Pastors: Don’t Forget to Evangelize Your Church

The job of a pastor is to get people who think they are saved to actually be saved.
@FailingPastor

 

 

I’m not entirely positive about this, but when Paul tells Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist,” I wonder if he’s talking about in the church.

Usually doing the “work of an evangelist” is interpreted as doing door to door, tract handing out evangelism.

It could very well be talking about evangelizing on the street, or outside the context of the church. But I wonder, I just wonder, if he’s not telling Timothy to remember to evangelize in the church. The context shows that he’s talking about preaching the word, and how increasingly people will not pay attention to sound doctrine. Sure sounds like he’s talking about a church context, not just outside it.

After serving for years in one church, I know people pretty well. I have a pretty good sense as to who is taking their faith seriously and who is not. I’ve seen many people leave the church over the years, and some of them even left the faith. I have a pretty good sense what true Christian faith looks like and what a saved person is up to. Yes, the “heart is the key issue” and “God is the judge.” I’m fully aware of this. I also have a brain that pays attention in my relationships to people. I’m not the Final Judge, but I am to minister to people, which requires making assumptions about what they need.

It is my contention that churches are made up mostly of unbelievers. Like maybe even 75%.

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How Failing Pastors Pray

If I had a dollar for every time I prayed for you, I’d probably pray for you more.
@FailingPastor

 

 

There is an idea floating around that if a pastor prays for you, you will be granted your request. I’m not sure where this comes from. Perhaps some sort of notion that pastors have an “in” with God more than the average layman.

People ask me to pray for them frequently. I do pray for them, but I doubt I pray for them what they want me to pray, but I do pray.

I pray that people would grow in Christ, that they would stop being distracted by earthly things and pursue spiritual growth. I pray that they would do the right thing, obey God’s Word, and deal with the consequences of doing the right thing in a wrong world. I pray for spiritual things.

I have told my church this many times. When people ask me to pray for their knee pain, I do, and I pray that through this knee pain, whether it stays or goes, it will work out to their spiritual growth. Pain can cause growth, so can the immediate cessation of pain. I can see growth happening either way. So my concern is for spiritual growth; let the knee feel how it’s supposed to in order to facilitate spiritual growth.

Yet people keep asking me to pray that pain would go away. That so-and-so would get healed. That everything would work out and they can come home soon. I continue to pray for spiritual growth and for the power of the Gospel to save souls through these things.

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A Pastor’s Typical Depressing Sunday

I pour my soul into my sermons. I use energy, passion, and exuberance to preach. By the time Sunday morning comes, I am chomping at the bit to deliver my message.

When I go over my message on Saturday, I imagine the response I’ll get. People laugh at my jokes. They listen attentively, eyes on me. At the end, when the point comes home, some cry, some fall to their knees and pray, crying out to God for salvation and the work of the Spirit in them. Lives are changed. People hug and support one another. People agree to go witness all afternoon. People renounce their materialism, and although they were going to go to Wal-Mart to stock up on more capitalistic abundance, they instead donate to the poor. I mean, things happen when I preach.

In my dreams.

The reality is that I get to church and everyone arrives late, half-asleep. By the time service is ready to begin; only about 20 people have shown up. Empty chairs outnumber the filled ones. I then notice the individuals who aren’t there. Why aren’t they here? Then I remember certain incidents throughout the week or in last week’s sermon, ope, yup, that’s why they aren’t here. Then I analyze everything I’ve said and done all week to figure out what I did to tick off the other people who aren’t there. By that time, my mind is gone and depression seeps in.

By the time I begin preaching, I’m still racking my brain to figure out why so-and-so isn’t there and what guilt-ridden excuse conversations I’ll again have with them this week. I start the message distracted and feeling down. I repeat my opening point about fifteen times before I gain momentum and energy back. My first joke doesn’t get a laugh. My first illustration passes with no nodding awareness that any words came out of my mouth. My energy amps up despite every effort by others to suck it out.

