In a chapter calling pastors to the ministry of mediation, Alfred Poirier ties the ministry of mediation to Jesus Christ and the Gospel like this:
“From Genesis 3 to Revelation 21, the Bible is a book abounding with conflict – man against God, God against man, man against man. But the Bible is more. The Bible is God’s special revelation of his Reconciler. It is the good news of God’s promise of a Mediator – the coming Prince of Peace. The story of redemption is a story of reconciliation, and that reconciliation is all about assisted peacemaking. Redemption calls for divine action; we cannot save or reconcile ourselves. Reconciliation demands another. Reconciliation requires the Messiah as Mediator.
-Alfred Poirier, The Peace Making Pastor: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Church Conflict (Grand Rapids: Baker Book, 2006), 185.
Ministry is similar to gardening in that both activities require a lot of time and energy before anything develops. It takes patience and dedication to prepare the soil, sow the seed, and water and fertilize the seed so it has a chance to grow. The Apostle Paul made this comparison while warning the Corinthian believers against jealousy and strife. As “fellow workers” in God’s field, we are responsible to plant and water as we have opportunity, even if we aren’t the ones who ultimately produce the harvest (1 Corinthians 3:5-9).
Summer can be a tough for churches, like it is in the garden. Most churches experience a dip in attendance, participation, and even giving as members celebrate holidays and travel with their families over the summer break. Numbers of guests may dry up as they try to make the most of summer’s long days and warm weather. In ministry, like gardening, water is especially important during the hot, dry summer months. In ministry, watering could mean investing in a budding ministry relationship or it could involve some extra planning and preparation for the upcoming fall. In addition, watering should include prayer remember that it is God, Himself, who brings the harvest.
What will you do this week to “water” your ministry?
What will you do this week to invite God’s provision and blessing?
“The problem today is that churches are striving to win their world to Christ without having first been revived themselves. The result is spiritually comatose church members going door-to-door asking unbelievers if they would like to have what they have – spiritual anemia! Such an invitation is patently unappealing. It explains the high dropout rate in churches today. Newborn spiritual babes are being placed into churches filled with spiritually lethargic people. It is a recipe for disillusionment.”
–Henry and Richard Blackaby, with Claude King, Fresh Encounter: God’s Pattern for Spiritual Awakening (Nashville: B & H Publishing Group, 2009), 18
Success can be gratifying, but it can also be dangerous. When things come together in life or in ministry, it makes you want to surge ahead and tackle the next challenge. Momentum is an important part of success, but it can give you a false sense of independence from God and push you beyond His guidance and direction.
Take the Israelites for example in Joshua chapter 9. Their victories over Jericho and Ai had “the kings beyond the Jordan” on the defensive. The Gibeonites, however, went on the offensive by pretending to be people from a far away country. They gathered worn out supplies, put on worn out clothes, and came to Joshua and the men of Israel asking for peace. The Israelites asked the right questions, but they didn’t ask the right people. They were so flattered by the Gibeonite’s ruse they made covenant with them without even asking God for his advice (9:14). In other words, Joshua and the Israelite leaders rushed ahead of God and made a major decision without consulting God and it cost them. When the truth came out, the people of Israel grumbled against their leaders (9:18). When the Gibeonites were attacked, the Israelites were forced to defend a people they had been commanded to destroy.
How have you seen this situation play out in your life or ministry?
What decisions are you, your church, or organization facing in the next week, month, or year?
Have you taken time to seek the Lord’s counsel on these issues?
Oswald Sanders may have been the first Christian writer to define leadership as influence. In his classic book first published in 1967, Sanders writes, “Leadership is influence, the ability of one person to influence others to follow his or her lead” (Spiritual Leadership, 27). Decades latter, internationally recognized leadership guru, John Maxwell, continues to define leadership as “one life influencing another.”
