What's Driving You

Pastors and church leaders are often driven by passions from a variety of things.  Some are driven by the desire to see the community in which they live come to know the personal relationship with Jesus.  Others are driven by a passion to encourage people to grow in their personal walk with Christ, and to reach out to the world around them.  There are some that really are driven by a passion to hold the Word of God high, and study of the Word drives them.

So what is driving you and your ministry right now?  Where is the depth of your passion being drawn?  Where our focus and drive is will affect our ministry in so many ways. 

We may be driven by a passion for our community, which means our eyes will be open to creative ways to meet new people and invite them into relationship with Christ.  However, our drive to meet those outside the faith can for some people cause them to become offensive to brothers and sisters that have been close to them for many years.  Christ calls us to love one another, and that includes our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Others may be driven to help those who are believers to grow in deep devotion. However, in this case, but often the focus on devotion may cause us to close our eyes to the needs of those around us. As with many things in life we need to return to balance a balance of working on the inside while seeking the outside. Both parts are important.

May God help us to keep the balance of our being in Him, and our service for Him.

- Keep on the journey,
Daniel Shipton

What You Do Matters

This past Sunday I was touched by a frail elderly woman in a wheel chair.  Our church has a worship service for a local nursing home.  We sing some hymns, tells a few stories, give a short sermon, and pray for the people.  We had extra work of a dinner on Saturday night, and I was very exhausted as we went into the nursing home service. 

I was helping with the music, as our song leader led the music.  I have to be honest that in my exhaustion I was thinking of about a hundred other things that I would rather have been doing.  Then, as we began to sing "Because He Lives", one lady who hadn't moved since we arrived, began to clap her hands.  Her clapping was not in beat, but it was with joy, as her somber face turned to joy.  I was so touched that it gave me energy into the evening.

I am reminded that we may feel like we are weary in our ministry.  We may put out the extra effort, and wonder if it makes any difference to anyone.  We can know that no matter what we are doing for the kingdom is important, no matter how small.  We may only touch one life with blessing or God's grace, but every  soul is important to God.

If you are struggling today or feel that what you do for God doesn't matter, keep doing the good you can.  You are making a difference.  You may not see it right at this moment, but somewhere there may be someone clapping along unnoticed by everyone else, because you were faithful to do what you knew you should.

- Keep on the journey,
  Daniel Shipton

Keep Your Sacred Place with God Alive

We all need places to rest.  Places to refresh our life and soul.  We all need some sacred place where we can meet with God alone, and He can speak to us in our heart and mind.  However, in our busy lives and ministries sometimes it is hard to keep a personal sacred space.  In fact many of us have a hard time sincerely setting aside either time or place in a sacred way for our lives. 

Some people have a daily place of sacredness where they pray and have their daily devotions.  I know of some pastors who have a particular chair set aside in their study just for prayer and devotion times.  In weather above the forties I tend to sit on my porch, because the outdoors has always been where I commune with God more easily.   We all have different things that bring us closer to God, and help us open up our hearts to Him.  I would encourage you to find your sacred space, or your best time, your sacred time to meet with God.  Be refreshed regularly in His presence.

Being a Real Character

What do you do when no one is looking?  Do you live in the private moments of your life exactly as you do in the public moments?  Are your values lived out in and out of the sight of others?  If we desire people to sincerely respect us and to trust us enough to follow us then we must consider questions like this.  These are the questions that lead us to examine our character and integrity.

Character is influenced by the family we were raised in, the religious influences we grew up under, and the communities in which we developed.  We cannot help but be influenced by the values that we grew up around; however, we are not a finished product.  Character can grow in our lives making us better and better over time.  Even our failures can help us on the road to maturity, because they help us know what not to do or how to work through difficulty.

Many leaders have fallen in our world, causing weakness and distrust by most people in our society.  Due to the growing distrust there has been a desire for authenticity in our society.  People hunger to see real people leading them in life, and to learn from their real experiences.  Unfortunately the downside is that there has been a growth in a  cynical mindset, which causes some to believe that no one can ever really grow to real maturity in character.  This mindset can lead to people who question the depth of our own ability to ever mature in life.

Character is the major building block of our relationships.  True success is not found in the size of our ministry, the fame of our name, or in the fortune of our bank accounts.  True success is living well in the plan that God has for us, and living well with those whom God has put into our lives.  Our relationships are highly dependent upon the maturing of our character, and living well in our world.

