Have you ever felt depleted? As a pastor, I have. Recently I heard the president of Heritage College and Seminary located near Toronto give an uplifting talk about how pastors can refill their depleted souls. He spoke at a monthly gathering of pastors and Christian business leaders in London, Ontario, where I serve as a pastor. With permission, I share his insights below.

Rick based his thoughts on this passage in the Gospel of Mark when Jesus Himself got away from the crowds.

35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” 38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. (Mark 1.35-39)

Here are four ways Rick suggested that can refill a depleted soul.

1. Disengage from ministry demands.
   • This passage said that Jesus did just that. Although fully God, Jesus was also fully human and got tired just like you and I get. The Scripture says that Jesus went to a desolate place. In other words, he removed himself from the hustle and bustle of ministry life. He separated himself from the crowds.
   • Question to ponder: Do you take a day off when you truly disengage? Or, do you keep yourself tethered to your cell phone or your email ‘just in case’ someone needs you?
2. Seek communion with God.
   • Notice that Jesus didn’t just get away from doing something (direct people ministry). But he disengaged so that He could engage more fully with His Father. We not only need to rest our bodies from the demands ministry places on us, but we need to fill our souls with spiritual nourishment.
   • Question to ponder: Do you regularly engage with God’s Word simply to fill your soul? Or, do Bible reading, reflection and contemplation have an end game to give you material for your sermons?
3. Build supportive friendships.
   • Rick noted that in other places in the Gospels Jesus often took aside his disciples when He withdrew from the crowds. Disengaging does not mean that every day off we spend in solitude. Occasionally that’s a good idea. But God uses friends to fill our souls as well. In this post I list several qualities to look for in a safe friend.
   • Question to ponder: How many close friends do you have with whom you feel safe to share your joys and sorrows?
4. Focus on your God-given calling.
   • Sometimes we pastors have bad weeks, really bad ones. People criticize us. Crises interfere with our study time. Offerings come in really low. When that has happened to me, I’ve taken great comfort and received renewed energy when I recall my call to ministry. I remind myself that then God calls us to vocational ministry, he provides everything we need. One simple practice has helped me do this. Two to three times a month when I plan my upcoming week, I review my personal mission statement and values. This simple practice reminds me to remember my calling when I experience a bad week. In this post I explain a process to help you refine your mission and personal values.
   • Question to ponder: When was the last time you recalled your call to ministry?

Rick concluded his talk by noting that although we intuitively understand how to refuel ourselves, we often don’t do it. He challenged us to ask why we don’t. He suggested that these five issues often keep us from consistently refueling.

1. We need to be needed too much.
2. We undervalue our communion with God.
3. We overvalue what we can accomplish.
4. We confuse many relationships with deep relationships.
5. We can’t stand to disappoint people.

That simple talk that day reinforced my commitment to regularly refuel my soul.

What would add to either list?

If you want to follow Rick you can read his blog posts here.

This article originally appeared here.

As a pastor, I often struggle with knowing when and how to speak about politics. On one hand, the Christian worldview has ramifications for how we see everything in our lives, which certainly includes which approaches to governing people are the most just and helpful. Furthermore, Christian obedience requires that we stand up for truth, justice and compassion, so when we see groups in our society suffering unjustly, we have to speak out.

On the other hand, we know that the church has been given a specific mission, and getting mired in the secondary questions of politics can divert our mission and mute our witness.

I am asked often to make public statements or sign specific petitions regarding political policies. The requests sometimes come from the left, sometimes from the right. And the issues constantly change. We never back away from teaching truth, of course, but when should the church make overtly political statements in response to current events?

Let me suggest two biblical truths we must hold in tension, and then suggest two questions that can serve as a guide for when to speak.

1. There is a time when we must speak.

The Scriptures are full of admonitions for God’s people to rebuke evil, sometimes with stinging specificity. Read through the prophets, and you hear God calling out injustices of all kinds—toward children, toward women, toward the outcast, the poor, the voiceless. The prophets trumpet a call for God’s justice, and justice always carries a political element. Men like William Wilberforce and Martin Luther King Jr. frequently quoted from prophetic books like Amos to inspire our society to turn to justice.

In the New Testament, John the Baptist preached a “baptism of repentance,” complete with specific accusations about the ways that God’s people—and the local rulers—were disobedient to God’s Law. He called out injustices carried out by soldiers and rebuked Herod for sleeping with his wife’s sister. That latter decision eventually led to John’s death. If John were around today, I imagine that a lot of Christians would have told him to keep quiet. Stick to the church stuff, John. Stop commenting on public sexuality. What was Jesus’ assessment of John’s ministry? He called him the greatest prophet that ever lived.

The church has often failed to speak as directly and specifically as we should in the political realm. Dietrich Bonhoeffer learned this in Germany in the 1930s. The church there was content to simply say, “Discrimination is wrong,” a statement that the Nazi Party would allow. But Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church knew that obedience required them to take another step, getting their hands dirty by saying, “We must oppose the Nazis.” Like John the Baptist, he paid for it with his life.

