."
Now how one pastor shepherds his flock might be quite different from how another shepherd cares for his, yet there are some things that all of us must do. If you pastor a flock of 10,000 you cannot be personnally involved in all of their lives, but they need a pastor. If you pastor a flock of 100 you can have more of a personal involvement.
I read a quote from Rick Warren the other day. Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Community Church and author of "The Purpose Driven Life," "The Purpose Driven Church" and other books. Warren said, "Don't call yourself a 'pastor' if all you do is study and speak. Pastoring is caring for and shepherding people one-on-one." Pastors...please read that again. Whereas one of your main responsibilities is to "preach the Word" and "be instant in season and out of season"; you are also charged to "shepherd the flock of God among you."
There is no higher calling than that of being a pastor. When I became a "denominational missionary" I took a step back in the sense that I no longer pastor a church. While a pastor I came in contact with some of the finest people I have ever known. I have built relationships with people and cherish those relationships. There have been victories and defeats as well as joys and sorrows. I have walked with people through storms and valleys. I have stood with some in the moment of victory and blessing and with those same people as they "walked through the valley of the shadow of death."
Peter writes, "Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and withness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; not yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:1-3). I encourage you to read on.
Peter had been there. He had been with Jesus, he had denied Jesus, he had been forgiven and restored by Jesus. He had stood against Jesus (Mt. 16:23), stood with Jesus (Jn. 18:10) and stood for Jesus (Acts 2). The Lord had told him that the enemy had requested permission to sift him like wheat, but that He had prayed for him. God used all of the experiences of Peter's life to prepare him for the calling that had been placed on his life. In spite of all of Peter's liabilities God brought him through. He was well qualified to tell us as pastors to "shepherd the flock of God among (us)."
Now how one pastor shepherds his flock might be quite different from how another shepherd cares for his, yet there are some things that all of us must do. If you pastor a flock of 10,000 you cannot be personnally involved in all of their lives, but they need a pastor. If you pastor a flock of 100 you can have more of a personal involvement.
I read a quote from Rick Warren the other day. Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Community Church and author of "The Purpose Driven Life," "The Purpose Driven Church" and other books. Warren said, "Don't call yourself a 'pastor' if all you do is study and speak. Pastoring is caring for and shepherding people one-on-one." Pastors...please read that again. Whereas one of your main responsibilities is to "preach the Word" and "be instant in season and out of season"; you are also charged to "shepherd the flock of God among you."
March 11, 2010
He's The God of this City
I do not know Vance Pittman. I follow him on twitter. He just posted the following statement: “God’s call on the life of a pastor is not to a church, but to a city. The church is simply a platform for engaging the city to accomplish the mission.” Such is the mindset of a new generation of pastor-teachers. Although I agree with him, I am not sure that that philosophy of ministry would go over too well in the established rural churches of Southwest Georgia.
This is why church planting among Southern Baptists is a must. No there are not too many churches. There never will be too many churches. There may be too many churches not fulfilling the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. We have been called to take the WHOLE Gospel to the WHOLE World. We have not been given the right to decides who hears, but to herald abroad the glorious gospel of our Lord.
Our oldest children are moving to San Francisco to plant a church in the city. They are a part of this new generation of church leaders who are not just "working outside the box" they have knocked the walls down. Their vision statement is: "To live life as Jesus intended for the good of the city and the hope of the world." The word church is not found in that statement although they are deeply committed to the Lord and His church.
They verbalize a large part of their focus in this statement regarding "community." "We believe that spiritual life is best when it is being lived out in close proximity to others. It is impossible to live life at its best when we are disconnected from other followers of Jesus. We believe this can take place through structured environments (weekly small groups), as well as spontaneously in our daily living." (1 Thessalonians 2:8, Acts 2:42)
This new generation of leaders believe that missions is not something we do, but something we are. They believe that God has placed them here at this time for a specific purpose. This means that God has a purpose behind where they live (and who their neighbors are), where they work (and who they work with), and where they play (who they have social interaction with). They live as though they have been sent by Jesus to spread His kingdom in each of these arenas of life. (2 Corinthians 5:20, John 20:21)
It excites me to see them at work. I challenges me when I see their passion for God. I am moved when they preach and teach the word from such a fresh perspective.
