Posts Tagged ‘pastor’
Don’t Give Up Brothers!
Are you an ex-pastor, former pastor, former youth pastor or served God in some position previously and now you are out? Don’t give up!
A number of things happened just recently, that I want to encourage you with.
1. I just past the one year mark of when I was asked to resign my senior pastorate. A year ago January 13th was the last sermon that I preached. You know what I am still here. Still ministering. A couple of friends who are ex-military were telling me, with men who were soldiers, or ex-cops, and also ex-pastor, you might not be that thing anymore, but it can’t be taken out of you. You are still a pastor and minister unless you give that up and turn your back on it.
2. I just was on facebook a couple days again and came across another friend who went to Multnomah Bible College with me, who also went through the wringer with some church politics. In fact I hardly know of any godly men who are in the ministry who haven’t has some horribly painful experience of betrayal and being back stabbed. Many great pastors have to just shake off the dust and jump back in to ministry somewhere. Don’t judge Jesus on church politics.
3. In training today with work, there was a quote about winners have scars. If you have been scarred in the ministry, join the club. Jesus and Paul show us by example that is par for the course.
4. I will telling another friend from Bible college today, that ministry can be just incredibly painful, but there are times that totally make it worth it.
a. friends coming to Christ
b. when the prodigal comes home
c. when those struggling in their faith let you know that somehow you are making a difference in their lives.
I served as the youth pastor in a Korean Church for two years and that brought about a lot of healing from some of the garbage that I had gone through previously. I think that I might still be a healing cycle right now, but I want to thank all of you for allowing me to minister to you and encourage you with our blogs and podcasts.
I was thinking today again about ministry and maybe I ought to write a book on “ministry outside the box” just to encourage men everywhere that there are many ways to minister. Maybe it would help light a fire under guys, and they would be blown away by how God wants to use them.
There are all sorts of guys out there who need (and I mean NEED) the gospel, who may not have found their way into a church for decades. Maybe the frontlines of ministry are out there and not inside the church like the frontlines in a battle is not inside the Pentagon. Church has its place of encouragement and I try to make it every Sunday. Sometime ministry takes place in a phone call, at taco bell, or in a garage.
My favorite verse is John 10:10 and I am sure that you will hear me referring to it from time to time. It maybe my favorite when I was working for a ministry called “The National Youth Crisis Hot-Line 1-800-HIT-HOME”.
The verse says “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, I (Jesus) came that they may have life and that abundantly”
You don’t have to look too hard to see how the thief, the devil is out there in the midst of our culture, stealing, killing and destroying lives. But the mission of Jesus, of saving lives, still is going on. That is what I want to be about. Brothers, let’s continue to be part of that.
More than anything, I just want to be used by God. The place, title, whatever is just not that important.