In the 1850s, many Christian churches were reluctant to say anything specifically about slavery, even though they opposed the practice. Again in the 1960s, far too many churches stayed silent when they should have offered their hand—and their voice—to the Civil Rights movement. Both of those instances are embarrassments to the church today.

2. There is a time when speaking diverts us from our mission and dilutes our witness.

There is a ditch on the other side of this path, too. In our attempts to apply Scripture to our political situation, we run the risk of getting mired in areas outside our God-given scope.

The ministry of Jesus provides us with a helpful example. In Luke 12:13-14, when asked a specific social justice question (My brother stole money from me!), Jesus refuses to adjudicate: “Who made me a judge over you?” It’s not because he didn’t care about justice, or because he wouldn’t have been able to offer wise counsel. Rather, he didn’t want his kingdom to be too identified or tangled up in world affairs. So he avoided giving an opinion on this particular case, and instead preached a sermon on greed (Luke 12:15–21). Elsewhere we see Jesus, at the peak of his popularity, retreating when people wanted to make him a political king on the platform of solving world hunger (John 6:1-15).

The same pattern runs through the lives of the apostles. Paul, for instance, spent very little time arbitrating the various social ills plaguing the Roman Empire (of which there were many), focusing instead on spreading the gospel and planting churches.

There is time when we have to connect virtue with policy. But far too often, the temptation for the institutional church is to speak too specifically into areas outside the scope of our mission. Policy choices always seem so clear in the moment, but often the benefit of a little distance makes us wish we had not tied the church’s authority to specific policy prescriptions.

Let me share a personal example. Back in 2003, I was on an SBC committee that wanted to make a public statement about the Iraq war. At the time, the mood in our country was hawkish. Nearly everyone was in favor of our military involvement in the Middle East—Republican and Democrat alike. This committee decided to vote to endorse the war, a decision that, at the time, would have been completely uncontroversial. Though at the time I was personally in support of the war, I argued that the institutional church didn’t have any business weighing in on the strategic value of a particular military engagement (except in extreme circumstances). I suggested we make a general statement about our belief in “just war,” and urging our leaders to use wisdom, compassion and restraint. Another man on the committee argued that if we didn’t connect our virtue with policy, our witness would be anemic.

In the end, I caved. Well, sort of. I didn’t vote in support of the statement, but I was too cowardly to vote against it. It passed 8-0, with one abstention.

I think of that experience often. It is precisely when the groundswell of emotion in our country is loudest that the church is most tempted to cross the line and become a political entity. But where there is not a direct line between a biblical moral judgment and a specific policy prescription, the (institutional) church generally should not make an official statement. Even individual believers should exercise a healthy amount of humility here, recognizing that they are shaped by their own particular cultural milieu, and that other conscientious Christians may parse current issues differently. But let’s definitely be hesitant to tying the church’s name to a particular policy when there is not a clear biblical prescription. We may be wrong about policy, but we aren’t wrong about the gospel, and we don’t want our opinions on the former to prevent people from hearing the latter.

How should we discern when to speak and when not to?

First, we need to understand the distinction between the church as an organization and the church as an organism. As an active organism, we want our members to speak into every facet of life, especially politics. As I noted in the beginning, the Christian worldview should affect how we see everything. We need Christians at all levels of society as salt and light, applying their God-given convictions in every possible societal sphere. We want Christians influencing education, healthcare, welfare and taxation policies, trade, and everything in between. Let me be very clear: I want to see Christians in our church getting involved in the political process. Some people may even be so passionate about political engagement that they pursue it as a calling. I have even prayed a few times that God would raise up a future Supreme Court justice from our congregation. (It’s a long shot, yes, but God told me to dream big for his name’s sake, and so I’m doing that.)

But as an organization, the church must limit its corporate involvement to a narrower scope. We are called to teach the Word of God and make disciples.

How do we balance all of this?

Two Crucial Questions

At the Summit, we use two questions to help us determine when the church—as an organization—should speak out:

A. Are the facts so clear and the moral obligations so obvious that Christians cannot, in good conscience, disagree?

One of the problems I often encounter when asked to sign political statements is that they inevitably recommend specific policies. We need specific policies, of course, and we need many more Christians to help ensure that those policies are wise. But most issues are not so morally clear that the policy decisions can’t be disputed among Christians of good conscience. Only in the rarest circumstances can we identify direct biblical lines between moral judgments and policy prescriptions.

For instance, the church has a moral obligation to care for the poor. That’s clear. Conservatives and liberals, however, differ in the ways that they think our society ought to do this. In our church, we all share the moral obligation, but we don’t recommend a specific strategy. Of course, I have my own opinions about which strategies are more effective than others. But I confuse the issue when I suggest that the only way to care for the poor is the political method I subscribe to.