Many of us read the Bible, self-help books, leadership development books, and attend seminars to help us know better how we should live and work in this world.  However, character is far more than knowing how to live in this world, or knowing how relationships with God and others should be.  We can read and study all we want, but as one old saying goes "the longest eighteen inches in the world is the distance from the head to the heart."

I can desire to be a baker, but that doesn't make me a baker.  I can read books about the great bakers of the world, but I will not be a baker.  I can even study recipe books, and even purchase all the ingredients, but I will not be a baker.  I can only be a baker if I actually bake something.  I will likely not be a good baker until I have made many attempts at baking. This reminds me of when my grandmother taught me to make bread.  I went to her home and spent an afternoon learning from her how to make her wonderful home-made bread.  I added the first two ingredients and then watched her make the rest.  I never learned to make bread, because she took over and made it for me.

Character is developed through the challenges which often cause us to dig deep into our lives, and choose the right thing over the easy thing.  Character shows in the choices we make in daily decisions based in the Christ-like development of every part of our lives.  Our character will show in how we choose in situations like the following, which arise every day of our lives.

• How will we react if the clerk at the grocery store misses several items when ringing us up?
• How will we tip the stressed out waitress who brings us our food?
• What will we do if we are offered a shortcut in our work, which may shortchange the customer but increases our pay?
• Will I choose to follow the regulations and structures of change within the church or business I am a part of, or will I choose to  bend the rules to my own desires or whims?

May God help us to grow and mature in such a way that we will show His love, mercy, and grace in all that we do and say.

Grace for your journey,
Daniel G. Shipton

Faithfully Minister

Ezk. 3.7, Isaiah 6.9, 2Tim. 4.2

Paul instructed Timothy to be prepared to preach in season and out of season.  I have often felt that this means to preach whether we feel greatly inspired or not.  I also see lately that it can mean to preach whether they listen or not.  Isaiah and Ezekiel are two examples of people called to preach for God, who were sent to people who wouldn't listen.

I love to preach and teach, especially when I see a disciple or congregant with that light in their eyes that shows they are gaining understanding.  When someone raises their hand in response or comes to the altar I feel privileged to have been a useful instrument in God's plan at that moment.  I think this is true of many preachers.

However, I have went through weeks and even months of time when it seemed like no one really cared what God had to say.  They seemed very wrapped up in the problems and worries of their lives, and seemed to come only out of obligation or responsibility.  Does God really want us to preach hard and strong in those times?  It can feel like we are wasting our time.

The truth is that God calls us to preach, teach, and minister faithfully.  We are not called to produce stellar results in everything we do.  We live in a generation so filled with statistics and so result oriented that we forget that first and foremost we are called to be faithful in the ministry God is calling us to.  We are called first to build our own relationship with God, and to minister to others out of that relationship.

We will likely not fill our altars every Sunday morning.   It may well be that we will really only get to glimpse where God is moving in other people on a sporadic basis.  We should celebrate with God when He allows us to see His moving.  More importantly we should remain faithful in our daily walk, and in every part of our ministry whether the big results shine through or not.

It may well be that God is moving, and we just are not seeing what He is doing at that moment.  I know there have been times when I have preached, and thought no one heard.  Then several weeks later someone will tell me how they have been contemplating something I said weeks earlier.  The message got through the way the Holy Spirit intended, but I never even knew.

Keep preaching.  Keep teaching.  Keep ministering where God calls you.  Let the Holy Spirit worry about whether the hearts are receptive or not.

Blessings in your ministry.

Minister to the Community in Which You are Called

Do you ever feel out of sync with the people you are called to lead?  Maybe like many pastor's and church leaders you grew up in another state, and now you find yourself leading a congregation far from the place you once lived.  Some people are called to mission fields far from home, where they must learn a different language and many different social norms in order to fit in.  Many of us have learned that there are social differences in the country, or even the state we find ourselves in.  However, for most of us in North America we have a lot of common ground on which to stand.

In the Ezekiel's call from God he was told to feed and be filled with God's Word.  Then he was given the challenge to go to the people.  Ezekiel 3:5 says God told Ezekiel that he was not going to "a people of obscure language, but to the house of Israel."  To those of us on the front lines of ministry in North America we may feel separate from people in the pews at times, but the reality is that God has called us to the great mission of reaching people similar to ourselves.  While there will always be slight differences in every person we are called to minister to the reality is that we all have similar needs, and in community we are often facing similar situations.

