by chrisaiken | Dec 14, 2016 | culture, Leadership, Pastor's Reflections, Uncategorized
Someone said of her pastor, “He is a great visionary! He has motivated our church to reach our city.” Another states, “He is such a people person. He is the first to be at the hospital bed of one of his parishioners.” Still another notes, “He is an amazing salesman. He raised a ton of money for that building.”
While I might agree that these are skills that serve a leader well in leading a church…I would also ask, “Is this the primary role of a pastor?” More directly…is pastoral leadership primarily about visiting the sick, casting incredible visionary strategies or raising funds to resource the mission?
I had a leader in a church I served once say to me, “You’re a really good preacher, but you lack in sharing vision and getting people to follow the plan.” I’m not sure if that was true, or if it was an attempt to wound, but ultimately, is this what we need more of…
QUESTION:
When did that become the primary criteria to evaluate a pastor’s leadership?
I know and have heard the pragmatic arguments. I am not dismissive of them; rather, I am wondering why they do not appear 3 or 4 down the list.
Acts 1 states that prior to Pentecost, the disciples gathered in the upper room and gave themselves completely to prayer.
Acts 6 reminds us that the Apostles sought to delegate ministry to appointed men so that they might give themselves completely to the ministry of the Word and to prayer.
It was Peter’s Spirit-anointed sermon at Pentecost that led to the conversion of 3,000 (Acts 2) and it was the teaching of Peter and John that shook the city and incited the leaders to arrest them in Acts 4:1-4. Teaching that also led to the church’s growth to about 5,000 souls.
In his book, Leading God’s People: Wisdom from the Early Church for Today, Christopher Beely notes that, “It is significant…that the major theologians of the early church devote their reflections on pastoral leadership almost entirely to the ministry of the word (105).” Catch that, PASTORAL MINISTRY to the early church fathers was almost entirely focused on the ministry fo the Word of God to the people of God.
Early church father, Gregory Nazianzen stated, “The first of all our concerns is the distribution of the word.”
Beely also notes, “Pastoral leaders are primarily interpreters of the scriptures…teaching Christian truth and opposing falsehood and error.(108). This was the task the Apostle Paul called Timothy to in the pastoral epistles as well (1 Tim 4:13-16, 2 Tim 2:1-2, 2 Tim 3:16-4:5).
Application:
As I have been meditating on some recent reading that prompted this short article, here are some thoughts that I believe warrant consideration:
- If you’re a pastor seeking to balance expectations of God’s people…FIRST minister the Word. If there is time left for hospital visits, then do that. If not, equip others to visit the hospitals or call an associate pastor to assist you in this valid ministry of compassion (Eph 4:11-12).
- If you’re a pastor and you’re not good at teaching, remember it is a qualification of office (1 Tim 3:2). Get better. You can! If you cannot or will not, then quietly leave the ministry and go work retail or file papers or hang lights in houses. I know God uses foolish things to confound the wise (1 Cor 1:26ff) but that is a statement about His power, not an invitation to be foolishly inept at the high calling of pastoral ministry.
- If you are a part of a local church, guard your pastor’s time to study. He wants to study and meditate and pray but also to serve you. Bless him by telling him you are assured of his love and care, but that you want him to drink of the fountain of Scripture deeply so that he can lead God’s people well through the ministry of the Word. He will need your help doing this…because many fellow parishioners berate him if he is not there for the procedure to remove an ingrown toe nail.
- Reset the paradigm. Vision casting, business acumen, and mercy ministries are all admirable, but choose to esteem most highly the ministry of the Word. It has been and continues to be the primary leadership task of pastoral ministry.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts…
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by chrisaiken | Oct 27, 2016 | Devotions, pastor, Uncategorized
Rarely do we find anyone wrestling with an outside appearance. On the outside, most of us look pretty good. Pastors and preachers stand to preach and minister on any given Lord’s day. We shave and shower. We comb our hair. We dress the part. We carry a Bible (even the one on our iPad or iPhone). We have the language down. Based on all outside appearances, we are fully qualified and prepared to stand before the Lord and His people…
But what about the part you cannot see? What about that which is hidden just past the layers of the external?