Each of us thinks that our own political position is right. If we didn’t, we’d change our position. But there’s a huge difference between believing that our position is the right one and being certain that our position is the only biblical one. When we pastors make public statements about certain policies, the people in our church don’t usually hear that as, “I believe this policy is unwise,” but as “This is the Christian position, so if you disagree, I’m not sure you’re actually a Christian.” It’s important for us to realize that we don’t have to literally say this for the people in our church to hear it. When church leaders make political statements, they make the members of their church think that there isn’t any room to disagree.

And, of course, there may not be room to disagree. But we need to be sure that’s the case before we say anything about a specific political policy. If sincere and biblical Christians stand across the aisle from you on a political issue, it’s probably best to shy away from that trigger.

B. Does it rise to the level that our witness requires us, as an organization, to speak?

This one doesn’t have a clear-cut grid we can apply. Sometimes a failure to speak tarnishes our (the institutional church’s) witness; sometimes endorsing policies mires us in an area outside of our calling and our institutional expertise.

These things require wisdom. The writer of 1 Chronicles commended the sons of Issachar, who “had understanding of the times, and knew what Israel ought to do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). That means they discerned in the issues at hand broader implications of what was happening in society. Maybe we perceive a looming danger in a societal or governmental trend and we feel compelled to speak—totalitarian or oppressive nation-states are not usually created in a day, after all. Or maybe we realize that in being called upon to speak out we are being used as a tool by one side of the culture war to beat the other, and so we choose not to speak. To both the political left and right, the church is nothing but a handy tool for the accomplishment of their purposes, and we should not be anybody’s tool.

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to discernment. This requires prayer, humility and great sensitivity to the Spirit.

A United Church in a Divided World

Just because we, as a church, do not make a statement about a specific political event does not mean that we have no convictions about it. Nor does it imply that we don’t think Christians should have an opinion or be involved. (For more on this, see Kevin DeYoung’s helpful article about “speaking—or not—in a digital world.”)

Sometimes—not often—we make official statements or sign letters. More often than not, our approach is to point our people to the resources we have already produced on the topic, letting our body of work (which is usually clear) speak for itself. But whatever our response, it is always done in an attempt to balance the various biblical admonitions discussed here.

I don’t know everything the government should do on every issue. I have opinions, of course, and I try to make them well-informed ones. But what I do know, beyond any doubt, is that we are called to teach accurately what God’s Word says about various issues, and to make disciples of all people. Where the Bible does not draw a direct line to policy, you won’t find us drawing one that often from the pulpit, either. 

I am praying for Christian leaders who will not abdicate their God-given mission for the allure of politics. I am also praying for a generation of leaders with courage, willing to speak out when and where we must. I am praying for humility for all of us to know that we need the Spirit of God to lead his church in this and every generation.

This article originally appeared here.

“They will still bear fruit in old age. They will be full of sap and very green…” (Psalm 92:14).

All generalizations are false. Including this one.

Every rule has its exceptions. Including this one.

Even so, I’m going to make some general statements about seniors. Readers will think of exceptions. But by and large, these statements have been found to be solid and trustworthy throughout long years of ministry.

One: Seniors are not against change; but they dislike abrupt change.

There are no 1948 Packards in your church parking lot. No 1952 DeSotos. But the seniors driving those Camrys and Corollas did not one day trade in that Packard for the Toyota. There were a series of incremental steps in between—like, first buying a 1955 Fairlane, then a 1962 Chevelle, followed by a 1972 Bonneville, and so forth.

I quote Rick Warren who said, “Do not use the word ‘change.’ Say ‘experiment.’ Because if this doesn’t work out, we’ll try something else.”

Two: Seniors are not against innovations in the worship service, but they dislike overdoing it.

It was an 80-year-old who told me we should erect those screens on the wall in front of the sanctuary where we would project texts and photos and videos. “It would help us be able to see the words of the songs better. And the Scriptures.” Until then, I had been reluctant to suggest this change since I had been burned a few times by older people disliking anything different.

Three: Seniors love guitars and violins and even a little percussion in church music, but they don’t like it to interfere with the actual singing.

One reason seniors love “The Old Rugged Cross” and “Amazing Grace” is simply that they know the words, recognize the tune and find it singable. They will enjoy the occasional modern worship song too, so long as it’s uplifting and worthwhile.

When I have visited churches with a contemporary service (with all kinds of musical instruments) followed by a traditional service (with nothing more than the organ and piano), invariably more seniors attend the first service than the second. Seniors love music.

Four: Seniors love to laugh and will be the first to get humor in sermons, but they don’t want it overdone. As one who does a lot of senior events, I cannot imagine one with no laughter. They love to laugh. Did you hear about the elderly couple who got married? They spent their honeymoon getting out of the car.

Seniors will laugh at that longer than anyone. There’s just enough truth in that bit of silliness for it to work.

Five: Seniors don’t resent the young people being featured and young adults coming to the front; they just don’t want to be put out to pasture themselves. Most of them have grandchildren whom they adore, so they will appreciate efforts to reach them with the gospel. Seniors love being around young people and will enjoy events where both groups are included.

Six: Some of your seniors have read more books than you own in your library. You will start to quote something you read recently and it turns out that several in your audience have read everything that author ever wrote. A few may have known him or her personally.

