147 Sermon Illustrations on Ministry

Keep your passion for Christ alive amid the demands of ministry.

1. A separate devotional time.

2. Accountability.

3. Solitude.

4. Activities where you are not in charge.

5. A proper perspective on success.

At the end of Colossians, Paul mentions eight men who worked with him. Some of them were unlikely candidates for ministry. What qualifications does a person need to make an impact for the Kingdom?

#4199

*

In a day when pastors are faltering under the pressure of ministry, a Louisiana pastor reminded students at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary they can survive and even prosper if they keep the example of the Apostle Paul in mind.

Forrest Pollock, senior pastor of Istrouma Baptist Church, Baton Rouge, said that with every move scrutinized and every word critiqued, being a pastor is not a calling for the faint of heart.

"Many pastors do not survive," he said in a March 23 chapel message at the Fort Worth, Texas, school.

But despite the increasing divorce rates among pastors and the depression and stress that can afflict them, the ministry has a rewarding side that is too often neglected, Pollock said.

"What a joy it is to be one of those called to hatch `em, match `em and dispatch `em," he quipped.

Pollock drew from Philippians 3:12-14 to illustrate what he termed "seven secrets of survival" for ministers. The passage, he said, has added power in light of the fact Paul wrote to the church while imprisoned by Rome.

1. The first "secret" is from the first part of Philippians 3:12, where

Paul wrote: "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have

already been made perfect." Christians need to acknowledge they

are not perfect, Pollock said.

"There will be spots where you fail. You'll never live up to the

expectations your family has and your church has," he said, adding

that even Paul admitted to having flaws.

Even with the mistakes and flaws Christians have, they are still

able to be used of God to accomplish his purposes, Pollock said.

2. Ministers need a plan, the second secret Pollock drew from the

passage. Paul's efforts, he said, were directed toward becoming

more Christlike, and ministers in training need to have a plan in

mind to stay focused on God's purpose.

3. The third secret is for ministers to accept the past and look ahead,

Pollock said. In verse 13, Paul said that he was "forgetting what

is behind."

The apostle had a lot to forget, Pollock said, recounting Paul's

past persecution of the church and his indirect role in the stoning

of Stephen.

But God's will had prevailed, Pollock pointed out, and Paul became

a servant of Christ instead of an enemy.

Ministers sometimes have to practice forgetfulness, Pollock said,

if they want to avoid burnout.

Church members can say hurtful things, deacons can undermine a

pastor's authority and committees can disappoint, so ministers need

to "practice selective amnesia," he added.

"The thing to do is remember the best and forget the rest," Pollock

said.

4. Christians have to act with perseverance to see their calling

through, Pollock said of the fourth secret of ministry.

"God has sent you to the seminary to finish it, not just start it,"

he told the students. "You will face crises" in ministry, he

continued. "The devil will throw perils of all kinds at you.

You'll make it."

5. Paul's fifth secret to "press on" was given by someone who had

experienced peril, Pollock said, reminding students of the

shipwreck, imprisonments, beatings and flogging the apostle had

endured for the cause of Christ.

"Advance even when you don't feel like it. Advance when you're

scared to death," Pollock insisted.

6. The sixth secret is for ministers to keep their primary goals in

mind: to know Christ and to follow his calling in their lives,

Pollock said.

"You've got to focus yourself like a laser beam on the call God has

given you," he said.

7. Pollock gave the final secret by quoting verse 14, in which Paul

wrote that his goal was "to win the prize for which God has called

me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

"What a high privilege it is to be called of God," Pollock said,

reminding the seminarians that of the many millions and millions of

people on earth, only a very few are called to be ministers of the

Lord.

The prizes in store for those that answer the call and keep the

faith are great, he said.

*

The ministry is not a picnic or carnival and is a task that requires determination, conviction and a reliance on God, said Alistair Begg, pastor of Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio. "This is no place for the fainthearted. This is no place for those who are on a fool's errand. This is not Bible camp. This will take everything in you."

Begg said the apostle Paul would have been greatly alarmed if he had been asked to speak at many modern-day conferences on ministry. "I wonder what he would have thought about spending a great deal of time on the nature of blended worship."

Likewise, Paul would have been dismayed to hear such addresses as "the pastor and his computer," "the pastor as a change agent" and "seven skills for highly effective pastoring," Begg surmised.

"You can just imagine him laying the phone down on his desk and saying, 'My, my. I don't know what I'm going to do with these people.'" Instead, Begg said Paul gave several principles for ministry in 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 that Christians should heed.

The first of Paul's principles was for ministers not to lose heart.

"This is for Paul a real temptation, and it is for Paul an understandable tendency," Begg said. "One of the things that you will face regularly is the temptation to lose heart."

Unfounded accusations and unrealistic expectations follow ministers constantly, Begg told students. And trying to break through the apathy of church members, especially when "their yawns are like crocodiles swallowing sheep whole," is frustrating.

"You can't overcome that by any sense of personal charisma or competence," Begg said. "The almost debilitating sense of indifference falls on you like a wet blanket."

Another principle Paul gave was to avoid deception. "An easy-going, theologically vague, harmlessly accommodating theology is the product of the deceived and the deceiving," Begg said. "A failure to declare the gospel of God in all of its full-orbed authority and certainty is in itself a form of deception."

Paul also warned against distorting the word of God in an attempt to make the message more palatable.

"We face a church that has lost its nerve," Begg lamented. "Instead of conveying God's truth and the power of the Holy Spirit, and challenging the cultural darkness, all too often what is heard in our apparent gospel presentations is a reflection of the darkness, so that we preach to people about wholeness rather than holiness. We describe sin in terms of dysfunction. Salvation is presented as a form of recovery. Therapeutic language replaces the moral and the theological."

The fourth principle Begg cited was for ministers to resist the temptation to preach themselves, rather than Christ.

"You and I cannot make much of ourselves and much of the Lord Jesus simultaneously when we preach or when we live," he said. "Resist the personality cult. Get a good wife. She'll tell you the truth."

Finally, Begg encouraged students to set forth the truth plainly and preach Jesus Christ as Lord.

"Undefined Christianity is popular. It is vaporized," Begg said. "Defined Christianity is unpopular."

And although the ministry is often difficult and fraught with peril, Begg added, God will bless those who are faithful to him.

"God, who can speak out of Balaam's donkey, who can raise up children for Abraham out of stones, has somehow in the mystery of his providence, on account of his mercy, entrusted us with this ministry," he said.

