“My Top Ten Mistakes In Ministry (That I Can Share Publicly)” #4
Steve Childers February 08 2010 - No Comment
Mistake #4: Not Understanding the Difference Between Pursuing the Grace of God or the God of Grace
“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” 2 Corinthians 11:30 (ESV)
This is the fifth in a series of blog posts called, “My Top Ten Mistakes in Ministry (That I Can Share Publicly.)” After many years of ministry experience as a church planter, pastor and seminary professor, I think I’ve finally learned that one of the best kept secrets to surviving well in the ministry is to stop making the same old mistakes that others (like me) have been making for decades. Instead, let’s all start making some brand new, bold, innovative and creative mistakes!
We began this series with an introduction called, “Ladies First” in which veteran church planter wife, Shari Thomas, addressed the tough topic, What I Wish I Had Known About Church Planting from the perspective of the church planter’s/pastor’s spouse. We then took a look at:
• Mistake #1 (these are in no intentional order) called, “Failing to Understand the Importance of How I Define Ministry Success.”
• Mistake #2 called, Managing My Time and Not Managing My Life
• Mistake #3: Not Understanding the Difference Between my Goals and Desires.
This time we’ll take a brief look at another common mistake church leaders make that I wish someone had told me about before I went into the ministry.
Mistake #4: Not Understanding the Difference Between Pursing the Grace of God and the God of Grace.
John Piper’s words still seem to be ringing in my ears after all these years: “Is God a means of grace in your life and ministry or is grace a means to God?” No one had ever asked me that kind of question before. In fact, it took me a while to even figure out what the question meant.
But when I finally understood it, I found myself wishing someone had dared to ask me that kind of penetrating, potentially life-changing question many years ago. Let me try to expound on this idea briefly.
The Ultimate Quest of Your Life & Ministry
In John 17:3 Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” Here we are meant to learn that God’s goal for our lives is not merely to serve him in faithful ministry but primarily to know him, to love him, to glorify him and enjoy him.
Think of this question again: “Is God made a means to grace in your ministry or is grace made a means to God?” To put the question differently, “Does the quest of your life and the passion of your ministry terminate on God? Knowing Him? Enjoying Him? Glorifying Him?
Or is God brought in beside all your planning, techniques and ministry strategies in hope that he might somehow be the means of a great outpouring of grace on your ministry and in your life? The big idea here is that it makes a tremendous difference whether the ultimate quest of your life and ministry is the grace of God or the God of grace.
Using God to Solve Your Problems or Using Your Problems to Find God?
One of the most fundamental questions is whether you will place God or yourself at the center of your ministry. The practical benefits of a God-centered focus in life and ministry are far-reaching. Author Larry Crabb makes the point that a leader with this perspective stops trying to “use God to solve his problems”. Instead such a leader learns how to “use his problems to find God”.
A very common problem among church planters, missionaries, and pastors, is that we begin to see ourselves primarily as servants of God or soldiers of God. Unknowingly, over time, our view of God becomes primarily that of a Master or a Commander-in-Chief. And those pictures of God are biblical and true, but there is so much more to a truly biblical view of God.
In John 15 Jesus said, “You are my friends.” There is a sense in which that’s richer than merely being a slave or a soldier. Then in 1John 3:1 we read these astonishing words, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God.”
Stop and think about this: more than being a “friend” of Christ, because you are now “in Christ” you are also considered by God to be His child—one who is now loved with the highest of all loves, a love previously reserved by the eternal Father for His one and only Son! There is no stronger love in all the cosmos (Eph 3:14-20).
In Ephesians 5 we see another graphic picture of a bride and a bridegroom—the picture of intimate lovers. As a church leader never allow the imagery of what has been called the “John 3:16 of the Old Testament” to leave your mind and heart: “The LORD your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy. He will be quiet in His love. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy” (Zeph 3:17). Here we have the Commander-in-Chief (the Victorious Warrior) rejoicing over you as His child with shouts of joy.
The Lord is our Commander-in-Chief, and we are called to be “good soldiers of Jesus Christ”, putting on and utilizing all the spiritual armor (Eph. 6) that is now ours in Christ. He is also our Master and we are called to be His “servants” availing ourselves of all of His means of grace so we might be called “faithful” at the end of this race. But we must never forget He is also our Friend, our Father and our Lover (and so much more).
