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EPISODE NOTES
In this episode, Pastor Derwin Gray sits down with Dr. Crawford Loritts, a seasoned pastor and leader in the Christian community, to discuss the essentials of maintaining a flourishing ministry and marriage. Dr. Loritts shares insights from his 50 years of ministry experience, emphasizing the importance of a personal relationship with God, the dangers of pride and entitlement, and the need for gratitude and rest. The conversation also touches on the current cultural climate and the role of the church in navigating these challenges.
Here are a few of the practical things you’ll learn in this episode:
- The Foundation of Ministry: The most important aspect of ministry is maintaining a personal and genuine relationship with God. Everything else flows from this foundation.
- Dangers of Pride and Entitlement: Visibility and success can lead to pride and a sense of entitlement. It’s crucial to remember that we are not the source of people’s strength but rather a resource dependent on God.
- Gratitude and Dependency: Gratitude is a key indicator of our dependency on God. When gratitude wanes, it may signal a drift towards self-reliance and entitlement.
- Importance of Rest and Perspective: Taking time for rest and reflection is vital for maintaining perspective and avoiding burnout. This includes building rhythms of rest and sabbaticals into ministry life.
- Marriage and Ministry Balance: A flourishing marriage is essential for effective ministry. Prioritizing one’s spouse and family is crucial, and ministry should not become an idol.
- Cultural Engagement: The church must avoid being co-opted by political ideologies and should focus on embodying the teachings of Jesus. The church’s role is to be a prophetic voice, not a political entity.
- Responding to the Cultural Moment: The church should be known for its love and
transformation, not for engaging in cultural wars. It’s important to maintain the fruit of the Spirit in all interactions.
QUOTES:
- “Everything in your life and ministry works off of your relationship with God.” – Dr.
Crawford Loritts - “Gratitude is the ultimate statement of our need of God’s grace.” – Pastor Derwin Gray
- “If you can’t walk away from it, it’s an idol.” – Dr. Crawford Loritts
- “The church belongs to the lamb, not a donkey or an elephant.” – Pastor Derwin Gray
PODCAST RESOURCES
• More from Derwin: www.derwinlgray.com and www.transformationchurch.tc/podcast
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• The Transforming the Church Podcast is part of the The ChurchLeaders Podcast Network.
CONNECT WITH DERWIN
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/derwinlgray
• Instagram: @derwinlgray
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SHOW TRANSCRIPTION
Hey, guys, what’s happening? I am Pastor Derwin Gray. Welcome to Transform into Church podcast. Because when the church is transformed, the world will be transformed. I’d love for you to, like, subscribe and share.
Like, subscribe and share. And specifically, we want to be able to pour into pastors and ministry leaders and just those in the body of Christ who have a passion to. To see Jesus and his kingdom rule and reign here on earth, primarily through the great commandment, the Great Commission. Right? We want to be people that love greatly.
We want to be people who are on his great mission, empowered by his great grace. Now, before I introduce the guest for this episode of the podcast, I want you to think about Star Wars. Now, I was born in 71. Star wars came out in 76. And.
And, like, there was this character Yoda, right? I mean, Yoda was just it. Yoda was like the Master Jedi. And you want to sit at Yoda’s feet and learn the ways of, quote, unquote, the Force. Well, today we don’t have Yoda.
We actually have a real, live, spiritual Jedi and a Christian faith. Dr. Crawford Loritts is on a transformative church podcast. Now, hold on. Now, you got to understand, when I.
When I say he’s a spiritual Yoda, the man has been in ministry for over 50 years, folks. 50. That’s five decades of integrity. He’s been married for 53 years. He is a gift to the body of Christ, one of the great preachers and leaders in the body of Christ, and we have the honor of him sharing with us.
So, Doc, thank you so much for being with us. Well, you know, I’ve never been called Yoda before, but it’s always good to be with you. I was telling your folks not long ago, man, that you’re one of my favorite people in the world, man. So I’m just delighted and honored to be here with you. Well, thank you so much.
