Tag: Holy Spirit

  • Letter #14–Waiting

    Dear Small Church Pastor

         In the letters “Timing” and “Seasons,” I mentioned the concept of waiting on God.  Allow me to expand on this concept. 

         Our natural self does not like to wait.  The culture in which we exist prides itself on speed, all things immediate and following the quickest path to any destination on our GPS maps.  Fast food restaurants abound with their drive-through windows, and we become anxious or, possibly, somewhat annoyed if we don’t have a response to the text we sent forty seconds ago.  Essentially, we are addicted to not waiting.

         However, our propensity to want things now, right now, is our undoing when it comes to the things of God.  God’s timing and the seasons he brings into our lives do not go according to our addiction.  God is not bound by time, space or anything else.  We don’t have clocks and calendars for His sake.  When God set the sun into motion and this planet revolving around it and spinning on its axis to create day and night and the seasons, I believe He did that for our sakes, not His.  And no matter how much we would like to do it, we cannot speed up God’s created flow of time that influences our lives.

         The idea that God is taking too much time to work out the answers to our prayers originates in our addiction.  The urge to take control of a situation to see if we can influence how fast a resolution to a problem is discovered originates in our addiction. 

         Try as we will because of our addiction to quickness, we cannot alter for good any of God’s intended purposes that are being worked out in His timetable.  I don’t mean to insult you, but neither of us is smart enough to take command of a situation and work it out faster and better than God can.

         Here’s the rub in this matter of waiting—our natural self, our fleshly self, our sin-influenced self does not want to wait to get what it wants.  That even applies when we are dealing with spiritual matters.  The carnal self wants spiritual matters to yield to its desires, wants, whims and plans, and it wants them to yield NOW.  Waiting is the absolute antithesis of our sinful self.

         Because it is directly opposed to our “self” and its wants, waiting is an activity that must be enabled through something other than “self.”  Waiting will have to come from a source that is greater than us.  It must come from the only source of which I am aware that can overcome our addiction.  That source is the Holy Spirit of God.

         Those fruits of the Spirit described in Galatians 5 include longsuffering (patience) and temperance (self-control).  It is only through the help of the Holy Spirit that you will be able to develop the self-control (being tempered) necessary to possess patience (being willing to wait) when it comes to your ministry.  These two qualities are a couple of the evidences that the Holy Spirit is in control of your life.

         If you are facing problems, needs, or anything else that causes you to seek God sincerely in your prayers, you will need to wait for God to answer your prayers.  The best way to be able to wait for the answers is to seek God’s help in developing your patience and your self-control.  Ask God to help you develop and demonstrate the fruits of longsuffering and temperance.  Ask Him to fill you so full of His Spirit that these fruits become part of your daily life.  Ask God to help you wait on His answers.

         While waiting, resist the temptation to take back control of any situation you have given to God.  While waiting, tell yourself regularly who the boss is and what He has called you to do.  While waiting, quote aloud what you might call “waiting scriptures” like Genesis 8:1 & 12, Genesis 49:18, Psalm 5:3, Psalm 25:5, Psalm 27:14, Psalm 40:1 and the famous verse Isaiah 40:31.  While waiting, write down every time God has answered a prayer at just the right time.  While waiting, tell someone about how God has fulfilled His promises to you.  While waiting, occupy yourself in ministry to others.   

         Above all, set your mind and will on waiting through the help of the Holy Spirit.  You’ll have to choose to let Him, but God will help you wait.

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor

  • Letter #13–Not Alone

    Dear Small Church Pastor,

         You are not alone.  The devil will do everything he can to make you think you are.  However, whether you remember it or not, you are not alone.

              The enemy of Christ’s kingdom will use any method he can to try to isolate you physically or mentally and convince you that you don’t have any help in pastoring your small congregation.  He will try to make you think being God’s pastor has put you into the position of having no friends, no trusted confidants and no allies in the war against evil.  He will cause people to betray your trust or even desert you in a crisis.  He will do his best to convince you that nobody is responding to your sermons, nobody likes you anymore, nobody takes you seriously and nobody is willing to stick around during the hard times when nothing seems to be going the way you had hoped it would.

