Ministry in a new context
Back in October I started a new part-time job. I’m a property inspector who contracts with mortgage lenders to be their “eyes and ears” for properties that may have issues. Most of the time I drive to homes, verify occupancy, deliver notices for mortgages in default, inspect vacant homes, and take lots of pictures. It’s flexible, pays fair, and gets me out to see people and their needs.
People are nice and courteous to me 99% of the time when I knock on their door. Frankly, I was surprised by that. With all the talk about the economy in the tank and so many people struggling to keep a roof over their head, you’d think they’d be angry at another person reminding them of a problem. Even with the one or two who have been confrontational, I’ve learned that kindness and respect given back to them helps diffuse the situation and assure them that I’m not involved in any funny business. After all, what would you think if a person drove up to your home and started snapping pictures?
I’ve even had opportunity to pray with a woman who was left by her husband and would be losing her home. Back when I was just out of college and preparing to join Athletes in Action, I met with a chaplain / pastor in Rome, GA to ask for his support and prayer. He was a member of my home church and knew me fairly well. After he heard my presentation about doing evangelism and discipleship, he said to me, “Matthew, in my experience I’ve learned there are a lot of hurting people out there that need to be ministered to.” I’ve never forgotten that advice whether I was in sports ministry, pastoral work, slinging boxes at Home Depot, or inspecting properties. It’s a privilege to offer the grace of God through Jesus Christ to any who want to know and to point them toward the help that is found in the Savior.
Just plant a seed; God knows what to do with it.
“There are many times when I feel very small, when I see others around me doing big and visible things leading institutions and organizations and large events in the body of Christ, and I am one man doing about as much as one man can do, but that isn’t very much. [My friend] reminded me that I am a seed, even as Jesus described Himself in John 12:24. And what do you do with a seed? Plant it in the cold dark ground. That’s the only place a seed can become productive. Now the interesting thing about a seed is this: a seed never sees the fruit it bears. The seed that gives rise to the tallest most stately redwood tree in the forest never sees that tree. So it is with all of us: we’ll never see the ultimate fruit we bear. Also, a seed cannot sow itself; it can only be sown by the Sower. And if we trust Jesus to be the Sower we know He will bear His kind of fruit through us.”
~ Bill Lawrence, Leader Formation International
Depletion and Restoration
While doing some research on next week’s sermon, I ran across this and wanted to post.
I am not sharing this to put pastors on a pedestal, but as an encouragement to others in the ministry. It is from John Piper’s Brothers, We are Not Professionals, p. 66
Most of our people have no idea what two or three new messages a week cost us in terms of intellectual and spiritual drain. Not to mention the depletions of family pain, church decisions, and imponderable theological and moral dilemmas. I, for one, am not a self-replenishing spring. My bucket leaks, even when it is not pouring. My spirit does not revive on the run. Without time of unhurried reading and reflection, beyond the press of sermon preparation, my soul shrinks, and the specter of ministerial death arises. Few things frighten me more than the beginnings of barrenness that come from frenzied activity with little spiritual food and meditation.
The need of the church is for…pastors who feel the weight and glory of eternal reality even in the midst of a business meeting; who carry in their soul such a sense of God that they provide, by their very presence, a constant life-giving reorientation on the infinite God. If you want to stay alive to what is great and glorious and beautiful and eternal, you will have to fight for time to look through the eyes of others who were in touch with God.
With these words, he encourages us to pursue spiritually rich and substantial reading and gives suggestions. Read on, brothers — rest and restore your soul — and don’t forget to crave the pure milk of the Word like newborn babies!
My essential books
As a follow-up from yesterday…If my house were burning and I could grab a few volumes from the shelf, here are the one’s I’d choose:
- The Bible (currently using ESV Study Bible)
- The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
- Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem
- The Valley of Vision, Arthur Bennett
- a volume or two of church history like From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya by Ruth Tucker, The Story of Christianity Vol 1 and 2 by Justo Gonzalez, or Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley
- a biography (Spurgeon or Edwards or similar), a hymnal, a book of creeds
These books would give me truth, hope, vision, gratitude, perspective, expression, and a solid anchor for life.
Mastery of few or acquaintance with many?
Last night our family sat around the TV for a few minutes before bed to listen to songs on the iPod (ala Panasonic’s cool docking station). While song surfing, I’d say “this one is for Micah” (Cover to Cover by Wes King) or “this one is for Mom” (Labor of Love, Andrew Peterson). Finally I reminded them, this one is for me — Simplify by Wes King.
Simplifying life has been a desire of mine for years and it seems elusive. I try, but life in a family and in ministry has a way of taking control away from you. Recently I’ve been sorting through my theological library and coming to terms with a few thoughts as it relates to simplifying.
