We are posting here the opening two chapters in our book “Help! I’m a Pastor!”  At the conclusion, we’ll tell how to order it. 

Chapter One:  Be a Pastor, Change the World.

A preacher I know was on the plane trying to complete the manuscript for a series of Sunday School lessons he had been asked to write.  His seatmate wanted to talk.  Stuart kept fending her off with short responses.

At one point she noticed his name on his briefcase.  He was ‘Doctor.”  That intrigued her. “You’re a doctor?” she asked.

“Um huh,” my friend said, not looking up from his work.  “What kind of doctor are you?” she said.

Stuart said, “A Doctor of Theology.  I’m a preacher.”  “Oh,” she said, “I thought you were a real doctor.”

That did it.  My friend laid his books aside and looked at her. “Madam,” he said, “If I were a doctor of medicine and did my work well, I might be able to add a few years to someone’s life.”

“But as a Doctor of Theology–a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ–when I do my work well, people live forever.”

It’s a powerful thing this Christian ministry.

It is surely the quickest way to change the world.  And the best.

A fellow named Martin Luther went into the same work as you and I and saw the world change right before his eyes.  The same can be said about John Wesley. John Wycliffe. Dwight L. Moody. Jim Elliot. Peter Marshall. Billy Graham.

And you.

Recently I came across a book called Give Your Speech, Change the World.  Author Nick Morgan teaches public speaking in numerous formats (universities, as the editor of several publications, and consultant to executives) and has been speechwriter for a governor.  Morgan said an old friend of his, another speechwriter, used to say, “The only reason to give a speech is to change the world.”  Morgan agrees and adds, “Otherwise, why bother?” He answers, “We still need speeches.  We need them to move audiences to action… And lest you think that when I say ‘changing the world’ I’m only talking about the big speeches (the ones that CEOs give to shareholders, for example) understand that I’m talking about every speech ever given.”

Every sermon you ever deliver, pastor.

Every public presentation you make of any kind.  It’s that potent.

I’m remembering one Easter morning when I did nothing more than lead in prayer at a community-wide sunrise service and it changed the world.  Two families who heard that prayer began attending my church, joined it, and became excellent servants of the Savior.  Our church became stronger, their families flourished, and lives were changed.  The world changed.

Ministers of the Gospel need constant reminders that this message they preach is potent stuff.  It is the power of God unto salvation, said the Apostle Paul (Romans 1:16).

Furthermore….

When you love a child, you change the world.

When you win a soul, you change the world.

When you teach college students, you change the world.

When you pray for someone in need, you change the world.  Anyone see a principle here?

What I would love to do, of course, is to elevate the work of the ministry for anyone reading this.

Throughout Scripture we see those who did little potent things for the Lord Jesus that changed the world.

A widow dropped her two small coins into the offering.  Over these two thousand years since, her single act has inspired billions of dollars in gifts.  The woman literally changed the world that day with two pennies.

A little boy handed his lunch to Jesus and the world was never the same.

Barnabas traveled to Tarsus in search of his friend Saul and millions of people will live in Heaven forever as a result (Acts 11:25).

God said to Moses, “What is that in your hand?” (Exodus 4:2) With that shepherd’s rod, the man of God changed the world.

What’s in your hand?

What has God given you?  What is your calling?  What are your gifts, your interests, your talents, your concerns? Will you give these to the One who called you to use as He chooses?

In seminary, I pastored a small church on Alligator Bayou some 25 miles west of New Orleans.  When the McCain family visited our church, that week I paid a pastoral visit to their home. Fifteen-year-old Mike, a high school football player, and his little sister prayed with me inviting Jesus into their lives. They and their mother joined our church and I baptized the children.  A few years later after I had relocated to another state, I led the father to Christ over long distance.  And sometime later–long after I was out of the picture–God called young Mike McCain into the ministry.  He pastored churches throughout the decades.  And now, nearly sixty years later, Mike is retired and still preaching in Wisconsin where he lives.

I had no idea the day I made that pastoral visit to the McCains’ that God was using me to change the world.  But that is precisely what He did.

Make a visit; change the world.

For three years, as a staff member of a large church in Jackson, Mississippi, I taught the college Sunday School class.  We would have two hundred or more in attendance.  Three years later, I moved on to pastor in another part of the state.  Over the years since I learned that members of that Bible class literally covered the world serving God.  Some became medical doctors, others pastor and missionaries, and one became the editor of our denomination’s foreign missions magazine. No doubt there were others with significant works I know nothing about.  By teaching a Bible class of young people, God changed the world.

