Higher Ministries

Have you ever set back and wondered if what you are experiencing is stress and frustration or the prompting of the Holy Spirit to not be satisfied with the status quo?

For some, that may sound like the same thing. I’m not sure if I believe that the Holy Spirit tugs at us in a way to make our life feel out of kelter, or if the Spirit opens our eyes to what God is doing around us and gives us the opportunities to ride along.

How do we reconcile “feeling trapped” in a ministry position that quenches the Spirit, leaving us lost and frustrated, with the longing in our heart to make a diffenence in the lives of people in our church and community?

All of us in ministry know we need to spend more time alone with God. Walking with Him. Listening to Him and sharing our innermost struggles with Him. Afterall, He already knows our trials and wants to equip us to work through them.

In my thousands of hours working with local church pastors, and while searching my own life, I have found the two major problem areas for most ministers are: 1.) A lack of personal alone time with God and His word. We tend to spend so much time preparing messages and lessons, that personal growth and formation time gets pushed to the back burner more times than not. 2.) Isolation from persons and friends who we can be comfortable enough with to openly share our struggles, concerns and fears.

Commit consistent and quality time each day to be with God and further commit to nurturing a relationship with someone who you feel could be,”closer than a brother”.

Take the risk to be open and genuine with a friend. They will be an incredible boost for your life and ministry.

Have you ever gone on a vacation and found yourself anxious to get home but not very anxious to go back to work? I discovered many years ago that the optimal vacation time for me is 10 days. After that my mind usually starts thinking about things I need to do when I get home. I usually have my most creative ideas while on vacation and begin formulating ideas and plans for what I can do differently ad hopefully better when I return to work.

This year was different though. True enough, after 10 days my mind began to return home. However, this time it was not new work ideas that filled my thoughts but things that needed to be done around the house or at our cabin. In fact the idea of returning to work was not even that appealing.

By the way, I love my job. I work with great people. My hours are relatively flexible and I truly believe that I am in the right place at the right time according to God’s purposes. So why was I not anxious to get back into the saddle?

I don’t seem to experience the signs associated with burn-out. I’m not resentful or stressed nor do I really feel that I am over worked and under paid like most ministers are. Is it possible that I am spending too much of my time working in ministry areas that drain my batteries rather than charge them? How many of us in full-time ministry spend way too much time doing the ‘have to’s” rather than the “want to’s”?

Think about joining me in an experiment. Identify those things in your average day that wear you out. Those things that you do not look forward to, yet you feel you must do in your role as a minister of the gospel. Then figure out a way to deligate or drop this particular energy dainer.

Surround yourself with encouragers and fill your day with battery charging activities and see if it does not make a difference in your attitude about the work of ministry.

John

It’s summer. The weather has turned warmer and dryer. Life seems to slow down a little as we take time to do family things like vacations, picnics and hikes.

I remember the times at the cabin before moving to beautiful East Tennessee. My wife and I would come here for a few weeks every season just to get away from the desert and to relax from the daily pressures of full-time volunteer ministry.

The best time of the day for me was always morning. I always rise a couple of hours before my wife and I enjoy this time of solitude. At the cabin, I would sit on the deck overlooking the lake, read specific scriptures based on the study or reading plan I was on at the time, read a chapter in a Max Lucado book, pray, journal and I think most importantly, listen.

To hear God speak through the mist rising from the lake and understand that in time God’s plans and timing will be clear. To hear His voice in the call of the wild geese or to experience my freedom in Christ as I watch the squirrels jump from limb to limb. To understand the effect of what I do has on others as I watch the concentric circles move away from the splash of the fish who just jumped out of the lake.

Some mornings I would paddle out in the kayak on the glassy lake and feel completely immersed in the presence of the creator. Sometimes I would paddle into a cove and just drift while singing “How Great Thou Art” or “God of Wonders.”

The best time of the day and the best time of the vacation was always these quiet times with God.

Why can’t every morning be a quiet morning on the lake with God?

