Could the next pastor of your local church come right out of your own congregation?
Pastor, who are you preparing to follow you in ministry?
Are you training men to preach and to lead now and in the future (Matthew 28:16-20; Ephesians 4:11-16; and 2 Timothy 2:2)?
After COVID, the church where I serve became even more intentional about this task. With our current senior pastor’s leadership, we developed small groups that have continued to meet on Wednesdays and Thursdays in various homes around our area.
Eleven months out of the year, the small group leaders gather for an evening of training. Last year our leaders read Robby Gallaty’s book, Preaching for the Rest of Us: Essentials for Text-Driven Preaching. This was a helpful, practical, and insightful read and discussion.
Pastor, what are you doing now to prepare your congregation for your departure?
“I need to get somebody ready to take my place when I retire.”
This or statements like it have been said many, many times by pastors in their 60’s or 70’s. Often they are accompanied with a bit of fear, concern, doubt, cynicism, and/or failure.
Pastor, what are you doing now to prepare your congregation for your departure? More than that, is your ministry one of mentoring the next generation of pastors? Who are you training?
“Everything! I have many things for which I need prayer! My husband has been diagnosed with MS, two of my children have lupus, and my job.”
This was the response from our server at a Mexican restaurant recently when we ask if we could pray for her when we thanked the Lord for our meal.
People everywhere are hurting, needy, struggling, fearful, anxious, lonely, and despondent just like this server who was discouraged about life and having to work so hard for her family.
The greatest crisis for everyone without a personal relationship with God through Christ alone (John 14:6) is their inability to save themselves from an eternity in hell.
Last week, while watching the Barna Group webcast, 2024 The State of Pastors Summit, one set of statistics particularly grabbed my attention.
The mandate for the local church and its pastors in this age remains: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. (Matthew 28:19-20). We are continuing the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 1:1-11), the One Who came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10).
Pastor, . . .
Have ministry demands caused you to be so busy that you have forgotten people, especially those without Christ?
Have you been tempted to believe the lies of the devil and flesh that have dampen your heart for the Great Commission?
Are you possibly so discouraged and burdened down with care of the church and/or the current conflict that your eyes have grown dim to the plight of lost souls around you, maybe even next door?
Pastor, how about inviting another brother in Christ to lunch. Read the Scriptures or a book together. Then, when the server comes along, ask them how you can pray for them. This is discipleship that Jesus spoke about in the Great Commission.
Perhaps make a coffee shop your place to prepare your message for Sunday. (Just a gentle reminder, obedience has no excuses.)
One of the best ways to get the focus off yourself and perhaps your deep dive into discouragement is to go be a blessing to someone else. Christ that dwells in you endured great contradiction/hostility/insults from others (Hebrews 12:3). He is your life, your strength, your Shepherd. You are crucified (Galatians 2:20), so go live in and through Him!
Pastor, there’s a server and millions of others out there that need the gospel; that need you to just care for them. As the Lord continues to seek and to save, you follow His initiative as He lives His life out of you.
This is a Monday that I have not experienced in 40 years. Except for a brief few months, God has enabled me to be a lead pastor shepherding His flock in two states, Tennessee and Indiana.
First of all, let me say that I am NOT retiring, just changing roles at Boones Creek Bible Church and moving into a new ministry that Denise and I have had on our hearts for a long time.
Today, Andrew Isbell is the lead pastor, and I’m the associate pastor. Also, one of the “D’s” in D & D Ministries.
Wednesday WOW is written to remind us, especially pastors, that our transcendent, omnipotent, loving, sovereign God is working today in our lives in thousands of ways. The WOW is God, not the size of the work! How have you seen Him at work in your life today?
Discipleship is hard and sometimes messy, but oh, the joys of watching believers grow and change in Christ!
Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment (1 Peter 2:2 NLT). Recently I saw this passage fulfilled as I met with the man I have the privilege of discipling. There he sat across from me in my living room, coffee cup in hand, often scooting to the edge of his seat waiting for an answer to a life question or to share a blessing. At other times, he would recline intently listening to biblical instruction, soaking it all in! Wow!!
As a dad, life presents its share of joy-filled moments:
The birth of your child!
The first steps of your child!
That first meal prepared by your child (that you can eat)!
Going off to camp!
That clutch home run in the ninth inning to win the championship!