In Exodus 28, God gave explicit instructions on how the garments of the priests were to be constructed, how they were to be worn, and that they were for GLORY and for BEAUTY (Ex 28:40). Most people “get” the robes and the stones, the breastplate and the ephod…even the crown. But notice what God describes that is not readily seen:
42 You shall make for them ylinen undergarments to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the hips to the thighs; 43 and they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the Holy Place, lest they zbear guilt and die. aThis shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him.
God designated that the priest was to wear pants…”breeches” in the NASB actually. Underwear in our modern vernacular. This was the part of the priest’s attire that was not visible to others but would be known to God.
God is just as concerned with our private lives as He is our public. He wants our hearts to be prepared as certainly as He wants our sermons. He demands holiness and glory even in the most discreet and hidden places in our lives if we are to approach Him.
This is weighty to consider. To know that God examines every aspect of our lives and holds us to account for the private as well as the visible…should give us pause.
This truth is not only for pastors, but for everyone who ministers before the Lord. A true understanding of the Scriptures means that this includes everyone in some respect.
Perhaps power is missing because we put on the external facade of holiness and service but we chose to ignore the need to cover our shamefulness but putting on “breeches.”
“God is not mocked,” the Apostle Paul reminds us; “whatever a man sows, so shall he reap.” (Galatians 6:7). We cannot hide our unholiness from God and to flaunt it, by refusing to cover our guilt and shame with the forgiveness of Christ (through repentance and faith), is to invite the harvest of condemnation and to reject the presence, power, and peace of God in our lives.
Today…don’t forget to put on pants. They are required to please God.
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by chrisaiken | Oct 3, 2016 | Leadership, pastor, Pastor's Reflections, Uncategorized
It was a great day at church. Good worship. A strong word from prospective (CP) church planting partners. Then an afternoon training and great time in D-Groups reviewing and growing in understanding the principle of God’s unrelenting pursuit of rebellious sinners (me).
After this glorious but long day…I was clearing out email…and there it was. An unsolicited epistle, a message from someone not connected to the fellowship…sharing how I had been an offense to them a couple of years ago. Sheep Bite.
No longer are my thoughts on the glorious day I had just experienced. I’m now labored over the complaints, the appropriate response, my own need to justify and respond line by ever-loving line. Sheep bite…and they’re not even my sheep.
Sometimes sheep bite because as a “shepherd,” you get close to a nerve. I once had a dog that had a leg that had been surgically repaired. It was tender. If I touched it too hard or got too close to the bad nerves, she’d turn to bite. It wasn’t that my dog was mean or aggressive. It was that the spot was tender. That’s totally different than if a dog (or in this case, a sheep) runs up to ambush you. The former demands understanding. The second “deserves” a defensive posture. People are sheep. Sometimes sheep bite…not always, but sometimes. It hurts. It is not good. We may want (and can even justify) a retaliatory response. We may start to devise a new recipe for “mutton.” Then it hits me…the reminder from the Lord…Those are His sheep that I am considering barbequeing! I’d never want to take out my Lord’s sheep, even those that bite me…because they are His.
The Lord corrected me. He reminded me that I am a shepherd and He owns the flock. I cannot destroy a sheep for biting me since I do not own the sheep. Well who will take care of this rogue, biting sheep assaulting the unsuspecting shepherd? Obviously not me, and here are three reasons why:
- One, I was a biting sheep and the Lord pursued me relentlessly and saved me while in active rebellion against Him. He pursued me!
- Two, God’s Word forbids it. “Do not let kindness (loyalty/loyal love) and truth (faithfulness) leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.” (Prov 3:3). I am not responsible for driveby emails, but I am responsible for maintaining my “loyal love” for the SAVIOR that relentlessly pursued me. He can deal with His own sheep. My allegiance and response is to Him.
