So I was just randomly thinking about all the ways we as pastors potentially deceive ourselves and thus possibly deceive those around us as well:
That we are great prayer warriors. “To the degree that we value public prayer over private prayer, we are seeking the approval of men, not of God.” –Darrin Patrick. Many of us pray well or at least decently in public, but how much do we pray in private? Many of us talk about prayer, but talking about prayer doesn’t make us prayer warriors.
That we are more generous than we are. Paying a tithe does not make us generous. God calls for all believers to give 10%, therefore 10% should be the minimum for a pastor. We should look at some examples like John Wesley and Rick Warren. Wesley set his expenses at 28 lbs and he lived off of that for the majority of his life, as his salary increased so did his giving. If we as pastors are just sitting at 10% then we are living in deceit if we think we are generous.
That we care more than we do. Just because a pastor visits all the time and seems to always be extending his time and energy for the needs of his or her paritioners doesn’t mean we have an abundance of care for the people. I once heard a conversation between two pastors, it went like this: Associate Pastor, “Family A. contacted me the other day, Mr. A is having some health challenges and he had to go to the hospital. It looks like he is going to have to have surgery.” Lead Pastor, “Why didn’t they call me?” When your lead question out of this conversation is about yourself, then we are deceiving ourselves, we are not that caring.
That we are spending a lot of time with God. I am in the Bible every day, this doesn’t mean I am spending time with God every day. Every day I answer folks question with the Bible or I am working on a sermon. Maybe I am sending out some scriptures to encourage an individual. This is not spending time with God. NOTHING can replace a set aside quiet time with God!
That we are great preachers. Just because people say “good job” at the door, doesn’t mean we are are any good at preaching. A little note y’all, people just don’t like to feel uncomfortable so they say “good job” whether it was good or bad. How do I know this? A couple ways, when I was in college I would go out and preach at small local churches. At these churches by the affirmation of the paritioners you would have thought I was Dwight Nelson or something. Then I would go back to preaching class, preach the exact same sermon, probably better than I had the first time, and my peers would point out to me dozens of ways to improve! Another way I know is that I get the exact same “good jobs” today as I did 10 years ago, and I think it is safe to say I’ve gotten a little better. Great preaching helps to grow people and grow a church. It is like the old adage, “if you think you’re a leader, look behind you, if no one is following you ain’t a leader.” (Or something like that:)). If you think you’re a great preacher and no one is showing up to listen, you probably need to grow in this area.
These are just some ramblings that were going through my mind.
What other ways do we deceive ourselves? Whether pastors or laity?
What do you think?
“You shall not commit adultery.” –Exodus 20:14
With your eyes…
With your mind…
With your words…
With your heart…
With your body…
Yes all these can play and do play a role in adultery!
I had a great day ruined by a rough evening. I came home disturbed at several critiques I had received in regards to my ministry (not really new to get critiques part of ministry, they hit harder tonight), I shared with Christina then sat down to decompress, which is when I saw this photo:My 2 1/2 year old, and suddenly I had perspective. This morning this same 2 1/2 year while we were driving said, “I going to be pastor too Daddy.” He said those words without any prompting. I was listening to sports talk radio while we were driving, I turned down and asked, “What did you say? “Daddy I going to be pastor too.” Perspective. What matters most in my life is being faithful to God and His calling and vision for my life and ministry and secondly that both my boys always find joy in the career of ministry. Whether they follow my career path or not is really between them and God, but it is my responsibilty to make sure ministry is never a curse on their life. Perspective. If I do that well I guess it really doesn’t matter if others critique or chop down or decide I am doing a poor job in some area of ministry…praise God my 2 1/2 year old “going to be pastor too.” Perspective.
Dr. King spoke of getting to the promised land. In context I believe he was speaking of unity and equality for Blacks and Whites. I am saddened to say that much of the country is far advance than my denomination of getting to that promised land. Every conference that is regional and state that exist side by side all the while operating separately are a testimony that we have not made it to the promised land of racial peace yet. If our state governments functioned in like manner we would scream for change, why do we accept it within our church governments? Why are we not screaming for change!? Some folk are talking about it…Dwight Nelson…but we need more voices and we need to see real change, not just talk! Dr. King you saw it, some of us can see it too…I pray we will get there soon!
So I didn’t keep up with blogging through the Radicalis Conference I went to to learn about church planting, so I am going to give a bullet point summary in this blog. Even if you are not into church planting there is some great wisdom in here to glean!
How Do We Get Back To Real Christianity? Through the 5 Stages of Renewal:
“If you have no risks in your life, you have no faith. In ministry you are being unfaithful by not taking risks.” –R. Warren
There was a great tangent comment about his (Rick Warren) wife (Kay Warren). He just paused and pondered how his history would have been different if his wife hadn’t been willing to take a risk on him and the ministry vision he had. He commented that if she had said “no” he would not have planted the church he did. I was thinking how would all of Christianity be different. I don’t agree with all of Warren’s theology, but I value a lot of his methodology and his conviction to love and serve people! This moment was just significant for me because I thought about how we as spouses need to be mindful to support God’s vision in our significant others life!
Radical Faith Is– (Hebrews 11):
Steven Furtick spoke our second day and his message made me cry because I’ve known for a long time that God is calling me to step out in greater faith and I haven’t been faithful to that because I am scared…
Okay my boy just asked me to read him some books…so I guess I will have to finish the rest later…