So I read the following statements this morning and it states well something God has shown me I need to work on in this new year.
“If any one shall seek to draw the workers into debate or controversy on political or other questions take no heed to either persuasion or challenge.” Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers, p. 374.
“If men who are engaged in presenting and defending the truth of the Bible, undertake to investigate and show the fallacy and inconsistency of men who dishonestly turn the truth of God into a lie, Satan will stir up opponents enough to keep their pens constantly employed, while other branches of the work will be left to suffer. We must have more of the spirit of those men who were engaged in building the walls of Jerusalem. We are doing a great work, and cannot come down. If Satan can keep men answering the objections of opponents, thus hindering them from doing the most important work for the present time, his object is accomplished.” –Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers, p. 376.
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So what am I working on for 2012? Not spending a lot of time trying to defend & debate the positions I have been convicted on through the Bible and prayer.
I need to be content to state what I believe when folk take umbrage, and if they want to continue after that I simply need to remain silent and walk away. AGREE to DISAGREE.
God has called me to focus on the ministry for the days in which we live and not to remain continually occupied with conflict or vain discussions that rarely go anywhere, but to division and hurt feelings.
Goal for 2012: Less arguments, less repeat discussions, no debating.
Pray for me since I have never been one to back away from a verbal jousting session!
This is Danny & this has been a 5+ year journey! I love my job! Thank you Jesus
So driving to my Coaching Network yesterday I was pondering the reality that I believe the time is coming when as a Seventh-day Adventist Minister will have to work for free…or at least only at the level my basic needs are provided for. I can’t really lay out for you all the reasons I feel that day is coming, I just believe it is.
Then during our Coaching Network during our Pressure Points time, one pastor discussed providing all his team with cell phones and paying for their bill. There was immediate push back on this issue. The leaders of the Network and other sage folk in the Coaching group showed several ways and examples of how this then becomes an area of entitlement. Where people think they “should” have their phone paid for by the church and become disgruntled if this “privilege”, which they have come to believe is their “right” is taken away or not available to them anymore.
That entire discussion and what I was thinking about on the way to the Network had me pondering on the way home from the Network, how we that work for the church or a religious organization need to be very careful about the condition of our hearts in regards to the “privileges” we have in working for the Kingdom of God. I believe too often our hearts may go astray and begin to see it as our “right” to have insurance, retirement, a salary, our phones paid for, assistance with schooling. None of these in fact our “rights” though, these are simply “privileges” and if they were all to leave us tomorrow if our hearts are in the right place it shouldn’t change at all the way we feel about doing ministry!
This past year the pastors in my conference received a 3% pay cut. Now no one likes to get a pay cut, but as I heard different discussion around the proverbial “water cooler” it made me wonder, “If this is how these folk feel about a 3 % cut, what is going to happen on the day we get a 100% cut?”
The question I believe all who work in ministry must ask ourselves is, “Would I still give all my life for ministry? Would I be broke for the sake of ministry if all the “privileges” were taken away? Do I work for the “privileges” or for the PRIVILEGE of being a full time servant of the Most High God?!” If we wouldn’t be doing what we are doing on the day we will no longer get a pay check, or our cell phones paid for, or insurance, or retirement, or school assistance, then I think it may be time for folk to find a new job! The full time ministry is a LIFE CALLING, not a job!
Just a few thoughts!
If you have not seen all of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” talk, take 17 minutes and watch one of the greatest oratory moments in our countries history. Following the video I have a couple thoughts below.
I watch this message usually a couple times a year. I watch it for several reasons first because the power of the message still needs to resonate in my moral conscience 48 years later. I watch because in this message Martin Luther King Jr. teaches those of us who cast vision, how to really cast a vision with words in less than 20 minutes. Finally, I will admit I watch because I want to be a better preacher. You see I believe that pastors or anyone that speaks publicly on a regular basis need to listen to great orators. Most of us are not that good of speakers and if we are only listening to ourselves, we may become fooled and begin to think we can really preach, when our congregations or audiences or classrooms have but one wish: “Please Stop Talking!” So I encourage y’all to listen to great orators, read great orators (yes even reading some of the great talks of yester year are of benefit), and become a better speaker.
Here are few that I really enjoy listening to:
Dwight K. Nelson
David Asscherick
Martin Luther King Jr.
Billy Graham (especially his campaigns from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s)
Ronald Reagan
Bill Clinton
Tim Keller
Bill Hybels
C.D. Brooks
Haddon W. Robinson
Some to read:
Abraham Lincoln
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Winston Churchill (Probably listen to some of his as well)
Dwight L. Moody
D. Martyn Lloyd Jones
You can find a couple of these individuals on the American Rhetoric site
If I ever wrote a book about church, I believe one of the chapters would be centered around the idea of how we need to fire every pastor, including me, and start all over! I think at times we as Pastors have forgotten why we are called, “to reach the lost for Jesus.” We think we are pastors to write good sermons, to visit sick people, to solve petty issues of floor color and musical styles. Maybe we have no idea why we are pastors? Which is why we should all be fired or quit and go from there. I once read, or heard, can’t remember which now, that James White’s philosophy (one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist church) on hiring ministers was that an individual would first have to show that they could raise up a church that could sustain them in ministry, and then the denomination would hire these individuals. I love this idea! It would force us as pastors to REACH the lost! I love this idea so much that when I was nearing the end of graduate school at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, MI., I suggested the idea to my wife Christina. I asked her what she would think of us choosing a place to live based on the need for a church to be planted and availability for her to have a job. Then we would raise-up, through God’s power, a church. And once it was established we would then see if the local Seventh-day Adventist conference was interested in coming along side and partnering with us. Since at the time I had a conference that was already ready to pay me to pastor, and she had just supported me through graduate school, the idea didn’t sit so well with her 🙂 (I still present it every now and then and I think she is softening to it). I still love the idea, not because I want to quit my job or because I don’t like to get paid for what I do. I like the idea because I would then be reminded daily of why I am a pastor, to reach the lost for Jesus Christ. I pray that I don’t ever forget that is my reason for being a pastor and if I do forget, someone please fire me!!!!