The ministry of preaching turns into a lot of different things in the local congregation.

- Teaching Bible classes
- Preaching sermons
- Home Bible studies
- Following up and visiting with visitors
- Visiting hospitals and nursing homes
- Weddings and funerals
- Prayers
- Counseling
- Elders meetings
- Organizing
- Office management
- Changing the church sign
- Mission trips
- Helping to lift the other end of something heavy in the middle
   of the day when everyone else is working
- Arranging tables and chairs in the fellowship room
- VBS
- Keeping the directory updated
- Delivering groceries to the needy
- Unload trucks after hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, etc
- Answering the questions people ask
- Radio program
- Cleaning the church building
- Eating BBQ with the guys at the “Shed”
- Keeping the website updated
- Picking up church kids when they get sick at school
- Changing the batteries in the wireless microphones
- Going to camp in the Summer
- Mowing the church lawn
- Loving your wife and children
- Preparing power points
- Cleaning the baptisty
- Making, printing and folding the bulletin
- Working the room and eating last at potlucks
- Meeting the plumber at the church building
- etc. etc. etc.

The list is actually longer but some are already recoiling at this list. I tend to over simplify things but ministry to me boils down to our determined yet feeble efforts to, “love the Lord our God with all our heart… soul… mind and… strength… and… love our neighbor as our self.”

When preaching becomes a profession it turns into a job description. Preachers then decide that there are things that are not a part of their “job”. The “ministering servant” morphs into the “ministering executive.” Obviously no one can do all of the things in the list and at the same time do half of them well. Preachers have often been asked to fill way too many shoes at the same time. While that is an issue to be dealt with the greater issue is whether the preacher is willing to wear whatever shoes needing to be worn in order to love God and neighbor, and thereby build the Kingdom of God here on planet earth.

Our hero once said, “do just as I have done to you.” Not after he had preached to hundreds and thousands. Not after having calmed a raging storm or walked on water. But after He had washed the feet of proud ministers who thought such service was beneath them.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.   John 13:3-17

The consequences of this decision have been more obvious to me personally than to others. I didn’t get up one Sunday morning and announce to the congregation that I was going to…
…free the church from my desire to promote myself and control their lives
   with guilt.
…turn the church over to Jesus Christ, to be loved and motivated by Him and 
   His deep desire to support and save them

(As I think about it now, it would probably have been a good thing to do but I’m not sure I was ready to be that transparent at the time. That is still not one of my strengths.)

The Decision Gave Me The Freedom
To Present A Picture Of God That Was More Like Jesus!

I became comfortable with a God who called a sin a sin, a hypocrite a hypocrite and a struggler a friend. That was huge! It allowed me to no longer choke on words like joy, peace, easy, light, hope and know. I was freed from my own conflict to speak with an excitement about experiencing an inexpressible and glorious joy, and the peace which goes far beyond anything we can imagine, and the yoke of God we take upon ourselves as something that is easy and light, and hope in this life and the life to come, and the knowledge that we are saved. The gospel really was good news!

The Decision Helped Me Understand
That The List Would Not Change People!

There were also consequences in the way people related to my method of preaching and teaching. It was not uncommon for people to say, “I have never heard anyone preach like that.” I knew that wasn’t necessarily a compliment but it was telling. A few times someone would ask me to be “more specific.” When I would ask them to explain, their request had come as a result of me not using “The List.” I still preached about sin but I left much of the specific applications to them. Do you remember the list?

The List:
Being absent from Sunday PM worship, use the expletives “gosh”
“dog gone it” and “jees”, wear pant suits, smoke cigarettes, own
two cars and a boat, not give 10 percent of gross income, not
have personally shared the gospel with and baptized someone,
mix bathe, dance in any shape form or fashion, drink any alcohol
other than medications, use a modern translation, hold hands in
church, wear shorts, etc. etc. etc. (This was the middle Tennessee
version of the list. Other lists may differ in specifics)

The list will not change people! Colossians 2:20-3:1ff

You died to the world. Why do you need a list of worldly stuff?
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations- 21 ”Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)-according to human precepts and teachings?