The reason having a proper view of God is so critically important in your life and ministry is because it is so easy to be unknowingly:
• Pursuing the Kingdom and not the King
• Pursuing the Truth of God and not the God of Truth
• Using God to solve your problems rather than using your problems to find God.
In other words, if you are not consciously fighting against it, you are at risk of falling prey to pursing the grace of God and not the God of grace.
Just before his death, Dr. Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade spoke at Reformed Seminary in Orlando, Florida, where I’m on faculty (along with Steve Brown). He had a terminal respiratory disease. Many of us were told he might not live long enough to speak in chapel on the date he had been scheduled. So I’ll never forget watching this man of God being helped into the seminary chapel in a wheel chair with a oxygen tubes hooked under his nose. Here was without question one of the greatest visionary leaders of our generation. And he had come to preach to us as “a dying man to dying men”.
I found fascinating that the focus of his final message that morning was not on the importance of capturing a vision for reaching the world for Christ. That’s what I was expecting. But it was, to my surprise, a powerful message on the importance of capturing a vision for God in the fullness of all His attributes.
I’ll never forget Dr. Bright’s final challenge to us that day—to see God not merely as useful but instead to learn to see God primarily as beautiful. It was just another way of saying, “Don’t merely pursue the grace of God. Pursue the God of grace”. I hope this helps you in that life-long process.
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Steve Childers is the President & CEO of Global Church Advancement, an inter-denominational ministry that provides church planting training, consultations, and resources for church planters, pastors and missionaries throughout the world. Steve has trained Christian leaders from more than 40 countries (curriculum in five major global languages) representing over 120 denominations and mission agencies. Steve is also an author, Professor of Practical Theology (since 1995) and the director of the doctoral program at Reformed Theological Seminary, in Orlando, Florida, where he teaches church planting, missions, evangelism and spiritual formation. To learn more about GCA:
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Stout Monk Society – Pt 1
Tom Wood February 02 2010 - 1 Comment
My good friend John and I were sitting by a nighttime fire in the backyard of his cabin. I had been his guest at a leadership retreat and we were unplugging from the weekend. He is pastor of a solid, missional church that is doing great things in his city. I am jealous for him. He is a rare find…passionate for Christ, his Kingdom, prayer and the city.
He mentioned a quote I had used… I use it a lot in training leaders, elders, pastors and church planters. I stole it from Steve years ago (I have looked it up myself and its legit). It’s the Rule of St. Benedict, from the Benedictine Monastery, 6th Century.
“If any pilgrim monk come from distant parts with wish as a guest to dwell in our monastery and will be content with the customs which he finds in this place, and does not perchance by his lavishness disturb the monastery, but is simply content with what he finds, he shall be received for as long a time as he wishes. If indeed he find fault with anything or expose it reasonably and with humility and charity, the Abbot shall discuss it prudently, lest perchance God has sent him for this very purpose. But if he has been found gossipy or divisive in the time of his sojourn as the guest, not only ought he not be joined in the body of the monastery, but also it shall be said to him honestly that he must depart. If he does not go, let two stout monks, in the name of God, explain the matter to him.”
Then we began to talk seriously about pastor friends who had blown themselves up…abandoned the ministry, their call and sometimes their family. Most were men who had been faithful, godly pastors, caring for a church… most for a long time. Then wham.
We confessed our independence. We are basically loners. Ministry can have that effect on people. (Or is it loners are attracted to ministry?) We repented to God and one another.
Benedict coined the term “stout monk” in reference to men able to guard and protect the community from enemies and intruders. He put them to work on tasks and mission requiring strength, courage and integrity (sure they loved beer too). When necessary, they would go and escort the intruder out. Yet they were called to act in pairs, not in isolation. They were together. They protected one another as well as their community.
Our conversation led to forming the Stout Monk Society. Our objective is to halt the exodus. To raise the fallen. We each invited other men to join us (we have six, but think we will add an Abbott). We need each other’s counsel, prayer and friendship. Though its only annual, it has been great. Rewarding.
