A special thanks to my friend Steve (Last name omitted) for reminding me of my own calling. When I started out as a novice preacher I noticed that every church I preached at for the first few months the pastor soon resigned. It was ammunition for the devil against me; but it drove me to my knees in prayer in self-examination. But as I grew in my ministry I began to realize how God was using me and what that facet of my calling was. God was sending me to pastors that were discouraged in their work. (He is sovereign.) Door after door was opened to me. I never saw people coming to the Lord, it discouraged me. But I kept on going because of the fire in my heart to “Stand up for Jesus”. (I still do when afforded the opportunity.) Then occasionally a fellow pastor would see me somewhere else; in town, a church denominational function, or other para-church business related event and would make the comment that they were almost ready to resign as pastor of their church and move on before I had come and preached to them; it actually became a pattern. I understood that God was using me to encourage these brothers in their own calling. Unfortunately, and I have yet to identify the reason, or for that matter if there is one, that phase of ministry seems to have been a page of my ministry that has been turned for me by the Father. It is very rare for that call to come in for me anymore. I was actually bitter toward most of them before God allowed us to move to Wyoming. The calls had stopped coming, it had to be these pastors’ fault, right? I believe that pastors still get discouraged. Perhaps, though I can’t prove it and it isn’t my business to prove anyway, we all have forgotten that preachers need preaching to too. Or, maybe the Directors of Missions in our Southern Baptist Churches are doing a better job at encouragement than they were 30 years ago when I started. I know that there is what seems to be a very effective work in our own association for pastors that are able to attend Monday morning fellowship at the association office and I know there are other events scheduled throughout the year that are even more conducive to ministering to bi-vocational pastors that realize that they are ministers and not employees of their church.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 12:15:32 +0000
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