The list looks good and even appears wise but it is only an effort to create your own religion!
23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body,

The list is impotent/powerless and will never rescue your from sin!
but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

You died with Christ so act like it and think like it instead of making a list!
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

You are going to go home with Jesus so start acting like Him and you won’t need a list!
3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Since you have died with Christ, are hidden with Christ, are thinking and acting like Christ then get rid of everything that is not like Christ!
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity….

This kind of Focus on Christ - Relationship with Christ has the power to change people!

The Decision Led Me To Always Ask
“What do these spiritual principles look like?”

I came to believe that Christians need to be helped to think clearly about and apply biblical principles to themselves: Love as I have loved you; be holy as I am holy, do not be sexual immorality, do not lie, die with Christ, etc., “What do these spiritual principles look like?”  I became unimpressed with Christians being able to give the answers and recite the list while living in direct opposition to the principles of Christ. (Example: Mark 7:6-13)

So, the teacher asks,
What is the second greatest command?” The hands go up all over the auditorium! “Love you neighbor as yourself.” cries the crowd. Then from that same group are heard the whispers of gossip, the hatred of others, angry exchanges, conflict at every effort to do anything, the congregation has split every few years for as long as anyone can remember, etc.

I decided that “I don’t care how much you know until I know how much you care about what you know!”

The Decision Left Me Insisting That I Lead People
To Confront Jesus With Their Knowledge.

Being a Christian is not a preparation for an Ivy League University Challenge where we compete with the religious world and answer the most questions correctly to win! It is a life, based on spiritual truth that is filled with ups and downs! Knowledge is obviously essential but it must not be an end within itself! Spiritual knowledge is the means to the spiritual end of being like Christ! He is the completion and application of spiritual knowledge! I decided that until I had called people to confront Jesus with their knowledge that their knowledge is useless information good only for “Religious Trivial Pursuit” and could not produce transformation.

I don’t know what Jesus has or has not done with me as a result of the decision being made.  I simply hope that in some small way what has been done and what I have become in Christ has Brought A Smile To His Face!

(Contued from previous post)

…I became increasingly uncomfortable driving the hearts of fellow strugglers deeper into the morose of guilt. As I preached I began to choke on words like joy, peace, easy, light, hope and know. The possibility of helping others experience an inexpressible and glorious joy, or the peace which goes far beyond anything we can imagine, or the yoke of God we take upon ourselves as something that is easy and light, or hope in this life and the life to come, or the knowledge that we are saved, seemed a very, very distant possibility.

In evaluating what I was doing I recognized that I was calling on people to become; great students of God’s word, knowledgeable of the mysteries of Christ, sharers of the word of God, disciples growing in the knowledge God, competent to answer the questions people asked, people of faith who trust God to be able to move mountains, generous in giving to the poor, and people who would surrender themselves to suffering for the sake of Christ.  Not a bad list!  But, I had also accepted the lie that the “why” is insignificant as long as people fall in line and do what they’re told! The problem was that the motivation I was using had little to do with the love of Christ and everything to do with guilt, fear and condemnation. I realized that I was leading people to becoming resounding gongs and clanging cymbals which adds up to being nothing and gaining nothing even if they did everything I challenged them to do. The “why” was not insignificant! In other words, it was not ok to have the wrong motive for doing all the right things.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.  (1 Cor. 13:1-3 ESV)

The next observation which was more difficult to accept because it was more personal brought me to the conclusion that my approach to preaching had also become an expression of pride and control. “Pride,” in that if the people didn’t come to church the numbers would not grow and I would not be seen as successful. “Control,” in that guilt shame and condemnation was the “most effective way” to motivate quick lifestyle change. “Shame on you, you hell bound Christian embarrassment,” is a pretty strong motivation.  (Sorry, I exaggerate)

The final steps that came before the decision were taken as a result of one of the most simple and well known spiritual principles and passage; “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them….” (Matthew 7:12 ESV) The transition began in earnest when I started to think of those I was speaking to as I thought of myself. I knew what I was. I was not a hypocrite but I was a Christian experiencing the conflict between the flesh and the spirit who needed to be rescued.