- Three, I need not be concerned with whether my rights have been violated or if my heart needs to be justified in the matter. I have no rights! I was relentlessly pursued by a great Savior that I bit all the time (and unfortunately still do…to my shame)! He is in the business of rescuing biting sheep! If He rescues another biter…and they bite me…it is up to Him to deal with that. The Lord will be my confidence and He alone can insure that I not be overtaken.” (Prov 3:25-26).
“Pastor (you might ask), aren’t you concerned that someone may read this and become more concerned with what was said or who said what?”
Actually, I was concerned about that. I’ve taken a number of steps to try to keep the details to a minimum so I could push the focus to what God is teaching me…so that, maybe, I can encourage/instruct others with the teaching (Psalm 51:13). What I KNOW to be true…”It’s Monday” and there are a number of shepherds being bitten today. Some, because they got too close to a nerve. Some, because they were ambushed. Before reacting with the emotion that was driving me, take your thoughts captive. Do so by focusing on the relentless pursuit of God’s love for you. Then tell the Great Shepherd. He has your back. He knows what it is to be bitten. He’s endured your bites and mine for years.
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by chrisaiken | Oct 1, 2016 | Leadership, pastor, Pastor's Reflections, Uncategorized
I have been mindful of the need to express myself with this particular article for quite some time. Back in the summer, I was assigned a text to read (as prep for a doctoral seminar) that greatly challenged my thinking. In it, the writer argued that the world and the Christian faith to be specific needs more (not less) thoughtful people. He then went on to chastise me and an errant (even arrogant) viewpoint I had held and even perpetuated for many years.
I remember my cocky state of mind as I was considering preparation for my newly understood calling to the preaching ministry. It was back in the late 90s and I was an almost 30 year old father, husband, businessman, and Jesus-follower. After discerning a specific call to ministry (which is the subject of another post to come) I sat down with my pastor who advised me to pursue my education as far as I could. He told me that education would help open doors for me to serve in “any position on the field” that God assigned. If I chose, however, to only pursue minimal education (in my field it would be an Associate Degree of Divinity) then there would be many assignments that I would never be considered for by search committees simply because I had not demonstrated a commitment to train. At that point, I made a conscious commitment to pursue school through the doctoral level.
Now, while I made a conscious decision to get an education, my heart was not fully convinced. I used to say “God called Moses without seminary” and if God can use “fishermen to start churches, He can use me regardless of what search committees might say.” While these statements are not wrong on their face, they do lack understanding and call for me to repent of the foolishness of my youthful arrogance.
Today, I read an article from Tim Challies in which he advocates for professional training for ministers. This article along with the book I alluded to have prompted me to make a few direct statements and an apology related to seminary education.
- Seminary cannot hurt you. If simply discussing theology of various stripes damages your faith, it wasn’t very strong to begin with and you’re overestimating your resolve grow and develop on your own.
- Seminary requires you to submit to authority, a great training ground for ministers. Everyone needs to be under authority. That is a biblical principle and a practical reality. Your self-paced, self-guided education may be an indicator of an unwillingness to “yoke up” with a discipler.
- You will learn more in higher education than you would discipline yourself to learn without it. This should be self-explanatory, but few people study cross discipline without a reason. (i.e. most bible students don’t love the idea of studying physical sciences, statistics, algebra, English, or Spanish, etc.
- You are not as smart as you think you are. The value of higher education is it teaches you to know what you don’t know. It is not about indoctrination but inspiration to think and consider truth.
- You are more missionally effective with an education than without. Just because you’re educated doesn’t mean you have to display your erudition in every conversation; however, no one goes to a surgeon who watched YouTube on surgery and opened a practice. They go to a surgeon who was educated, trained, supervised, and has experience. Why would we think it works differently in the pastorate?
- A high calling requires deep training. I thank God for Dr. Dunavant, a pastor and mentor to me for a season. He shared that truth with me when I was discouraged because I was “only” doing itinerant preaching and wondered why no church had called me to be their pastor.