So what I want to do to redeem the time is I have a couple of questions that I want to ask you, because I think that you have a word for. For us as ministry leaders, one of the first things I want to ask you is this. You’ve been in ministry over five decades. I’m 53 years old. Right, so you were in ministry when I was in diapers.
And. And you’re. And you’re still here faithfully serving. In 50 years of ministry, what’s most important? Well, you know, I’m going to sound very, very elementary.
What’s most important is your walk in relationship with God. That is everything. And I don’t. I don’t mean to give a wink and a nod at that. That is everything.
Just like it said, you know, pitchers will bounce around in the minor leagues because they can’t throw a fastball for a strike. Everything works off the fastball. Everything in your life and ministry works off of your relationship with God. And your godliness is your focus. And everything else is ancillary.
It comes out of that. And we get into trouble when we get duplicitous about that or when we begin to drift from it and start operating from gifts, talents and abilities and experience. And before you know it, we get confused about who we are and we send that duplicitous message to the people who are trying to listen to us or that we’re leading. So, I mean, that’s just gold. What are those attachments that pull us away from
Jesus?
Well, you know, visibility is seductive, okay. And pride. Pride wears many disguises, including false spirituality. And, you know, when you have people listening to you, people taking notes from you, and you get some exposure and some experience, some successes underneath your belt, there’s that tendency to think that you are as good as the way God is using you. Wow.
You’re not as good as the way God is using you. None of us are. And there is this drift toward entitlement that we can package in nice spiritually sounding terms. And because, you know, rather than giving glory to God and constantly giving back to him the accolades that you’re receiving, making sure that your ambition is always going to be that my character is going to be greater than any platform that I stand on. So you
protect yourself and stop thinking that you are.
You are the source of people’s health and help and strength. No, you’re not the source. You’re a resource. You’re a dependent resource. And once we get pulled away from
dependency, that’s when we get in trouble.
Wow. So just. I’m hearing you saying that there’s so many things running through my mind. One of the things that has helped me in that and I wanted to continue to do so, is I think about this. The word of God belongs to God.
Amen. The gospel is God’s. The people are God’s. The very gifts I have are God. So
what is there to boast about when God himself is the source?
Yeah, but see, you answered the question the way you described it, man. It’s what keeps us dependent upon the Lord is to remember that we own categorically absolutely nothing. Nothing that’s not theoretical at any moment, God can say, give me back my breath. We are dependent people. And gratitude, you know, I keep the thing that I watch in my own life.
I know when I’m drifting, when I start, when I notice that I’m not as grateful as I need to be. And we always can justify entitlement. But gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. Gratitude
is expression of neediness. Hmm.
When you stop to think about it, you’re grateful because you know, you’re needy. But the moment I stop being grateful, the moment I stop being grateful for the people that God’s raised up around the translate vision, reality, the moment I start thinking that I am the center of why this stuff is happening here, the moment I start treating people as if, you know, they’re subservient to me and, you know, I’m the one that you got to put at the center of, that’s when things start crumbling, man. And that messiah complex is so subtle. So subtle. Yeah.
You know, and it’s. And it’s easy to get pulled into that. Yeah. You know, as I hear you speaking, I know with gratitude, even neurologically, the more grateful we are, it actually changes the way we think, it changes the way we feel. It releases dopamine, serotonin, all these happy, good, feel things.
But gratitude is the ultimate statement of our need of God’s grace. Yes. And you know, I think you have to develop rhythms of in your life where you stand back and get proportion. Proportion. And I don’t want to embarrass you or anything like it, but I think one of the things that you and your dear bride have done for years you shared this with me, is you take extended time in the summer.
And I think that is one of the healthiest things in the world to do. You stand back and you’re able to rest. You’re able to think about why we’re doing what we’re doing, who owns this stuff, and to release all of that. And you know, we get back doored into self adulation, we get backdoored into it, we get backdoored into control. And if you’re too high, control, that’s a statement of both fear and a distorted perspective on your
importance.
But what you need to do is take time off. Take time off to commune with God. Have those rhythms in your life that gives you objectivity. Yeah. Document.