Chris Tomlin wrote a song some time back entitled, God of this City. Read the words.
You're the God of this City/You're the King of these people/You're the Lord of this nation/You are.
You're the Light in this darkness/You're the Hope to the hopeless/You're the Peace to the restless/You are.
There is no one like our God/There is no one like our God/For greater things have yet to come/And greater things are still to be done in this City.
Greater thing have yet to come/And greater things are still to be done in this City
That's the vision we need. That's where our focus must be.
(Some wording taken from Mission Statement of EPIC Church, San Francisco)
This is why church planting among Southern Baptists is a must. No there are not too many churches. There never will be too many churches. There may be too many churches not fulfilling the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. We have been called to take the WHOLE Gospel to the WHOLE World. We have not been given the right to decides who hears, but to herald abroad the glorious gospel of our Lord.
Our oldest children are moving to San Francisco to plant a church in the city. They are a part of this new generation of church leaders who are not just "working outside the box" they have knocked the walls down. Their vision statement is: "To live life as Jesus intended for the good of the city and the hope of the world." The word church is not found in that statement although they are deeply committed to the Lord and His church.
They verbalize a large part of their focus in this statement regarding "community." "We believe that spiritual life is best when it is being lived out in close proximity to others. It is impossible to live life at its best when we are disconnected from other followers of Jesus. We believe this can take place through structured environments (weekly small groups), as well as spontaneously in our daily living." (1 Thessalonians 2:8, Acts 2:42)
This new generation of leaders believe that missions is not something we do, but something we are. They believe that God has placed them here at this time for a specific purpose. This means that God has a purpose behind where they live (and who their neighbors are), where they work (and who they work with), and where they play (who they have social interaction with). They live as though they have been sent by Jesus to spread His kingdom in each of these arenas of life. (2 Corinthians 5:20, John 20:21)
It excites me to see them at work. I challenges me when I see their passion for God. I am moved when they preach and teach the word from such a fresh perspective.
Chris Tomlin wrote a song some time back entitled, God of this City. Read the words.
You're the God of this City/You're the King of these people/You're the Lord of this nation/You are.
You're the Light in this darkness/You're the Hope to the hopeless/You're the Peace to the restless/You are.
There is no one like our God/There is no one like our God/For greater things have yet to come/And greater things are still to be done in this City.
Greater thing have yet to come/And greater things are still to be done in this City
That's the vision we need. That's where our focus must be.
(Some wording taken from Mission Statement of EPIC Church, San Francisco)
March 6, 2010
It Happened One Fall
It was the fall of 1962. It was the time of the Cuban Missle Crisis. Marilyn Monroe was found dead. John Glenn orbited the earth and believe it or not the Beatles were turned down by Decca Records. I am sure much more took place that year, but one thing is sure a "dead" nine year old boy was made alive in Christ by the grace of God.
The journey had started that summer. I was blessed to be born into a family that believed in God, loved His Word and trusted in His Son. Back in those days the church was the center of social life in the community. Everything revolved around church it seemed. I thought everyone went to church.
As fall rolled around several of my friends had made public their decision to trust Christ. I had not. As a matter of fact the reason I had not is because I had not trusted Christ. Oh, I had been encouraged to "join the church," but (and I don't remember why) I had not.
I remember this one Sunday when I came to the point of wanting to do something about it. On the way home from church, sitting in the back seat of a Pontiac I told my parents that I wanted to be saved. When we got home my mom and dad talked with me, we prayed and then called the preacher. We arranged to meet him later that afternoon before the evening church activities.
As I sat in the office with my pastor, he took his Bible and explained to me how to be saved. Old Bible verses that I had learned as a "Beginner" and "Sunbeam" began to come to life. We went down that Roman Road right in the middle of Monroe, GA and there that afternoon I trusted Christ as my Savior.
The journey had started that summer. I was blessed to be born into a family that believed in God, loved His Word and trusted in His Son. Back in those days the church was the center of social life in the community. Everything revolved around church it seemed. I thought everyone went to church.