         Any time you begin to feel alone in your calling, get alone with your heavenly Father.  Ask Him to renew your calling.  Ask God to revive your spirit with His power.  Ask for wisdom, fresh anointing and a new vision.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you just how many are working beside you to accomplish God’s will in your life.  Ask Him to remind you of who “The Boss” is.

         Remember the great cloud of witnesses mentioned in Hebrews 12:1?  There have been millions who have gone before you who have served God.  You’re not the only one in town who is serving him today.  Remember how God had to remind the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 19:18 that he wasn’t alone?  You’re not the only one who has had betrayals, troubles, threats or persecutions.  Wake up to these realities and pray until you have defeated Satan’s attempt to put you into a pity-party.

         Probably the most important thing you can do when you begin to feel alone is to remind yourself that Jesus has called you into His service.  He knows what you can do for His kingdom, and Jesus is depending on you to do it.  Remind yourself that Romans 8:26-27 states the Holy Spirit intercedes for YOU.  Remind yourself that Jesus Himself is at the right hand of God making intercession for YOU. (Romans 8:34)  Remind yourself that in John 17:20 Jesus prayed for all those who would believe in Him because of the message His disciples would spread, and that includes YOU.  Simply put, remind yourself that Jesus is on your side, and “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31)

         There are millions of fellow disciples of Jesus around the world and in your own community today fighting the same battles you are.  You are not alone.

         Jesus and the Holy Spirit are on your side and are interceding for you.  You are not alone.

    You are not alone.

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor

  • Letter #12–Encourage List

    Dear Small Church Pastor,

         Let’s look for a moment at the Old Testament figure of Jacob’s son Joseph.  God moved for Joseph by giving him two audacious dreams as a youth that became reality as an adult.  He put Joseph in the right place with the right people at the right time.  (Potiphar, the jailer and the cup-bearer were all connected to Pharoah, who was later introduced to Joseph.)  God gave Joseph opportunities to reflect his faith in God to others.

         God moved in Joseph through his trials.  Romans 5:3-4 lets us know that “we can rejoice when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.” (NLT)  God used his trials to develop Joseph’s character to prepare him to guide a whole nation.

         God also moved in Joseph by giving him wisdom to be an administrator, wisdom which demonstrated itself as he was promoted by Potiphar, the jailer and, eventually, Pharoah.  Additionally, God gave Joseph an understanding of God’s purposes that were working in his life.  He realized God had set into motion events in his life that would lead to the saving of his own family.

         Finally, God worked through Joseph to be a blessing to others.  Every time he was promoted, his overseer was blessed by God.  Joseph’s ultimate authority in Egypt set the stage for the whole country to be blessed when every country around Egypt was in famine.  That action led to his own family being saved from the famine when they all moved to Egypt at Joseph’s invitation.  When Israel’s family moved to Egypt, God’s plan to give His chosen people their promised land moved another step closer to fulfillment.

         I’m writing this letter to admonish you and challenge you to create what I call an “Encourage List.”  We all need to be reminded from time to time that God will work for us, in us and through us.  We all need to remember just how far God has brought us, how much He has recreated us and how much He has accomplished through us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

         I suggest you write down what God has done for you, in you and through you.  It will be okay if you need more than one piece of paper.  Then put that list on your refrigerator door so you can see it every time you open that door.  Read it to yourself.  Read it to your family.  Remind yourself of all that God has done for, in and through you since you became one of His children.  Encourage yourself with an “Encourage List.”

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor

  • Letter #8–Seasons

    Dear Small Church Pastor,

         In the course of a year, we experience seasons as the weather changes from one general type of weather to the next.  The dormancy of Winter yields to the vibrancy of Spring.  Then the growth of Summer produces the harvest of Fall.  We continually experience these changes of seasons because God set all that into motion at creation.

         In addition to weather patterns, life has a way of flowing through seasons, too.  Childhood is referred to as the Spring of life, our working years as the Summer, retirement as the Fall and finally old age and Winter.  If we look around us, we’ll see that there are seasons in almost every aspect of life.  Some seasons are brief and some are lengthy.