*

It was 10 p.m., and the 60-year-old patient would not last the night. She was still conscious so her grieving daughter and I prepared for a bedside vigil. Then a thought: I preach about the ministry of the whole church, so why was I there in the hospital? I phoned the chairman of elders, and asked him to arrange for a different person to come each hour. They did, and he himself was there at 4 a.m. when the lady died. He committed the departed and grieving ones to the Lord, and 'went home on a high', privileged to have been involved in such a strategic pastoral opportunity! When I saw him last week - twelve years later - he lit up again as he talked about it!

The saddest question pastors ask is 'How can the church learn to minister to itself - and to the world?’ And the laity's saddest question: 'Why won't pastors empower us for ministry too?’ There's a catch-22 here somewhere... 'Ministry as empowerment' is in the category 'What they didn't teach you at theological seminary!'

Where two or three are gathered together there is power. 'Power is... an ever-present reality which one must confront, use, enjoy, and struggle with a hundred times a day' (Rollo May, Power and Innocence, 1972:121).

History is about power. So is psychology: self-esteem derives from the ability to influence one's destiny; to be involuntarily powerless is to be without hope. All behaviour, says Adler, has something to do with striving for power. However such striving is sick when those at the apex of power pyramids bolster their images with larger offices, special titles, distinctive clothing, deferential treatment, and prominently displayed certificates and honours. 'Image-makers' earn big bucks giving advice about 'power dressing', 'colour and flow analysis', 'impression management' ('don't grasp the lectern when speaking: look what happened to Nixon!'), and even what glasses frames best make the wearer look more sensitive/capable/authoritative, etc. There's a story (apocryphal I hope) of a pastor who advertised his degrees on his street letter-box plaque!

Brother Roger of Taize refuses to be called 'prior' in his community. 'I am their brother... It is impossible for those holding positions of responsibility in the church to add honorific titles to their service of God' (The Wonder of a Love, 1981:85).

Theology, too is about power: 'On every page of the New Testament one finds the terminology of power' (Walter Wink, Naming the Powers, 1984:99).

Some believe all power is evil - Tony Campolo, in “The Power Delusion” says power is the opposite of love - others (Machiavelli, Nietzche) that power is good ('all weakness tends to corrupt, and impotence corrupts absolutely' - Rollo May, 1972:24).

Here we'll assume power is neutral, but is directed to good or evil ends. Essentially power is the ability to get things done. Authority is power conferred by an institution. Leadership is getting things done through others. Empowerment is giving away, rather than accruing, power.

Power in the church

Where two or three gather in churches there is power. Surveys tell us most clergy enjoy preaching more than anything else. (Here, said one, 'I'm not at the mercy of petty bureaucrats!'). Lay leaders may exercise power: even becoming 'permission-withholders' (Lyle Schaller). I asked some Anglican clergy about the most powerful group in their church (it was the women's guild: when they don't like the vicar they withhold their fete-moneys!).

Church renewal is the process whereby church people, systems and structures receive new life, meaning and power. Ministry renewal happens when pastors and leaders move from an organizational/ maintenance mode of leadership to one of empowering the whole church for ministry.

The church-as-institution may resist such empowerment. Religious institutions tend over time to domesticate (Freire, Pedagogy and the Oppressed, 1972) and routinize faith-traditions. Marx may have had a point when he suggested that institutional religion is the enemy of social transformation because it sacralizes the forms and structures of society (Gilkey, Reaping the Whirlwind, 1981:199). Christians bring a mix of altruism and a 'what's in it for me' agenda to church meetings. Roy Oswald (Power Analysis of a Congregation) says every person in an organization has banked an amount of 'power currency' through personal (knowledge, position, verbal skills etc.) and corporate attributes (role, reputation, influence with group/s, access to communication channels). The pastor-leader had better identify formal and informal power-holders, groups and factions, and trace those communication channels if he or she is to influence people. Then, says Oswald, the more I empower others, the more powerful everyone in my system is, the more powerful I become. In the words of a 1970 book by David Dunn, “Try Giving Yourself Away!”

So a renewed church will take seriously the role of the laity in ministry. As the Whiteheads put it (J.D and E.E, in Method in Ministry: Theological Reflection and Christian Ministry, 1983:5): 'A contemporary shift in ecclesiology, our under- standing of the nature and structure of the church, has significantly influenced the shape of theological reflection in ministry. Previously we have been familiar with a church in which an individual authority (whether Catholic pope, Episcopal bishop, or Methodist pastor) reflected on and made decisions for the believing community. The emphasis today moves toward understanding the community of faith as the locus of theological and pastoral reflection. Pastoral insight and decis- ion are not just received in the community but are generated there as well... This shift requires new pastoral skills - group reflection, conflict resolution, and decision making - for the community and for its ministers.'

Although the church comprises human beings, it is not a human institution. The church's ministry is Christ's (John 20:21), carrying out in the world his ministry both extensively and intensively. Its mandate coincides with Jesus' own definition of his calling (Luke 4:18-19). The style of Christ's 'headship' was exemplified in washing his friends' feet. His badge of office was not a sceptre, but a towel. He models 'servant leadership', an authority to be found not in titles or status but in empowering others (cf. Mark 10:42-44). That is to be our model too.

The ministry belongs to the whole church, not just trained clergy (Ephesians 4:11-12,25). So we will have to abolish the 'clergy' - or the 'laity'. Every Christian is a minister; the whole church are the laos, the people of God. Our terminology should catch up with our theology at this point: let us drop the term 'minister', singular.

'Why is it' asks George Goyder (The People's Church, 1977:33) 'that the church today will not trust its members? Why does the church so often decline to recognize and to accept the activity of the Spirit among unregulated groups of Christians? Why is all initiative in the church expected and presumed to derive from the clergy? It is because we have substituted for the biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit as ruler in the church a doctrine of our own, unknown to scripture, the authority of professionalism' (1977:33).

Ethology

Ethology is the study of the comparison between human and animal behaviour. An important concept in ethology is the notion of territoriality: the practice of marking a piece of ground and defending it against intruders. Animals as diverse as fish, worms, gazelles, and lizards stake out particular areas and put up fierce resistance when intruders encroach on their area. Many species use odorous secretions to mark the boundaries of their territory. For example the wolf marks its domain by urinating around the perimeter.

Some scholars argue that people are territorial animals: humans' genetic endowment drives them to gain and defend territory, much as the animals do. 'The dog barking at you from behind his master's fence acts for a motive indistinguishable from that of his master when the fence was built' (Ardrey, The Territorial Imperative, 1966:5). The list of territorial behaviours is endless: in a library you protect your space with a book, coat, or note-book; you 'save a place' in the theatre or at the beach - reserving a spot that is 'mine' or 'ours'; juvenile gangs fight to protect their turf (remember David Wilkerson's vivid descriptions of New York youth gangs in The Cross and the Switchblade?); neighbours of similar ethnic backgrounds join forces to keep other groups out; nations war over contested territory; pastors accuse others of 'sheep-stealing' (Schaller, Effective Church Planting, 1979:65ff.).

