Great opportunity; many obstacles; where’s the door?

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“For a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (I Corinthians 16:9).

(See the postscript for a story illustrating this text.)

Ain’t that the way?

You spot a great opportunity, the adrenalin flows and your heart races. You seize it and begin to make plans to do this wonderful thing in a big way, when suddenly, out of the blue, you’re blindsided by opposition and adversaries.

“Dear Lord, just as soon as you send a huge opportunity with wide-open doors and no problems in my direction, I’ll be back.”

Just as soon as everyone is on board and the naysayers are all gone, as soon as my mama agrees and the vote is unanimous, and when the resources are in the bank and old Mr. Crenshaw quits fighting it, yessirree–we’ll be right there to do this thing you’ve laid on our hearts.

That’s how our heart feels. That’s the counsel our fears give.

Paul was in Ephesus and having a great ministry, one lasting several years. This work was characterized by all three facets he mentions in this verse–great opportunities, open doors, and many obstacles.

Sounds like life, doesn’t it?  Great opportunities, open doors, many obstacles. It is indeed.

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A leader: the pastor your church is looking for

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“Shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). 

A young mother told me at church yesterday, she’s already praying for the girls who will some day marry her four young sons.  My guess is that family has a dozen years to wait before their first wedding.

It’s never too early to pray.

I have never known of a church with a pastor who was loved and supported that spent any time praying for its future pastors, but it makes sense. The present guy clearly will not be at that church forever. In due time, the congregation will be forming a search committee for the next shepherd.

Only then will the church members begin asking the Father, “Show us the next leader.”

Where have they been? Didn’t they know how these things work, that one pastor follows another?

What if in next Sunday morning’s offertory prayer, the church prayed, “And Father, we lift to Thy care and direction and guidance the next pastor of this Thy church, no matter who the person is.  Prepare them. Protect them. Deepen them. And prepare us for their ministry.”

I know a half-dozen churches of small to medium size presently seeking new pastors. In every case, the fields are “white unto harvest” all around them (John 4:35). They are sitting in the midst of great opportunities for ministry and are set up for a wonderful harvest.

As they have been for years.

For ages, many of these churches have been wishing and hoping and praying to reach their field, but with little effect.

Why so little harvest?  Why have they (seemingly) contented themselves with a handful of baptisms each year and miniscule growth and limited ministries when they could have had ten times that?

Mostly, it comes down to leadership.

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Conservative or Liberal–meaningless terms by themselves.

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In Matthew 22, the Lord Jesus lambasted the liberals of His day, the  Sadducees.  One chapter later, he let the conservatives–the Pharisees–have it good (Matthew 23).  In between, He wedged in a teaching to make the point that “Jesus is Lord” (22:41-45).

Neither the liberals nor the conservatives impressed Him much.

When I was a kid–Harry Truman was president–“liberal” was an honorable term, and Truman and others gladly owned it. These days, at least in my neighborhood, it’s a putdown, something you’d not want to be caught dead being.

Likewise, almost everyone I know–that is, in my circle–claims to hold membership in that most august of clubs, The Conservatives.  Never mind that most never define it and I suspect some have no clue what they mean.  But it’s the term held in high esteem among Southern Baptists (my group).

A little sane thinking about these words is in order, if I may be permitted.

Our family has a story which illustrates an important point about the two groups….

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Careful, pastor. Your pride is showing. And it ain’t pretty.

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“I alone am left” (I Kings 19:10,14)  ” have 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal” (19:18).

Lord, I’m the only one out here in the field doing anything worthwhile.

I’m your best hope, Lord. Mine is the best church. Our denomination is the last of the faithful.

Sheesh!

How does the Lord put up with the likes of us?

Usually I let it go, but this time I felt the pastor of that church–we’ll call him Silas–and I had sufficient history to withstand my telling him that his advertising slogan–his “church’s identity–was offensive.

“We’re going to reach Atlanta and the world for Jesus!”

In my letter–maybe I should have phoned, but that would have made it seem more urgent–I said something to the effect that, “I appreciate a challenging goal for your people, and it’s great to keep the mission of world evangelism before them. But imagine if you are pastoring a smaller church in your city (most churches in your city are smaller!) and you read that. It implies you’re going to do it all without any help from anyone else, and feels like a putdown.”

I suggested a more faithful slogan might say “We’re going to reach Atlanta and the world for Jesus by working with God’s people everywhere.”  Not as catchy or pithy, to be sure. But truer and far more responsible.