Seven: Some of your seniors have traveled, been to places you never heard of and knew personally people you use as sermon illustrations.

I tell a story about Ty Cobb, the hall-of-fame baseball player who put in 22 years with the Detroit Tigers and set a lot of records, many of which are still on the books. He is said to have come to Christ before dying in 1961. His message to the men he had played ball with said, “Fellas, I got in the bottom of the ninth. I sure wish I’d come in the top of the first.” I tell that and ask, “What inning are you in?” Once in Valdosta, Georgia, a lovely little lady came up and said, “I was Ty Cobb’s nurse at Grady Hospital in Atlanta in those last weeks of his life. A sweet, sweet man.”

Eight: Seniors can still go on mission trips and make a difference.

Becky Gilbreath Crumpton graduated from high school with my brother Ron’s class, in 1954. That puts them both around age 80. A couple of weeks ago when I saw Becky, I said rather flippantly, “So, where are you off to next time?” She said something like, “In two weeks, we’re headed to Nigeria.” (I’m not sure which country she said.) Some years back when I spoke at the Alabama Baptists’ annual convention, Becky was singled out as the Volunteer of the Year. She’s not alone, of course. So many veteran workers with our denomination’s Disaster Relief ministries are seniors and still making a great difference for Jesus. The point is, pastor, do not assume they’re too old. Some of them are younger than you, no matter what the calendar says.

Nine: They appreciate respect but despise being condescended to. Some of my friends remarked that they hate being talked down to like they are five-year-olds. Another said he dislikes people calling him “young man” or “young fella.” In most cases, “Mister Joe” or “Mrs. Mae” works.

Ten: Not all seniors in church know the Lord Jesus, so you should not assume they’re all saved just because they’re in church and active in the work. When you speak to senior groups, give them the plan of salvation from time to time and extend a gospel invitation. It can’t hurt, and might make an eternal difference.

As I type this, today I will drive north 125 miles and address a group of seniors from a three-county area of south central Mississippi. They will be sharp, attentive, alert and involved. But I would be making a serious error in assuming everyone there knows the Lord Jesus. So, even though some may feel it unnecessary, my message will be urging anyone in the audience who has not come to Jesus not to put this off any longer. Urging them to “finish strong”—a theme which every senior can appreciate—means making sure they are right with the Lord for the rest of the journey.

Eleven: Seniors love great Bible teaching. In fact, pastor, no one in your church will love a wonderful Bible study more than they. Many will remember when our churches held annual weeks of study of a book of the Bible, which were always well-attended. Announce that you are going to lead a similar study of a short book of Scripture for a weekday morning, pastor, and you might be surprised at the turnout.

Twelve: Seniors tend to be the best givers in the church. We are told by stewardship directors from our state offices that when this generation goes to Heaven, churches are going to be in real financial crisis since they are not teaching giving the way we used to. Years ago, churches would actually have stewardship revivals. Their annual stewardship emphasis would last for weeks and culminate in a huge dinner with an outstanding speaker. Churches had tithing testimonies and people were urged to tithe. These days, fewer and fewer churches are teaching these principles. Then they wonder why the giving is so weak.

In many cases, pastor, you are reaping the benefits of previous pastors who got this right.

Thirteen: They are your best pray-ers. In churches where we have had round-the-clock prayer ministries, seniors carried the major part of that. It’s a wise pastor who takes advantage of the prayingest people in his church and involves them in such a vital ministry. And by the way, this is not something you have to do “for them.” Enlist one of them to come up with a plan for a prayer ministry.

Fourteen: The sweetest friends a pastor will ever have tend to be seniors. The preacher-father of Dr. Grady Cothen and Dr. Joe Cothen once told his sons, “The Lord has put a delicate balance in the church. He has put just enough headstrong, ornery members to keep you the pastor humble. And He has put just enough sweet godly saints to keep you from quitting.” Joe Cothen would tell that and add, “Every church I ever served had both groups.” Yes, and my observation is that the sweet humble ones who “keep you from quitting” tend to be the old-timers in the congregation.

Fifteen: Neglected or abused seniors can give a pastor more headaches than he ever thought possible. Oh man, the stories I could tell.

In my last pastorate, in the late 1990s, we were conducting a self-study, led by a great guy from our state office, on how to gear ourselves up for the challenges of the future. Demographic studies showed a large percentage of young families living in driving distance of our church, but we were reaching few of them. So, the recommendations involved redirecting some of our efforts and energies in their direction. The seniors blew up.

Even though I was in my late 50s and thus a senior myself, one would have thought I was a 25-year-old pastor dead-set on pushing the oldsters out. I found myself running from home to home, meeting with Sunday School classes and assuring seniors we were never going to neglect them. I still remember them as being some of the most self-centered church members I’ve ever worked with. So, No. 15 on my list of 15 should not be taken lightly.

I will never forget the night I answered the phone and a voice said, “Sir, we’re conducting a survey on the television watching habits of our audience. This will take about three minutes. Could we do that?” I said, “Sure. Go ahead.”