         Do you remember how Moses was initially raised in the education and knowledge of Egyptian royalty?  Then he learned how to watch over and guide sheep.  Finally, God sent him to lead Israel out of Egypt.  Do you remember how long each of those seasons was in his life?  That’s right—forty years.  Those were long seasons, weren’t they.

         In my own life I’ve had some short seasons.  My first pastorate was two years.  I’ve also had some long seasons.  My wife Kathy and I became the managers of a Christian campground in April of 1993 and remained there in that ministry until the end of September of 2020.  That was a much longer season.

         During the seasons I have experienced, I realized God was teaching me some things I would need later in life.  Those lessons were expanded in succeeding years as I learned more about life and the various ministries into which I was directed by God.  He was always in control, guiding me and teaching me more about living as a disciple of Jesus.  God was preparing me in each season to deal with life and ministry in the next one.

         Jesus pulled together a small group of people and prepared them for about three years so they could enter their next season.  He taught them.  He demonstrated how to minister.  He told them how to pray.  He gave them the example they were to follow.  Then He sent them abroad into their next season.

         God is doing the same thing in your life.  Look back on where you were when you started your journey of faith.  Have you grown in faith?  Have you gained more knowledge and understanding about Jesus?  Are you better able to fulfill your calling from God today than you were when you first felt that call?  Can you see where God brought you along from one season of life into the next and into the next?

         Here’s the exciting part of this letter—there’s another season coming, and you’re being prepared for it right now.  God knows exactly what He wants you to do next, and He’s getting you ready for that something.  He’s teaching you, strengthening you, moulding you and anointing you for your next season. 

         God is getting you ready, just like He got Moses ready.  Jesus is preparing you, just like He prepared those original disciples.  Every trial, success, failure or achievement has been arranged to prepare you for the next season.  Every lesson learned, every gift sent, every moment of anointing by the Holy Spirit has been designed to get you ready for your next season.

         Get ready.  A new, exciting, potential-filled season is coming.

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor

  • Letter #7–K.I.S.S. Revisited

    Dear Small Church Pastor,

         In the first installment for K.I.S.S., I suggested you include the members of your congregation as ministry partners in order to simplify your life.  I pray you are encouraging your membership as they develop the gifts and talents resident in your congregation in order to accomplish that aspect of keeping ministry simple.

         Allow me to make a second recommendation toward achieving a more simple life for yourself and your congregation.  When preparing sermons or Bible lessons, focus on Jesus.  Focus on who Jesus is, what he has accomplished, what he taught his original disciples, and what he promised to do for, in and through them.  Focus on the gospel message and how to live out the teachings of Christ.  You will find that centering your message on the good news that there is forgiveness through faith in Jesus will simplify your ministry.

         Satan will try to get you sidetracked from this central message.  Remember he is the source of confusion, division and strife.  Satan will try to get you involved in arguments over controversial doctrinal points.  He will attempt to bring factional “us versus them” thinking into your congregation, and, if he can, he will use you to create unintended factions within your attenders through what seems to be innocent questions.

         Always remember Satan is a deceiver, a manipulator and a thief, and he wants nothing more than to steal, kill and destroy the works you and your congregation are doing for the kingdom of God.  In order to achieve his insidious purposes, he works through people to bring up “What do you think about…” kinds of questions.  He uses, “I heard…,” “I’m confused about…,” or “My friend/uncle/brother/neighbor/etc. says….”

         It’s during these seemingly innocent times that your spiritual enemy is working to complicate your life and ministry by getting you to “major on the minors” in life.  To combat these deceptions, I encourage you to always use scriptures in answering any question that might be a controversial subject.  My normal response to any doctrinal issue that arises is, “Let’s see what the Bible says about this.”  Always remember that the Bible holds the truth about any situation that arises in life.  What I think about a situation does not matter when it comes to what the Bible actually says.  Taken in its proper context, scripture always has the correct answer to any question, even the ones the devil tries to use to complicate ministry.