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Why Pastors Skip Verses

Ignoring verses in the Bible doesn’t mean they aren’t still there.
@FailingPastor

 

 

We all ignore verses in the Bible. Many verses are inconvenient to our doctrine, our firm statements, and our way of life.

I’m not talking about ignoring verses because you’ve never read them. I mean, you know the verses are there, you just choose to ignore them.

I think of this every time I hear a Calvinist and an Arminian argue. They both ignore the other side’s verses and flop out more of their proof texts. Nothing is resolved except letting the argument’s listeners know that neither person is entirely dealing with the Bible.

This is, in fact, probably the only redeeming aspect of Christian arguing: it lets the hearers know that the talkers have little idea what they are talking about.

Over my years of preaching I have covered every single book of the Bible. I’ve preached many an uncomfortable sermon. Like, uncomfortable to me, ones that hit a little close to home. As a pastor I can choose to skip passages. Maybe end my text right before that one verse because it makes an inconvenient point to my sermon. No one will know, it’s not like anyone is listening anyway.

But I know those verses are there. I know what verses I skip and why I skip them. I have faces that pop into my head when I read verses. “Yup, that guy will get ticked if I bring this up.” Or, “that woman will fly into a tailspin of doubt if I bring that one up.”

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Failing Pastor’s Opinion on “Christianity is a Relationship not a Religion”

“Christianity is not a religion it’s a relationship”

–said by many who can’t keep church unity nor marriage vows.
@FailingPastor

 

Let me begin by saying that I do believe a believer can have a relationship with God through Christ by the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

That being said, the idea that Christianity is a relationship and not a religion is a false dichotomy. Why can’t it be both? It, in fact, is.

“Religion” is a word that gets lots of heat. I’m really not sure why. Religion merely means stuff you do religiously, as in regularly, habitually, as a pattern. People religiously do their mornings the same. We do the same stuff at work. We do the same stuff when we come home from work. We are “creatures of habit.” Habit and religion are pretty much the same.

My wife and I have a great relationship. We love each other and have fun together. We also religiously do the same things. We eat the same types of supper, go to the same restaurants, go to bed at the same time. In fact, as any married person knows, if you veer from your typical behavior, your spouse will very quickly ask, “Why are you doing that? You never do that.”

I began eating cereal at night. I told my wife one week to get me a box of Froot Loops from the store. You would have thought the world was coming to an end. The Spanish Inquisition broke out, which I was not expecting (no one expects the Spanish Inquisition). “Look, I just want a bowl of Froot Loops, that’s all. It’s no big deal.”

Relationships are religious, that’s kind of what makes them relationships.

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Some Thoughts About Having Church Buildings

“Church is not a building.”

–Christians who attend churches where a majority of the budget is spent on buildings.
@FailingPastor

 

The amount of money spent on church buildings is ridiculous. I do believe this is going to come up on Judgment Day.

There is nothing in the Bible about churches having buildings. At the same time, there are plenty of verses talking about not putting our treasure on earth, not seeking material wealth, not getting tied down to earthly things, and the classic passage where the disciples bragged to Jesus about the impressive temple buildings, only to be shot down by Christ.

I won’t say having a church building is a sin, nor that a church should not have a building, but I do hear an awful lot of pride expressed in buildings, the very same buildings that will, like the old temple, be toppled.

I did a wedding at a different church once where they just added a new addition. It was a separate building with a gym and classrooms. They proudly showed me every single room, even though they all looked the same.

When the Grand Tour was over, my tour guide asked me, “I probably shouldn’t have shown you all that! Now you are envious of our building!” This was said with zero hint that they were sorry. It was pride through and through. I said, “No, not really. I think I’ll be ok.”

“You still meeting in the same place?” is a question I get frequently. Without blowing my cover, we don’t have a building. What we do is pathetic in light of what all the cool churches are doing. It has cost us some people.

One family left because the new Vineyard church put in an arcade for the kids. “How come our church doesn’t do anything like that?”