“First,” the man said, “could I ask what group you are in. 25 and under. 25 to 35. 35 to 45. 45 to 55. Or, 55 and up.” I said, “That one.” He said, “Which one?” “55 and up.”

“Click.” He hung up. Not one word of explanation. He just ended the call once he found I was a senior.

That was as eloquent a statement as I have ever seen on how some people discount seniors. So, so foolish.

But this will not happen in a Christian church led by a God-called and Spirit-led pastor. Surely not.

This article originally appeared here.

I recently went to a vending machine to purchase a snack. The Twix bar in slot B-3 was calling my name. It cost 85 cents. “Eighty-five cents?” I thought. What an odd price for a vending machine. Usually it’s 50 cents, 75 cents or a dollar. I realized if I bought the Twix I had to carry around 15 cents in my pocket for the rest of the day. So, I didn’t buy it.

I love Twix. But…

I don’t love walking around with change in my pocket going jingle-jangle-jingle all the way home all day. More than I valued cheap, I valued simple. I wanted to put a dollar in and walk away with my snack. I’m sure whoever priced them thought they were doing us a favor by saving us 15 cents. They weren’t.

They thought I valued cheap (which I do…but not when it’s a matter of 15 cents). I actually valued simple. I found myself thinking, “I wish they charged a dollar for this so I wouldn’t have the change.” Think about that. I would have preferred to pay more not to have to deal with carrying the change. This is the same reason people prefer to pay with cards and not cash—to the tune of 12-18 percent.

Here’s the 85-cent rule: Know what people actually value—not what they should. People are more open to learning how to add or grow values they should have, once you start with what they actually value. This is most true when seeking to reach people far from God. When we aim first at “shoulds” we rarely realize that by doing so, those “shoulds” rarely become “actuallys.” Why? Because of the 85-cent principle.

Think about your church’s ministries and ask 85-cent principle questions about them. “What are we actually asking people to do to engage with this ministry?” You may think doing your Saturday event for young families later in the morning (10am-ish) is more convenient than doing it at 8:30 because young families are always looking tired and would like to sleep in. However, you find by 8:30 they’ve already been up for two hours and by 10:00 it’s soccer game time—so they’ll pass…

Because you charged them 85 cents…so to speak.

The best way to know what might bless people? Know the people.

This article originally appeared here.

I am convinced there are some theological issues on which, no matter what view we hold, we’re wrong. These are also, not coincidentally, among the issues where we have the strongest convictions or opinions. For quite a while now, I’ve been making my way through Three Views on the Millenium and Beyond, a book offering a basic defense and critique of three prominent eschatological positions:

• Postmillennialism
• Amillennialism
• Premillennialism

I find the debate between the contributors—Kenneth L. Gentry Jr., Robert B. Strimple and Craig A. Blaising—fascinating because the distinctions are often based on details the average layperson might miss. The tense or range of meaning of a word in the original language, and that sort of thing. But however subtle the distinctions might seem, they do matter. At the same time, I’m thrilled about how much the various positions actually do agree, and on what points. All, for example, agree on the end point: the literal, physical return of Christ, and that his coming will bring God’s redemptive work to its conclusion (even if they disagree on how long that will take).

I think these sorts of books—volumes that compare and contrast viewpoints—are more essential than ever. Culturally, we’re rapidly losing our ability to engage in debate, to say nothing of offering thoughtful critique.¹ These are skills we need to relearn, especially as Christians. There are some issues about which we must draw clear lines, obviously. But there are many others that, while important, we have the freedom to agree to disagree on.²

So how do we do this? How do we agree to disagree on important, but not essential, matters? Let me offer four suggestions:

“Let each one be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:5). Paul wrote to the Roman church encouraging them to pursue unity, refusing to judge one another based on their convictions about observing festivals, eating and drinking, and so forth. But in doing so, he didn’t simply say, “Let’s all try to get along.” He first said each must be fully convinced in their own minds. In other words, they had to have a conviction about something before they could disagree on it. The same is true for us in our day, not just on eschatology, but on many other social and theological issues. Be convinced what you believe is right. Know what you believe and why (which requires us to do our homework).

Acknowledge the lack of consensus. When it comes to eschatology, there has never been a clear consensus among God’s people. Some of the most brilliant theological minds in history have disagreed on this. Clement’s view was not Augustine’s view was not Luther’s view was not Lloyd-Jones’ view was not Carson’s view, and so on. Moving beyond a theological issue to a social one like poverty alleviation, we can’t even come to a clear consensus on how best to help those in need, beyond general agreement on the importance of education. But the “how” is where we get tricked up. Many great organizations are tackling the same problem from different perspectives, each confident that their way is the best way—but those ways aren’t always the same.

Recognize the possibility we might be wrong. The Word of God is perfect, but our understanding of it is not. Because we have limited knowledge and intellectual abilities, we’re going to get something wrong when we study it. The same is true for our understanding of many social issues. We should be convinced in our own minds, but that doesn’t mean we’re right. We should be willing to ask the question, “What if we’re wrong?”

