People oppose you!

“But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door of effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.” 1 Corinthians 16:8-9

Few people worry about the people doing nothing.

Have you noticed the more you do for good the more opposition you receive? 

Satan often tempts most those with the greatest capacity to give God glory!

Example: Jesus

If you’ve been given influence and opportunity…Be on your guard

Have you been tempted recently? 

Discerning a call to vocational ministry can be a tiring and trying experience. I’ve had the privilege of speaking with numerous young people and couples who are possibly experiencing a call to full-time, vocational missions and ministry. Talking with people at this stage of life is one of my favorite things to do. It fuels me in ministry to help others process their call. Having also wrestled through this issue several years ago with two teenage sons makes this something very personal to me. Obviously I have my own experience in this area of wrestling through a call to vocational ministry. My wrestling was a 10 year process.

The counsel I gave my boys came to me rather suddenly one day. I’m not pretending it was inspired, but it certainly is a product of my experiences and time spent with God struggling through this issue for myself. I’ve used this teaching many times since then.

Basically I like to help people understand that the “call”, in my understanding, is not a call to a group of people or a geographic location as much as it is to a person; the person of Jesus Christ. That’s important, because a lot of times people begin to sense a calling after a mission trip to a certain area and feel as if that is the place they must go to serve God. That may be the place God wants to use them, but it could be that God just wants their availability, the place may be elsewhere and this specific place was used to stir the heart towards serving vocationally. I’m not saying He doesn’t send people to specific places or groups of people, but I do believe He reserves the right to change that at any time, because ultimately a person is called into a relationship with God first and location second.

After establishing that the ultimate call is to the person of Christ, I share these principles, which are intended to help think through a person’s calling. The person who is sensing a call can often begin to discern that this IS the call based on the way they respond to these four words.

The call of God on a person’s life is:

Irresistible – You can’t refuse this kind of call and still live at peace with God. Something will always eat at you until you surrender to this type of call. That was the case in my situation. As much as I wanted success in business, none of that brought me peace until I surrendered to God’s will for my life.

Irreplaceable – Nothing else will satisfy a person like this call, because it is God’s greatest desire for a person’s life on whom He places the “call”. I found no real joy in my work, until I was serving in the career choice God wanted me to serve.

Irrevocable – God doesn’t take this call away from a person once He has placed it on their life. At times, especially when things are stressful in ministry, I have glanced at other opportunities, but I know I cannot go backwards from this call God has placed on my life. I may serve Him in a number of capacities and places over the years, but I work for Him.

Immediate – The call of God on a person’s life begins at the moment of the call. Often people want to get the right degree or start drawing a paycheck before they live out the call God has placed on their life. I don’t believe that’s the call. The call is to “Go” and the time is NOW. That doesn’t mean the person shouldn’t gain education, experience, or even a paycheck, but if a person has received a call from God on their life the time to get started doing something towards that call is now! When I realized a vocational call to ministry was being placed on my life, I started immediately; with no promise of income or position. I simply started serving people. Opportunities and specific assignments quickly followed.

Are you feeling those four words heavy on your heart? Perhaps God is trying to get your attention.

For a Biblical example of this type calling which includes each of these four points, read Jonah’s story again.

Have you wrestled or are you wrestling through a vocational call to ministry?

What was your experience?

For the last 25 years or so, I’ve attempted to listen to, obey and follow the voice of God. It’s been a long road, and I’m still a pilgrim in the process, but I’ve learned a few things.

Based totally on my personal experience…

Here are 10 random thoughts on following God:

• I’ve never been able to see very far down the road.
• Sometimes I get a clear vision of a big goal God has for me, but I usually have no clue at the time how to get there.
• The road to following God has never seemed to be easily paved. (This requires faith.)
• There are often several options available of “how” to proceed towards what God is calling me.
• I am often tempted to quit.
• God doesn’t give up…people do.
• The greatest obstacles, all of which God can overcome, are usually other people, resources and the battle within my own mind.
• Satan is the great disrupter.
• The more I know God and the closer our relationship, the clearer I hear His voice.
• God calls people to impossible tasks.

Have you had similar experiences? I’d love to learn from and be encouraged by you.

What have you learned or experience about following God?

Mark Driscoll spoke on fear in the opening session of Catalyst Atlanta.

He began by stating: Every leader is afraid of something.

Fear in the mind causes stress on the body.

Your body will start to manifest that stress. Some suffer with depression, can’t sleep, eat or drink too much, they get stomach problems or headaches. Or some just start reading lots of books on the rapture thinking “God, aren’t we done yet?”

Jesus said, “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to your life?”

Fear is not always a sin, but it always is an opportunity. We can fear or trust in the Lord.