According to this definition, we all have some capacity and responsibility as leaders. So what kind of influence do you have on those around you? Are you using your influence to lead others to follow Jesus Christ more closely?
That is what this website is about and that is why I’m introducing a new Monday blog series on leadership called Devotional Thoughts for Leaders. This series will offer short (250 words or less), bible-based devotional thoughts to empower and encourage Christian leaders and leadership teams. Each installment can be used by individual leaders for their own personal development or shared with others in a mentoring relationship, staff meeting, or leadership retreat. Please feel free to adapt them, expand them, and share them with others in your circle of influence.
If you find any these posts particularly helpful, I’d love to hear about! You can use the comment box at the end of each post share your feedback. You can also contact me at jdcouture76@gmail.com or @jeremydcouture.
Recently, I walked into a dimly lit nursing home room to say goodbye to an elderly friend for the last time. He wasn’t able to vocalize any words with his lips, but his eyes spoke volumes. As we sat together in the faint glow of the television, I held his hand and noticed the fragile rhythm of the pulse in his wrist.
Before I left I prayed with him and realized that things were not as dark as they might have been. A few years earlier, he had opened up to me about one of his greatest fears: he was afraid to die. He had been in church and around church for a long time. He had made a profession of faith and was baptized years earlier, but he still wondered if he was really saved. This lack of assurance haunted him as he thought about the end of his life.
As we talked, I shared what I hoped would be helpful words from 1 John 5:1-4. One of the reasons The Apostle John wrote this letter was to encourage believers who were tentative and insecure about where they stood with God. In order to find assurance, John asked them look at the effects of their faith. According to these verses, saving faith produces three loves: a love for God and His Son, Jesus Christ, a love for others, and a love for keeping God’s commandments. Love is one of those things you can’t fake. Sooner or later, your true feelings will surface. One of the ways God’s children can be identified is by the way they love.
As my friend looked at this life from this perspective he gained a newfound confidence in his relationship with God and changed his perspective on death. Not just because he had rediscovered his feelings, but because he was able to see God’s transforming work in his life, in spite of his sin. His faith had produced love.
Maybe you or someone you know is struggling with your salvation. You’ve come to the end of yourself and ask God to forgive you based on Jesus Christ and His death on the cross. You’ve made a declaration of faith and maybe even shared it your family, friends, or church. But somehow, you just don’t feel confident in your decision, especially when you think about death. If that is you, or someone you know ask yourself the following questions: what is your faith producing? Are you growing in your love for Jesus? Do you treat other people with love? Do you love God’s Word? These are just three indications that you have been adopted into God’s family and sealed your fate for eternity.
“Why did God create and choose this institution called ‘church’? What is this gift that God has given us, and how does it impact our lives? The church is one of the few organizations in the world that does not exist for the benefit of its members. The church exists because God in his infinite wisdom and infinite mercy, chose the church as his instrument to make known his manifold wisdom in the world.”
Ed Stetzer and David Putman, Breaking the Missional Code: Your Chuch Can Become a Missionary in Your Community (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2006), 200.
Waiting seems like a waste of time. It makes us feel unproductive, ineffective, and sometimes worthless. It wears us down. Like treading water, waiting dulls our senses and saps our strength.
No one looks forward to waiting. We pay large amounts of money and go to great lengths to avoid it. We judge our satisfaction of products, places, and even people by how long they make us wait. Patience may be virtue, but only in a bygone era.
Recently, I realized that waiting is a major theme in the Bible. Many of the major characters in the Bible had to wait for days years, and even decades for their situations to be resolved and God’s promises to be fulfilled.
Noah waited for over a year on a boat filled with wild animals for the flood waters to recede (Genesis 7:6, 8:13-14).
Abraham and Sarah waited for 25 years for the birth of their special son, Isaac (Genesis 12:4, 21:5).
Joseph waited for two full years for the chief cupbearer to remember him and get him out of jail (Genesis 41:1).