Their first job and receiving their first paycheck!
Getting their driver’s license!
Finding God’s mate in marriage!
Watching your own children become parents!
Most certainly, this could be an expansive list! But in this post, I am sharing what I believe to be the greatest joy of being a dad! It is all wrapped up in one word – discipleship!
There she was, sleeping so soundly. After a very draining week emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually, my wife was snuggled securely in bed in a deep slumber.
“What time is it? What day is it?” Those were her words when I awakened her.
Slowly she crawled out of bed and began to make herself ready for the day.
What day was it? Sunday.
What time was it? Suffice it to say, she had overslept!! Didn’t hear her alarm either.
We have pre-service prayer meeting on Sundays at 8:30. As I watched the clock and began to fix her a to-go breakfast, she came down the stairs. My wife was ready to go to church on the outside, but I could see that she was not on the inside. And based upon my ever present “I’ll fix this situation” manhood, I declared, “I’ll go on ahead, and you can come in your Jeep.”
Wait a minute! It’s raining, she’s fighting off a migraine, and she is definitely not crusin’ along on all eight cylinders.
It was then and there that my first ministry captured my attention. Serving my wife was more important than being at prayer meeting on time. She had no business driving by herself. She needed her husband. She needed her pastor. She needed her friend.
Pastors, Christian leaders, missionaries, we are so prone to put the ministry above our wives, leaving her in the dust with her brood as she carries seven diaper/book bags, Bibles, a purse, and wearing her “running shoes” to keep up with you. I mean, after all, you are the pastor and you must be there to open the door and lead in prayer! What will people think if you are late!!!
Men, you know the words of Matthew 22:37-39 quite well. May I encourage you to remember that your wife is your neighbor. She is to be loved more than your church congregation (Ephesians 5:25). Your ministry to your wife, and your church member, I might add, is an example to all the other believers. She is your first ministry.
Fighting the urge to drive a bit more aggressively and take some of the curves on two wheels, we had a nice, easy and enjoyable journey.
Interesting enough, folks gathered for prayer as always, and . . . we were the second ones in the parking lot. No harm done. Compassionate, caring love shown to my wife.
Thank You, Lord, for stopping me in my tracks and reminding me what is of greater value.
“C’mon, Hon. Take your time. I’ll wait. Let’s go together.”
My dad had many sayings. When my friends and I got rowdy as a kid, he would sometimes utter, “You boys need to settle down.”
Now in my 60’s and having been exposed to so much in the Christian and religious world for these years, could we as pastors/Christian leaders just settle down?
My background is one of . . . growing up in a pastor’s home (My dad was Church of the Nazarene until his Army days in Korea, and then came to understand the security of believer in Christ, thanks to a godly chaplain who taught him the Word!); The Wilds Christian Camp (Doc Hay, Rock Royer, Major Brooks, etc.); Bob Jones University (college and seminary plus a host of its graduates including all of its presidents to date, Bible Conference speakers, faculty, etc.); Tennessee Temple University graduates; the Sword of the Lord crowd; my Southern Baptist grandfather who pastored in Kentucky and southwest Virginia; the GARBC; the many men who fellowshipped in what was for years known as the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship (Now Foundations Baptist Fellowship); Dallas Theological Seminary grads; being mentored personally by the likes of J.B. Williams, J. Robert Martin, Randy Patten, Reynold Lemp and many others; plus being influenced from a distance by the likes of Charles Stanley, Chuck Swindoll, Adrian Rogers, Henry Blackaby, David Jeremiah, and more.
In more recent years, my background continues to be of the many mentioned above plus Men’s Prayer Advance, 9Marks, T4G, CoRE Conferences, plus many, many books authored by Tripp, Ortlund, Wells, Bridges, Payne & Marshall, Thomas, Huegal, Ryrie, Walvord, Pickering, etc.
“What’s the point?’, you may ask.
Well, I want to say that for all of us in ministry, none of us have it all figured out; none of us knows all the facts about everyone or every situation; none of us know more than our God; none of us have the absolute right methodology; none of us are the standard; and none of us have arrived!
For all of us in ministry, none of us have it all figured out . . . none of us have arrived!
We all come from various backgrounds and are all influenced by a diverse group of people, churches, institutions and movements, but we are saved by grace through faith alone in the cross work and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are one in Christ. We are made complete in Christ. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit. We are children of the living God!