Questions to consider addressing fear:

What are you afraid of? - Some of you are afraid of conflict or failure.

Who are you afraid of? – Often someone other than God takes that place in your life. We start giving glory to them by attempting to satisfy them. We place people in positions of fear and we make them functional gods. Proverbs says the fear of man is a trap.

To examine that question more consider: Who’s opinion matters way too much to you? Is your appetite for praise unhealthy? Are you committed to people or things that God didn’t call you to?

Mark then shared 5 statements about fear:

Fear is vision without hope - (Fear is how we see things in the worst case scenario. This is the future and it’s going to be painful, so I’m stressed about it and living in dread toward it.)

Fear is not always rational, but it is always powerful – (It has a huge impact on us.)

Fear is about getting what we want or don’t want. (It’s self-absorbing.)

Fear preaches a false gospel – (We look for a solution we must find to save us rather than relying on God.)

Fear turns all of us into false prophets – (We predict a future that will never happen causing ourselves stress.)

Then Mark asked us to consider: What’s the solution?

The Bible gives a simple answer: FEAR NOT

It’s the most frequently mentioned command in the Bible.

God didn’t simply give us the command. Throughout the Bible God reminds us, “Fear not, for I am with you.”

Everything may not be okay in your life, but if God is with you, you’re going to be okay.

Driscoll closed with a story about his son being afraid. He comforted him by reminding him, “Fear not, your daddy is with you.”

This was a great reminder not to live in fear as believers. It’s especially timely for many of the pastors I know…including me. God is calling us to huge tasks. I see fear as a major stumbling block to following God’s will. We must not allow fear to disrupt or derail us.

Since this issue is on fear, and I suspect some may struggle with this, I refer to a couple posts I’ve written on fear:

7 Questions When Facing Fear

5 Reminders for Ridding Your Life of Fear

Andy Stanley was the first session speaker.

Andy began by saying, “My favorite pastor is present today. He was my pastor the whole time I grew up.” He was paying tribute to his father Charles Stanley. I love when he does that.

Keeping with the theme of Catalyst this year to Be Present, Andy challenged leaders to consider their presence with these statements:

The more successful you are the less accessible you will become.

Andy contends this is not a bad thing. To continue to be effective in ministry, we have to learn this principle.

Then he said:

Refuse to face this reality and burn out by trying to be accessible to everyone.

Andy reminded us that we can’t be fully present except with a very few people. It’s impossible to be fully present with everyone, as much as a pastor may want to be.

He then warned us that:

Sometimes people use their success to become more inaccessible than necessary.

Every conversation begins with “I know you’re busy…” so people give you an excuse you can take advantage of if you choose to do so. Over time, these people become no longer present to anyone.

Andy admitted the burnout that pastor’s naturally feel from being pulled in so many directions and feeling the weight of so many people’s burdens. Sometimes, Andy explained, “unawareness is bliss.” It would be nice if we didn’t have to know all the burdens, but our desire to be fully present  keeps us striving to be engaged with people.

Andy encouraged us from Scripture:

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Galatians 6:10

Andy said, “You can’t shut it all out…but…you can’t take it all on.” Don’t hide out in your office…but don’t think you can handle it all either.

We must manage the tension. We will never solve it. If we solved it then our heart has grown cold.

Andy coined a phrase that has helped him manage this tension in his life:

Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.

To do this, Andy suggests we:

• Go deep rather than wide.
• Go long-term rather than short-term.
• Go time, not just money.

This is definitely a message every pastor needs to hear to maintain the health of their ministry. You’ll need to buy the DVD of this one when it’s available and keep it in your library. Andy shared some personal and very practical illustrations to illustrate his points.

This is a challenging message to me, because I feel the tension of a growing church in a world of accessibility. The larger we become, the more discipline I have to place in my life to continue to be effective. I never, however, want to lose the passion I have for people and meeting personal needs.

Thanks Andy!

I realize I have lots of ministry leaders who read my blog. (Thank you.)

If you are a pastor or church leader, I want to encourage you to consider an internship program next summer for college students. I continually hear from young adults looking for a place to serve in a church. They are often sensing a call to ministry or know that’s their life-calling and want a place to serve, learn and grow in practical ministry experience. We value interns at Grace Community Church. Obviously we can’t accommodate all…or even most…of the requests we have for interns, so I’m hoping you can help fill some of that need.

Interns are valuable because:

• You can accomplish things you can’t get done otherwise…
• You invest in the next generation of leaders…
• You participate in Kingdom-building…
• You make friends for life…

What do you need to be prepared to do?

• You should budget for an intern…
• They will need at minimum room and board…
• If you can bless them with some spending money…even better…
• You need to give them real responsibility…
• You need to invest in them personally with your time…(They are looking to learn from you.)