Moses watched his father-in-law’s sheep on the back side of the desert for 40 years waiting for God’s plan to unfold (Exodus 2:23, Acts 7:30).
Job waited for seven days and seven nights for a comforting word from his so called “friends” and even longer for a comforting word from God (Job 2:12, 38:1).
David waited about 15 years to ascend to the throne of Israel (1 Samuel 16:1-13; 2 Samuel 5:1-5). Mary and Martha watched their brother, Lazarus, die and then waited four agonizing days for Jesus to come to them (John 11:1-46).
The Apostles waited for three dark days before Jesus appeared to the them and commissioned them as witnesses (John 20:19-23).
The Apostle Paul waited for three years in the desert before starting his ministry to the Gentiles (Galatians 1:17-18).
In addition, the Prophets waited for God’s judgment to fall (Jonah 4:5). The Wisdom literature contains repeated references to patience and waiting (Psalms 27:14, Proverbs 15: 18, Ecclesiastics 7:8). Patience is even listed as one of the nine fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22).
So what lessons can we learn from this survey of waiting in the Bible?
1. Waiting is normal.
Following God does not mean you will have a wait-free life. In fact, it guarantees that you will have to wait as He works out His perfect plan for you.
2. Waiting is beneficial.
Waiting builds character as you learn to depend on God and His promises. Waiting brings perspective to your life as you view things from the lens of eternity.
3. Waiting is difficult
There are no short-cuts to patience. Waiting is hard work, even if it feels like no work is getting done.
Can you name another lesson we can learn from tracing the theme of waiting through the Bible?
The lights on the front of my garage are a mystery to me. They come on when they want and go off when they want, no matter what I do with the switch. I’ve checked to see if they are on timer and I’ve replaced both bulbs. The best explanation that I have is that there is a disconnect somewhere in the electrical circuit that feeds the lights.
This reminds me a little of my prayer life. Sometimes the lights are on and everything is great. Other times things are dark and I don’t know why. The Bible teaches that God hears and answers prayer, but I don’t always feel like my prayers are getting through. Sometimes there seems to be a mysterious disconnect in my prayer life. As I began to search for answers I found four prayer short circuits in the book of James.
1. LACK OF FAITH (James 1:5-8)
What sort of things inspire you to pray and what discourages you? In these verses we see that expectation (or faith) is an essential part of prayer. Our expectations can be bigger than our circumstances, because our God is bigger than our circumstances. Those who lack faith are like the waves of the ocean that tossed back and forth by their circumstances. They don’t pray with expectation because they are overwhelmed by what is happening around them.
The only way to fix this short circuit is to own up to it. Like the man with the demon-possessed son in Mark 9:24, we must cry out, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” God is not offended by our lack of faith when we are willing to admit it and humble enough to ask for his help.
2. FAILTURE TO ASK (4:2b)
Familiarity doesn’t always breed contempt; sometimes it breeds indifference and neglect. My wife and I have been married for 13 years now. On more than one occasion, I have had to ask her, “Did we talk about X, or did I just think about it?” God knows us better than our spouses know us. He knows what we are thinking before the words come out of our mouths, but he still loves to interact with us through prayer.
This short circuit can be resolved by simply speaking up. Either audibly or internally, God wants to hear from His children. King David is a good example of this. In Psalm 5:1-3, he wrote “in the morning I lay my requests before you (God) and wait patiently.” Go to God with your wants, concerns, and needs and He will do want is best.
3. SELFISH MOTIVES (4:3)
The Apostle Paul included two of his prayers for the Ephesian believers in his book to the (Ephesians 1:15-18, 3:14-19). What strikes me about these prayers is how selfless and spiritual they are. Human nature drives us to ask God for things that benefit us. It also moves us to pray for temporal things above the eternal. But Paul seemed to be aware of James’ words here.
