All to Him I Owe

Certain people ought to be required to wear a label that says,

“Warning: Contents under Pressure.” Nearly every Pastor has applied

pressure on a person and gotten a reaction similar to a bottle of soda

exploding. When that response occurs, one of two things often happens.

Either the Pastor becomes gun-shy and afraid of ever applying pressure

again, or he gives an explosive reply himself and adds pressure to an

already pressurized situation. In order for Pastors to be able to balance

applying the right amount of pressure to people and responding

correctly to their reactions, we must have a solid, biblical understanding of

pressure.

First, we must remember that pressure can be a good thing if it is for the

good of the individual. God is our example for knowing how and when to

apply that kind of pressure—pressure that brings about change in the lives

of others. His chief agent is the Holy Spirit, without which nobody would

ever realize his need for a Savior. What Christian has not found himself

under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and been brought to a place of decision

because of His pressure? James 1:2-4 says that we should rejoice at the pressure

God brings into our lives; it enables us to become what God wants us to be and

is for our good. Unfortunately, Pastors often apply pressure in order to see a

job completed, not for the good of the person involved.

Second, we must know how much pressure to apply to a person. 1 Corinthians

10:13 tells us that God, the master manager of pressure, never

gives us more than we can bear; He always gives the perfect amount.

People don’t come with pressure indicators or warning labels, so how

do we humans know how to give the right amount of pressure?

If we have our peoples good in mind, we will consider the agents of

pressure (i.e., the Holy Spirit, a husband or wife, or assignments at work)

that may already be at work in an individual, outside the workplace. In

other words, we need to keep a ministry mind-set while being a Pastor.

We should not be afraid to ask personal questions in order to get to know

them better and find out what’s really going on in their lives. Knowing,

then, the pressures already going on in a person’s life ought to affect how

much pressure we apply at work. For instance, if I know that one of our people

had a tremendously stressful weekend, I may postpone a

pressure-causing meeting with him until later in the week. Notice that I’m

not removing the pressure, just waiting for the right time to apply it. Our

knowledge of pressures outside of church may allow us to use the pressure

we’re applying to help this person in another area of his life.

But then, how do we know if we’re about to apply too much pressure?

Remember three things. First, a little pain is not a bad thing. Everyone

who exercises regularly knows that there will always be a certain amount

of stretching and pain in order to stay in shape. The same is true in the

lives of individuals: the pain of the pressure keeps people growing, improving,

and learning. The answer is never to remove all pressure. We should

always be tracking the growth of our people to see who needs new pressure

or pressure in a different area to keep them growing. Their growth is the

reward of the Pastor who applies a little pain in the process.

Second, we must remember that each point of pressure must be applied

by someone with an eternal perspective. In other words, we’re not trying to

quickly solve all of our peoples problems or bring him to a place of

perfection all at once. The weightlifter who now bench presses 300

pounds did not start with 300 pounds: he worked with smaller amounts of

weight and added pound by pound as he grew stronger. We must continue

to add pressure to our people but not all at once.

Third, we must make it as easy as possible for our people to let us

know in the right way that they are under pressure. We should keep an

open-door policy, make routine trips into their lives to give them

the opportunity to flag us down and let us know what is going on, ask them

questions on a routine basis, and ask others that work with them how they

are doing. We must be looking for the other areas of pressure in their lives

and keeping good track of them.

In short, in order for us to manage pressure correctly, we must be more

concerned with helping our people grow spiritually than we are with

getting a job done.

We just finished our 2011 Missions Conference here at FBC. Throughout this past week, I have been amazed at the amount of questions I was asked concerning the “why” behind our conference. The “why” was not “why are we having a missions conference.” The “why” was “why are we doing it the way we did?”

For some in our church this was the first time they had ever seen a missions conference. For others this was a different way than they were used to. So, in a few paragraphs let me explain the three key philosophies behind the “why” of our missions conference.

