{"id":20841,"date":"2020-07-31T13:30:05","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T18:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/?p=20841"},"modified":"2020-07-31T13:31:55","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T18:31:55","slug":"21-ministry-lessons-learned-the-hard-way-with-scars-to-prove-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/21-ministry-lessons-learned-the-hard-way-with-scars-to-prove-it\/","title":{"rendered":"21 ministry lessons learned the hard way, with scars to prove it"},"content":{"rendered":"

I began serving the Lord when I was 11 years old, began preaching the Word when I was 21, and began pastoring a year later. At the moment, I\u2019m a solid 80 years old.\u00a0 These are a few lessons this life of ministry has taught me\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One.<\/strong>\u00a0Never tell anyone anything you don\u2019t want repeated.\u00a0 The single exceptions are the Lord in prayer or your wife in the bedroom.<\/p>\n

Two<\/strong>. Never put anything negative in a letter.\u00a0 It will still be circulating and driving the case against you long after you\u2019re in the grave.<\/p>\n

Three.<\/strong>\u00a0 Never fail to check all the references of a prospective staff member.\u00a0 And then check a few more.<\/p>\n

Four.<\/strong> Differences of opinion\u2013in a church or on a staff\u2013can be healthy, but dissension should be nipped in the bud.\u00a0 Anyone who cannot sit in a staff meeting and disagree lovingly does not belong there.<\/p>\n

Five.<\/strong>\u00a0 Neglect your family and you will have a lifetime to regret it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Six.<\/strong>\u00a0 A sense of humor can be a lifesaver\u2013if you know how to control it and when to give it free rein.<\/p>\n

Seven.<\/strong>\u00a0 God does not send the pastor to make the church happy, but to make Himself happy.\u00a0 Pastors are sent to make the flock holy and healthy.\u00a0 Not ten members in the typical church know this.<\/p>\n

Eight.<\/strong> Ninety-five percent of the things you pray for, you\u2019ll never know if the Lord answers or not.\u00a0 You do not know what would have happened had you not prayed.\u00a0 You\u2019ll get to Heaven before you see what God was doing.\u00a0 If you cannot accept that, you\u2019ll quit praying.\u00a0 Sadly, many have quit.<\/p>\n

Nine.<\/strong>\u00a0 Preachers, Bible teachers, and those who work with youth and children will not know until they get to Glory how God has used them.\u00a0 If they insist on seeing immediate fruits for their labors, they will either resort to gimmicks and shallow tactics or grow discouraged and quit. Neither option is good. “Wait on the Lord.”<\/p>\n

Ten<\/strong>. Those who place gifts in the offering at church will not know in this lifetime what God does with their offerings. They will give by faith or not at all.<\/p>\n

Eleven.<\/strong>\u00a0 What we do to the Church\u2013to its ministers, its members, and the little children\u2013Jesus takes personally. He has written the names of some troublemakers into His appointment schedule at which time they will give account of the damage they have done.\u00a0 You do not want to be standing nearby.<\/p>\n

Twelve.<\/strong>\u00a0 If you do not like change, you\u2019re going to have trouble following Jesus.<\/p>\n

Thirteen.<\/strong>\u00a0 Anyone claiming to live by faith must be prepared to go it alone sometimes, to buck the trends often, to suffer at the hands of pious people from time to time, and spend a great deal of time waiting on the Lord.\u00a0 Those wanting an easy life may start out following Jesus, but they won’t last.<\/p>\n

Fourteen<\/strong>.\u00a0 Anyone who insists he does not live by faith but only science must never have eaten in a restaurant, driven on an interstate, taken a prescription medicine, or flown in an airplane.<\/p>\n

Fifteen<\/strong>.\u00a0 The pastor who demands a 100 percent vote before he comes or a salary raise in order to stay may need to reconsider his call.<\/p>\n

Sixteen.<\/strong>\u00a0 The church leader who demands to be obeyed because \u201cGod put me in charge\u201d may know a verse or two of Scripture but he has overlooked all the rest.<\/p>\n

Seventeen.<\/strong>\u00a0 Fully one-half of the criticism pastors receive about their preaching comes from people who have no problem with him personally but are unhappy that the Bible says what it says and not what they want it to.<\/p>\n

Eighteen.<\/strong>\u00a0 The pastor who is disappointed because the congregation failed to appreciate him or celebrate his anniversary needs to read the mandate from the Savior in Matthew 10:16-42.\u00a0 He cannot say he wasn\u2019t warned.<\/p>\n

Nineteen<\/strong>. The gospel message is not that God loves us all, but that God so loved us all that Jesus died for us all. And He rose again.\u00a0 And He now commands all to repent and receive Him. He is coming back some day to bring all of this to a conclusion of His own making.<\/p>\n

Twenty.<\/strong>\u00a0Christians who say\u2013as many say to me\u2013\u201cI don\u2019t smile\u201d should ask themselves if they are saved, whether they believe the gospel, and just how strongly they believe that Jesus \u201ccame that they might have life and have it more abundantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty-One.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Only the strong can humble themselves.\u00a0 Only the strong can submit to others with whom they differ.\u00a0 That\u2019s why so few will humble themselves, submit to others, and serve.<\/p>\n

You’ll have your own list.\u00a0 These are my first twenty-one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I began serving the Lord when I was 11 years old, began preaching the Word when I was 21, and began pastoring a year later. At the moment, I\u2019m a solid 80 years old.\u00a0 These are a few lessons this … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-pastors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20841"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20850,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20841\/revisions\/20850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}