May I get very personal? The pressures of our times have many of us pastors caught in the web of the most acceptable yet energy-draining sin in the Christian family: worry.
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Hey . . . don’t look so pious!
Chances are good you awoke this morning, stepped out of bed, and before doing anything strapped on your well-worn backpack of anxiety. You started the day, not with a prayer on your mind but loaded down by worry. What a dreadful habit!
(It happens to me far too often.)
A church that is strong in grace is attractive for many reasons, not the least of which is the absence of legalism.
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Just as most non-Christians don’t understand the good news of Christ, most Christians do not understand the remarkable reality of grace. I know of no activities more exhausting and less rewarding than those of Christians attempting to please the people around them by maintaining impossible legalistic demands. What a tragic trap, and the majority of believers are caught in it.
When will we ever learn? Grace has set us free!
That message streams throughout the sermons and personal testimonies of the apostle Paul.
When considering church growth, we must think strategically . . . we must preach creatively . . . and our worship must connect. Absolutely. But we must also be careful.
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A marketing mentality and a consumer mind-set have no business in the church of Jesus Christ. By that I mean, Jesus is NOT a brand . . . human thinking does NOT guide God’s work . . . and the church is NOT a corporation. The church of Jesus Christ is a spiritual entity, guided by the Lord through the precepts of His Word.
If we sacrifice the essentials of teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer on the altar of strategy, creativity, entertainment, and “relevancy,” we have abandoned the main reasons the church exists.
We should build on those essentials, not attempt to replace them.
It’s simplistic to say that the only kind of battle going on today is the war against terrorism, though that is what the Enemy of our souls would love for us to believe. He would love to preoccupy us with the physical struggles and have us miss the spiritual conflict that rages every day of our lives.
As a pastor, you know more than most that we fight on the frontlines of an invisible war. But our flock may not realize that. They may have been taken hostage and not know it. They could be wounded, but nobody notices because they don’t bleed. The most spiritually bloodthirsty, wicked creature on earth, our adversary the Devil, wages a bloodless, invisible war against you, your family, your flock, and every other person who has been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
Initially, Joshua expected the battle of Jericho to be his war, but then he came face-to-face with his Commander in Chief and learned that the battle belonged to the Lord. Joshua’s part was not to win the war but simply to make himself available to the true Commander in Chief. Joshua first surrendered to God—only then could Joshua have victory.
We can learn a great deal from Joshua’s response that can help us in our own seemingly impossible battles.
I see several strategies emerge from Joshua’s experience. We need them in the pastorate.