1. We used the missions conference to inform and update us about missions not to motivate us to do missions. Here at FBC our congregation is excited about missions and missionaries. There is not a need to bring a special speaker in to motivate us to do  more, we are excited about missions and actively trying to do more. That is an evidence of God’s work in hearts. When people are receiving the gospel, giving the gospel, and living in light of the gospel you will find that missions mindedness is a natural result. So, instead of attempting to motivate us we choose to let the missionaries simply share their ministries, their stories, and their testimonies. We didn’t have a special speaker. Our speakers were our missionaries. We left this week with a personal glimpse into the lives of these men and women. We left with a sense of their burdens, and a knowledge of God’s call on their lives. Armed with this knowledge we are better prepared to be a genuine help to the missionaries we support.

2. We conducted a missions conference that was missionary friendly not church oriented. There is a tendency among some missions conferences to plan a week based upon what a church likes, or wants to do and then impose that upon the missionaries in attendence. It is not unusual for missionaries to leave conferences exhausted because of an intense schedule and hard tasks required of them. As we planned the week we sought to create a schedule that gave missionaries a break and allowed them to enjoy the week. Each missionary had one service they were responsible for and then they were able to just relax and enjoy all the rest of the services. One neat aspect you would have seen in the services was a time of “gift-giving.” We sought to shower each missionary with tangible, and financial gifts to put the focus on them! Three times during the week there were aspects scheduled just to help and encourage the missionaries. There was no question as we left this week that our missionaries were the focus of our week.

3. We attempted to treat our missionaries as individuals not as a part of the whole. One of our missionaries this week shared a story about an experience he had recently. He said that a church they were at was giving all of the missionaries new shoes. So, even though he had just recently received two new pairs of shoes he was told he needed another pair. He shared with me that if he had been able to he would have asked for a couple of new ties. His were thread bare and showing stains. Instead of treating him like an individual with individual needs he was treating as one of many. This last week we went individual. We tried to think individually about each missionary and to try and help them. Each service was different because each missionary who presented was different.

I’m already making plans for our 2012 Missions Conference. There is a special blessing that comes from ministering to God’s servants. I try to remember it this way, “God’s work is increased when God’s workers are encouraged.” I firmly believe we encouraged God’s workers this week!

Announcements are a necessary “evil” in the ministry. Even though e-mails are sent out, a bulletin is given, and fliers are mailed, there is still a need to present announcements from the platform in our effort to keep people informed. Take note of these 5 principles we are using to help guide our platform ministry and the way we make announcements.

1. Identify the intended audience in the very beginning of your announcment.

“MEN, you are not only wanted, but needed for the workday on Saturday…”

“TEENS, our activity for Friday night…”

2. Make sure the announcement has clear answers to the following questions:

• What is happening?
• When is it happening? (start time and end time)
• What do I do with this information? (what is the expected action?)
• Who do I go to if I have more questions?

3. Make it memorable – say them humorously, get audience feed back, or just have different people make the announcements. I keep a running list of ideas in a journal I keep of ways to make announcements fun and memorable.

4. Bring it to a conclusion quickly – you want them to still remember the opening line of your announcement. If they can’t remember that, they probably won’t remember the announcement was for them.

5. Avoid “information overload.” – if there is an abundance of details to be communicated than it probably should be written down for people to see and take with them.

In Acts 20:18-35 we see 10 characteristics of a Godly missionary. (These principles were part of the introduction to the sermon preached on August 14 in the AM service).

1. [vs.18-21] A good missionary serves the Lord where they are now, not just where they want to be.
2. [vs.19] A good missionary serves the Lord with a sense of privilege not pride.
3. [vs.19] A good missionary endures despite the suffering and sacrifice.
4. [vs.20] A good missionary makes the proclamation of Christ’s message of the gospel their primary task.
5. [vs.22] A good missionary believes their call to missions is God’s will!
6. [vs.24] A good missionary gives little value to his own life in comparison to the value he places on the will of God for his life.
7. [vs. 25] A good missionary is willing to sacrifice the comfort of relationships to pursue God’s call.
8. [vs.26-32] A good missionary is burdened for the spiritual condition of the people he leaves behind.
9. [vs.33-35] A good missionary truly believes that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
10. [vs.35,24] A good missionary serves with joy recognizing the tremendous privilege they have to give the gospel.

