Let’s you and me pray for our pastors. Seriously.

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There was a time when it was easier to pastor a church than it is today. There was a time when churches running 1,000 on Sunday were considered mega. There was a time when churches took what they had in the way of pastoral leadership and pretty much went with it without a lot of complaints.

Those days are no more. It’s a different world we live in.

People demand strengths and excellence and results from their leaders. They look for power in the pulpit and skills in relationships. They want advanced degrees and magnetic winsomeness and it wouldn’t hurt if you looked sharp either.

They want to be fed in sermons and challenged in programs. They want input in decisions and no longer hand the keys to the kingdom to the incoming preacher.

What they do not want is to be embarrassed from the pulpit, for their church to become the laughingstock of the community, for the attendance to drop, or for the financial situation to become dire.

If they could, they would like the church to reach the unchurched and make a difference in the poorer section of town, but they want this without changing the nature of what their church has always been.

If they could, they’d like to become a mission-minded congregation where members go overseas and return with glowing reports of work done, but they’d prefer this without themselves being asked to go.

They want good sermons and effective leadership from a pastor who has earned their respect and whom they like.

Just don’t bother them too much in accomplishing this.

Poor preacher. Someone ought to encourage him. Lord knows there are enough forces out there overwhelming him in the other direction.

Today, let’s pray for him. Let’s “give him heart,” as the word “encourage” actually means.

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Pastors, get it right or be quiet!

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So, I’m sitting in some huge meeting with hundreds of the Lord’s people representing churches across our state or country. A large number of preachers are in the audience. The speaker is sounding forth on some subject of importance to us all.

Suddenly, the speaker comes out with a statement that gets a hearty “amen,” something that sounds profound and undergirds the point he is making. He goes on in the message and every person in the room but one stays with him. Me, I’m stuck at that statement. Where did he get that, I wonder. Is it true? How can we know?

If social media has taught us anything, it’s to distrust percentages and question quotations.

A Facebook friend’s profile contained a quote from President Kennedy. I happen to know the quote and while I cannot prove JFK never uttered those words–how could we prove that about anyone saying anything–I know how the line got attached to the Kennedys. It’s a quotation from a George Bernard Shaw play.

Some see things as they are and ask ‘Why?’ I see things that never were and ask ‘Why not?’

In 1968, at the funeral of his brother Robert F. Kennedy, Senator Ted Kennedy spoke that line as applying to him. It’s a terrific depiction of vision. And, I imagine it was the first time for most of us to hear the quote. As I recall, the source was not given in the oration, which may have led some to believe Senator Kennedy made it up.

One thing we can be sure of, however, is President John F. Kennedy is not its source. Nor is any Kennedy. And yet, keep your eye out for that quotation. Half the time, its source will be listed as one of the Kennedys.

Accuracy is important for all of us, but particularly those of us called to preach God’s truth.

Unfortunately, because we speak so often–some pastors deliver three or more sermons per week, fifty weeks of the year–we go through a lot of material.   It figures that sometimes we are going to get our stories wrong.

That’s why something a preacher said hit me so hard and drove me to do a little fact-checking.

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The real question about the world’s suffering

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I need to tell you a story.

In her World War Two novel, His Majesty’s Hope, Susan Elia MacNeal tells of a German nurse, Elise, who learns that a Downs Syndrome child in her care was abruptly discharged and bused to some distant hospital where she was later reported to have died of pneumonia. Elise decided to look further into this suspicious matter.

Donning her nurse’s uniform, Elise boarded the next bus carting children to the hospital in question. All the children on board, she noticed, were blind, deaf, epileptic, retarded, and similarly handicapped. The nurse in charge seemed callous and uncaring, and administered a sedative to “help the children rest.”

At its destination, the bus was met by authorities who instructed the children to disrobe for a shower. Doctors examined the children, marking those with gold fillings in their mouths with a large X on their bodies. As they entered the shower room, a large metal door slammed behind them and latches were thrown. That’s when Elise realized what was happening.