         When those controversial subjects arise, and they will arise eventually, attempt to steer the conversation back to the simplicity of the gospel.  If that fails, allow the Holy Spirit the opportunity to speak through scriptures to those who are posing the questions.  Remember Paul’s advice to his protégé Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:20 to “…avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.” KJV (“Avoid godless, foolish discussions with those who oppose you with their so-called knowledge.” NLT)

         Allow me to give an example of this concept for maintaining simplicity in ministry.  A missionary we know operates in a country where the population is over 99% non-Christian.  He never compares Christianity to that national faith, nor does he debate the ideology of the other faith’s founder to that of Jesus.  He only talks about Jesus and his teachings.  His ministry is very successful, reaching over 9 million people monthly through various media avenues.  That success is influenced by the fact that he keeps his ministry focused on Jesus only.

         Focus on the simplicity of the good news about Jesus as much as is possible in every facet of your ministry.  If some divisive topic rears its head, go to scripture for guidance and rely on the Holy Spirit to deal with those topics as only he can by moving in the hearts and minds of those involved.  Remember:  KISS.

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor

  • Letter #4 (K.I.S.S.)

    Dear Small Church Pastor,

                K.I.S.S. (Not the rock band.) Keep.  It.  Simple.  Stupid.  It’s been said so much that it has become a cliché.  But it’s still a great rule of thumb for ministry.  The gospel is the simple and uncomplicated news that anyone can be restored to a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus because Jesus is the Messiah.  The enemy of your ministry will do anything he can to prevent you from staying on track with that simple, uncomplicated message.

                As pastors of a small part of God’s flock, we feel responsible for any and all activities, programs, outreaches, hospital visits, encouraging phonecalls, discipleship training, prayer meetings, youth outings, special songs on Sundays, or any other “good works” that occur in, for or through our congregations.  As the shepherd of that local flock, you definitely are the leader of the flock and should be aware of what’s going on in, for and through the flock.  But you have not been called to do all the good works yourself.

                Each sheep in your flock has been given gifts, talents and strengths by the Holy Spirit.  Part of your job is to help the sheep discover the attributes God has placed in their lives and to use them to fulfill the work of the whole body in the local church.  The body won’t achieve its calling from God if the only part working is the heart.  You do not have to do everything by yourself.

                Satan tries to get you to become so busy directing all the activities of the congregation that you lose focus of what your job as pastor really is.  He tries to complicate your life with so many meetings, reports, trips, and responsibilities that you forget to focus on the good news you are to keep before them as they mature as disciples.

                The truth of the matter is that you are to help your people become mature disciples so they can take their place in ministry within the local church body beside you as the whole congregation moves forward for the kingdom of God.  The truth of the matter is that you cannot do it all by yourself, and I, personally, believe you will overload and undermine your ministry if you try to do everything alone.  Sometimes we small church pastors become so distracted in our ministry that we fail to realize this.

                We become overwhelmed by ministry because, without recognizing what is happening, we have allowed the devil to complicate what we do for God’s kingdom.  I’ll say it again—you do not have to do everything by yourself.  One effective way to uncomplicate your ministry is by including your congregation in ministry.  And teach them to keep their own ministry uncomplicated, too.

                The gospel is simple.  Ministry does not have to be so complicated that we lose sight of that simplicity. 

    K.I.S.S.  (More to come about this topic later.)

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor

  • Letter #3–Timing

    Dear Small Church Pastor,

                Trust God’s timing.  He gave you the vision to pursue.  He promised to meet all your needs if you will seek His righteousness first.  He will bring the vision into reality if you will focus on it and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but it will happen in His timetable, not yours.

                Allow me to illustrate what I’m saying.  Our congregation was led by the Holy Spirit into creating a safe place for local youth and children to gather with their friends.  Since God uses people to achieve His works on this earth, He began to put people with the right skills, knowledge and resources into our path. 

                However, the moving of those people took time.  We had hoped to have the buildings ready in a particular time frame.  That didn’t happen.  I firmly believe it didn’t happen at the time we wanted it to happen because God had something greater in store for us than we originally envisioned.  He was orchestrating peoples’ lives to be a blessing to us and to work their own lives out for good, also.  And that takes time.