- Thinking is DIVINE STEWARDSHIP for all and to some particularly. In our emotionally driven, self-absorbed culture, we desperately need men who have spent time thinking about life, God, people, theology, ideas, implications of ideas and actions, etc. Jesus gave us a brain…we must use it if we recognize stewardship as essential in our faith.
Finally, I am not arguing that there are no exceptions or that a man cannot go into pastoral ministry without a formal education. In fact, there are times when that might be exactly what God prescribed…but I would contend that this is the EXCEPTION, not the RULE.
As for me, I have repented of making light of thinkers and educated people. Sure…my quips about such people may gain a smile from the crowd and perhaps a few misdirected “amens,” but the heart behind those statements is wicked and boastful. Do I still think some educated people are foolish in their thinking? Sure. I’m foolish in my thinking now and again…and such thinking requires correction and adjustment. I will still refer to “Dr Fluffyhead” as the foolish professor who has determined there is no God as a fool and someone who needs to leave his office more. (Psalm 14:1) But, my objection is not his education nor is his education the cause of his wrongheaded thinking. He just needs to be educated further by an encounter with Jesus. (Hey, it worked for the Apostle Paul).
So, if you’re a pastor or if God is dealing with you about ministry…go and commit to learn your craft as a minister approved by God and a steward of what He has entrusted to you. Your preparation is not wasted but required. The responsibility is tremendous and the honor of shepherding God’s people is great!
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by chrisaiken | Sep 21, 2016 | Devotions, pastor, Pastor's Reflections, Uncategorized
In most children’s bibles, the story of Moses appears in its expectedly “sanitized rendition” of a clean riverside and a waterproof bassinet. On a leisurely stroll to the river to bathe, Pharoah’s daughter finds the baby, pays for his welfare and frolics away with her giggling entourage back to the palace.
As I grew a bit in my faith and also as a parent, I came to recognize and better appreciate the sacrifice of Moses’ mother in placing Moses in the basket…and the providence of God (particularly) in providing for Moses to be nursed by his own mother while on the payroll of Pharoah’s daughter. (Go God!!) Today, however, as I read this passage again, I came to recognize an additional expression of Moses’ mother’s love that I had previous failed to fully appreciate.
This precious woman not only released her son once to save his life (Ex 2:1-4), but she did so a second time as well…to give him a great opportunity.
Then Pharoah’s daughter said to [Moses’ mother], ‘Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed him. The child grew, and she brought him to Pharoah’s daughter and he became her son.(Exodus 2:9-10a, emphasis added).
Think about this for a moment. What pain this must have been for Moses’ mother! She not only dealt with the heart-wrenching experience of having to hide her son by the river to save his life…now she has to release him to another woman to be HER son to give him the best life possible. Could she have done differently? Perhaps today she would have hired an attorney and called a press conference. Perhaps today she would have slipped away under the cover of darkness and become a refugee in a foreign land. Still…reverberating in the back of her mind is this thought…”what kind of life would that be for him?”
So she takes him as a young boy and delivers him to Pharoah’s daughter to raise as her own. Now, I am not a mother…but I am married to one and, on top of that, was raised by one. I can say from experiencing them up close and personally, this was perhaps the most excruciating decision a mother could make. Still…it is precisely the decision required of every parent and even of every child of God. We do immensely difficult things for the benefit of others and against our own self-interest. We do so because we recognize that it is far more noble to love others sacrificially than to guard our own self-interest.
Now the applications are endless. Seriously, there are endless ways to apply this. I have a couple of personal applications in my mind now…for me…but what about you?
- Is it time to risk a friendship to share the gospel and maybe see a friend made so for eternity?
- Is it time to give up the “mom (or dad) as best friend” status in order to be the best parent?
- Is it time to risk rejection or failure to do what is ultimately of greater value?
The story of Moses’ mother was not placed here just to give a historical record. It serves as an example of noble living and it calls to us to live and do likewise.
How will you live this out today and the days ahead?
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by chrisaiken | Aug 26, 2016 | America, American, culture, Leadership, politics, Uncategorized
Just saw this interview of a SC pastor on a liberal news talk show. He was definitely outnumbered.
