Apprentice2Jesus

Ramblings of a Confessing Pentecostal

Archive for the category “Ministry”

10 Feb 2012
4 Comments

Pastors as Theologians

One of the topics I have wrestled with for quite some time is the idea of pastors as theologians, or theologians as pastors.

As a pastor, I have grown over the years in my ability to think theologically. I earned my Master’s 20 years after I finished my BA. I love pastoring.

What I have become more convinced of is the Church made the mistake centuries ago of separating the pastorate and the academy. We have a very tough time recovering from that drastic mistake. We now think that someone who is “intellectual” is destined for “academics,” and someone who isn’t quite that “intellectual” and more “practical” is therefore consigned to ministry.

Many great students I have talked to in recent years really feel that they want to pursue academic careers and will only reluctantly consider pastoring. It has reached a point where pastoring is something you get pulled into kicking and screaming, if you happen to love theology.

What I long for is a return of the two abilities. Brian over at Near Emmaus is processing the issue of the academy vs. the church and it is a very thoughtful post.

He quotes John Chrysostom, a great theologian and pastor. The earliest centuries of the Church, where the major discussion of the big foundational blocks of Christian theology were formed, were forged in the churches by pastors.

We need these gifts together again. I don’t think we’ll ever get away from having pure academics, but what we truly need to get away from is pastors who think, “I don’t need no stinkin’ ‘cemetery’ education!”

Lord, help us to think again. Think… with hearts on fire.

Posted in Church, Church Life, Ministry, Theology and tagged , ,
15 Jan 2012
2 Comments

Leading and Pastoring

There will always be the call to LEAD. It is not a matter of saying it’s either you pastor or you lead. But it is painfully clear that we are putting leadership on steroids these days in our cultural churches.

Pastors MUST lead. But in the church, and in being the pastor (or whatever you want to call it today) you can’t get around the injunction of Scripture as well: pastor the flock.

3 Don’t shepherd by ruling over those entrusted to your care, but become examples to the flock. (1 Peter 5:3, CEB)

Posted in Church Life, Common English Bible, Ministry and tagged , ,
14 Jan 2012

Leadership, Followership, Pastor, CEO

Scot McKnight has an interesting book review on his blog about Len Sweet’s new book.

This may be a book worth examining. What is also worth reading are the comments on that particular post.

At least from this review, there seem to be some things I would like to explore in the book.

Christians are not to be leaders, Sweet argues. They are to be followers. First followers. In other words, Christians should find where Jesus is going, discover where he is at work, and then take up their crosses and follow him there. “In posing the paradox of the ox with an easy yoke and a light burden, Jesus is inviting followers to ‘walk alongside me. Just be with me, and the doing will come naturally.’ …Leadership is a functional position of power and authority. Followership is a relational posture of love and trust.” (39-40)

We spend a tremendous amount of time and energy making sure we use the word “leader” rather than “pastor” these days. It is something worth exploring.

Posted in Charismatic Chaos, Ministry and tagged , , , | Leave a Comment
31 Dec 2011
3 Comments

Farewell and Hello

I used to set goals for each year. I got away from it because somehow in setting goals it also implied a deadline.

Now, I am trying to realize that I need to take time to re-evaluate my goals from time to time. Forget the timeline in many cases.

For instance, I need to set a target weight for my health and stay at it. I don’t need to say, “I need to lose 20 pounds.” (Once I’ve lost the 20 pounds, back I go!)

This coming year I’ve set goals to keep my mind and spirit sharp. I’ve also made it my goal to develop some writing that I feel is necessary for ministry and for the church. Along with that I hope to develop another blog for pastors. But in those goals I need to have them mind, work at them, but forget the timelines. If they are not in full swing by this time next year, I need to re-evaluate and see if I need to keep at it. I don’t need to feel like a failure.

We say farewell to 2011 and hello to the last year of the planet (for the Mayans, anyway). There is really one supreme goal I carry with me, which I pray for all of us:

12 It’s not that I have already reached this goal or have already been perfected, but I pursue it, so that I may grab hold of it because Christ grabbed hold of me for just this purpose. 13 Brothers and sisters, I myself don’t think I’ve reached it, but I do this one thing: I forget about the things behind me and reach out for the things ahead of me. 14The goal I pursue is the prize of God’s upward call in Christ Jesus. 15 So, all of us who are spiritually mature should think this way and if anyone thinks differently, God will reveal it to him or her. 16 Only let’s live in a way that is consistent with whatever level we have reached. (Phil. 3:12-16, CEB)

Many blessings in this new year!

Posted in Ministry, Spiritual Formation, Spiritual hunger and tagged ,
14 Dec 2011
2 Comments

Words I Need to Hear

Michael Hyatt has a tremendous post on being a “hero” today. It’s worth your time reading.

A couple of things I needed to hear:

Stop complaining about a lack of resources. Has God called me to do what I am doing? Then he knows how to get it funded!

Be in the moment and act.