Listen humbly. Even if we remain unconvinced, we would be wise to give those with whom we (probably) disagree a fair hearing. We might not change our view, or we might become more convinced we’re correct. But if we try to understand a different point of view, we can engage far more charitably.

This article originally appeared here.

Are you communicating this weekend?

Maybe preaching at your church? Speaking in a student ministry? Or even training or casting vision to volunteers.

I am, and it got me to thinking…

No matter the environment, the audience or the type of message, communicating in any spiritual context brings a unique pressure. It’s a pressure that only communicators in the church can fully understand.

When I worked in the marketplace, I communicated quite a bit. I made sales calls, staged product demonstrations, presented data and strategy analysis, and even occasionally spoke to larger audiences about our business, our competencies and our industry.

None of these moments compare to what happens in ministry, though. There is such a unique weight in any ministry communication. The pressure comes from many places:

• God: Let’s just start where everything in us as pastors and teachers should start. It doesn’t take more than a cursory reading of James (among other biblical books) to feel the weight of our position. And we should feel the weight. If we don’t, we apparently aren’t taking our position as seriously as God does. When we stand in front of people to encourage, admonish or anything in between, we represent more than just our opinion. That’s pressure.

“Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” James 3:1

• Others: The people who will hear our words can be quite critical. Not all, but many, are walking into our churches expecting to hear something true, helpful and biblical, presented in a way that is engaging, inspiring, relational, conversational and even humorous. I’m not sure that is even possible, but that doesn’t change the fact it’s somewhat expected. That’s pressure.

• Ourselves: If we are honest, we might create the biggest pressure-cooker. I certainly don’t know everything there is to know about preaching. What I do know is how much pressure we can feel stepping onto the stage or behind the pulpit. We all work hard on preparation, content and delivery (if you don’t, you should!). We all have been given quite the opportunity to present hope in and through a relationship with Jesus. That’s pressure.

Bottom line: There’s a lot riding on our shoulders this weekend. Or at least it feels that way. But should it?

How should we handle the pressure? How should we navigate the challenge? How should we move into these speaking moments with confidence and clarity?

1. Let God Be God.

This is probably the only tip we need to remember (but I’ll give more just for fun). God is not expecting us to give “Sermon on the Mount” quality messages every weekend. We might at times, but that’s not His expectation. From what I can gather, God is asking us to be faithful to the truth, sensitive to who is listening and genuine in our presentation.

The best part is what God does between our mouth and our audience’s ears. It seems every time I preach someone eventually approaches me to comment on what they received from my message. At times, what they heard was exactly what I said. Many times what they heard was close—still true and still helpful for them—but not exact. And at times, though, God takes what is said, completely rewrites it, and allows it to enter the listening ear as it needs to be heard. It’s a beautiful thing that only God can do. And we, as preachers, get to participate in these little miracles all the time.

2. Prepare With Intentionality.

When we understand the weight and opportunity given to us, it should cause us to prepare with great intentionality. I have never been disappointed because I prepared in advance. And I’ve certainly never heard any pastor or teacher say a message would have been better had they procrastinated and opted for a “Saturday night special.” We always prepare for what’s important, so get ahead in your preparation to remove much of the pressure.

3. Be Happy With Singles.

Every message won’t be a grand slam. Some will, and when that happens, it’s a great feeling. But there will be some messages that are just average. I call those “get on base Sundays.” I prepare to hit a homer every time I preach, but there are some messages that just don’t come together as well as I would like. There are times when the delivery isn’t as good. There are times when a baby just won’t stop crying even though we have an incredible ministry experience for babies during the service. That’s part of the job. Singles aren’t strikeouts. And God can still do His thing with our singles.

4. Don’t Accept Average.

While we might not preach the best message in the history of preaching each weekend, we must fight the temptation to underwork and accept mediocrity. There are so many ways to improve as a preacher—from planning to preparation to interpretation to delivery. I don’t fully understand what God chooses to bless, but He seems to bless passion and hard work over apathy. So work hard and give it your best effort so you can trust God fully with the rest.

5. Give Yourself Grace.

God already has given you grace, so you might as well, too. Unfortunately, there will be times when all the preparation, effort and rehearsing sill don’t get us where we’re trying to get. Yeah, we’ll hit singles from time to time, and we will also strikeout. If we have done our best, that is ultimately all we can do. So don’t just preach grace, give yourself grace.

6. Find a Healthy Pace.

I hate to break it to you, but God didn’t birth you for 52 amazing messages a year. That’s just my humble opinion, but I believe it to be true. I work for arguably the best communicator in the world, Andy Stanley. No matter what you believe about his approach or his theology, there’s no arguing his message building technique and delivery is beyond superb. I get to watch it up close and personal, and I’m still often amazed. But do you know how many times Andy preaches each year? About 35, give or take. If Andy doesn’t attempt 52, we probably shouldn’t either.

I wrote a lot more about this here: Stop Preaching Every Week!