                If you can believe God has given you the vision to achieve, believe He will bring it to pass at the right time.  Exercise patience.  Keep praying.  Keep on leading your flock toward spiritual maturity.  Continue to cast the vision before your congregation and encourage them to persevere in the face of difficulties or delays.  Trust God’s timing.

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor

  • Letter #2–Vision

    Dear Small Church Pastor

                You’ve probably preached the verse that says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)   That vision, that over-riding thought, that dream for your congregation, is very likely God’s will for your church.  There’s a solid chance that the vision is that “one thing” the Holy Spirit is leading you to achieve for His kingdom.  There is something you can do in order to discover if it is.

                In order to know God’s will for your own life, you had to seek God, talk to him and then listen to His voice.  You’re going to have to do the same things in order to discover His will for your congregation.  You’re going to have to pray, pray, pray, and then, pray some more.  Then be quiet and wait on the Holy Spirit to answer you.

                I know that’s a “WELL, DUH!” statement.  Here’s the rub—Too many of us small church pastors pray and pray and pray, but we don’t stop talking and listen.  We’re too busy to be still in His presence and allow Him to talk to us.

                The enemy has convinced us we are supposed to invest our days and nights in hospital visits, making follow-up calls to visitors—if we ever have any—keeping the church yard neat, overseeing the new bathroom remodel, meetings with the Kiwanis Club or Chamber of Commerce, cooking for the benefit dinner, having board meetings, planning the every month outreach activity, prepping sermons and Bible studies, etc..  The enemy has convinced us we should be doing what everyone else is doing.  He has convinced too many of us that we should be doing that “everything” deal.  (Remember the first letter?)

                None of these activities are bad things to do.  However, they do devour our time and keep us away from being still and waiting on God to speak to us.  If you are going to discover the will of God for your people, His vision for them, then you are going to have to stop doing everything and start doing what matters the most.  Make time to get alone with God in order to have regular conversations with Him. 

                Allow me to share something one of our district leaders once said to a group of pastors.  He said, “When I was pastoring, I should have spent more time in prayer listening to God than I spent in hospitals talking to sick folks and their families.”  There’s wisdom in that statement.  He had discovered the key to being a great leader lies in being a great listener to the Holy Spirit. 

                Invest more time in sharing what’s on your heart with God, then stop talking, be quiet and still, and listen as He shares what’s on His heart with you.

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor

  • Letter #1–Everything

    Dear Small Church Pastor,

                Stop trying to do “everything” other congregations are doing.  You are not the pastor of the larger church that has several times more folks on Sundays.  You don’t have the same resources, the same members, the same calling.  Your calling is to your group of people and their community.  Stop trying to do what “everyone else” is doing.

                Please allow me to share a nugget of wisdom I received years ago from a cousin who has pastored churches of all sizes.  Seek the mind and will of God for your unique congregation, determine what the Holy Spirit is leading them to achieve, and then become experts at accomplishing that one thing.

                Your congregation is made up of people who all have different gifts and callings on their individual lives.  It takes all those differing people to achieve what God wants that unique group to do for His kingdom.  The same concept holds true for the overall body of Christ.  Each unique congregation, as a whole, has a special calling on its corporate life.  Find out what that calling is and build on it.  Help your congregation become famous for doing that one thing well.

                You will become frustrated, physically fatigued and feel like a failure if you try to do “everything.”  Your enemy wants you to think you have to be constantly busy doing stuff for God’s kingdom.  If you give in to the temptation to do “everything,” you will find yourself doing nothing well.  Find one focal point for your congregation and do that excellently.  If the Holy Spirit leads you to a second calling for your congregation, become expert at that, too.  (Notice that word “IF!”)

                Assemble your people regularly for worship.  Train them to be disciples of Christ. Commission them to go spread the gospel.  Then unite with them in ministry as you all fulfill God’s call on each life.  As you do these things, have enough faith in the guidance of the Holy Spirit to believe He will help you discover the calling for your congregation. 

         Stop trying to imitate others. 

    Sincerely,

    A Small Church Pastor