Do you ever struggle with being a part of the community you are called to lead?  There has been a push in many churches and denominations in the past twenty years to encourage pastors to stay longer in their churches.  At one time in America the average pastoral call to a church lasted less than three years.  Three years is barely enough time to really get to know the community we live in, or the real heart needs that they face.  In fact most people never really accept a minister as caring until they have went through some serious living with them.

All to often the history of small-town churches has been that pastors bale on churches before ever living and being a part of the community.   In many cases it is the churches who have pushed pastors out over situations that bring struggle, which may result in deep spiritual growth before they can really grow up.  Then the cycle starts over with a new pastor, or a new church.  It is a cycle that never allows the church to become a deeper community, living and growing through challenges.  It is a cycle for many pastors to run before growing in their weak areas, or really opening up to the community they have been called to .

The trend of being called to a community is a good trend, which I can say I am becoming better acquainted with in my current pastorate.  There was a time when I first left Bible college that I wondered how a minister could have anything new to preach after four or five years in a single place.  I will soon be starting my ninth year in my current ministry, and I told my wife a few weeks ago that I don't know if I will ever have time to teach or preach all that God has been laying on my heart for the people here.

Being called to a people, to a community is a great thing.  It means that we will come to identify with them in their celebrations and in their needs.  It means we will not preach or teach merely stale words or educated instruction, but we will connect to their hearts because they are a part of us and we are a part of them.  It means we will be willing to work through differences in love instead of running from issues or running people over because of issues that arise.  It means we are willing to stay and make the community our home, and care about the needs of those in and outside the church.

Does all of this mean that one will be there for all of their ministry career?  For some of us it may very well be that we will remain where we are for the rest of our careers where we now are.  I know some who have been at their current ministry for more than twenty or thirty years.  Whether we stay for our entire ministry in one place or move after ten or twenty years, we should serve as God calls us.  For all of us it means that we must grow beyond the temporary mindset and  the constraints of short-term living.  We must open up to the possibility of real relationships and becoming a real part of the communities which we are called to.

Preaching From What You Are Fed

I was recently reading Ezekiel 3:1-4, part of Ezekiel's call by God.  God told Ezekiel to "eat this scroll I am giving you, and fill your stomach with it" (v.3).  This was an instruction to Ezekiel before he was instructed to go speak God's Word to the people.  This is a challenge to all who would be called to minister and preach to others.  We do not preach our own thoughts or ideas, but we preach God's Word to His people and to call others into His fold.

I am not perfect in my devotional times, and I know from talking with other pastors and church leaders that devotional times are a struggle for many of us to keep.  Some of us wrap our devotions into the ministries we are doing, which is partially what these verses are challenging us to do.  Through our own feeding upon the Word of God should flow the teaching and instruction we are to give to those we are called to lead.  It is from our time feeding in the Word that we can pass on God's message to others.

I fear that many in ministry and leadership fail to feed consistently upon the Word of God.  Instead we live in a day when so many other ministers notes and sermons are freely given through electronic medium that we do not spend the time seeking God in prayer and deep feeding.  I am not saying we should never use another minister's guidance, because there are some pastors who do this and are deeply growing in their own ministry and life.

 The greater problem I see is more of a lazy approach to our devotional lives.  I speak with others who often have no clue on Saturday evening what God wants them to say on Sunday morning.  I know it can be hard to prepare week in and week out, but the reality is we should be able to speak out of what God is telling us through our daily lives.  Maybe instead of spending so much time reading about others journey's in faith, we need to rekindle our own spiritual lives in God's Word.  I know reading others journey's, blogs, or teaching is good for us too.  However, it doesn't take away from good time spent reading and meditating on what God has for us and our lives.

Several years ago I was in a meeting,. with our then District Superintendent Dr. Ray Barnwell.  He told the group that there should never be a reason to fear having a message.  He suggested preaching through books of the Bible or segments of Scripture, so we would always be prepared for the coming week of feeding the flock.  This is great advice for having direction.  Yet, it still comes down to the question of feeding on that word for our own lives, so that we can then bless others with God's teaching.  He will often teach us far more than we will ever be able to put into one sermon.

In thinking about this, I realized that a mother bird feeds herself well with the food she finds.  Then and only then does she fly back to take food to her young chicks in need of food.  If we are not caring for our own spiritual growth, and our own deep relationship with God how can we lead others to a deep place with Him?

Feed well in the depths of His Word on a regular basis, so that you may carry on the work He calls you to in Him.

-Blessings for the journey.