I hope my message this Sunday is great. Even more, I’ve worked really hard on the content. I finished my studying and outline three weeks ago. I rehearsed it completely today (Friday). And I get to practice several more times tomorrow in my basement. Soon enough, Sunday will be here and I think I’ll be ready. But, if it’s not the best message I’ve ever delivered, I’ll be fine. If every single person doesn’t love it, I’ll understand. And if, after three tries, I just can’t seem to get it right, I’ll survive. And you will, too, I bet.

Good luck if you’re on deck this Sunday. I might not know your name, but I’m praying you have fun bringing your best to the people in your room.

Quick Note: If you found this helpful, feel free to share it with others using the social media buttons above. Thanks! 

This article originally appeared here.

About 10 years ago, after more than 20 years in ministry of proclaiming the gospel, the gospel started getting complicated for me. I was really good at talking about how Jesus’ work on the cross atoned for my sins. I was really clear about needing to confess, repent and enter into relationship with Jesus. I was also satisfied with how this made sense of my life and how I should live…until I realized I wanted more.

I started to learn about the way my heart ran after many things other than God to provide a sense of meaning, purpose and inner peace. I began to wrestle with the failure of merely trying to change my behavior without changing my underlying “wants.” I also began to learn that my salvation was more than just an escape from this world. I was not just saved out of the world for my sake, but I was also saved to be in the world for its sake.

Like many today, we have recognized that the richness of what Jesus accomplished on the cross can get flattened. I have penned the following language in an attempt to capture on one page a gospel that helps capture more of what Christ has done for us.

There is more to say of course, so I’d welcome your comments below.

We were created for God

We were created to live in a loving relationship with God, and to participate in his purposes in creation, and enjoy him forever. It is in this relationship that we experience God’s love in ways that give us a deep sense of peace and security. It is living under his benevolent reign that we find our significance, and satisfaction in life. Questions like “Who am I?” “What was I created for?” and “Why do I exist?” are answered in our call to be in relationship with the Caller.

We live for ourselves

Our sin is that we have chosen to be our own master, believing that we can do a better job than God to watch over our interests. Alienated from God, we try to fill the gap with inferior counterfeits like career, possessions, achievements, family, even religion, only to realize that we are enslaved by them. We know these have control over us because we experience anger (when we are blocked from them), guilt (if we don’t perform), shame (when I feel unworthy), fear (if I don’t work hard enough) and drivenness (because there is always more to do).

We need a Savior for us

Recognizing the sin and folly of being our own lord and savior, we turn to Jesus, confessing our sin and embracing his redeeming work on our behalf. We rejoice in knowing that we are totally loved and completely accepted by God because of Jesus’ record and not ours. In cooperation with God’s overtures of grace, this good news begins to free us to become the people God had always intended us to be. Fully us. Fully alive. We find ourselves becoming the kind of people that naturally love and serve others because that is who we have become.

We live for God and for others

As we continue to grow in Christlikeness, we grow in our desire to steward all that God has graced us with in service of God’s redemptive purposes on earth. With a grace-filled humility we work diligently to be both a sign and an agent of God’s shalom, and we do so in all our relationships whether in the home, in the community or in the workplace. We take great delight in being able to live into what we were created for, bringing “the presence of the kingdom and its king into every corner of human life.” ^[1]

[1] Willard, Dallas. Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2002. Page 15.

This article originally appeared here.

This is not the final list. I’m still learning.

Most of what follows about leading God’s church is counterintuitive. Which is to say, it’s not what one might expect.

In no particular order…

One: Bigness is overrated.

“It doesn’t matter to the Lord whether He saves by the few or the many” (I Samuel 14:6).

Most pastors, it would appear, have wanted to lead big churches, wanted to grow their church to be huge, or wanted to move to a large church. Their motives may be pure; judging motives is outside my skill set. But pastoring a big church can be the hardest thing you will ever try, and far less satisfying than you would ever think.

Small churches can be healthy too; behold the hummingbird or the honeybee.

Trying to get a huge church to change its way of thinking can be like turning around an ocean liner. Even so, the Lord’s teachings about the mustard seed (see Matthew 13:31-32 and Luke 17:6) should forever disabuse us of the lust for bigness.

I will spare you the horror stories of pastors who have manipulated God’s people and lied about numbers in order to create the illusion of bigness. Forgive us, Father!

Two: Lack of formal education in the preacher is no excuse.

The pastor of the small church often has far less formal training and education than he would like. As a result, he often feels inferior to his colleagues with seminary degrees. I have two thoughts on that…

One. It’s a mistake. He can be as smart as they are and more if he applies himself. Let the Lord’s preachers not be overly impressed by certificates on the wall or titles before their name.

Two. He can get more formal education if he’s willing. Some of our seminaries have online programs that make seminary education practical and affordable.

My dad, a coal miner, had to leave school after the 7th grade. But he never quit learning. He took courses and read constantly. When God took him to Heaven, Dad was almost 96. Our mom had to cancel four or five magazine subscriptions he was still taking and reading.

Some of the finest preachers of God’s word I’ve ever known have had little formal theological education.