Did I do it alone?  Not even close.  As Paul said, one person plants, another waters and cultivates, but the harvest is from God (First Corinthians 3:6).

God will use you, pastor.  Believe that.  Trust Him.  And treasure the labors of fellow servants, because none of us does this alone.

What we must not do is try to judge the results today of what we accomplished this morning.

I like to remind the Lord’s people of what I have discovered about the Lord’s methodology–

When God gets ready to do something great, He loves to–

–start small

–with ordinary people

–using any method He pleases

–and taking all the time in the world.

Only people of faith will still be standing by at the end to see what God has done, and to behold His glory.

All the others have grown impatient and left the field.

One final reminder.  In every case mentioned–whether loving a child or teaching a class or knocking on a door or preaching the Word–we will not know what God is going to do with it.  This is all of faith.

We do our job and leave the results to Him.

In most cases, we will be in Heaven before we learn what He did with our efforts.  If that won’t teach you patience, nothing will.

 

Chapter Two: A special word for those who would help people worship

The first few chapters of First Samuel have much to say on this subject.

The first rule of worship leadership should probably be stated as Try Not to Get in Their Way.

When people come to worship, if you cannot help them, at the very least, try not to interfere with what they are doing.

The sons of Eli the High Priest were nothing but trouble.  Hophni and Phinehas–who doesn’t love those names!–were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord or for the priest’s share of the sacrifices from the people (I Samuel 2:12-13).

God literally calls them SOBs.  Sons of Belial is the Hebrew expression translated as “wicked men” or “corrupt.”

Scripture has not a single positive statement about these miscreants.

These men stand as warnings to every kingdom worker to tread humbly and serve honorably.  We are stewards and not owners, servants and not lords.  Helpers and not directors.

We should encourage worship and not place obstacles and burdens upon the worshipers. We are here to help people worship and not divert them into our own purposes.

The people can worship God without you, O thou shepherd of the Lord’s flock.

If we cannot help them do it better, we should back off and remove ourselves from the picture.

Every pastor, every minister of any kind, every support staff, every church custodian, and every denominational worker should be familiar with the first few chapters of First Samuel and heed their caution about worship leaders.

One. The wicked leaders treated those who came to worship with contempt.

Hophni and Phinehas were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting (I Samuel 2:22).  See Exodus 38:8 for information on the ministry of the women.

And you thought lustful ministers were a recent phenomenon.

Through the centuries, stories of ministers preying upon helpless children, vulnerable counselees, and trusting helpers have become commonplace, to our everlasting shame.

Two. The wicked leaders treated the people’s offering as their own.

When any man offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant (i.e., those who worked for Hophni and Phinehas) would come with a three-pronged meat fork while the meat was boiling and plunge it into the container or kettle or cauldron or cooking pot.  The priest would claim for himself whatever the meat fork brought up.  This is the way they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh (I Samuel 2:13-14).

Deuteronomy 18:3-5 spells out which portions of the offerings belonged to the priests.

Hophni and Phinehas sent servants to take more than what was allotted, and to do so early in the process.  While Leviticus 7:31 commanded that the fat be burned on the altar, they wanted their meat raw.  Anyone who grills steaks understands that a little fat flavors a steak.

God was not big on barbecuing.  He was looking for obedience.

The Lord did not take kindly to their treating His commands so lightly.  Their offense was “very severe” (2:17).

Three.  The wicked leaders treated the Ark of the Covenant as a magic totem.

In I Samuel 4, Hophni and Phinehas carried the ark of the covenant into battle against the Philistines.  They were counting on the enemies to panic once they saw the Israelites had “their god” leading the way. But it didn’t work out quite that way.

God had said He dwelt above the Ark, between the cherubim.  So, for the carnal-minded–and these priests were nothing if not carnal–that was good enough for them.  To carry the box into battle obligated God to come along and guaranteed a victory over His enemies.

People are always saying God is obligated to do this or that because “we have His word on it.”  Maybe we do, but we also have Psalm 115:3.  Our God is in the Heavens; He does whatever He pleases.  

God has plans He has not told us about and is as unpredictable as the wind (the Lord Jesus told us that in John 3:8).

Instead of intimidating the Philistines, the presence of the Ark actually stimulated them to greater effort.  “Boys, we may be in trouble.  They have their god with them today.  If you ever fought before, you’d better fight now.”