God’s plans for this world are much bigger than you and your needs and wants. The way to repair this short circuit is to keep following Paul’s example. In Ephesians 6:18 he offers prayer “for all the saints” as way to challenge us to look beyond ourselves.
4. UNCONFESSED SIN (5:13-16)
The book of James is a challenging book that addresses a long catalogue of sin. In just five short chapters, James deals with apathy and inaction (1:26-27), partially and prejudice (2:9), an untamed tongue (3:6), jealousy and selfish ambition (3:14), arguing and murder (4:1ff), pride and boasting (4:16), and stinginess and extravagance (5:3). In chapter 5, however, James urges his readers to “confess your sins to one another” (5:16). This crucial for restoring broken relationships on a human level, but it presupposes confessing your sins to God as well.
The clear fix for this short circuit is repentance. When we confess our sin and turn to God for forgiveness, He rushes to embrace us. 1 John 1:9 states, “He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”
When we don’t feel like God is hearing or answering our prayer, it is easy assume that the problem is with God, but that is not true. Our connection with God can be interrupted by a number of things. Which one of these short circuits have you experienced? How did you overcome it? What would you add to the list?
The coming of a new pastor can be one of the most anticipated and exciting times in the life of a church. While the pastor is energized about his new ministry assignment, the congregation is eager to see how their new pastor and his family will fit into the life of the church. During this time of high expectation, church members are usually willing to do whatever they can to help him settle in and be successful. So how should a church care for their pastor and his family? Here are three suggestions
1. Accept your pastor and his family and love them for who they are.
Pastors are called to do just that – pastor or shepherd the flock of God, under the guidance of the Chief Shepherd of the Church, Jesus Christ. According to 1 Peter 5:1-4, your new pastor has not come to your church because he had to, but because he wanted to come. He did not come to get rich, but to serve. He did not come to be over your church, but to become a vital part of it. Caring for a church in this way is rewarding, but it is also very challenging.
Please remember that your pastor and his family are not perfect. We all have our own struggles and weakness, including your pastor and his family. So don’t put them on a pedestal but embrace them for who they are. Also remember that your pastor and his family are not performers. They need rest and relax just as much as everyone else. In the case of your pastor’s family, remember they are not paid. The pastor’s wife is not a buy-one-get-one-free staff member. She should be free to exercise her gifts and abilities in the church without the added pressure of filling some official role.
2. Support your pastor.
1 Timothy 5:17-18 teaches that a pastor who leads well and works hard at preaching and teaching God’s Word should be respected and supported by the church. Depending on the size and resources of your church, the cost of living in your community, and the size of his family, your pastor should be offered a salary, housing reimbursement, insurance, retirement, and ministry reimbursements. Instead of looking to get the “best deal for your money,” make every effort to provide for your pastor in the best way you can.
Financial support is good, but pastors also need spiritual and emotional support as well. Ask your pastor how you can pray for him and his family and commit to pray for them regularly. Look for ways to partner with him to build up the body of Christ according the model found in Ephesians 4:11-16. Encourage and enable him to take time off and time away from your church and community. A day off during the week and regular vacations will go a long way toward keeping your pastor and his family happy and healthy.
3. Let your pastor lead.
Leadership is inherent in the office and responsibilities of a pastor. Different pastors lead in different ways, but every pastor is a leader. Hebrews 13:17 warns churches against resisting the leadership of their pastor. Your pastor is accountable to God for his ministry in your church. But he must be allowed to exercise his unique talents, gifts, and abilities in leading your church.
Letting your pastor lead begins with trust. Trust is built on relationships, so look for ways to get to know your pastor and his family outside of organized church meetings. Be prayerful and open minded about any changes he may want to bring to your church. And be aware of the stress and strain his family may be under as they support him in his ministry.
The newness may fade on your pastor’s ministry, but the anticipation and excitement don’t have to. These are just three ways that you can care for your pastor and his family. Can you think of more ways to help your pastor have a long and fruitful ministry at your church?