Three: There are no lone rangers or solo acts on the Lord’s team.

He sent them out two by two. (Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1)

The preacher who says pastors are not allowed to have friends and thus shuts himself off from colleagues in ministry has bought into a lie from hell that causes him to deceive himself and limit his ministry. While a pastor may choose not to have close friends among his own members, there is every reason for him to make friends with other pastors and ministers who serve the Lord well. Failing to do so limits himself and hurts the kingdom work.

Furthermore, he must have co-workers alongside him. Paul needed Barnabas, Silas, Timothy and many others. Read the last chapter of I Corinthians and ask God to forgive you for trying to do this work alone.

Four: Doing a job by yourself is easier than enlisting and training someone else, but it’s violating your calling.

“Make disciples,” said our Lord. That mandate calls for us to help people come into the kingdom, then nurture and grow them to the point they will know the Word, can share the Word and can make disciples of others.

Barnabas did not find it convenient to leave Antioch and travel to Tarsus “to seek Saul” (Acts 11:25). But in doing so, he connected the man called as an evangelist to the Gentiles with the opportunity of a lifetime. We are forever grateful to the best disciplemaker in Scripture, Barnabas!

Five: I cannot lead people to do what I’m not doing.

God did not send me to be a talker, but a doer. Not as a coach only, but as a player-coach. It is enough for the disciple to become like the teacher, said our Lord.

So, as a pastor and church leader, my job is to show them how. Not just tell them (James 1:22 and I John 3:18).

Six: Not only is it hard to get started tithing my income or sharing my faith (and a hundred other discipleship things), God likes it that way.

Watch the butterfly emerge from its chrysalis. The struggle, we are told, is a necessary part of its development.

Only people of faith and determination will set out to learn to tithe and witness and understand the Bible, then stay with it until they are able to do it well. Everyone else drops by the wayside, intending to wait until it’s easy. In doing so, they’re asking for and expecting what never was and never shall be. “Without faith, it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).

The members of your church need to be reminded that God does not need their money. He is not suffering from a cash flow problem. God is trying to grow disciples. That accounts for the hundreds of teachings on money in the Word. When are we ever going to understand this? When are preachers going to quit fearing criticism and teach stewardship until people do it!

Seven: God makes His leaders servants, not bosses or lords or bigshots.

I keep running into husbands who want to lord it over their wives because “God made me the head of the home and told you to submit!” Such men may call themselves believers, but they are pagan to the heart and have probably never been saved. They certainly don’t know the first thing about God’s word or Jesus’ heart. If they did, they would know that they are sent as servants. “Even so, Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.”

Bullies on the playground or dictators in the pulpit are cancers on the body, and must not be tolerated. The parable of all parables on this subject is Luke 17:7-10. We must keep saying to ourselves—even when we have done everything Jesus required—“I am only an unworthy servant; just doing my duty.”

Eight: The more righteous we are, the less we will be aware of it. “Moses knew not that his face did shine” (Exodus 34:29).

I said to the 75-year-old saint in our church, “Marguerite, you are the most Christ-like person I know.” She didn’t flinch. “Oh honey,” she said to her young minister, “if you only knew.” I did know, in a way, but have learned a hundred times since: Those closest to the Lord are the last to know it. The nearer to the light we get, the more imperfections and blemishes we will see.

Beware of ever thinking you have arrived. “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

Nine: The Lord’s servants who serve well are going to run into the buzz saw of opposition from the nay-sayers, do-nothings, status-quo lovers and carnal. That’s no fun, but it’s not all bad.

Reading the mandate of the disciples in Matthew 10:16ff, we cannot say we were not warned. But it has ever been this way. We are swimming upstream in a downstream world.

Jesus prepared us for this by saying that whoever receives us is receiving Him, whoever listens to us is listening to Him, and whoever rejects us is rejecting Him (see Matthew 10:40 and Luke 10:16.) If being treated like Jesus is not enough for us, we’re in the wrong calling.

Ten: Not only does the Lord allow His choice servants to suffer sometimes, He even plans for that to happen. See Matthew 10:16ff.

Caesar ain’t coming to  your revival, preacher. So, the Lord is going to be needing someone to get arrested for preaching. Then, when the high and mighty ruler has to decide on this case, he will order the saint in chains to “tell us what you’ve been preaching.” That’s how it worked with Paul (see 2 Timothy 4:16-17), and how it has been with His choice servants ever since.

When Paul and Silas were falsely charged, then beaten and jailed, even though their backs were open wounds and they were hungry, tired and hurting, “about midnight, they began praying and singing hymns of praise to God. And the other prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:25). They’re always listening and watching when God’s people suffer unjustly. That’s a fact which God uses to reach many for Himself.

No one wants to suffer. No one volunteers to hurt. But sometimes it’s the only way.

What God’s faithful must never do is groan and bellyache and say, “Why me, Lord?” Your suffering may turn out to be the highest compliment the Father ever gave  you. Early believers rejoiced they were counted worthy to suffer (see Acts 5:41).

This article originally appeared here.