I guess it can.

John

I am very blessed to have the opportunity to speak to many different people, groups and churches. It is one my favorite things about my job and life in general. I love all the people that I get to meet, and different worship gatherings that I get to be a part of.

I spend a lot of time speaking in smaller churches that have great histories and families that have attended for several generations. In many of these churches I have begun to notice a very unsettling trend. I am a stranger to them. It is evident the moment I step out of my car. Nearly every time in every place I am greeted by someone in the parking lot who does not say hello or welcome me to their church, but says “Well you must be a guest speaker.”

I am greeted the same way several more times as I make my way through the church. Now don’t get me wrong, the people are always extremely friendly, I just wonder why they assume I am a guest speaker? Many times their pastor is not gone, or they don’t know he is gone. I guess the thought of a visitor is so foreign that anyone they don’t recognize must be a guest speaker.

Many of these churches have long conversations with me about church growth and their desire to reach out to their community. I am going to start telling them a good idea might be to not greet everyone you don’t recognize as a pastor. Imagine if I were someone searching for answers. Showing up at their church looking for something, but not knowing what. Instead of hearing “hello” or “welcome”, hearing “Oh, you must be a guest speaker!”

What a welcome.
Tony

I had a few responses to my recent post Call me Christian not many, (there are not many people who read this!) but enough that I thought I should do a general reply.

There is nothing wrong with calling yourself a Christ Follower. I personally call myself a Christ follower. My hope would be that any who find themselves trying to make sense of the life and teachings of Jesus would consider themselves a Christ follower. The problem comes when you try to make a social statement about your distaste for fundamental Christianity by stating you are NOT a Christian rather than saying you are a Christ follower.

I do not want to waste a lot of time on this, but I do want to make a few comments as they relate to replies I have received.

As I said in the original post, the very origin of Christianity was simply people following their Messiah. The Messiah. The Christ. Most of the time they did not know where they were going or who this man really was they were following. They knew nothing about religion. They had no social or political agenda to push. They were not placing membership in an organization or adhering to any ritualistic traditions. There was just something about this man. It was not the miracles, the healings or the teachings (Most of them had not happened yet). It was Him and His willingness to take them, in all of their brokenness and dirt. His willingness to accept them. To take them along in spite of their doubts, in spite of their shortcomings, in spite of their lack of understanding of who He was and what He was doing. He still let them come, let them follow.

That is the group that became know as the Christ-ones, the Christians. That is the group that 2000 years later I want to be a part of.

I had someone say that it may be better to be referred to as a Christ imitator; I think that is very dangerous. I grew up in Las Vegas, a city full of imitators (they do not like being called impersonators). I have seen more Elvis’ and Madonna’s’ than should be legally allowed. Some of the imitators were very good. They looked, acted and sounded like the real thing…but they were not the real thing. As much as they might fool some people for a while, eventually they are going to show the fact that they are not who they are pretending to be. I have also seen some very bad imitators. Men and woman who would make the person they are attempting to imitate roll over in their grave or sue for slander. Rather than imitate the person they want to be, they are embarrassing themselves and everyone else in the show around them. Personally, I would rather be known as one who is steadily following in the footsteps of Jesus than one who is foolishly trying to be something and someone I will never be.

The great danger in trying to be an imitator of Jesus is that sometimes you just might fool yourself into believing you are doing a decent imitation.

The great danger in following Jesus is that if you are not careful you just might catch Him. You might get so caught up in trying to make your “I’m not a Christian, I’m a Christ follower” statements and your anti-church statements that before you know it you are off on your own agenda, your own path, and Jesus is far behind you, walking slowly so the rest of us can keep up.

In my pursuit of Jesus, I think I am always going to try stay a few steps behind Him. Just close enough to hear his whispers, but far enough back to always keep Him in front of me, to were He fills my sight line. Walking in His footsteps. Following His lead. Although I may not always know where he is leading, if I stay back enough I will always know who I am following.
Tony