“Because I think that’s stupid” was apparently not the answer they were looking for. They left. Hope their kids had a nice time at the arcade.

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A Pastor’s Advice for Church Skippers

America, we are told, was founded as a Christian nation. I have my doubts, but even if I grant the point, I guarantee modern Christians would hate living in Colonial America.

One reason why is because church attendance was not optional. You went to church or you faced fines, stockades, and sometimes imprisonment. I can’t imagine any modern Christians being cool with that.

I know this because the church attendance of the average believer is pathetic. I’m not one who thinks people should be at church every single time the doors are open. But I do think you should be there regularly.

If a church has 52 Sunday services a year, I think attending 40 is not unreasonable. If a church has a midweek service then the number is up to 104. I think a person could make 80 without much trouble (that’s three months of missing church!).

Consider anything else you’re interested in, how often do you make it to those things? What about work? Most places of employment expect you to be there with two or three weeks of vacation plus some sick days. I gave you three months!

Life happens, I get it. But seriously: get to church people.

I know people could make it to church more because modern technology tells me so. Facebook lets pastors know exactly what people did while skipping church. You aint sick. You aint workin. You aint even doing anything productive. You’re just dorking around.

I actually dropped off Facebook because I couldn’t take it anymore.

To see people you pray for, you plead for them in prayer, sometimes with tears, skipping sermons that could benefit them for water skiing, or duck hunting, or sporting events, it just breaks a pastor’s heart. I try not to take it personally and I try not to get my heart broken, but it gets broken all the time.

Even worse, many of these people who skip church for every conceivable reason tend to have lives that fall apart. I always know when people start skipping church regularly that a certain thing is about to hit a fan.

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I Can Do All Things! Yippee!

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Except attend church regularly.”
–Christians

@FailingPastor

 

 

The majority of Christians have an unexamined faith. Most Christians believe what some person said about Christianity. Cliché and out of context biblical phrases make up most of any Christian’s doctrine.

This is a constant frustration to a pastor. Pastors attempt to teach people what the Bible says. Our job is to build people up in the faith and to preach the Word in season and out.

When people hear these sermons and then turn around and use a biblical phrase in the most unbiblical way, the pastor’s soul is sucked right out of him.

“We are more than conquerors!” Gets exclaimed, not as a pick-me-up for enduring persecution as the original phrase was intended, but as a cheerful defense of materialistic winning in life.

“All things work together for good” gets trotted out when someone loses a job and then gets hired at a place that pays more, or when their kid doesn’t make the soccer team but starts on the swim team. The original context has to do with all things working to grow the believer into Christ, which is what God thinks is good. It has nothing to do with temporal success and certainly not material gain.

The ultimate one is “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” This is used as a self-help mantra, a believe in yourself and you can do anything cheer. Jesus died on the cross so your wildest dreams would come true. Just add Jesus and material success follows! Yippee!

The original context is Philippians 4 where Paul, who is writing from prison, talks about his contentment whether external circumstances are good or bad. Why? Because with Christ, external things matter very little. I can endure any external thing, whether good or bad, because Christ strengthens me.

Teaching people how to use the Bible in context is not easy, but it’s one of our many tasks. Words mean things and the words of the Bible are not written in isolation. People need to learn the context of a phrase in a verse, a verse in a chapter, a chapter in a book, and a book in the Bible. Biblical phrases are not stand alone, apply as you wish statements. They mean definite things!

Spending energy and time over years and years teaching people how to use God’s Word, and to then consistently hear those people use verse after verse so far out of context, makes a pastor want to quit. What’s the point? Why continue?

I don’t know. What I do know is that with Christ strengthening me, I can do all things! I can even endure and persevere in the face of people who have no idea how to use the Bible! I can continue to teach, trusting that my labor is not in vain in the Lord! Whether my ministry is making any externally measurable difference or not, I can do all things through Christ!