I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
                                                                                      (Rom. 7:21-8:1)

          The Decision:

The decision is a “two sides of the coin” kind of decision:
 
 - To free the church from my desire to promote myself
    and control their lives with guilt.
 - To turn the church over to Jesus Christ, to be loved
    and motivated by Him and His deep desire to support
                                and save them.

The consequences of this decision have been….

There was a specific moment in time when a decision was made that left me thinking very differently about ministry. The time was the mid 80’s after almost a dozen years in full time ministry. Before I go further into the actual decision let me share a story and some thoughts. 

Some years earlier I had a conversation with an older preaching friend from a town nearby. I asked him, “Why do you preach the way you do?”  I had experienced his style of preaching as I grew up attending gospel meetings with my family. The preaching was hard, direct, critical and always called for those who had been identified by the sermon as sinners to respond with a trip to the front of the church building during an elongated invitation song. I don’t remember his response to that question but whatever it was led to a follow-up question I do remember, “Do you believe that everyone listening to you is a hypocrite?” While I have forgotten much of that conversation from 20 plus years ago, his answer was memorable. His answer was a simple “Yes.” (By the way, my friend would not have objected to my characterization of his preaching style. His love for God and his understanding of ministry led him to the decision to preach as he did.)

The questions grew out of thoughts that had been rolling around in my head as a result of thinking about Jesus’ words to the feeble disciples compared to His words to the hypocritical Pharisees. There seemed to me to be a huge difference. To the hypocrites He spoke in final terms of judgment but to the disciples it seemed more correction joined with further explanation, guidance and direction. Rather than, “you are going to hell because….” there were words like, “Don’t you yet understand? Let me explain….” It wasn’t as though there was no correction, but the correction was couched in, “Let’s regroup, reconsider and recommit.”

In examining the preaching I had heard and much of what I had done I saw that there was always a highlighting of human failures, disobedience and sin as well as a description of the ways in which we are a huge disappointment to God. There were also the calculations which led to declaring many other things sinful by implication, direction and “it just doesn’t look right.”With good intentions we declared it a sin to: be absent from Sunday PM worship, use the expletives “gosh” “dog gone it” and “jees”, wear pant suits, smoke cigarettes, own two cars and a boat, not give 10 percent of gross income, not have personally shared the gospel with and baptized someone, mix bathe, dance in any shape form or fashion, drink any alcohol other than medications, use a modern translation, hold hands in church, wear shorts, etc. etc. etc.

As I continued to examine the preaching I had heard I noted that it was not uncommon for sermons to progress from introduction to conclusion without even a simple mention of God’s love and his gracious desire to help us through and lift us up. It was almost always a Jeremiah style; “repent or perish you bunch of rebellious hellions” type message. I noticed one other thing in my looking back to the preaching I had personally experienced. I could not remember even one example of a sermon where God’s mercy and grace was preached without the “balancing” caveat of, “But we all know that faith without works is dead and God expects us to obey Him.” Yet, I could recall many examples where sins were listed, condemned and judgment was pronounced without a single mention of God’s gentle loving grace. It was as if to mention grace would have let the sinners off of the hook….

__________________________________________________________

This post is long so I’ll follow it up with two others in the next couple of days:
- MAKING THE DECISION…
- THE CONSEQUENCE OF THE DECISION…

When the sounds and new light of day begin to pierce the quiet darkness of sleep a companion joins the involuntary thoughts as they awaken. Like a shaded lens it will cloud everything that will be a part of the day. 

Whether the day is filled with the activities of family, career, school or hobby, melancholy will dull the joys and exaggerate the strains. Positive thought will be hard to come by and hope will be shallow if experienced at all. My job is draining. My husband/wife is tiring. My children are exhausting. My life is dreary. Contentment seems like only a fool’s world and peace of mind a self-delusion.

It’s an enduring darkness that most often survives prayer, discipline, determination and decision. It just will not go away! It doesn’t mean there is no faith nor does it mean that grace is not known, it’s just difficult to feel their effect. The head knows the wonder of God’s love, grace and mercy but the heart has trouble translating the personal outcome of each into feelings of peace, joy and contentment.