As fall rolled around several of my friends had made public their decision to trust Christ. I had not. As a matter of fact the reason I had not is because I had not trusted Christ. Oh, I had been encouraged to "join the church," but (and I don't remember why) I had not.
I remember this one Sunday when I came to the point of wanting to do something about it. On the way home from church, sitting in the back seat of a Pontiac I told my parents that I wanted to be saved. When we got home my mom and dad talked with me, we prayed and then called the preacher. We arranged to meet him later that afternoon before the evening church activities.
As I sat in the office with my pastor, he took his Bible and explained to me how to be saved. Old Bible verses that I had learned as a "Beginner" and "Sunbeam" began to come to life. We went down that Roman Road right in the middle of Monroe, GA and there that afternoon I trusted Christ as my Savior.
March 5, 2010
Preacher...Get Out of The Way
My friend, Ken Jenkins, tells the story of a church where on the wall just behind the pulpit is a picture of Jesus. One Sunday the preacher was late getting to the pulpit. Why? I don't know? A deacon might have delayed him. One of his children might have delayed him. He might have fallen asleep in his office. That's another blog entry. He was late, okay!
A little boy was sitting with his mother in church. The little boy leaned to his mom and asked, "Where is the man that stands in front of Jesus?" Ouch! Preacher, do you stand in front of Jesus? One day we will stand facing Him, but today if we are not careful we can just get in His way. Preacher...get out of the way.
Over the years that I have pastored I have to wonder how many times did I get in His way. How many times did I ascend the steps of the pulpit, stand behind the sacred desk and just "flesh it up real good?" I know I did, because I know me.
"Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted Him. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:13-17)
Did you hear that? Did you listen well enough to see that? Simply put had John not baptized Jesus he would not have seen God's acknowledgement of the Son nor heard God's announcement of the Son much less allowed those present to see Jesus, "the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." And that beloved is our job every time we stand to preach the blessed Word of God. It is all about Him!
Vance Havner writes, "So, no matter what the theme or text, we are really considering him, for by him all Scripture consists. Satan will go to any lengths to keep you from considering the Lord. If he can put you to riding the hobby of a favorite doctrine; if he can get you to look back at yesterday's failures, or ahead to tomorrow's dreads, or around at the array of circumstances or within at your own weakness and poverty—anywhere but looking unto Jesus—then he is satisfied. And remember that he has many masks and will come so like an angel of light that you are scarcely aware at first that you are not considering Christ."
John the Baptist said, "I must decrease that He might increase." I must get out of the way so that people can see that He is the Way. There is nothing about me worth seeing. There is nothing about me worth hearing. The only thing that I have worth saying has to do with Him. It's all about Him.
A little boy was sitting with his mother in church. The little boy leaned to his mom and asked, "Where is the man that stands in front of Jesus?" Ouch! Preacher, do you stand in front of Jesus? One day we will stand facing Him, but today if we are not careful we can just get in His way. Preacher...get out of the way.
Over the years that I have pastored I have to wonder how many times did I get in His way. How many times did I ascend the steps of the pulpit, stand behind the sacred desk and just "flesh it up real good?" I know I did, because I know me.
"Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted Him. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:13-17)
Did you hear that? Did you listen well enough to see that? Simply put had John not baptized Jesus he would not have seen God's acknowledgement of the Son nor heard God's announcement of the Son much less allowed those present to see Jesus, "the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." And that beloved is our job every time we stand to preach the blessed Word of God. It is all about Him!
Vance Havner writes, "So, no matter what the theme or text, we are really considering him, for by him all Scripture consists. Satan will go to any lengths to keep you from considering the Lord. If he can put you to riding the hobby of a favorite doctrine; if he can get you to look back at yesterday's failures, or ahead to tomorrow's dreads, or around at the array of circumstances or within at your own weakness and poverty—anywhere but looking unto Jesus—then he is satisfied. And remember that he has many masks and will come so like an angel of light that you are scarcely aware at first that you are not considering Christ."
John the Baptist said, "I must decrease that He might increase." I must get out of the way so that people can see that He is the Way. There is nothing about me worth seeing. There is nothing about me worth hearing. The only thing that I have worth saying has to do with Him. It's all about Him.
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