'Turfism' is rife in churches. The roster lady quits because someone didn't consult her about flowers left from the Saturday wedding; the organist won't play anything composed after the 1900s; the women's fellowship won't give the pastor - or anyone else - the key to their new room; the board chairman is angry because they met when he was away; an elder complains that the youth director took some kids to a Christian rock concert; the cleaner resigns because young people left chairs in disarray; the pastor is miffed when a Bible study group starts up without his knowledge.

As a result of our fallenness, this planet and its inhabitants have substituted 'territoriality' ('my space - keep out') for 'hospitality' ('my space - you're welcome!'). The Bible has many stories and injunctions about reversing this effect of the Fall.

Now pastors and leaders in the church are invited to be 'hospitable' rather than 'territorial', and it's something they generally do very poorly. The biblical models are clear. Moses was told by his father-in-law: 'You're killing yourself!’ (Exodus 18:18). His advice: Pray for the people, teach them God's laws, and appoint co-leaders. When Jesus was recruiting disciples to lead his church he had the same three priorities: prayer, teaching (by modeling and instruction), and training for ministry. It's amazing how much Jesus delegated, very early, to his disciples.

Then when these apostles messed up the early Church's social welfare system, they had an 'aha' experience: 'Oh, we should have remembered; our task is to give our full time to prayer and teaching the Word, so let's delegate other ministries to people full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom' (Acts 6:1-4). It would be wonderful if more pastors had this kind of 'aha' experience.

Now why don't they? Fasten your seat belts: this paragraph will contain some turbulence. The Devil could not get Jesus to accrue power to himself (Matthew 4:1-11; 16:21-28) so he has tried the same temptations on the shepherds of Jesus' church. And he has generally succeeded. The church very early in its institutional history developed an 'official' ministry which separated 'ordained' Christians from others. These 'priests' alone had sacramental prerogatives. The Protestant Reformers rejected Roman Catholic and Orthodox theology at this point - the whole church is pastoral, priestly, prophetic - but may not have taken their reformation far enough. Protestant pastors generally feel that they too, control certain prerogatives in the life of the church (presiding at most sacramental observances, preaching most of the sermons, chairing most of the meetings, visiting most of the sick etc.), and are often reluctant to share these ministries with others. They have perhaps forgotten that their key role is equipping (Ephesians 4:12), empowering others for ministry, not doing it all themselves as paid 'professional employees' of the Church.

Frankly, it's nice having these privileges: all the clergy surveys tell us they enjoy these public roles in most cases. Taking power to ourselves is the devil's primal trick however. Justice is essentially about power. When we deny others their empowering, that's unjust. So pastor-teachers ought to spend more time with fewer people, training them for leadership and ministry on the job.

The main point we are making here about ordination for ministry is that everyone's in it! Every Christian is ordained for ministry (at baptism). So if the Protestant Reformation at least put the Bible into the hands of ordinary Christians, we need another Reformation to put ministry there as well.

Today all branches of the Church are facing this question with renewed urgency. The 1989 Lausanne II conference of Evangelicals may be remembered most for its strident attack on clericalism. The progressive Catholic theologian Edward Schillebeeckx similarly writes:

'There is no mention in the New Testament of an essential distinction between “laity” and “ministers”... the ministry is not a status, but a function. For the New Testament, the essential apostolic structure of the community and therefore of the ministry of its leaders has nothing to do with what is called the “hierarchical” structure of the church. [The coming community of the church] is a community in which the power structures which prevail in the world are gradually broken down. All have responsibility, though there are functional differences... ' (Ministry: a Case for Change, 1981:21,135).

When his “The Church With a Human Face” was published five years later his thinking had moved even further:

'The early Eucharist was structured after the pattern of Jewish grace at meals... at which just anyone could preside... The general conception is that anyone who is competent to lead the community [emphasis mine] in one way or another is ipso facto also president at the Eucharist (and in this sense presiding at the Eucharist does not need any separate authorization). The New Testament does not tell us any more than this [again, emphasis mine]' (1985:119-120).

So pastors are nurturers, not primarily performing tasks but growing people. They nurture by example and exhortation (in that order, 1 Peter 5:3; 1 Timothy 4:11,12; Titus 2:7). They produce co-leaders, and once the community has recognized them such persons ought to be commissioned for their ministries. This can be done at a special service, by the 'laying on of hands' (hands belonging to representatives from the congregation, not necessarily those of the 'heavies' present!). Let us encourage the commissioning, from time to time, of everyone who has a recognized ministry within the church body. Wouldn't it be wonderful if more pastors aimed to do what Saul and Barnabas did in the church at Antioch: reproduce themselves in other leaders within a year!

How will they do that? Essentially: * Let us get our theology of ordination and ministry straight: what we generally call 'ordination' is really accreditation, a necessary step where a church-as-institution agrees with God's prior calling to a ministerial vocation. So all Christian men and women are ordained already! * We need to train a generation of professional clergy who are not threatened by others with proven skills in people management. * Managers/pastors train others best by modeling: it's a master-apprentice relationship. * A redemptive teaching model involves reciprocal learning, rather than a powerful all-knowing teacher pouring information into pupil's heads. * But this requires openness, humility, ego-strength, and teachability on the part of the teacher. * It also requires lots of time - doing ministry with others, then analyzing, praying, de-briefing and encouraging the trainee.

In practice, * 70% of the average pastor's visitation is non-confidential, another 20% may require the consent of the counselee: the pastor ought to be accompanied by another on most of these occasions. * Allow those with the requisite gifts to help lead worship, Bible studies, small groups etc. (but public ministries should to be exercised only after training and proven competence). * Your church ought to be a miniature theological seminary: run courses on everything to do with ministry, and have lots of resources (books, audio- and video-tapes etc.) available. * Pastors: share any and every ministry except pastoral leadership. The buck ends with you: you cannot evade that responsibility.

In an American basketball stadium hangs a large banner: 'IT CAN HAPPEN HERE!’ It can happen in your life, in your church!

by Rowland Croucher (GRID, Summer 1989)

HOW THE GREAT GUEST CAME By Edwin Markham

Before the cathedral in grandeur rose

At Ingelburg where the Danube goes;

Before its forest of silver spire

Went airily up to the clouds and fires;

Before the oak had ready a beam,

While yet the arch was stone and dream--

There where the altar was later laid,

Conrad the cobbler, plied his trade.

It happened one day at the year's white end--

Two neighbors called in on their old-time friend;

And they found the shop, so meager and mean,

Made gay with a hundred boughs of green.