The children were being gassed. Exterminated.

“You’ll get used to it,” said an orderly to the stunned Elise.

She ran outside the building and vomited on the grass.

Later, on the bus ride back into Berlin, Elisa asked the other nurse, the hardened one, “But what about the fifth commandment? ‘Thou shalt not kill’?”

“That’s no commandment of God’s–just a Jewish lie, meant to keep us weak,” she said. “We don’t need to follow it any more. Besides, it’s not killing, it’s euthanasia.”

Elise asked about the doctors who were killing the children.  If they refused, she was told, they would be sent to the Eastern Front and assigned to a suicide squad.

“Elise’s ears began to ring. She thought she might be losing her mind. She closed her eyes. ‘I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,’ she prayed silently, ‘from whence coming my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth….’”

“But where was God as the children…were being murdered? Elise wondered. She said Hail Mary after Hail Mary, and still received no answers. And felt nothing but horror and despair.”

“And then the thought hit her. What if God were asking the exact same thing? What if God is asking where are we?”

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How to tell you are no leader

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Woe unto you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. (Luke 6:26)

Let’s just come right out and say it up front:

Unless someone is not constantly on your case, mad at you, irritated, and upset with you all the time, you are no leader.

The would-be leader who fails to recognize this will be constantly bewildered by the reactions of the people he has been sent to serve.

He comes into a church with a divine mandate. (This is not pious talk. He has been called by God into the ministry and sent by Him to this church. If that’s not a divine mandate, nothing is.) He proceeds to take the reins and lead out. To his utter amazement, the very people he expected to welcome his ministry, to support his vision, to affirm his godliness, to volunteer their service–those very people–stand back and carp and criticize and find fault.

This was the last thing he expected.

Because he’s human, he begins to wonder many things: Did I make a mistake in coming here? Am I doing something wrong? Are these people not God’s children? Should I stay? Should I leave?

I answer: You’re doing just fine, preacher. Stay the course.

Salt is an irritant. We have been sent into this world as its salt (Matthew 5:13).

Light hurts the eyes. We were sent as the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). The brighter it shines, the more darkness resists it, resents it, runs from it.

This is as good a place as any to state the obvious: Many in places of leadership inside our churches are not leaders. I’m talking about pastors, staffers, deacons, and other so-called leaders.

They may qualify as counselors, program directors, consensus builders, negotiators, mediators, affirmers, or even teachers. But they are not leaders.

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What Joy Looks Like

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First, this is not an article about the “gifts” of the Spirit.

Second, this is definitely not an article about the “fruit” of the Spirit.

However, it might be fairly close to “the evidence” of the Spirit. That is, how one can know that the living God is actually indwelling his life and the body of believers with whom he/she associates.

We can sit here all day and talk about gifts of the Spirit such as healings and prophecies and tongues, and we’ll probably agree on little and disagree on much.

But there are three evidences of the indwelling Holy Spirit, around which I’m thinking all God’s children can come together. Surely none will find reason to opt out of these.

Three evidences of the Spirit 

When the Lord is in your life and when He daily “lords it over” you, and when you are actively serving Him in a body of believers of the same sort as yourself (so to speak), then you should expect to see these three incredible gifts from the Holy Spirit making their presence known….

1. Joy in your heart.

2. Sweetness in your fellowship.

3. Passion in your service.

Call these fruits or gifts of the Spirit, or whatever term works best for you. They are evidence that the Lord is in this place and flying His flag high.

One. Joy in Your Heart.

Joy is the flag flown from the castle of your heart to show the king is in residence.

No joy? No Lord.

Wherever He is, look for the joy. It seems to accompany Him at all times. “In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

Here’s our problem. We tend to think of joy as the icing on the cake, the meringue on the pie. That is, it’s nice when it’s present, but there’s not a lot of substance to it, it’s mostly for show, and we can function perfectly well without it.