So, the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated.  The slaughter was severe–30,000 of the Israeli foot soldiers fell.  The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons died (I Samuel 4:10-11).

Too late, the priests learned the Lord’s presence was no magic guarantee against defeat, the possessing the ark did not automatically mean He was present, and that His blessings could be manipulated as they wished.  In his commentary, John MacArthur says, “…they confused the symbol of His presence with His actual presence.  In this way, the understanding of God resembled that of the Philistines.”

Simply stated, for purposes of His own God wanted the Israelites defeated.

Nice little benign history lesson, right?  Nothing there for our sophisticated generation of church leaders, right?  Bad wrong.  There is a world of instruction here.

(1) We must honor those who come to worship.

We who lead churches must not abuse them, manipulate them or see them as serving our purposes.  They are not “the attendance.”  They are not “my crowd” or “our bunch.”

These are the people of the Lord.  They are “His people and the sheep of His pasture” (Psalm 100:3).

Leaders who abuse and misuse God’s children will give account to Him personally someday, and it will not be a pretty thing. Furthermore, those of us who believe that “since I am saved by the blood and ‘there is no condemnation,’ I will not have to account for what I have done before the Lord” are in for a rude awakening.

Remember you heard it here.

(2) We must honor the offerings people bring to the Lord.  Every gift is His and not ours.

Among the disciples, it was Judas who loved the offerings more than he should (John 12:6) and who treated the contributions of others as his own.

We should fear for anyone taking Judas as a role model.

For those leading God’s flock, there must always be financial accountability.  Pastors and staffers who live lavishly upon the offerings of the Lord’s people should be held accountable.  They should be expected to live humbly and faithfully.  Churches should insist that just because one pastors a congregation of wealthy contributors does not entitle that minister to an over-sized income and a mansion in which to dwell.

A great number of ministers have not gotten that memo.

Friends in mega-churches tell me the salaries their ministers take home is scandalous.  You have to wonder.  Just because a church is huge and its weekly contributions run into the millions, why does that entitle the pastors to enormous paychecks? We are not the world.  We do not take Wall Street or Silicon Valley as role models.

Every church needs a system of checks and balances, and every congregation on the planet should have an opportunity for members of the flock to stand in a meeting and ask how a thing was decided, who made the decision to buy this or build that.  The more distance a church puts between its ministers and the flock, the more abuse it is subjecting itself to.

Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful (I Corinthians 4:2). If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches (Luke 16:11)?

(3) In all things we must honor our Lord Jesus Christ.

We must not leave the impression that God is merely a symbol or a good luck charm or that His words are a magic formula.  Numerous times through the centuries, the Lord’s people discovered the hard way that “God’s name on us” did not guarantee them the right to sin, to rebel against Him, to flout His laws or go their own way.  In 722 B.C., God allowed the Assyrians to completely annihilate the northern kingdom of Israel.  The scattered population would never return, and that nation was never restored.  Then, in 586 B.C., God allowed the Babylonians to defeat the southern kingdom of Judah and destroy Jerusalem.

In both cases, many of God’s priests were lulling His people into a false sense of security, assuring them “God is with us, so we’re untouchable.”

If anything, the Lord’s people are held to a much higher standard that the world.  Behavior that would be overlooked in the world is forbidden to the Lord’s saints.

All of us who work in churches and denominations should see ours as a holy calling with a great responsibility and stiff accountability.

Let us honor the Lord’s people.  Let us respect their worship.

Let us fear God.

The writer of Ecclesiastes shared our concern…

Walk prudently when you go to the house of God and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know they do evil.  Do not be rash with your mouth and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God.  For God is in Heaven and you on earth.  Therefore, let your words be few…. (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2).

End of chapter two.

(This book has 61 chapters.  Some of the others are titled “The pastor will sometimes feel like a failure.  Sometimes he is.” “Lose the perfectionism.”  “The worst kind of Christian leaders.”  “Things a pastor cannot do.”  “Some preaching is a waste of time.”

The book costs $20.  Please add four dollars for postage.  If you order multiple copies, let me know and we can lower the price slightly.  My address is 203 Garden Cove, Ridgeland, MS 39157.   Venmo # is @Joe-McKeever-7.  Let me know if you have a question.  My email is joe@joemckeever.com.  Phone is 504/615-2190.)