Conrad was stitching with face ashine,

But suddenly stopped as he twitched a twine:

"Old friends, good news! At dawn today,

As the cocks were scaring the night away,

The Lord appeared in a dream to me,

And said, `I am coming your Guest to be!'

So I've been busy with feet astir,

Strewing the floor with branches of fir.

The wall is washed and the shelf is shined,

And over the rafter the holly twined.

He comes today, and the table is spread

With milk and honey and wheaten bread."

His friends went home; and his face grew still

As he watched for the shadow across the sill.

He lived all the moments o'er and o'er,

When the Lord should enter the lowly door--

The knock, the call, the latch pulled up,

The lighted face, the offered cup.

He would wash the feet where the spikes had been,

He would kiss the hands where the nails went in,

And then at the last would sit with Him

And break the bread as the day grew dim.

While the cobbler mused there passed his pane

A beggar drenched by the driving rain.

He called him in from the stony street

And gave him shoes for his bruised feet.

The beggar went and there came a crone,

Her face with wrinkles of sorrow sown.

A bundle of faggots bowed her back,

And she was spent with the wrench and rack.

He gave her his loaf and steadied her load

As she took her way on the weary road.

Then to his door came a little child,

Lost and afraid in the world so wild,

In the big, dark world. Catching it up,

He gave it the milk in the waiting cup,

And led it home to its mother's arms,

Out of the reach of the world's alarms.

The day went down in the crimson west

And with it the hope of the blessed Guest,

And Conrad sighed as the world turned gray:

"Why is it, Lord, that your feet delay?

Did you forget that this was the day?"

Then soft in the silence a Voice he heard:

"Lift up your heart, for I have kept my word.

Three times I came to your friendly door;

Three times my shadow was on your floor.

I was the beggar with the bruised feet;

I was the woman you gave to eat;

I was the child on the homeless street!"

Belling the Cat, Aesop's Fables

Long ago, the mice had a general council to consider what measures they could take to outwit their common enemy, the Cat. Some said this, and some said that; but at last a young mouse got up and said he had a proposal to make, which he thought would meet the case. "You will all agree," said he, "that our chief danger consists in the sly and treacherous manner in which the enemy approaches us. Now, if we could receive some signal of her approach, we could easily escape from her. I venture, therefore, to propose that a small bell be procured, and attached by a ribbon round the neck of the Cat. By this means we should always know when she was about, and could easily retire while she was in the neighbourhood."

This proposal met with general applause, until an old mouse got up and said: "That is all very well, but who is to bell the Cat?" The mice looked at one another and nobody spoke. Then the old mouse said:

"It is easy to propose impossible remedies."

So often when visiting in hospitals a person mentions to me how much he or she appreciated the cards sent by our folks.... Do you remember the name of Terry Waite? He was sent by officials of the Church of

England to Lebanon as an Emissary to help negotiate the release of some hostages taken by the Hezbollah Moslem fanatics. Instead, he was taken prisoner himself and had to spend 1,763 days in their custody.

Many thousands of people tried to send him notes or cards to encourage and strengthen his resolve. When he was finally released, the International Red Cross and the British Embassy in Beirut had many boxes full of mail for him. No one had known where to send them, and they were never delivered to him. In the town of Bedford, England, lived a housewife named Joy Brodier who had joined in prayer with others for Waite’s safety. She decided to do more than pray by putting her thoughts on paper.

On the second anniversary of Terry’s imprisonment, she happened to see a postcard that depicted a memorable event in the history of her town. It had a picture of old John Bunyan, the great sufferer for his faith, sitting with a pen in hand while he wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress centuries before in the Bedford Jail. Joy purchased the card and addressed it to Waite in care of “Hezbullah (Party of God), Beirut, Lebanon.” She wrote, “People everywhere are praying and working for your release and the release of the other hostages.” She signed it but left it on the mantle, perhaps a little hesitant to send it, but finally did so.

On November 19, 1991, word came that Terry Waite had been released and had landed on British soil. He was so thankful to be free, but he said one thing had encouraged him. In all his days in confinement, only one piece of mail got to him -- Joy Brodier’s card! Even the guard who brought it had no idea how it had arrived at his place of imprisonment. He spoke to the TV cameras for the world to hear of how much it had encouraged him. Four weeks later, a letter arrived at the Brodier home from Terry thanking her for the note which gave him such hope.

“What can I do?” you ask. Just remember the one card that got through and how a simple deed done in faith may be the one thing that really helps another person. “You will not lose your reward,” said Jesus.

“As communicators, we learned a long time ago that God loves us, but everybody else has a plan for our lives,” according to Pastor Rick Warren. He outlined seven ways Christians can last in the ministry. “Jesus was stress-resistant because He knew who He was,” Warren said. “If you don't know who you are, someone will pressure you to be something you're not.”

Warren said everyone faces criticism from someone, but what they do with it is what matters. “Treat criticism like praise -- chew on it a while and spit it out. Don't pay attention to the cheers or the jeers in the stands. God is my judge, not others.”

Warren's seven principles of how to last in the ministry:

1. IDENTIFICATION -- “Know who I am,” he said. “Write down your strengths and be honest about your weaknesses.”

2. MOTIVATION -- “I must know who I am trying to please. Ask yourself: 'Why do I do what I do?’ Continually consider this. The 'why' always determines the 'how long.'“

3. PRIORITIZATION -- “I must know my purpose. What does your schedule reveal about your priorities, and how can you change one thing to reflect more of God's purpose?”

4. EDUCATION -- “I must never stop learning. Growing ministries require growing ministers,” he said. “Ecclesiastes 10:10 says, '... skill will bring success.’ Not dedication. If you go pick cotton with a tomato picker, no matter how much you pray, it won't work.”

5. MEDITATION -- “I must get alone with God often. If I don't, I can become like a poor photo -- overexposed and underdeveloped.”

6. RELAXATION -- “I must take time off to enjoy life. Jesus went to the desert. I use this as a biblical example for a Palm Springs vacation,” Warren laughed. “Matthew 11:10 says, 'Jesus came enjoying life.’ If you don't take time to come apart, you will come apart. Rest is so important that God put it in the top 10 -- take a sabbath.”

7. CONCENTRATION -- “I must focus my life. We think, 'I've got to do this or I have to do that.’ No, we don't. We can get so many irons in the fire that the fire goes out. The more focused I am, the more effective I will be. I have just enough time to do God's will. Figure out what God's will is and do that and don't worry about the rest.”

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #16465]

In doing ministry we often focus on the objects of ministry--souls led to Christ, marriages saved, poor fed & housed, elderly visited, etc. "But Jesus seems equally interested in what ministry is doing to the ministers themselves." When the 72 return to Jesus and told their stories, Jesus celebrated then said--Luke 10:20.