Therefore, understanding that there are clear, biblical points of separation and the application thereof, such as preeminently, the Gospel (Galatians 1:1-10), may I say that we need to . . .
Give one another the benefit of the doubt.
Be gracious and kind.
Stop making fun of our brothers on social media whether you agree with him or not. (No wonder the lost world doesn’t want our Jesus, seeing the way we lampoon one another.)
Throw away our Pharisaical microscope.
Give one another space to grow in sanctification.
Cheer our brother on when he’s down. When revival breaks out where he pastors but not where you serve, rejoice and praise God with him!
Personally call up the brother we have issue with instead of talking about him behind his back or on social media.
Exchange the time of criticizing and posting for time on our knees in prayer.
Let God handle error by His righteous standard rather than us being “the enforcer.”
Meet with your brother for coffee; get to know him and disciple each other.
Confess and repent of our arrogance and pride.
Exercise grace.
Remember, we will live forever together in Glory!
Throw away your Pharisaical microscope.
In times past, I have jokingly said, for instance to a group of four men, “There are only four people in the world that’s perfect. That’s me and you three, and . . . I am doubtful about you three!”
Proverbs 22:4 recently challenged my heart again . . . By humility and the fear of the LORD (not man) are riches and honor and life.
May I suggest that we soak our soul often in the truths of Colossians 1:15-18 and go deep in meditation and prayer in Philippians 1:1-2:18?
Let’s join Paul in prayer . . . And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, 11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)
One of the greatest needs in our homes, churches, schools, sports teams, and nation today is DADS, . . .
Delivered by the gospel.
All of us dads were born spiritually dead, living under the control of Satan, self and the world and under God’s wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3). As much as we think as a man we can fix our sinful condition, work our way to heaven, fill the hole in our soul, we are forever lost. We cannot fix the greatest crisis in our lives.
Here’s the Good News! But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:4-9)
The most important aspect of being a dad is for Christ to live in us that He may live His life out of us so that our children see Christ and not us (Romans 6-8; Galatians 2:20; Philippians 3:4-10; Colossians 1:27).
Daily we surrender to Christ. Daily we come to Christ (Matthew 11:28-30). Daily we seek Christ (Matthew 6:24-34). Daily we look for Christ return (John 14:1-6; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Christ is our life (John 10:10; Galatians 2:20).
Adores his wife
Merriman-Webster defines “adore” as “to regard with loving admiration and devotion.” According to Ephesians 2:7, the reason God saves us is to show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Dads, just as God demonstrates His grace toward us through Christ every moment of each day, we can through Christ adore our children’s mom, our wife. God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:5).
Dad, show your children how to love and respect their future spouse.
Demonstrate before them a grace-enabled, God-honored marriage (Ephesians 5:18-33)!!
Disciples his children
Dads spend hours teaching and coaching their children how to hit or field a baseball. Perhaps it’s how to drive a car. Maybe it’s training in construction.
The best training a dad can give his son or daughter is how to know Christ as personal Lord and Savior (Ephesians 2:1-9); to love, read, and study the Bible (Psalms 19:7-11; 119:1-176); to know how to share Jesus with others (1 Peter 3:15); to know how to pray (Study how Jesus prayed and the prayers of Paul, Ephesians 1:15-23; 3:14-21; Colossians 1:9-12); to know how to praise the Lord and enjoy life (Psalms 100, 150; Hebrews 13:15); to know how to live the Christ-life (Romans 6-8; Galatians 2:20) and to know how to laugh and have fun (Proverbs 17:22)!!
Seeks the eternal things
One day your children will depart from your home and your training. May that which they love above all things and seek after be the eternal things. Life here is so temporal as is power, prestige, position, possessions, and property. We will leave it all behind one day.
May you live in such a way that your children see you seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), having set your mind/affection on things above, not on things that are on earth (Colossians 3:2)., that in all things Christ has the preeminence (Colossians 1:18) because the passion of your life is to know Christ (Philippians 3:4-10).
Happy DADS Day!! Be encouraged!! Stay the course!! Grace is sufficient!!
So very grateful for my Christ-centered dad, for the blessing of being of dad, and for my sons-in-law who are and will be godly dads!!!
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