I can even put up with people who butcher God’s word and continue to patiently teach and guide! Seriously, with Christ you can do that!

 

 

“For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.

–Titus 1:7-9

A Pastor’s Take on Why Kids Leave the Faith

THEM: We let our kids decide whether they come to church or not.

ME: Really? Wow. I’m shocked they aren’t here.
@FailingPastor

 

 

I‘m amazed at the choices parents make with their kids.

For my entire pastoral career I have had kids at home. My eldest was a baby when I began pastoring. Her birth was, in fact, one of the reasons I took the job: I needed money!

Parenting is hard. I know, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it” is a promise in the Bible. Proverbs are extreme statements that are not always true. There are proverbs in the Bible that contradict other proverbs in the Bible.

Parenting is hard. Pride goes before destruction. I’ve heard many a parent of young children brag about their parenting skills, even some who wrote books on parenting while their kids were still at home. I’ve seen many a proud parent become a weeping parent.

Since I’ve observed this trend, I have tried to avoid it in my own life. I try not to brag about my kids and certainly don’t go public in comparisons, nor assume that the way I raise my kids is how everyone should raise theirs. I once heard it said, “If God wanted you to raise my kids, He would have given them to you.” Amen.

I only give parenting advice if someone asks me. Very few have asked me. Even fewer have done what I said. I have taken this as further proof that no one really cares about my parenting theories.

My kids are older now. One is in college and the other two are very close to college age. I’m about done with the full-time parenting stuff. My kids were in subjection for the years they lived in my house. What they do now in their lives and with their faith is up to them. I and their mother did our best. We weren’t perfect, but we took stands and our kids know we love them and they know we love the Lord.

I think the evidence says I might know some things about parenting.

My kids fit into our schedule more than we fit into theirs. This one rule has guided many of our decisions.

I’m amazed at the number of parents who let their kids and their kids’ schedules dictate their church attendance. They skip for every excuse in the book: sports, homework, sleep, work, chilling, and various other things. They let their kids decide not only if the kids will go to church, but if the whole family will go!

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Why I Don’t Like Pastors’ Conferences

I am not at a pastor’s conference. I am at home saving money and serving the Lord.

And judging pastors at pastor’s conferences.
@FailingPastor

 

 

I don’t like pastors’ conferences. This is not because I am opposed to them, I just don’t like them. Here are the main reasons why:

1) I make very little money. If I were to pay for a trip to a pastor’s conference, that would eliminate lots of money for my family’s use. If I’m going to pay for a trip, it will be for the family. “Wouldn’t your church pay for you to go?” See, here’s the thing: the reason I have little money is because my church has little money. They are paying me as much as they can. Me taking time off, which means dumping my kids on my wife while I’m off by myself, would be selfish at this point (and that is not a complaint, it’s a fact).

2) Free resources abound. Pretty much everything ever written or said about pastoring can be found for free or little cost. I take advantage of these resources, to the extent I already know what they’re going to say anyway.

3) I’m an introvert. The main reason pastors like attending these conferences is for the camaraderie and fellowship, two things I’d rather not do! I’m just one of those people who do not get energy from being with people. It drains me. Small group hugging time gives me shivers.

4) Professional Christianity nauseates me. Hobnobbing with cool pastors who all wear the same glasses just doesn’t gear me up. Networking and comparing notes just makes me not like the church more. Sorry. I know. I have a bad attitude. Guilty. I serve in a poor church with non-suburban people. I do not feel like I fit in cool conference atmospheres. Nor will most of the jargon shared be something that would work in my church anyway.

5) Oh, the singing we’ll do. The singing in Christianity is way too much. I like music. I like singing. I think good group singing is fantastic. But give it a rest already. I just can’t do it with the singing and the worship bands and the hand lifting and the mood manipulation stuff. Been doing this a long time. It’s not my preferred form of worship. It, in fact, tends to get in the way of a worshipful feeling for me. It makes me feel like smacking people. Yes, I know, I have a bad attitude. Guilty.

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