(Philip Yancy, "Ministerial Bunions," LEADERSHIP, Fall 1993, p. 134.)

Philip Yancey, citing Ram Dass & Paul Gorman's HOW CAN I HELP? (Knopf, 1985), tells of someone doing ministry in a children's cancer ward. Traveled with a bag of popcorn. When child cried he would dab up the tears with the popcorn and pop it into his mouth or the child's. We sit around and eat the tears. Ministry is like that--eating the tears of others. ("Ministerial Bunions," LEADERSHIP, Fall 1993, p. 132)

"The fact is that there are no successful churches! Big ones, small ones, organized ones, unorganized ones! There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world. The Holy Spirit gathers them and does his work in them. In these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called "Minister" and given a designated responsibility ... to keep the community attentive to God. " -- Eugene H. Peterson

Philip Yancey once heard of a nurse described as "Typhoid Mary disguised as Florence Nightengale." The explanation: "She has a nonstop `gotta help' complex. She's obsessed about relieving other people's pain because of the discomfort SHE feels about pain. As a result, she spread around as much distress as healing." ("Ministerial Bunions," LEADERSHIP, Fall 1993, p. 136)

Arthur lived in a shotgun house, so called because it was three rooms in a dead straight line, built narrowly on half a city lot. More properly, Arthur lived in the front room of his house. Or rather, to speak the cold, disturbing truth, Arthur lived in a rotting stuffed chair in that room, from which he seldom stirred the last yr. of his life.

No one mourned his absence from church. The man had a walk and a manner like a toad, a high-backed slouch, and a burping contempt for his fellow church members. Arthur’s mind, though uneducated, was excellent. He had written poetry in his day, both serious and sly, but now he used words to slice at Christians in their pews. No one felt moved to visit him when he became housebound. Except me. I was the preacher, so sweetly young and dutiful. It was my job. And Arthur had phoned to remind me of that.

But to visit Arthur was grimly sacrificial. After several months of chair sitting, both Arthur & his room were filthy. I do not exaggerate: roaches flowed from my step like puddles stomped in; they dropped casually from the walls. I stood very still. The TV flickered constantly. There were newspapers strewn all over the floor. There lay a damp film on every solid object in the room, from which arose a close, moldy odor as though it were alive. But the dampness was a blessing, because Arthur smoked. He had a bottom lip like a shelf. Upon that shelf he placed lit cigarettes, and then he did not remove them until they had burned quite down, at which moment he blew them toward the television set. Burning, they hit the newspapers on the floor. But it’s impossible to ignite a fine, moist mildew. Blessedly, they went out.

Then Arthur would increase the sacrifice of my visit by first motioning toward a moist sofa of uncertain color, and then speaking deadly words: “Have a seat, why don’t you, Reverend.” From the beginning, I did not like to visit Arthur Forte. Nor did he make my job (my ministry! you cry. My service! My discipleship! No -- just my job) any easier. He did not wish a quick psalm, a professional prayer, devotions. Rather, he wanted to dispute a young preacher’s faith. 70 yrs. a churchgoer, the old man narrowed his eye at me and argued the goodness of God. With incontrovertible proofs, he delivered shattering damnations of hospitals (at which he had worked), and doctors (for whom he had worked over the years): “Twenty dollars a strolling visit when they come to a patient’s room,” he said, “for what? Two min. time, that’s what, and no particular news to the patient. I’ll never go to a hospital.” And somehow the failure of doctors he wove into his intense argument against the goodness of the Deity. When I left him I was empty in my soul and close to tears, and testy, my own faith in God seeming most stale, flat, unprofitable at the moment. I didn’t like to visit Arthur.

Then came the days when he asked for prayer, Scripture and the Lord’s Supper, all three. The man, by late summer, was failing. He did not remove himself from the chair to let me in (I entered through an unlocked door), nor even to pass urine (which entered a chair impossibly foul). The August heat was unbearable. I had argued that Arthur go to the hospital. He had a better idea. He took off all his clothes. Naked, Arthur greeted me. Naked, finally, the old man asked my prayers. Naked, he opened his mouth to receive communion. Naked. He’d raised the level of my sacrifice to anguish. I was mortified. And still he was not finished.

For in those latter days, the naked Arthur Forte asked me, his preacher, to come forward and put his slippers on him, his undershorts, and his pants. And I did. His feet had begun to swell, so it caused both him and me unutterable pain in those private moments when I took his hard heel in my hands and worked a splitbacked slipper round it; when he stood groaning so deeply in my soul. I dressed him. He leaned on me and I touched his nakedness to dress him, and we hurt, and his was sacrifice beyond my telling it. But in those moments I came to know a certain wordless affection for Arthur Forte.

(Now read me your words, “ministry,” and “service,” and “discipleship,” for then I began to understand them: then, at the touching of Arthur’s feet, when that and nothing else was what Arthur yearned for, one human being to touch him, physically to touch his old flesh, and not to judge. In the most dramatic terms available, the old man had said, “Love me.”)

The last week of August, on my weekly visit, I found Arthur prone on the floor. He’d fallen out of his chair during the night, but his legs were too swollen and his arms too weak for climbing in again. I said, “This is it, Arthur. You’re going to the hospital.” He was tired. He didn’t argue any more, but let me call two other members of the congregation. While they came I dressed him -- and he groaned profoundly. He groaned when we carried him to the car. He groaned even during the transfer from cart to wheelchair: we’d brought him to emergency. ... But there his groaning took on new meaning.

• “I’m thirsty,” he said.

• “He’s thirsty,” I said to a nurse. “Would you get a drink of water?”

• “No,” she said.

• “What?”

• “No. He can ingest nothing until his doctor is contacted. No.”

• “But, water -- ?”

• “Nothing.”

• “Would you contact his doctor, then?”

• “That will be done by the unit nurse when he’s in his room.”

Arthur, slumped in his chair and hurting said, “I’m thirsty.” I said, “Well, then, can I wheel him to his room?”

• “I’m sorry, no,” she said.

• “Please,” I said. “I’m his preacher. I’ll take responsibility for him.”

• “In this place he’s our responsibility, not yours,” she said. “Be patient. An aide will get him up in good time.”

O Arthur, forgive me for not getting you water at home. Forgive us 20 minutes’ wait without a drink. Forgive us our rules, our rules, our irresponsibility. Even in his room they took the time to wash him long before they brought him drink.

• “Why?” I pleaded.

• “We’re about to change shifts. The next nurse will call his doctor. All in good time.”