Wearing many faces; young, old, male, female, rich, poor, tall, short, heavy, thin, educated, uneducated, Christian…. Loving families, friends, brothers, sisters, God/Christ/Holy Spirit…. Reading and study the Bible. Praying prayers of supplication with thanksgiving and letting requests be made known to God (Philippians 4:6 ESV). In a strange way experiencing the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, which guards hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (v.7 edited mh) It sounds strange to those who do not share the companion. It’s kind of like Paul as he experienced his thorn in the flesh companion. Having known of lesser things being healed, and believing he could serve God more effectively if he could do it without this companion he prayed and pleaded and prayed that God would remove it. God said no. Many who experience the constant company of their gloomy companion have learned the same lesson that Paul learned when God responded to his pleadings, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9a ESV). Now living daily, attempting to put things into the perspective Paul did and boast all the more gladly of weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon us. For the sake of Christ, content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when weak, then strong. (v.9b-10 edited mh).

Not having already obtained the resurrection or already perfect, but pressing on to make it our own, because Christ Jesus has made us his own. We do not consider that we have made it our own. But one thing we do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, we press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14 12 ESV edited mh).

Always wondering if God will ever carry this unwelcome guest away but continuing to learn daily of the sufficiency of His grace!

Hello God

Words & Music by Dolly Parton

Hello, God, are you out there?
Can you hear me?
Are you listenin’ any more?
Hello, God, if we’re still on speakin’ terms,
Can you help me like before? 

I have questioned your existence,
My resistance leaves me cold.
Can you help me go the distance?
Hello, God. Hello, hello. 

This old world has gone to pieces,
Can we fix it? Is there time?
Hate and violence just increases,
We’re so selfish, cruel and blind.
We fight and kill each other,
In your name, defending you.
Do you love some more than others?
We’re so lost and confused.

Hello, God, are you out there?
Can you hear us?
Are you listenin’ any more?
Hello, God, if we’re still on speakin’ terms,
Can you help us like before?.
Oh, the free will you have given,
We have made a mockery of.
This is no way to be livin’.
We’re in great need of your love. 

Hello, God.
(Hello, hello.)
Hello, God, can you grant us,
Love enough to make amends?
(Hello, God.)
Is there still a chance,
That we could start again? 

Hello, God, we’ve learned our lesson.
Dear God, don’t let us go.
(Hello, Hello.)
More than ever,
Hello, God. Hello, hello.
Hello, God, we really need you,
We can’t make it without you.
(Hello, God.)

Dear Lord,

It has been a long time since I last wrote but You are on my mind pretty much all the time.

It’s funny how so many things remind me of You.

Two of the grandkids were here this weekend and I could see You in their little faces. It amazes me how there seems to be a piece of You in all of us. The kids seemed so secure and bold when they ran out the door into the back yard and played with the balls, dog, bugs and stuff. And there was a reason why. Every once in a while there was that subtle look around to make sure mom or dad was nearby. Then they go about being secure and bold again. Without the discovery of that subtle look I know nothing would ever happen that was worthy of You. Thank You for never being far from each of us!

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth… that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for In him we live and move and have our being…. (Acts 17:26-28 ESV)

There was also the lady on Sunday morning who told me she was thinking that she needed to be baptized. Such a sweet spirited lady who has loved You many years from many different places in her life. She doesn’t want to withhold anything from You and she feels that this is a surrender of herself she needs to make. It’s funny what people do when they get another glimpse of Your worth. They literally turn themselves inside out, exposing the most sensitive parts of themselves and surrendering them to You, Your service and Your eternal care.

Yesterday there was a little boy riding his bike just as fast as his little legs could pedal across a church parking lot. You could tell he was just learning because he had training wheels on the back and his mom was close behind. Maybe my mind works strangely but I saw something that to me was kind of profound. As I serve You I still need training wheels. The second I try it without them I fall over. As I drove out of sight of the little boy I wondered if it would be ok if I left the training wheels on. I know that as a child becomes more steady on two wheels they take the training wheels off. But I don’t think I will ever be able to do that. To try to do this without Your help, grace, favor, guidance, encouragement…. would be spiritual suicide. Wow! I sure feel like a child. Maybe that’s not all bad.

