Tag Archives: Sunday

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Everyone Finds Jesus Differently

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jesus

While all Christians realize the title of this blog post is true, we often forget it. Many times, we fall into the trap that says: What rescued me, what impacted me to start following Jesus will work for everyone.

Many times, this is what is underneath our passion for more modern music, deeper preaching, life on life discipleship, a women’s ministry, a men’s ministry, a singles ministry. You name it. Whatever ministry God used to save you, we often think, “If everyone experiences that, they’ll be saved.”

The reality is that everyone starts following Jesus differently.

This came up in the passage I just preached on in John 9 this past Sunday at Revolution. You can listen to it here if you haven’t already.

The Pharisees are having a hard time with Jesus healing the man born blind on the Sabbath because they don’t do it that way. They don’t think God works that way, they’ve never seen it done before (vs. 32), or they weren’t saved that way.

I’ve had this conversation so many times I’ve lost count (and every pastor can relate). It goes like this, “Pastor Josh, we need to start a __________ ministry to reach ___________. If we do, Revolution will explode.” Or, “Josh, if we just get every man to do __________” or, “If we get every woman/student/single to do ____________ they’re life will be changed.” Or, “Josh if you preached more topical sermons, more deeper sermons, longer sermons, shorter sermons more people would get saved.” Or, “Josh, if we did faster songs, slower songs, more responsive readings, more hymns, more modern songs, if it was louder, if it was quieter, people would worship more than they do.”

Now, I’m not saying those things won’t change their lives, but we show a lot of immaturity if we think God only saves people the way we were saved or the ministry we are passionate about.

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The Sins of a Pastor || Need to be Needed

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book

Pastors, like any person sin. While this may be surprising for some people as they put their pastors and their wife on a pedestal, it is true. Because of the nature of being a pastor and the life they live, their sins are often not obvious and ones that no one will ever know about. In fact, some of the most hurtful and dangerous sins are ones that a church and elders can unknowingly encourage. These sins are not in any particular order, just the order I wrote them in.

So far we’ve covered:

  1. Your Bible is for more than just sermon prep.
  2. A pastor being untouchable.
  3. The pastor’s family. 

The fourth sin that many pastors deal with is the sin of the need to be needed. This directly affects what we talked about yesterday and how the pastor and his family are seen.

Many pastors as they become pastors do so out of a sense of wanting to help people. This can be seen in counseling, in discipling people or walking alongside of them. They want to help people.

This can hide for a time any way, the need to be needed. This shows up when a pastor:

  1. Must be at every meeting or party for the church.
  2. Visit every person in the hospital.
  3. Follow up with every guest or new Christian.
  4. Baptize everyone.
  5. Always preach.
  6. Never take a vacation.
  7. Respond to every email and call.

Now, I’m not calling for pastors to be lazy. In fact, the last sin we’ll talk about is how lazy many pastors are.

Pastor, take a minute and ask yourself some of these questions:

  • How much do I need to be needed?
  • Do I need to check every alert on Facebook, twitter or email?
  • Do I keep my phone on during dinner with my family and answer it when it rings?
  • Do you check your email or answer your phone on your day off?
  • Do you take a day off every week?
  • Do you take all your vacation days?
  • Do you miss any Sundays?
  • Do you take any Sundays off from preaching?

You may fall prey to the desire to be needed and that may be driving you and your ministry more than Jesus. If so, take a day off, turn your phone off and take a break from preaching.

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The 2 Kinds of People Who Like to Talk Theology

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theology

On a Sunday, when someone walks up to a pastor and says, “Could we grab coffee this week, I would like to talk theology with you.”

There are 2 kinds of people who do this:

  1. Those who want to show the pastor how smart they are and let him know they disagree with him. 
  2. Those who want to learn and grow.

When a pastor has this question posed to them, rightly or wrongly, their defenses go up and they assume the person asking the question falls into category 1. The person in category 1 has no desire to grow. They will say they do, but the heart of their meeting is to disagree. They will interrupt the pastor while he talks at the meeting. This can happen verbally, but they definitely be getting their response ready in their head while he talks, meaning they aren’t listening. They will say things like, “I just wanted you to know.”

This person has no desire to be challenged, to hear they could be wrong. They don’t want to be humble. They want to disagree with the pastor or church and they want someone to know about it.

Now, the person in category 2 is different. I love meeting with the person in category 2. This person can be a new Christian or someone who has been following Jesus for 25 years. The heart of this person says, “I don’t know it all. I have genuine questions and I want to grow so that I can follow Jesus more fully.” I love meeting with this person. Their questions challenge me to follow Jesus more fully. Their questions make me think and the conversation is a genuine joy for me as a pastor. They want to know more because they know they don’t know it all and they know they could be wrong. They are willing to be challenged.

So, the next time you ask for some time with a pastor to talk theology. Ask, which category am I in? Which one do I want to be in? Which would serve the kingdom and the world better?