So Arthur, whose smell had triggered much discussion in the halls, finally did not stink. But Arthur still was thirsty. He said two things before I left. He mumbled, “Bloody but unbowed.” Poetry! “Good, Arthur!” I praised him with all my might. Even malicious wit was better than lethargy; perhaps I could get him to insult a nurse or two. But he rolled an eye toward me for the first time since entering this place. “Bloody,” he said, “and bowed.”

He slept an hour. Then, suddenly, he started awake and stared about himself. “Where am I?” Where am I?” he called. I answered, and he groaned painfully, “Why am I?” I have wept at the death of only one of [my church members.]

Since the hospital knew no relative for Arthur Forte, at 11 P.M. that same night they called me. Then I laid the telephone aside, and I cried as though it were my father dead. My father. Indeed, it was my father. Anguish, failure, the want of a simple glass of water: I sat in the kitchen and cried.

But that failure has since nurtured a calm success. I do not suppose that Arthur consciously gave me the last year of his life, nor that he chose to teach me. Yet, by his mere being; by forcing me to take that life, real, unsweetened, bare-naked, hurting, and critical; by demanding that I serve him altogether unrewarded; by wringing from me first mere gestures of loving, and then the love itself -- but a sacrificial love, a Christ-like love, being love for one so indisputably unlovable -- he did prepare me for my ministry.

My tears were my diploma, his death my benediction, and failure my ordination. For the Lord did not say, “Blessed are you if you know” or “teach” or “preach these things.” He said, rather, “Blessed are you if you do them.”

When, on the night before his crucifixion, Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet, he sat and said, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things,” said Jesus, “blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:14-17). Again and again the Lord expanded on this theme: “Drink to the stinking is drink to me!” One might have learned by reading it . . .

But it is a theme made real in experience alone, by doing it. And the first flush of that experience is, generally, a sense of failure, for this sort of ministry severely diminishes the minister, makes him insignificant, makes him the merest servant , the least in the transaction! To feel so small is to feel somehow failing, weak, unable.

But there, right there, begins true servanthood, the disciple who has, despite himself, denied himself. And then, for perhaps the first time, one is loving not out of his own bowels, merit, ability, superiority, but out of Christ: for he has discovered himself to be nothing and Christ everything. In the terrible, terrible doing of ministry the minister is born. And curiously, the best teachers of that [fledgling] minister are sometimes the neediest people, foul to touch, unworthy, ungiving, unlovely, yet haughty in demanding (and then miraculously receiving) love.

Arthur, my father, my father! So seeming empty your death, it was not empty at all. There is no monument above your pauper’s grave -- but here: it is here in me and in my ministry. However could I make little of this godly wonder, that I love you?

________

Walter Wangerin, Jr., Christianity Today, September 17, 1982

The first atomic bomb used in war was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. Dr. Fumio Shigeto was waiting for a streetcar about a mile from the center of the blast. He was sheltered from its deadly force by the corner of a concrete building. Stunned and disoriented by an explosive force more devastating than anything humankind had ever experienced, he had no idea what had happened.

Dr. Shigeto's bewilderment quickly turned into a sense of being overwhelmed. He was one physician with a tiny black bag still in his hand. Yet all around him he could hear the screams of desperately wounded men and women. He needed an army of physicians, nurses, and technicians. He needed tons of supplies. He needed every bed in dozens of hospitals. What could one man with so little at his disposal do in the face of such an incredible situation of need? The stunned survivor knelt, opened his medical bag, and began treating the person lying at his feet.

Dr. Shigeto's experience parallels our own. We look around and see such incredible devastation in our world that it is easy to be paralyzed and do nothing. After all, what difference can one person make against such formidable odds?

God doesn't expect you to change the world. He is not holding you accountable for helping everybody in need. That is too heavy and impossible a burden for anyone. But there is a hint of what you can and ought to do in the example of Jesus. Although he preached to huge crowds, he touched and healed people one at a time.

There is one lonely person or one frightened child you can help today. There is someone you know whose marriage is in trouble or who is about to die from her alcoholism. There is a kid failing history class or a friend at work who is depressed.

Forget about changing the world. Reach out to just one person near you today.

(\reference{Isa.

52:7}{Isaiah 52:7},\reference{8}{Isaiah 52:8}) A story was printed of

a girl who in 1910 in Apsley Guise, Bedfordshire, England, sent a card to her sweetheart fifteen miles

away. The postcard finally arrived, but the sweetheart had been dead

thirty-seven years. Fifty-six years for delivery was said to set a record for lost mail!

But Paul reminds us that many are waiting for a message to be delivered unto

them. They are waiting for feet to carry "God's letter" to them. (Romans)

Gary Bowell p.220,221 ed. (Inter-Varsity, 1979).

A farmer made a sign advertising some puppies he had for sale. As

he was nailing the sign to the post in his yard, he felt a tug on his

overalls. He looked down and saw a little boy with a big grin and

something in his hand.

"Mister," he said, "I want to buy one of your puppies."

The farmer replied, "These puppies come from fine parents and cost

a great deal of money."

The boy dropped his head for a moment, looked back up at the

farmer, and said, "I've got 39 cents. Is that enough to take a look?"

"Sure," said the farmer. Then he whistled and called out: "Dolly!

Come here, Dolly!"

Out from the doghouse and down the ramp ran Dolly, followed by four

little balls of fur. The little boy's eyes lit up with glee. Then

out from the doghouse came another little furry ball, but this one was

much smaller. Down the ramp it slipped in a feeble attempt to catch

up with the others. It hobbled because it was born with two badly

deformed hind legs.

The little boy looked at the puppy and said, "I want that puppy."

The farmer knelt down and said: "Son, you don't want that puppy.

He will never be able to run and play like the other little dogs."

The little boy reached down and slowlly pulled up one leg of his

pants. He revealed a steel brace attached to a specially made shoe.

He looked up at the farmer and said, "Mister, I'll never be able to

run with the other boys either, and that little puppy will need

somebody who understands."

People are like the puppy. They need someone who understands.

- Greg Potts

David Brainerd said this to Jonathan Edwards: "I do not go to heaven to be advanced but to give honor to God. It is no matter where I shall be stationed in heaven, whether I have a high or low seat there, but to live and please and glorify God. . . . My heaven is to please God and glorify Him, and give all to Him, and to be wholly devoted to His glory."

One of the early celebrity preacher scandals involved sex and a clergyman who like today's group of miscreants -- also enjoyed "the good life." Before and after the Civil War, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was the most famous preacher in the land. His oratory drew crowds of thousands to his church in Brooklyn each week. Some called him "the greatest preacher since Saint Paul." He reportedly earned the princely (and unheard of) sum of $40,000 per year. Delighting in his treasures, Beecher enjoyed carrying with him uncut gems and openly endorsed commercial products ranging from soap to watches.