We spend a few days together in community (not a real monastery but we share cooking, cleaning and other stuff (for those not reformed I refrain from causing you to stumble, but a pastor said to me once, ‘when I became a Christian I gave up all my vices. When I got reformed I got them all back’).
I will continue this blog later… but let me ask you: Do you long for a Stout Monk Society?
Tom Wood has been a pastor for 25 years. He has planted and pastored two churches and has served as a church planting trainer and coach for the Presbyterian Church in America. He is currently the president of Church Multiplication Ministries, in Atlanta. His mission is starting, strengthening and multiplying grace centered churches and church planting networks, through coaching and consults with church planting pastors, leaders and emerging leaders.
Mountain Confessions…
Pete Alwinson January 27 2010 - 1 Comment
…Journal of a Pooped Pastor on a Study Break
The 6th Day…
It’s January 2010 and I begin this new decade with three decades of ministry laying thick on my soul. Thick on my soul. Heavy. Good and rich experiences and head shaking, “I can’t believe I went through that” experiences. Here I am physically healthy and mentally and emotionally, still quite tired actually after nearly a week in reflection, reading, prayer and study. Well, it’s been since last July that I had time away from hyper drive ministry. 6 months at it straight isn’t wise I know, but stuff happens in ministry and you can’t always get away when you should, if you can even afford to get away. I guess really it’s been 6 months and 30 years. I’m not complaining. I know I’m blessed. I’m at a friend’s home in the North Georgia mountains. I’m sitting on a soft couch in front of a nice fire place writing this. It’s sort of my fault that I haven’t come here before. He’s offered it over and over. Finally I took him up on his generosity. I wonder about my pastoral colleagues…you who might read this. I wonder…have you gotten away, by yourself…do you even have the opportunity I have had this week to do this? I want that for you. We in the pastorate don’t think we can get away or should take time off to study, even though EVERYBODY knows you need a break. (What about the pastor I know who takes a month a year off to study…he’s lasted a long time…mmm…no wonder)The complexities of our lives work against disconnecting ourselves from a very people/program/calendar connected life. We’re usually relationally and programtically overloaded. (more…)
The perfect blog…
Jim Coffield January 20 2010 - No Comment
It’s been too long since I have written about being tired—I think I have just been too tired to write. I have had the idea for this blog for several months, but I wasn’t sure that I would be able to put my thoughts into words. It is the curse of wanting to do things perfectly, and it is exhausting.
If you will remember, we have been chatting about the idea that tiredness is the symptom, not the problem. Maybe we need to stop and see what the tiredness is telling us about ourselves, the way we see God, and the way we see creation.
Today, the topic is perfection in an imperfect world. Perfectionism is an easy sin to hide. We may say that we “pursue excellence” or simply “want to do things right” and those (more…)
My First Time
Zach Van Dyke January 11 2010 - 11 Comments
When it comes to writing, I often procrastinate until the last possible moment. Whenever I get an email from Cathy reminding me that my next article for PoopedPastors.com is due, I usually decide it’s time to rearrange the books in my office, cut my toenails, and catch up on my television watching…there always seems to be an episode of Law and Order: SVU on some channel that cannot be missed.
This time when I received the email, I decided I had been negligent about my Facebook correspondence and needed to spend some time “catching up.” While feverishly “liking” people’s statuses, I came across a status my wife had posted on December 26, 2009 at 11:47pm.
Kelly Van Dyke sitting in the front row of an empty sanctuary listening to Zach preach!!!
After spending a few moments thanking God for giving me a wife that would listen to me practice my first sermon into the wee hours of the night, a thought crossed my mind that could lengthen my procrastination.
I know Kelly journals. Maybe she would allow me to post her thoughts about that first sermon for this week’s article. (more…)
27 Fitness and Fat Loss Tips
Steve McKinney January 05 2010 - No Comment
It’s a new year, and you have a clean slate.
I don’t know if you are one to make New Year’s Resolutions or not, but either way you’re probably thinking about how you can become fitter, healthier and happier than you are right now.