A shepherd understands a couple of things about his sheep. First, that they need constant care: they need to be fed, watered, contained, and doctored. Second, that they are prone to wander from that type of care and that they seldom say thank you for it. It should come as no surprise to us that in Scripture, God compares people to sheep. We also need constant care, but we are prone to wander from it, even buck against it at times; and seldom do we thank God for His care for us.

As representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ, God calls managers (who are God’s sheep) to serve more of His sheep. Quite frankly, those sheep to whom we are to minister often smell especially “sheepy.” Instead of thanking us, they fight against the things we are seeking to do in their lives for their good. Sometimes they even wander dangerously close to things that have the ability to destroy them. The “sheepiness” of the sheep can sometimes cause the one seeking to serve those sheep to begin thinking dangerously like this, “I wonder if there are any better behaved sheep out there that would treat me differently,” followed by,“You know it would be really nice to minister if only there weren’t any sheep,” and finally, “I can’t think this way; I wouldn’t have a job if there weren’t any sheep.” Did you notice what he did? He all of a sudden began thinking of his life’s work as being just a job.

When a manager begins thinking this way, he begins to seriously consider finding new sheep or just quitting. Often, he even becomes frustrated with his “job’s” benefit package, or lack thereof. The key to longevity,right attitudes, and continuing to serve with little temporal benefits is for a manager in ministry to see his life’s work as a ministry, not a job.

In John 10, we find the Good Shepherd’s discourse and two comparisons that He makes. The first one is His comparison between the thief and the shepherd. The great lesson that we managers can learn from this comparison is that our Good Shepherd owns the sheep. He paid for them and therefore has a different concern for them than the thief, who simply takes to have. Christ laid down his life for the sheep (verse 15), He saved them and takes care of them (verse 9), and He keeps them eternally secure (verses 28-29). In other words, He owns and cares for all sheep. A frustrated manager thinks he is the only one taking care of these sheep. He thinks that they are his ultimate responsibility (as though he owned them) and that if they wander or struggle, the responsibility to care for them and get them back on the right path rests completely upon his shoulders. What a tremendous relief it is for us managers when we recognize that the Good Shepherd owns these sheep, not us!

The second comparison we find in John 10 is between a hired hand and a shepherd. Many times a shepherd would get a hired hand to help him with some of his shepherding jobs; but the differences between the shepherd and the hired hand were that the hired hand fled when circumstances got tough and that he did not truly care for the sheep, as the shepherd did. As Christ’s representatives, we are serving as under shepherds for him; we are not just hired hands. Therefore, while we do not own His sheep, we are to do our best to care for them as He would, in His stead.

Our view of what we do affects how easily we quit the ministry. There is no question that danger, heartache, and frustration will be present with the job of caring for sheep. However, our response to those things demonstrates how we view what we do. The manager who is quick to think about quitting is probably looking at what he does as just a job—he is a hired hand. He thinks he is crucial to the job succeeding; therefore, if he does not see any success, he believes that he must move on. But the manager who faces the reality of shepherding sheep and continues on is one who recognizes that his is a ministry given to him by God, ultimately for his own spiritual growth.

For a number of years, I mistakenly thought that God had called me into the ministry because He needed me, or that the ministry needed me. But in recent years the Lord has shown me that I was prideful to think that way and that God actually called me into the ministry because I needed the ministry. I cannot afford to leave the ministry. I need it. It is God’s design to help me grow and develop into the man God wants me to be.