HERE is the link. A couple of interesting observations from my perspective:
- The panel (all of them) have a strong bias. [It’s a talk show so I am not against that, just observing a fact].
- DT has said some things that are outrageous and unhelpful to himself, his campaign, and conservative causes. (I don’t think he cornered the market in that regard either).
- This pastor may have done a bit better to just say that he disagreed with DTs characterization of HRC and other weird stuff. Just say you don’t agree. We are men of God…so speak for God and let the chips fall.
- Al Sharpton speaking about “moral authority” is laughable. I intentionally left the clerical reference off his name since I find his actions to be a blight on the calling of ministry. He is no reverend in my book and I am very charitable in this area. (Does he still owe back taxes?)
- AS saying that it is wrong to ask a people to vote for a man who has not laid out all of his policies is crazy and politically motivated. (Hope and change anyone? The POTUS was as light on policy declarations as any candidate I can remember going back to the 80s when I first came of age to consider these things as an adult.)
- The pastor’s answer was dead on. Look at the man’s values and convictions. No one knows what policies are possible or likely to be implemented. A proper understanding of our government is that laws are enacted by a Congress and carried out by the Exec Branch.
- The pastor’s transparency should resonate with believers. If you are TRULY a follower of Jesus, you MUST consider how a vote will affect things. If you can vote for HRC who is unapologetically pro-abortion rights…you need to be able to articulate how that syncs with your theological understanding…because there will be a test. Judgment seat? If you vote for HRC who sees no value in traditional marriage and supports every stripe of union outside of the ONLY Christian understanding of marriage, you need to be able to square that with your theology. The Department of Education…whatever (who cares?) It is not a biblical issue. In the same vein…if a candidate can and will marginalize a person or a group of persons based on race or religion…you must be able to define how that is reasonable according to your theology. There is a test folks.
I was in a meeting with faith leaders and Republican Party leaders in Pensacola a few weeks back. I haven’t been invited to a meeting with Democrat Party leaders yet but would certainly attend and speak if invited to. This seemed to be a consensus from what I heard at my meeting:
- DT is a hold your nose and vote candidate for a lot of evangelicals. He is better in most every area over HRC, but it is a hard pill to swallow.
- A vote for an unelectable 3d party conservative candidate is effectively a vote for HRC. No way around it.
- An evangelical refusal to vote for any candidate is by default a practical vote for HRC. Her base is in lockstep. They are not sitting it out. You may feel principled in your position but if you truly understand the times in which we live…it is a vote for HRC.
- You don’t have to agree with every aspect of a Candidate to like them or to vote for them. I disagreed with (I think) every aspect of the current POTUS platform, but I liked him. He was fun…and living during the reign of the first black President is kinda cool. (Yes, I know I said reign). That being said, I can’t remember any candidate that I agreed with everything…but I do generally vote moral/social/religious concerns and let God work out the economy.
Here are a couple of truths I have settled on based on evidence, not party talking points or FOX/CNN/MSNBC bias.
- HRC lied about Benghazi. People died and she lied. She was in the “know” and possibly complicit in the decision to leave an Ambassador and Security personnel in jeopardy…but she continues to avoid responsibility. (She lacks character!)
- She lied about her emails. She intentionally broke security protocol, mishandled information, and withheld cooperation in the investigation in substantive ways. (She lacks character).
- She mishandled classified material. (Lack of responsibility for job performance).
- She scares me on national security issues.
- DT has a sketchy past. He has done some goofy stuff and seems like a pragmatist in many ways. (Several question marks about his character).
- DT seems like a patriot. I assume HRC is also patriotic in her motivation.
- DT could not serve as a pastor, deacon, or small group leader in my church. I’m not sure he could even be a member. What I am sure of, is he is not running for any of those positions in November.
- I have a Christian responsibility to seek the welfare of my nation and as far as I can tell, faith alone cannot be a valid litmus test for either candidate…or they both lose because they are both sketchy.
Love ya. Feel free to chime in…
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