These 27 Fitness and Fat Loss Tips will get you on the right track for this New Year:
- Visualize the accomplishment of your goals each and every day. Experience the taste of success and feel that sweet satisfaction.
- Push the intensity of your workouts. Work out with a purpose.
- Use smaller plates at home. This effortlessly reduces calorie intake and promotes weight loss.
- Build accountability into your workouts so that you resist the temptation to take days off. The best way to ensure accountability is to work with a personal trainer either one-on-one or in a group training setting.
- Believe in yourself. Know with conviction that you CAN accomplish your goals.
- Drink water throughout your day. (more…)
My Top Ten Mistakes In Ministry (That I Can Share Publicly) #3
Steve Childers December 31 2009 - 1 Comment
Mistake #3: Not Understanding the Difference Between My Goals and Desires
“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” 2 Corinthians 11:30 (ESV)
This is the fourth in a series of blog posts called, “My Top Ten Mistakes in Ministry (That I Can Share Publicly)” After many years of ministry experience as a church planter, pastor and seminary professor I think I’ve finally learned that one of the best kept secrets to surviving well in the ministry is to stop making the same old mistakes that others (like me) have been making for decades. Instead, let’s all start making some brand new, bold, innovative and creative mistakes!
We began this series with an introduction called, “Ladies First” in which veteran church planter wife, Shari Thomas, addressed the tough topic, What I Wish I Had Known About Church Planting” from the perspective of the church planter’s/pastor’s spouse. We then took a look at
- Mistake #1 (these are in no intentional order) called, “Failing to Understand the Importance of How I Define Ministry Success.” Last time we covered
- Mistake #2 called, “Managing My Time and Not Managing My Life”. This time we’ll take a brief look at another painfully common mistake church leaders make that I wish someone had told me about before I went into the ministry. That’s (more…)
The Music of the Gospel
Tom Wood December 22 2009 - No Comment
I was in an antique store recently (on vacation with my wife ok?) and I saw a little transistor radio. It was AM radio in a black case –kinda looks like an Ice Cream sandwich— it had one ear piece. I remember having that radio. I listened to 45’s on my single record player and LP’s. Cassettes, CD’s. I have always loved music.
One of the greatest inventions in my lifetime has to be the iPod. Music, messages and movies all in one place. The new version even has radio capability. I heard a song on TV and went to iTunes and downloaded it into my library. A while back I downloaded the Brown Sessions, listened to Steve interview Dan Allender, and Mark Driscoll. Amazing technology.
Most of all it’s the music though. Music is a means of grace… (more…)
Shutting the Doors for Good
Pastor Pete December 14 2009 - 2 Comments
When A Church Dies
Casualties of this economy are everywhere. The obvious tell-tale signs of economic death are the hundreds of empty offices with brown paper on the windows and trash in the entry ways, malls where your voice echos in the emptiness, and drawn faces of men with dark circles under their eyes who answer, “How you doing man?”, with…”Well…you won’t believe this, but….” No I believe it. Every one of us pastors has dealt with more sorrow in ’08 & ’09 than anyone really knows. Our counseling appointments are up, what 50-75%? More?
One of my elders is responsible right now for shutting down a factory in his hometown. He used to work there, his father used to work there, and many of his friends still work there. He took the assignment because he felt that he could bring about this death more painlessly than any one else in his company. Economic death.
Death is a reality all pastors have to deal with. (more…)
He Knows How You Feel
Zach Van Dyke December 08 2009 - 3 Comments
“I know how you feel.” (Don’t say it. Just don’t say it.)
As I was driving to the home of a Ray and Trish and their 5 kids – Daniel, Andrew, Patrick, Caroline and Stephen – four of whom are or have been part of my student ministry, I kept repeating to myself: “I know how you feel.” (Don’t say it. Just don’t say it.)
Pulling up to the home, I was overwhelmed by the number of people that had already gathered in their front yard. People were crying and embracing, walking around stunned. I immediately walked over to a group of students who looked like they had all taken a slam to the gut by a 2-by-4. It had only been 30 minutes since Trish and her 5 kids learned that their husband and dad, who had been missing for the past 24 hours, had taken his own life in a wooded part of their neighborhood. (more…)