Another observation that we can make from this comparison between the hired hand and the shepherd is that our level of care for the sheep is dictated by whether we view ourselves as an under shepherd or as simply a hired hand. Notice John 10:14-15 and the extreme care the shepherd has for his sheep: He knows their names, and He is willing to lay down his life for them. Recently I watched a manager try to introduce his team, but repeatedly he found himself needing help remembering their names. A manager that cares for his sheep knows his sheep! If we were polled by those whom we manage, I wonder if they would be able to say that we truly care for them. I wonder if they would say that we would probably lay down our lives for them. If a manager sees what he does as a job, then the tasks, projects, budgets, and efficiency will always take precedence over the care of his sheep. But if a manager has a ministry that is characterized by his seeking to demonstrate the Good Shepherd’s care for His sheep, then he will listen to,counsel, teach, and get involved beyond the workplace with his employees.

The manager of a job sees the success of the project as his ultimate goal. The manager of a ministry sees the success of the people as his ultimate goal.

A little boy walked into our church foyer and I overheard a man say, “are you expecting a flood?” I looked and noticed what he was referring to. The little boy evidently had hit a growth spurt and his legs were longer than his pant legs. You could clearly see the top of his shoes, all of his socks and the bottom of his cute little legs. His growth spurt had created a noticeable gap between the bottom of his pant leg and the top of his shoe.

Growth often creates gaps. When a ministry experiences growth, gaps can be created that are often overlooked by those in leadership but often felt from those within the ministry. A wise leader will fervently try to stay aware of the gaps in his ministries growth and carefully manage the ministry in light of those gaps.

Let me give you just a little of our current context and the background for this article. Our church has nearly doubled in size in the last two years. We have quickly grown in the last two years and we have become very aware of the gaps that have been created by this growth. We are in the midst of addressing these gaps and much of what I am doing as a pastor is helping lead our people through these gaps. Much of our initial problem is trying to figure out where the gaps are. The assessment was and has been much harder than I anticipated. So, to begin let me give this recommendation. Ministry evaluations should be done regularly and honestly. Our leadership has had to conscientiously sit down and look hard at our ministry. That has required us to make time for it and to put some issues to the side in an effort to give this some thought. As we looked it has been hard to admit that we had “gaps.” This has required us to say “yes, that is an issue” more than trying to defend or justify our gaps.

As we have evaluated we have used the following 10 questions as our guide in the evaluation:

1. Does our growth appear to be short term or is their longevity to the growth we have seen?
2. Are we focusing on the new growth to the expense of those who we had before the growth?
3. What processes do we have that have not adjusted to keep up with the growth?
4. Can we adjust our facility to better accommodate our growth?
5. Do we have the right policies in place to adjust to this new growth?
6. Who is struggling most with the new growth we have experienced?
7. Are we properly helping our new people understand our mission and philosophy? (or, are we just putting people into positions to help us keep up with the growth?)
8. Have we outgrown our abilities?
9. Are there things we need to say no to in order for us do ministry better?
10. Is our spiritual growth keeping up with our numeric growth?

Answering these questions takes time, but the time we are taking is helping us navigate our way through this growth. We still have gaps, and probably will continue to have them. However, the assessment process is helping us manage the gaps better than we were.

This summer our ministry had the blessing of hosting two interns. They spent the last two months learning and serving in our church. It is amazing to see God minister to us through the people we minister to. Our church received a great blessing from our internship program. Here are just a few of those blessings:

1. We received the blessing of watching God slowly grow and equip two men for ministry – It was so neat to watch God transform two young men with raw skills of ministry and to develop them over the two months. Their first Sunday of ministry was “rough” as we watched them stumble through their responsibilities, but then by the end of the summer we saw them ministering with ease, confidence, and spiritual maturity. In a sense, God put us all on the front row watching Him transform both of these young men.

2. We received the blessing of having two young men minister to our children and teens – Our young people received a well prepared VBS program as a result of their work. Our teens were enabled to go to camp and be ministered to because they served with us this summer. Activities, discipleship, and example were all given to our kids as a result of this internship. Never underestimate the value of our young people seeing interns with a heart for serving God. That is a great blessing to us!