But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
                                                                                   (Luke 18:16-17)

Well, I don’t want to bend Your ear too long so I’ll close for now.

Love
Mark

      Today I’m sitting in my easy chair (better known as my home office), wearing my favorite shorts and t-shirt, laptop in lap and working on this week’s sermon. I find myself asking the same questions I’ve asked for years: 

•  What does God want me to say this week?
•  What are the best passages to work with?
•  How can I illustrate the points being taught?
•  What can I do, that will speak to the teens?
•  How can I apply the lesson to those with young families?
•  Will this help anyone become a Christian?
•  Will it encourage someone who really needs to change their life?
•  Will those who are older and have heard this before get anything worth while?
•  How should I begin so I can help them listen from the beginning?
•  Is there something special I can do with PowerPoint that could help?
•  Is this really going to meet people’s needs?
•  Wonder who’s going to be there on Sunday?
•  What songs might be good to help with the theme?
•  How many more years will they listen to me?
•  How much longer will God be able to use me?
•  etc. etc. etc.

       Preaching is easy/difficult, wonderful/dreadful, exhausting/invigorating, draining/fulfilling, discouraging/inspirational, fun/sad, good/bad, etc. etc., etc. I would never want to do anything else but I quit every Mondays (not really but it sounded good/bad).
      Preaching is amazing but who’s worthy? The only way I can keep doing this is by remembering Abraham’s lies, Moses’ impetuousness, David’s homicidal actions, Judas’ betrayal, Peter’s denial, and Paul’s struggle with the flesh. All of that and God used them anyway. He took them and empowered them, enabled them and worked through them.
      In my weakness I find myself in the very good company of those God has used anyway!

Such is the confidence that we have through
Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient
in ourselves to claim anything as coming
from us, but our sufficiency is from God,
who has made us competent to be ministers
of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the
Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
                                     2 Corinthians 3:4-6

      Please let me get a deep breath of grace before I go back to the hard work of trying to overcome sin and indifference. I love God and yet I know I’m not good. I know more of His word than I can accomplish yet I desire to live without sin. I’ve read both Romans and James and I understand enough of each to know that there is much to be grateful for and much yet to do. I’ve heard Jesus say, If you love me you will do what I say, while realizing I have failed at both.
      I need grace! Not as a cheap substitute for effort. In fact that doesn’t even cross my mind. Like taking a shower I need to be clean again. Like a refreshing drink of sweet ice tea I need to be refreshed. I know there are still many acres to plow and fences to mend but I need to sit under the shade tree of grace and take a deep breath and rest in mercy.
      Please let me be encouraged. Let me unload the weight of the guilt I carry. Let me feel loved, accepted, understood, wanted and believed. I really do love and I need to live in the environment of the love of God in order to survive and to grow up healthily.

Christians Learn What They Live

I’m not thinking here of lives lived with each other but our lives lived with God.

If Christians live with the criticism of God, they learn to condemn.
If Christians live with the hostility of God, they learn to fight.
If Christians live with the threatening of God, they learn to be apprehensive.
If Christians live with the pitty of God, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If Christians live with the ridicule of God, they learn to feel shy.
If Christians live with the shame of God, they learn to feel guilty.
If Christians live with the encouragement of God, they learn confidence.
If Christians live with the tolerance of God, they learn patience.
If Christians live with the praise of God, they learn appreciation.
If Christians live with the acceptance of God, they learn to love.
If Christians live with the approval of God, they learn to like themselves.
If Christians live with the blessings of God, they learn generosity.
If Christians live with the the honesty of God, they learn truthfulness.
If Christians live with the fairness of God, they learn justice.
If Christians live with the kindness and consideration of God, they learn respect.
If Christians live with in the security of God, they learn to have faith.
If Christians live with the friendliness of God, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.