We couldn’t be more wrong.

Joy is the atmosphere in which God lives and which He breathes. Joy is the very air of Heaven.

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How to detect a fake

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In the latter months of World War II, as the Allies were closing in on Germany, the Nazis developed a ruse that worked well for a while.

They would find German soldiers who spoke English well and dress them as Americans. They would arrange for them to be “lost” and to rejoin the Alllied forces as they moved forward. Their task: to infiltrate the American troops and assassinate Generals Eisenhower and Patton.

In time, the good guys developed some tests for exposing the fakes. One German was cut down by the Americans when they saw how he was walking. He was ramrod straight whereas all our troops slouched when they walked.

Another group learned to address the soldier using “pig Latin.” If he was stymied by that, he was exposed.

And they developed questions. Two, I recall, were: Who is Betty Grable? and What position did Lou Gehrig play?

The answers were: movie star/pinup girl and first base for the Yankees. It was understood that every GI in the world would know this.

If you have been in the warfare against the forces of righteousness and the enemies of all that is good and holy for any period of time, you have come up against counterfeits and pretenders, fakes and shams.

The question is, how do you tell? And what should we do about them?

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How a nobody can change the world

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I’m not anyone big or famous. I’m not an over-achiever. Not a Phi Beta Kappa, never voted “most likely to succeed,” and not even close to being a Fortune 500 CEO. No one is ever going to look my way and be impressed that they are in the presence of a mover and shaker.

Maybe so. Maybe not.

But if you are a serious follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you can literally change the world and do it in a significant way. This is not unrealistic, not a dreamy preacher-type overstatement, and not out of the realm of possibilities.

Now, there are a few presuppositions we need to lay out before we name the three actions which you can do to change your world.

1) We’re talking about people who have genuinely received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

2) Okay, you’re a Christian in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. Next, we’re talking about you taking seriously Christ’s mandate to be salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13) and light of the world (Matthew 5:14).

3) And, finally, we’re talking about you being willing to obey the Lord in whatever He assigns to you. That is, you read something in the Word and sense in your heart a tugging (pushing?) from the indwelling Holy Spirit that this one has your name all over it, and you get up and obey.

If that’s you–if you have received Christ and you are serious about making a difference for His sake and you are willing to obey Him–then, here are three actions for you to take which will be used of God to change your world.


1. Start where you are.

That may sound a little obvious, but you’d be amazed how often I hear people say things like, “I do not like living in this city. If I lived in (fill in the blank), I could serve the Lord.” “I know I’m not much of a witness here, but if I were living in a foreign country, I could be a great missionary.” “If the Lord will only let me move to (wherever), I will serve Him.”

But it does not work that way. Not ever.

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Lots of reasons to rejoice, and one really big one

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It’s Friday night and the home team is struggling.  The coach walks up and down the sideline in front of his players.

“Get your heads up! All of you!  Take those stupid towels off your head!  Let’s show some courage around here!  The game is not over yet.  You’re not defeated until you quit fighting.  Lift up your heads!  Look like champions!”

The disciples had returned from a trial run in which they had practiced preaching the gospel of Jesus.  Since the time would come when Jesus would be absent and they would be doing this “for real,” the Lord wanted them to get a taste of what to expect.

They returned sky high.  “Lord! It was wonderful!  We saw miracles.  Lives changed.  People healed. It was great!”

Jesus agreed.  “You’re right.  In fact, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

“However,” He said, “I need to tell you something.”

Do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you. Rejoice because your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20)

It wasn’t that He didn’t want them joyful and excited.  He loves overflowing praise and exuberance in His children.

He just wants it based on something more substantial than the latest results.

The Lord knew what the disciples would find out. The days would come when they would return empty-handed from their preaching missions, their evangelistic trips, their revivals and door-to-door visitations, and their overseas outreach.