- Why do I need all these books? My library is not huge, but there could easily be 500 volumes on the shelves at the church office, not to mention a collection of e-books on computer. At most, I reference 5-7 books a week depending on the passage that I’m preaching or subject that I’m teaching.
- An unwritten secret among pastors and seminary students is that the size of your theological library gives you clout. It’s a status symbol. I know I’m impressed when I hear of one pastor’s 10,000 volume library or take a video tour through Albert Mohler’s stacks. Yes, our books are our tools but beware the trap of idolatry.
- I’d rather have mastery over the best books than acquaintance with the many. The question is similar to “would you rather have 2-3 intimate friends you can share anything with or 500 Facebook friends who know little about the real you?” If my profession and calling were primarily in academia, then maybe it would be different. John Hannah drove this idea home years ago when he commented that if stranded on an island and he could only have 2-3 volumes, he’d chose a Bible, a hymnal, and a book of Christian creeds.
So what are those select resources that I keep going back to again and again? That’s be a post for another time.
Summer Fun
The kids don’t get to see their Grandpa Clif much but he had a surprise for them on our recent visit to Topeka. These kittens were still nursing or we might have had a few extra passengers in the Suburban on the way home!
We’ve enjoyed having Daniel and Trish Gorton visit us some during the past year when living in KY for Army training. They now live in Kansas, for the time being. Hannah is very much a hugger!
Horton Haven camp has become a family tradition for us. They take good care of the kids. This was Micah’s fifth year and Andrew’s third. Hannah and Jacob can’t wait until they are old enough too.
Will God bend the rules for me?
A friend recently asked me to write some devotionals for a magazine he edits. This was my first try and thought I’d share some of it here, too.
Galatians 3:23-24, “Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.” (NIV)
In the summer of 1994, I learned the ropes of officiating at track meets. Who knew all the rules and regulations that athletes had to abide by! Jumpers must exit the sand pit at the front and not on the side or back. A second false start will disqualify the runner. Relay exchanges must be made in the exchange zone (not before or after). Any runner who steps on the line dividing lanes in order to gain advantage or impede the progress of another will be disqualified. In one sense, the rules of competition level the playing field for all. There are one set of rules for everyone and all must abide by them. In another sense, the rules were sources of frustration because many times, young athletes weren’t intentionally trying to break the rules; it just happened. And when that did happened, I hated to raise the red flag, but knew that the rules would not bend.
God’s laws, the Ten Commandments, are rock solid, too. They do not bend. Anyone who sins or breaks one of the commandments has become guilty of breaking them all because the same Lawgiver who wrote “do not commit adultery,” has also written “do not murder” (James 2:11). If it is true that all have sinned (Rom 3:23) and the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), then what hope do we have? Will God bend the rules for me? The good news is that Jesus kept God’s commandments perfectly, satisfied God’s wrath against lawbreakers by his substitutionary death on the cross, and those who receive Him by faith are justified by his grace as a gift (Rom 3:24-25). If you believe in this good news, rejoice and share it with a friend today!
What has been your experience with the church?
If you don’t regularly attend church, then this is for you. Why did you stop attending? What happened in your life to create distance between you and Christians or between you and God? If you could say one thing to the Christian church, what would it be? Feel free to comment anonymously.
An Inspiring Man Who Believes in Providence
Ross Mason was an acquaintance of mine at Georgia Tech. Highly ambitious, energetic, personable, intelligent…the total package. He and two other guys shared a house with me in the summer of ’91 on campus. I thought he would someday become the governor of Georgia.
I was not prepared for what I read. Article starts on page 42.
http://issuu.com/gtalumni/docs/gtalumnimagjulaug10
Humbling and inspiring…
Edwards in the refiner’s fire
Jonathan Edwards, writing to Thomas Gillespie of Scotland, on July 1, 1751, one year after his farewell sermon to the church, which had voted to dismiss him from the pastorate, acknowledging his own faults in the case:
“God knows the wickedness of my heart and the great and sinful deficiencies and offenses which I have been guilty of in the course of my ministry at Northampton. I desire that God would discover them to me more and more, and that now he would effectually humble me and mortify my pride and self-confidence, and empty me entirely of myself, and make me to know how that I deserve to be cast away as an abominable branch, and as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.”
Marsden summarizes: “In classic Puritan fashion, he saw his humiliation as a reminder of his utter unworthiness and prayed that God might use it like a refiner’s fire suiting him for more adequate service.” (p. 373)
Edwards still believed he was right in the principles and doctrine which the church could not accept, but he acknowledged his own character traits for which he needed to be humbled.
This speaks to me.