Good challenges for today!

 

Posted in Ministry, People and tagged ,
02 Dec 2011
5 Comments

Thoughts on Pastoring

I have been encouraged by a mentor of mine to put together some thoughts on ministry. It’s meant to be an encouragement for pastors who… well… pastor. It’s more about the ministry and call of pastoring as opposed to all the leadership material we have right now. Mark Galli’s piece, of course, pre-empts all my work! ;)

Since there is probably no publication interested in hearing from a “small church” pastor, I will probably end up forging my thoughts on paper and with some trepidation put together some blog posts in the future. And that will be the extent of it.

But today I was working on the second section of my “article”, which focuses on communion. (We serve communion every week in our Pentecostal church.)

I wanted to try out this thought: “Every week I try to make people homesick.”

In communion we are reminded that one day we need that this world is not our home. One day we get to partake of this table with Christ. With him. We need a longing for a greater allegiance to the Kingdom of God and every week communion gives us that opportunity. Every week I try to make people homesick.

 

Posted in Church Life, Liturgy, Ministry and tagged
23 Sep 2011
2 Comments

The King Jesus Gospel — Messing Up the Message

I am beginning to work my way through The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight. My church staff will be making our way through it the next several weeks as well.

The diagnosis of the “evangelical problem” resonates with me. The struggle over “decisions” and “disciples” has been something I’ve felt for all my years in ministry. McKnight lays out his take on why this isn’t working.

As evangelicals, we come up with ways to explain “the plan of salvation” to people. We want to lead them to a decision. The problem is that it doesn’t capture the gospel.

The Plan of Salvation, to put it crudely, isn’t discipleship or justice or obedience. The Plan of Salvation leads to one thing and to one thing only: salvation. Justification leads to a declaration by God that we are in the right, that we are the people of God; it doesn’t lead inexorably to a life of justice or goodness or lovingkindess. If it did, all Christians would be more just and more filled with goodnes and drenched in love.

The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited

Posted in Church, Culture, Evangelicalism, Evangelism, Ministry, Theology and tagged
19 Sep 2011

The Challenge of Servanthood in an Age of Self-Branding

The text for next Sunday is Philippians 2:1-13. I find these words incredibly challenging in an age where self-branding and marketing is so dominant.

1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

(NIV)

Posted in Bible Study, Culture, Ministry and tagged | Leave a Comment
14 Jul 2011
5 Comments

Mark Driscoll, Women Heroes, and Our Loss of Civility

I won’t get to ALL that stuff the title implies. Mark Driscoll, as per his normal routine, makes the blogging world rock. He cut into “effeminate” looking worship leaders who happened to be men. It’s Mark Driscoll. He’s rude, crude and gets hype because of it.

It’s led to a backlash and then examination of how we should interact more properly on the internet. It’s worth reading my friend Mark’s thoughts on being careful as to carry our comments (as pastors) online. I wish I had his restraint much more often. It’s something I work on.

The way Driscoll says things is just crude at times. It is who he is and it plays well to some segment that keeps him going. Such is life.

HOWEVER, as I read through the Book of Judith I am reminded that for all Driscoll’s chest thumping at men always being the hero, there are times God WILL use women. And it’s more often than he would like to think, I’m sure. While I am sure someone like Driscoll would say, “Well, God used a woman like Judith because some man didn’t step up,” I would invite such people to actually read the story. It is doubtful for all his bravado and chest thumping, Driscoll could pull off Judith’s stunt. (If you haven’t read the Book of Judity, let’s just say Driscoll lacks the “figure” for the calling.)

At any rate, I do get upset with the crudeness of irrational statements that “tough guy” preachers put out at times. I have to let myself calm down, then move on. And then I am reminded through wonderful stories like Judith that are incredible heroines God does indeed use, whether we like it or not.

 

Posted in Culture, Humor, Ministry and tagged
05 Jul 2011

The Parable of the Sower

This week I begin prep for next Sunday’s message on Parables in Matthew 13. I love Matthew 13 because it gives the opportunity to reflect on the use of parables in the ministry of Jesus.

The biggest section is the parable of the sower. It is not the very top of my list for favorites in this chapter, but I do like it a lot. The main reason I like it is because it goes against the grain of how we are “doing church” in America. The way we “do church” right now is “target audiences.” Make sure you target a “receptive” audience and drag them in.

The problem is this: you don’t know exactly who is “receptive.” That is the point of the parable. The parable isn’t about the sower. It’s about the soils. We are to give out the seed. The soil condition is not up to us. The sowing of the seed IS up to us.

My task needs to focus on sowing the good news of the Kingdom of God. The condition of the soil (while I want it very much to be good soil ALL THE TIME) just isn’t my call. I grate against that lack of control as an obsessive American, but I can rest in the command to sow the seed if I will truly be a person of the Kingdom of God.

http://gnesiolutheran.com

Posted in Bible Study, Ministry, Parables, Sermons and tagged , | Leave a Comment

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