Then in 1874 Beecher's friend and protege, Theodore Tilton, accused the beloved preacher of seducing his wife. The trial was such an attraction that admission tickets were sold to the public. And the outcome? The jury failed to reach a verdict but Beecher's influence and popularity continued undiminished for another thirteen years until his death.

There is a marked difference between a ministry that is assembled and one that is birthed. The first is crafted by human genius and directed by gifted people. It is well organized, skillfully presented and portrays human excellence. It is perfect in every way with one exception; it lacks life. It is much like a musical recital directed by a mathematician. Every note is played with precise accuracy. Pitch, modulation, volume, rhythm, harmony and choreography are flawless, but it has the same inspiration of a slide-rule or an IRS tax return.

One's finest talent can become one's greatest hindrance. "If the Holy Spirit doesn't show up," said one speaker, "I can go it alone and provide a good performance!" He was suave, talented, articulate, good-looking and engendered confidence in everyone who listened to him. Sadly, his platform polish, pulpit poise and pleasing persona was just that; his "performance!" Any ministry void of the Holy Spirit's influence is cold and mechanical. It may tantalize for the moment but it leaves no lasting results.

A ministry that is birthed is conceived in quiet moments of intimacy. Then come the long months of gestation. Beginning with uneasiness and sickness, the mounting burden creates an increasing discomfort that culminates in painful labor. When the time of birth finely arrives, the results are so awe-inspiring that the trauma is quickly forgotten. There is life! It can be seen, heard and felt.

Sadly, many members of the Alien Super Force have bypassed their Divine potential by opting for human performance. This results in an Alien Super Force whose members are limited to natural ability and are therefore no different from other earthbound creatures. Without Divine influence, they have become feeble.

We must live a life that is pulsating with divine inspiration and cannot help but give expression to hope and life. Not because we are masters of speech or skilled in understanding or accomplishment, but because we are endued with Divine Power. May our self-sufficiency fade away as some morning fog and may we minister only as the Spirit gives utterance!

Quality performance can be seen in any second-rate theater. What the world is hungry to see is the power of God. God does not need performers, orators or actors. He is looking to energize common people with His Divine nature, in order that He may accomplish supernatural feats through their obedience. Steve Green, summarized this well in his song, "God, And God Alone."

"God, and God alone, Creator of all things we call our own.

From the greatest to the smallest and the Glory of them all

Is God's, and God's alone...

God, and God alone, Revealer of all things we call unknown.

And the best and worst of man, can't change the Master's plan;

It's God, and God alone!"

"Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." - 2 Corinthians 5:20-21

*

We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry. The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the prophet. It is not the mentality of the slave of Christ.

Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and heart of the Christian ministry. The more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we will leave in our wake. For there is no professional childlikeness (Matt. 18:3); there is no professional tenderheartedness (Eph. 4:32); there is no professional panting after God (Ps. 42:1).

But our first business is to pant after God in prayer. Our business is to weep over our sin (James 4:9). Is there professional weeping?

Our business is to strain forward to the holiness of Christ and the prize of the upward call of God (Phil. 3:14); to pummel our bodies and subdue them lest we be cast away (1 Cor. 9:27); to deny ourselves and take up the blood-spattered cross daily (Luke 9:23). How do you carry a cross professionally? We have been crucified with Christ; yet now we live by faith in the one who loved us and gave Himself for us (Gal. 2:20). What is professional faith?

We are to be filled not with wine but with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). We are God-besotted lovers of Christ. How can you be drunk with Jesus professionally? Then, wonder of wonders, we were given the gospel treasure to carry in clay pots to show that the transcendent power belongs to God (2 Cor. 4:7). Is there a way to be a professional clay pot?

We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus (professionally?) so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested (professionally?) in our bodies (2 Cor. 4:9-11).

I think God has exhibited us preachers as last of all in the world. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but professionals are wise.

We are weak, but professionals are strong. Professionals are held in honor; we are in disrepute. We do not try to secure a professional lifestyle, but we are ready to hunger and thirst and be ill-clad and homeless. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things (1 Cor. 4:9-13).

Or have we?

Brothers, we are not professionals! We are outcasts. We are aliens and exiles in the world (1 Pet. 2:11). Our citizenship is in heaven, and we wait with eager expectation for the Lord (Phil. 3:20). You cannot professionalize the love for His appearing without killing it. And it is being killed.

The aims of our ministry are eternal and spiritual. They are not shared by any of the professions. It is precisely by the failure to see this that we are dying.

The life-giving preacher is a man of God, whose heart is ever athirst for God, whose soul is ever following hard after God, whose eye is single to God, and in whom by the power of God’s Spirit the flesh and the world have been crucified and his ministry is like the generous flood of a life-giving river.[1]

We are most emphatically not part of a social team sharing goals with other professionals. Our goals are an offense; they are foolishness (1 Cor. 1:23). The professionalization of the ministry is a constant threat to the offense of the gospel. It is a threat to the profoundly spiritual nature of our work. I have seen it often: the love of professionalism (parity among the world’s professionals) kills a man’s belief that he is sent by God to save people from hell and to make them Christ-exalting, spiritual aliens in the world.

The world sets the agenda of the professional man; God sets the agenda of the spiritual man. The strong wine of Jesus Christ explodes the wineskins of professionalism. There is an infinite difference between the pastor whose heart is set on being a professional and the pastor whose heart is set on being the aroma of Christ, the fragrance of death to some and eternal life to others (2 Cor. 2:15-16).

God, deliver us from the professionalizers! Deliver us from the “low, managing, contriving, maneuvering temper of mind among us.”2 God, give us tears for our sins.

Forgive us for being so shallow in prayer, so thin in our grasp of holy verities, so content amid perishing neighbors, so empty of passion and earnestness in all our conversation. Restore to us the childlike joy of our salvation.

Frighten us with the awesome holiness and power of Him who can cast both soul and body into hell (Matt. 10:28).

Cause us to hold to the cross with fear and trembling as our hope-filled and offensive tree of life. Grant us nothing, absolutely nothing, the way the world views it. May Christ be all in all (Col. 3:11).

Banish professionalism from our midst, Oh God, and in its place put passionate prayer, poverty of spirit, hunger for God, rigorous study of holy things, white-hot devotion to Jesus Christ, utter indifference to all material gain, and unremitting labor to rescue the perishing, perfect the saints, and glorify our sovereign Lord.

Humble us, O God, under Your mighty hand, and let us rise, not as professionals, but as witnesses and partakers of the sufferings of Christ. In His awesome name. Amen.

________

1. John Piper and Wayne Grudem, RECOVERING BIBLICAL MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD: A RESPONSE TO EVANGELICAL FEMINISM (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1991), 16.

