As I was asked to share, I was at first excited and surprised by the offer.  I like to think I like to write.  I like to share my thoughts and ideas.  I can do this.  Then I began to question, “Who wants to hear what I have to say? What can I write about?”  I looked to my pastor for advice, wisdom, anything he could offer.  He gave me the scriptures to use and his thoughts that he thought suited me.  So, I will start with a little story.

This story is about a young man.  This young man attends the local church.  He has been attending for several years.  This young man has been baptized and a member of the church.  This young man believes he is a good person, does good things and helps out.   He has been baptized and believes in Jesus Christ.  He is saved.  

He attends church, usually.  Not afraid to miss if life gets busy.  Attends Sunday nights or Wednesday services seldomly, as he feels Sunday mornings are enough time for God.  He is a good person and believes in Jesus.

As this young man is attending church though, he is hearing the pastor deliver messages on the Word and Truth of God.  As time goes on, this young man’s heart is pierced by these messages.  The young man starts to feel a prick in his heart with every message.  He starts to feel like something is missing but does not quite know what it is.  He starts to search for what is engaging his heart and his soul.  He starts to read his bible more.  He starts to look harder for what is pulling on his heart. 

Then, sometime and somewhere, there is a change in this young man, in his heart and in his mind are changed.  Everything he sees and hears and smells and touches and tastes are all different now.  He now knows what it was he was missing and his heart was longing for.  Jesus Christ.  

The young man now led by the Holy Spirit, makes it a point to dive into his Bible daily.  He starts asking how to pray, he is praying how to pray, and he is praying more.  First alone with God, for himself and then for others, and praying more with his family.  This young man starts making God a priority and attending all church services, not out of obligation but out of a desire to be close to God.  He starts to ask how or what he can do to help serve in the local church, to serve God’s kingdom.  This young man starts to assist a Sunday School class for kids or youth, then leads to leading a Sunday School class and helping with more of the worship services.  Then one day, that young man even realizes that God had been calling him all along into ministry.

This young man was and is me.  This is my testimony.  I thought I was a good person, but I am not and I need Jesus.  I am now different, changed, and look to answering God’s call on my heart and my life.

For you, the pastor, keep preaching the Truth, keep preaching the word.  You have the duty and the privilege and the pleasure to plant the seed, or even provide the water for the seed that maybe someone else planted.  But it is God who gives the growth.

1 Corinthians 3

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So, then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

Stay faithful to the Word of God.  Trust and know that the Word that goes out will not return empty, but that it will accomplish what God pleases and will prosper in what God sends it to do.  As you study and prepare and deliver a faithful message to your congregations, know God is doing the work in their hearts and minds.  You continue to honor God by planting and watering the seed with the Truth and the Word.

Isaiah 55

10 For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, 11 so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”

About the Author:

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It’s been a while – too long probably.  How long has it been since you have removed yourself from your home  church and community to serve someone else in a place that’s not comfortable? A place that isn’t home. I’m talking about a fresh perspective on the goodness of God. 

It had been 6 years since I had been on a mission trip but that all changed this summer when we led our team of 16 to a remote village in Alaska. Things changed and God moved in ways beyond what we could have expected. Children and adults found Christ. They found that He would be with them long after we had boarded our flight home. We found the overwhelming presence of God’s goodness. Not by being alone, but by being ONE as a team – by being vulnerable and sharing our pain and by trusting in The Lord with unfamiliar surroundings. 

I understand that as a Pastor you have a congregation that needs you and relies on you but don’t use that as an excuse to stay in your home church and community. Go serve God in the unknown where you have no choice but to rely on Him and not on your own strength or plan. 

Is the wilderness not where God teaches us to trust in Him? Many times we have our church schedules, plans, and sermons all laid out and ready to accomplish. (Like we already have a good idea how it’s going to go). 

The Holy Spirit breaks in from time to time and we are thankful for it but otherwise we stick to the schedule. I am praying for you and I ask that you pray with me that God would send you and I  somewhere that we are totally out of our element and we have to rely fully on The Lord and on the God-given gifts of the team around us. 

We as pastors have to remember that the church doesn’t revolve around us but we all revolve around Christ. Christ has given immeasurable gifts to those in the church and we must humble ourselves enough to let others grow and use those gifts. 

Create opportunity for those in your churches to go out and get uncomfortable with you. Then we will all grow in Christ. You will be amazed – like I was – at the incredible gifts that God has placed in those around you. Those gifts come to the surface when you’re in a place where they are needed and those in your church can step up to the plate. 

The construction workers skills are needed. The medical providers skills are needed. The encouragers skills are needed. The teacher, the cook, the small group leader, the mechanic. When people get to use their skill and their God given talent for Christ, we as the pastor have succeeded. 

It is not our job to do all the ministry ourselves but to equip those in our church for ministry and to create opportunities for them. Let us not allow our light to be blocked by four walls (even if they are church walls).

Whether the wilderness be close or far, may God draw you ever closer to Him in the uncomfortable, as you find your strength in The Almighty!

About the Author: Pastor Wade Woods is a servant of Christ Jesus, who is fulfilling his calling at Cross Point Church in Ava, MO. He is a former freestyle motocross evangelist & youth pastor who gives all the credit to Jesus who calls the lowly and weak, showing his grace and power through such unlikely vessels to bring all hearts and glory to Him.