3. We received the blessing of investing in two young men who will now be able to continue to minister to others – God has a place in the future for these two interns. It may be in our church or another church far from here. Regardless of where it is we had the privilege of investing in them in a way that will better enable them to invest in someone else. What a privilege to see that kind of return on our investment.

4. We received the blessing of spending two months with two young men who want to do the will of God -There is no greater atmosphere than the one that is created by people doing the will of God. Selfishness and a preoccupation with self destroys atmospheres. Our church benefited from having people in front of us serving with a heart to do God’s will.

5. We received the blessing of having a Pastor invest personally in two ministry minded men – I believe I grew this summer as your pastor because of the time spent investing in interns. The discipline of teaching ministry philosophy and modeling ministry to interns sharpens me and keeps me growing.

It has been a good summer. I’m already looking forward to next summer and the opportunity to do this again. It is a blessing to invest in the next generation.

A little over a year ago our church began to pray for God to supply a Christian camp nearby that our church family could use. Little did we know that God was already answering our prayers and providing Wolf Mountain Christian Camp. When Ironwood Christian Camp assumed responsibility for Wolf Mountain Camp I knew that God was not only providing a facility but also a sound camping philosophy that our church could wholeheartedly support.

Camp is becoming a big part of our ministry. We have camp staff attending our church, 6 of our college age adults are working there at different times this summer, and our folks in our church are beginning to attend retreats there throughout the year. With that in mind, let me share with us a little camp philosophy. What is the heart of camping? What is it about Wolf Mountain that separates it from a trip to a hotel, or a theme park? Take note of the acrostic and the video below to help us understand the difference that camp has:

H – Hearing the Word of God

E – Eliminating worldly distractions

A – Away from home overnight in a new setting

R – Reflecting on God’s Word and one’s life in a creation context

T – Trained staff leading unique, organized activities

The director of Ironwood, Mr. Sam Brock shares the details of these items in the following video. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGjhiw2mGXQ]

Recently, a news article reported that due to the high cost of maintenance and an increase in competition, the Hershey’s Chocolate Factory will be closing temporarily, in order to regroup and redesign its building for a more efficient candy-making process. We understand the importance of factories, places known for making or producing valuable products, like chocolate—can you imagine a world with no chocolate? But perhaps we are not aware of the cost necessary to make factories operate. When I say that our church should have a “factory mentality,” I mean that our church should be making or producing something valuable to the ministry of Christ, a product we cannot market nor one upon which we can place a price tag. I am referring to people who have been gloriously saved by faith in Christ, changed into Christlikeness through the Holy Spirit, and equipped by the local church to serve Christ. We cannot save people, but we can equip saved individuals with the skills and abilities which help them serve Christ effectively.

Having a “factory mentality” at FBC means that we look at each individual as a potential servant of Christ who could be equipped for ministry. If our ministry loses this mentality, we will eventually stagnate and fail in one of the chief missions God has given the church. Two key ingredients make our factory mentality work. The first is that we have a heavy emphasis on teaching. Right now, there are four areas where this is happening:

1.   Whetstone Class—a six-week class that prepares potential teachers to be better teachers here in our ministry.

2.   Leadership Meetings—occur on the last Wednesday of every month for our leadership team. Though we are constantly dealing with the needs of our ministry in each of those meetings, every meeting begins with a concentrated time of teaching and training to help our deacons be men of character and competency in their important roles within our church.

3.   Ministry Interns—a program for men who have a heart for ministry and who are either in college or just within our church family. We provide a set curriculum and training coupled with lots of ministry experience here at FBC.

4.   Sunday Night Seminars—occasional Sunday night services that are dedicated entirely to particular areas of ministry within our church (children’s ministry, evangelism, etc.).

The second key ingredient to making the factory mentality work here is for there to be an emphasis on ministry experience. In our ministry right now, we see this happening in many ways:

1.   We let people who are not “experts” in particular areas serve in those areas so that they can grow.

2.   We are not actively pursuing skilled people from outside our ministry but rather are growing the people within our ministry.