2. Richard Cecil quoted in E. M. Bounds, POWER THROUGH PRAYER (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1972), 59.

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 1.888.346.4700.

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #21786]

Each month, some 100 Southern Baptist pastors and staff members face forced termination.

That statistic -- supplied by the LeaderCare ministry of LifeWay Christian Resources -- hangs heavy on Roger Willmore's heart. Since 1992 Willmore, pastor of First Baptist Church of Weaver, Ala., has served various roles for the Stephen Olford Center for Biblical Preaching in Memphis, Tenn.

In that capacity he has helped counsel and care for ministers and church staff members struggling to fulfill their call.

Willmore, who described himself as a "pastor to pastors," spoke Feb. 28 about the demands of ministry in a chapel message at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

"I discovered that those men and women who had come to the Olford center were experiencing the same kinds of difficulties in ministry that I had been experiencing as a pastor," said Willmore, who is currently the Olford Center's minister at large.

Willmore said those difficulties are many.

"My heart is burdened for pastors," he said. "I see men burning out, giving up and leaving the ministry because they cannot deal with the demands of ministry."

Pastors face many pressures, Willmore said. He named four: the pressure of preparing sermons each week, the unrealistic expectations of church members, the "transfer of emotion," and the use of the world's standards for success.

"There is pressure in preparing to preach Sunday to Sunday," he said. "But whatever else you do, as a preacher of the gospel and as a pastor, be prepared to preach the Word of God."

Willmore said it is imperative that the minister teach his congregation about the pastor's biblical role.

"Most studies indicate that this is the number one cause of stress in the pastor's life," he said. "I believe one way to address that is to be faithful in preaching the Word of God and in teaching your people the role of the pastor, the role of the minister. Help them to understand your function."

The "transfer of emotion," Willmore said, occurs when ministering to people's needs begins to drain the pastor emotionally.

"Genuine care and compassion for people takes a toll on the minister," he said.

A pastor must not use the world's standards for success, Willmore asserted. That involves a preoccupation with numbers, such as those of baptisms, church membership and finances.

"I am concerned that we have imported too many of the world's standards into the church by which we attempt to measure the work of God," he said.

Preaching from Luke 8:22-56, Willmore said pastors should model Jesus when they are faced with pressure. Willmore noted four aspects of Jesus' ministry: he sought physical rest; he never got in a hurry; he did one thing at a time; and he surrounded himself with believers.

"I was warned by an older pastor when I was a younger pastor, 'Don't make major decisions when you're tired and weary,'" Willmore said. "Seek rest first. God gave this instruction to Moses, to Elijah, to Jonah."

Willmore said it is also important to avoid hastiness.

"[Jesus] never got in a hurry," he said. "He was deliberate in his actions. He moved with a calmness through the stormy seas of life."

To avoid hastiness, Willmore said, a minister must perform one task at a time.

"Could one of your perplexities be that you're trying to do more things than you ought to be doing, some things that you shouldn't be doing and trying to do more than one thing at a time?" he asked the seminarians.

But Willmore said the most important principle involves the minister surrounding himself with "positive, believing, praying people of faith."

"I would encourage you to surround yourself with people of faith and separate yourself from the doubters and the complainers," he said. "Be sustained by those who have faith in God."

-30-

*

Does He Want To Use Me?

Read: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. --1 Corinthians 1:27

The work of God is not done by great people but by ordinary people who are committed to Him. We may say to God, "I am nothing. I have no gifts. I often fail miserably. Do You really want to use me?"

The answer to that question is found in God's Word. He used the hesitant, inarticulate Moses to lead Israel to freedom (Ex. 3:13; 4:10). He used men of the herds and flocks, as well as fishermen and farmers to accomplish His work and record His words. A simple carpenter and a peasant girl raised His Son.

That's still the way God works. Although we have "mega-methods," mass media, and superchurches, it is ordinary people who do God's extraordinary work. A grandmother prays faithfully for her 14 grandchildren and talks to each one about trusting Christ. A clerical worker witnesses to everyone in his office. A Christian takes a meal to her unbelieving neighbors when their baby is hospitalized and assures them of her prayers.

When we ask, "Does God really want to use me?" the answer is clear. God chooses "the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty" (1 Cor. 1:27).

God has been using ordinary people like you and me for thousands of years. Why would He stop now? --DCE

Though oft our spirits long to rise

And bask in heavenly realms above,

The Lord has placed us here on earth

To live for Him--to serve, to love. --DJD

Wanted: Ordinary people to do extraordinary work.

STUBBORNNESS

According to the Reuters news agency, in the fall of 1994, Alberto Gauna, who lived in the northern province of Chaco in Argentina, became so depressed that he decided to take his own life.

He took a.22 caliber gun, pointed it at his right temple, and pulled the trigger. The gun fired, but Alberto lived. So he pointed the gun at his forehead and pulled the trigger. The gun fired, but Alberto lived. So he pointed the gun once again at his right temple and pulled the trigger. Again Alberto lived. Again he fired. Again he lived. With four bullets in his skull, he decided to shoot himself somewhere else. He pointed the gun at his stomach and pulled the trigger. The gun fired, but he remained conscious. So he shot himself again in the stomach, and still he lived!

Finally, thankfully, Alberto gave up. At the time the story was reported, he was in a hospital in serious condition.

Perseverance isn't always a virtue.

Depression, Ministry, Suicide

Rom. 1:28-32

Contemporary Illustrations For Preachers, Teachers, & Writers

Editor Craig Brian Larson, Baker Books, p. 252.

Read: Colossians 3:22-4:1

Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men. --Colossians 3:23

Kemmons Wilson, founder of an international motel chain, quoted some advice for planting a "garden" that would enhance our work skills:

* Five rows of "peas"--prayer, preparedness, promptness, perseverance, politeness.

* Three rows of "squash"--squash gossip, criticism, and indifference.

* Five rows of "lettuce"--let us love one another, let us be faithful, let us be loyal, let us be unselfish, let us be truthful.

* Three rows of "turnips"--turn up for church, turn up with a new idea, turn up with the determination to do a better job today than you did yesterday.

Today let's evaluate our attitude toward our work. Do we see it as a necessary evil that deserves the least possible effort? As an unfortunate prerequisite to retirement? Or do we see it as an opportunity to serve God?

"Whatever you do," wrote Paul, "do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ" (Col. 3:23-24). With that attitude, we can work enthusiastically and wholeheartedly, not just for a paycheck but for the glory of God. --DCM

If I have the gift of health,

No effort I must shirk;

I must give it back to God

In good and honest work. --Strong

Work becomes worship when done for the Lord.

[see also HolwickID #1538]