Yes, there would be times of great successes and glorious testimonies. But at other times, they would return empty-handed, with no glowing stories, no big numbers, no sparkling testimonies of victories.  Sometimes they would do well to get out with their lives, and occasionally they didn’t even manage that.

If their joy was based on impressive victories and big numbers, it would be constantly fluctuating.  Sometimes they would be happy in the Lord and overflowing with praise, and at other times, they would be depressed and discouraged.

He wants none of that.

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Preparing for your moment. It could come at any time.

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Be sure of this, that if the home owner had known what hour of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.  Therefore, you must be ready…. (Matthew 24:43-44)

A few years back, a young woman in a North Georgia town was suddenly thrust into the spotlight. An escaped criminal burst into her apartment and held her and her child captive. When the episode ended, the woman told her story to the world. During that nightmarish ordeal, she had talked to the man about the Lord and read to him from one of Rick Warren’s “purpose-driven” books.

Every media person in the country reacted the same. Here was an attractive single woman frightened out of her wits doing something truly courageous. What kind of person is she?

So, they delved into her background.

The reporters found she had a checkered past. But at some point she had come to know the Lord and would tell anyone who listened how Jesus had changed her life.

The young woman was an incredible witness. And she had done nothing–absolutely nothing–to prepare for her moment on the world’s stage. She was authentically Christian and the Holy Spirit did in her exactly what Jesus had promised. “Do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say.” (Matthew 10:19)

Her testimony quickly catapulted Pastor Rick Warren into the spotlight, a place he had already grown accustomed to. And because he always seemed to stay prepared for whatever the Lord had in store for him that day, Rick was ready and seized the moment.

Hundreds of people will be in Heaven as a direct result of that woman’s ordeal and her amazing testimony.  And, to no one’s surprise, Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life, sold an additional hundred thousand copies.  Heaven alone knows the fruit all of this bore.

On ill-fated September 11, 2001, when Islamic terrorists took down the World Trade Towers and the four ill-fated airliners crashed, within hours the media was interviewing every person related to each aspect of this world-shaking event: the families of the victims, the first-responders, architects, politicians, and anyone who had seen anything. No one had time to prepare for the cameras and microphones and the print reporters.

Okay.  Pause and reflect on that a moment.

No one knew this day was coming.  No one prepared.  It was the ultimate happening.

When we know in advance the world’s attention is about to focus on us, when we know in advance the media is coming–even the Christian media which will be considerate and responsible in its reporting–we are given a gift. We have time to prepare our thoughts on what we want to communicate and time to ask the Father to clear our minds and use our words.

Bottom line: We have no way of knowing when we rise in the morning what the Father has awaiting us later in the day. That’s the joy of the Christian life, of course.

And, let’s be honest–it’s the frightening aspect of the Christian life too!

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Two books that changed my life as a young pastor

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I have a story for you, one I love to tell.

It’s the tale of a message God sent, of nagging doubt and how God is able to use that doubt to do something extraordinary in the life of the believer who will stay in class.

Don’t skip past that:  Stay in class.  Which simply means when the Lord allows a nagging doubt to come your way, don’t run from it.  He’s trying to build up your faith. So, stay with Him here.

Recently, I went back and re-read the 1927 Sinclair Lewis novel Elmer Gantry.

First, a side note about the movie on that book. Far more people have seen the Burt Lancaster movie Elmer Gantry, made in 1960, than have read the book. The problem is, the book is like a 6 hour movie, whereas the movie was necessarily much briefer. The movie covers only about 100 pages of the book.

I recommend the book to every preacher I know. It’s painful reading, I grant you. However, in many ways, Sinclair Lewis knew what he was talking about. The charlatan who was Elmer Gantry–the one in the novel is far worse than the on-screen version played by Burt Lancaster–exposes the scoundrel in each of us who would deign to speak for God and lead His flock.

In order to convey the full impact of the renegade preacher’s words, I’ll need to quote a long passage from the book.

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