Silas was not gentle in his reply. “McKeever,” he began, always a clue that niceties are out the window. “Most of the churches around us are worshiping the status quo or struggling to keep their doors open. It does feel like we’ve got the task alone.”  He ended with a gentle reminder that I should take care of my own assignment before telling a brother how to do his.

Point well taken.

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The church membership in the last days

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“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God–having a form of godliness but denying its power.  And that’s just the Christians!” (II Timothy 3:1-5)

I added that last line. Forgive me.

I did it to make a point: Paul is not talking about the world’s crowd here.

The people of the world have always been self-centered, money-mad and pleasure-driven.

It’s God’s people–the redeemed, the members of His churches, those entrusted with the gospel–who will be this way.

Read that and weep.

Some observations on what this means for ministry in these last days…

1) This is not all bad.

Everyone is welcome at church, so we have always had a mixture of the good and evil in the pews, and that’s how it should be.  (See Matthew 22:10 where both evil and good people became guests at the banquet.)

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Church leaders, get some new ideas–please!

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“Quench not the Spirit” (I Thessalonians 5:19).

“Do not put out God’s fire” (NIV translation).

A church group from a small Texas city was visiting a large dynamic congregation here in New Orleans not long ago.  The music was lively, people were rejoicing in the Lord, and joy was filling the air.

At one point, a deacon in the Texas bunch leaned over to his minister of music and whispered, “Don’t get any ideas.”

Was he teasing?  Perhaps.

The person who told me that added, “At last report, that Texas church has continued to be weak and divided, and to struggle.  The local church however flourishes.”

“Don’t get any ideas.”

Has there ever been a more Spirit-quenching statement than that?

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Help! My church is overpaying me!

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Every once in a while someone comes up with a new wrinkle on church headaches.

A young pastor friend wrote to say the church he now serves went through a split a year or so before he arrived, and the smaller congregation struggles to keep up with the financial needs. Presently, they are running a deficit of perhaps $10 thousand a year, forcing them to draw on reserves.

The church has a number of fixed expenses, he says, such as utilities and insurance, that cannot be cut. Even if they eliminated all literature and supplies, the deficit would still not be covered. His suggestion is that they cut his salary by $10,000 a year.

The leadership refuses.

How awful of them, wanting to keep the pastor’s salary at a high level.

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What I wonder about Jesus’ times

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“And walking by the Sea of Galilee…. And going on from there…. And Jesus was going about in all Galilee….” (Matthew 4:18,21,23).

They walked everywhere they went, the Lord and HIs disciples. In time, walkers know every nuance of a trail, every pothole in a road, every farmhouse and every place to stop for a drink of water.

I wish I could have walked with the Lord and the disciples. What must that have been like?

Often a crowd accompanied them. “And great multitudes followed Him from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan” (Matthew 4:25).

Did they hang back or press in close? Did they talk the whole time or did a holy hush descend on the group?  Was someone in charge–or tried to be–and kept everyone in line? Did they stay with the Lord for days or just for hours? And if for a long time, how were they fed and where did they stay?

I wonder so many things about what that must have been like…

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Three huge mistakes church bullies make (and what to do about them)

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Anyone interposing himself between the Lord Jesus and His church is asking for it.

Sometimes–as I keep getting reminded by readers–that would-be dictator is the pastor, a man sent by God to be the shepherd of the sheep but who has forgotten that he does not own the flock and cannot do with it as he pleases.

More likely, however, the man (it’s almost always a man) who takes it upon himself to run the church is a layperson with what he thinks are dynamic leadership skills.  My observation is that he is a bully in other ways and places too, particularly at home and in the office. (He usually owns his own company and thus calls the shots without interference from anyone.)

1) Bullies are wrong about themselves.

They don’t think of it as bullying: they’re just taking the leadership when no one else will. Filling the vacuum.

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The scriptures that define you

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“So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done” (Luke 17:10).

What do you mean when you say a certain scripture is “my verse” or “my text”? That you ‘own’ that verse or have ‘claimed it as your own’?

The verses I claim as ‘mine’ are that not because I own them, but they own me.  They know me, are privy to all my secrets, and have nailed me as surely as an prosecuting attorney ever could.

Take Luke 17:7-10, for instance.  It’s not a particularly happy text, not one I read for inspiration and encouragement.  No, it’s something else entirely. But it is mine as surely as my children, my wife, and this house are mine. They carry my name, and so this this scripture.

When all is said and done, I am an unworthy servant; I’ve just done my duty.

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