3.   We let children and teens serve in music, ushering, children’s ministries, and more.

Having a “factory mentality” can be a joy for us as we see the finished product. But just as the cost to run the Hershey’s Chocolate Factory has proven to be quite high, so the cost for FBC to have this factory mentality is often high. For instance, we need to be willing to pay the following prices:

1.   A slow pace of ministry because we are training people while we minister

2.   A ministry that doesn’t always do things professionally and with lots of polish.

3.   A ministry that invests financially in teachers, curriculum, teaching aids, and other things that help us train well.

4.   A ministry that will say goodbye to some of its best products, because God equipped them here to use somewhere else in ministry.

As a child, I once had the privilege of visiting the Hershey Chocolate Factory and left with pictures and samples of chocolate. But those items are now long gone. As a church, though, with a factory mentality, our product of disciples trained for ministry is not a temporal one but rather an eternal one. The work of discipleship is a glorious work and one we must be faithful in pursuing.

– Pastor Ron

A study in the life of Moses is a worthy study for any leader in ministry, because Moses was a leader who struggled with many issues:

• Feelings of inadequacies in his leadership skills and abilities
• Leading people who didn’t trust him
• Leading people who attacked him in complaint and accusation
• Experiencing the pressure of knowing God’s will for the people and struggling to communicate it to them
• Struggles in patience with the people God asked him to serve
• Experiencing the need to continue to lead, even though tragedy and crisis was happening in his own family
• Making sinful decisions that affected his future opportunities in ministry

As you navigate your way through the life of Moses and his ministry with the Israelites, you will notice a glaring absence—something that is missing, particularly at the end of his ministry. Travel to the end of Moses’ ministry with me for a moment and notice this missing element. In Deuteronomy chapters 31-33, we see the final words of exhortation from Moses to the people of Israel. We see a seasoned leader sharing his insight into their weaknesses, the remedy for those weaknesses—a faith in the person and words of God—, and the challenges they will face. We can almost feel Moses winding down both his life and his ministry.

But then as we read the end of Deuteronomy, we begin to look for the way the Israelites will end their time with Moses. After all, he was the man who had led them out of Egypt and through the wilderness. He had sacrificed and endured much in his attempts to minister to them. If there were ever a time for Israel to stand up and say a heartfelt, “Thank you!” it was at this point. But we are saddened to read that nothing is recorded in the way of celebration for his long years of faithful service. In similar situations, many people would have given their leader a retirement party, but Israel did nothing.

Many leaders and managers in ministry have experienced this in their own ministry. they put in a long day of preaching and ministry, and no one says, “Thank you.” They have poured months of hard labor into a particular project and hear more complaining than you do words of gratitude. Nearly every leader in ministry has experienced the reality of serving people who do not show gratitude.

But before a leader gives up in discouragement, take note of what Moses did have, though he didn’t get a large thank you and retirement party. Deuteronomy 34:1-4 records in a few simple sentences how the Lord took Moses to the top of a mountain and showed him the Promised Land. Instead of a retirement party, Moses ended his ministry with a special one-on-one with the Lord! The neat thing is that this is not the only one-on-one Moses received with the Lord. His entire ministry was filled with a series of special one-on-ones with God.

As a leader in ministry, I want to encourage us to take note of the one-on-ones God gives us with Himself. Through them, we receive the joy that gets us through seasons of unnoticed, unappreciated ministry. In the midst of serving the Lord, He gives us special times in His Word, special times of prayer, and exposure to His supernatural miracles. In a sense, He gives us a front row to Himself when we are in ministry. Don’t miss it! There is a special joy in that seat, if we will recognize it and appreciate it. Keep a journal of what God is teaching you in that seat, and rehearse those things regularly. If you are feeling unappreciated, think about the one-on-ones God gives you. They are one of the highest privileges in ministry.