Does your church use interns? Would you consider doing so this next summer?

I’d love to hear from you. If your church has an intern program, please leave a comment of how others can apply. If you would consider hosting an intern this summer, please comment so potential interns can contact you. If you are looking for an internship, you can leave a comment also. (Be sure to tell a little about yourself.

I have a few young adults ready to be an intern. You’ll be glad you made the move!

I love when a verse I’ve read many times jumps out at me like I’ve never read it before. It happened to me this morning. I’m reading through the book of Acts right now and came across these verses:

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.

Acts 4:13-14

It was a great reminder to me…God uses normal people!

Don’t feel you have what it takes…

Feel as though you don’t “measure up”…

Consider yourself a “common man” (or woman)…

You are a perfect candidate for God to use in a mighty way!

Consider this question:

Where are you lacking that God can use you for His glory?

That’s not to say we shouldn’t learn all we can, grow in our knowledge and understandings, but it is saying that where we start isn’t as much an issue. When we are called of God, we have everything we need to be successful in His strength!

I say this often…

We can only see what we can see…

I don’t know why…

I just find times that it seems to fit…

Sometimes the simplest statements have the largest meaning…

The fact is…

We can only see what we can see…

The rest requires faith…

In my experience, sometimes God lets you see miles down the road…

He told me once, for example, to plant a church…

17 months later we launched…

(That was after the 10 years I ignored what He was saying…but that’s another story…)

Sometimes God lets you see only a few steps…

It was that way when God called me into ministry…

I had no idea where I was headed next…

I could only see what I could see…

The rest required faith…

When you can’t see beyond the steps…and even when you can…

Remember “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7)

Because…

We can only see what we can see…

What about you?

Are you seeing the miles…or are you seeing the steps?

One of the toughest jobs in the church is that of being a pastor’s wife. I know I’m biased, but I have one of the best in Cheryl. Cheryl has a full-time professional job, is an excellent wife and mother, but the demands on her as my wife are often overwhelming. There is never a day she’s not asked to minister to someone. She is every bit as much in the ministry as I am. She makes me so much more effective as a pastor. Some days…really most days…the demands are more than her time, but still she handles it with grace and a smile.

I work with pastors every week who are burned out from ministry. Almost weekly, I hear of a pastor or pastor’s wife ready to quit the ministry. My desire is to help you know how to honor and protect your pastor’s wife. In this post, I am not talking on behalf of Cheryl. These are tips to help honor every pastor’s wife, but this isn’t about Cheryl. She would never ask for this (most pastor’s wives wouldn’t either) and frankly we are in the best church environment I have ever experienced, as far as the way our staff and spouses are treated. We welcome the continued support, but in this post, I’m speaking on behalf of the struggling pastor’s wife; the one who has a sense of loneliness and often struggles even to come to church.

Here are a few tips to treat your pastor’s wife well:

• Pray for your pastor’s wife and family daily.
• Do not put too many expectations on the pastor’s wife. She cannot be everywhere, at everything and know everyone’s name and family situation and still carry out her role in role in her own home.
• Do not expect her to take your side on an issue opposing her husband. She will protect him as you would your spouse. In fact, this issue possibly causes the biggest tension for a pastor’s wife. If she feels her husband is being questioned, she may naturally become protective.
• Protect the pastor’s wife from gossip. She does not need to know the “prayer concerns” that are really just a way of spreading rumors.
• Let her have a husband and enjoy her family time. The pastor is pulled in many directions. If you can limit your demands on his schedule to his normal working hours it will help the pastor’s wife have a family life also.
• Don’t demand she have a “position” in the church. She may want to, but her husband may want her free to greet guests with him. For me, I want to see Cheryl in the service as I speak, especially for the first service. I feel more comfortable when she’s nearby. I definitely want her in the halls to meet people. (She’s so much better at that than I am.)
• Include her in invitations without placing demands or expectations on her to attend. The pastor’s wife is often one of the loneliest women in the church. She rarely knows whom to trust and often is excluded from times that are just for fun, but again, she can’t be everywhere; so invite, but don’t get frustrated if she has to say no.
• Never repeat what she says. If the pastor’s wife happens to share information with you about the church or her personal life, keep it to yourself. There will be temptation to share her words as “juicy news”, but you will honor her by remaining silent.
• If your church really wants to honor the pastor’s wife, find ways to give her extended time away with her husband and/or family. That is probably what she needs the most.

Feel free to give a shout-out to your pastor’s wife here on this post and share ways you can honor your pastor’s wife. If you are a pastor or pastor’s wife, I would love to hear your thoughts.

How does your church honor your pastor’s wife?