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.

“Change is the only constant in life…” — Benjamin Franklin

What do you think about the above quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin?

What kind of mental pictures and thoughts capture your attention at the idea of change?

How does the thought of change impact you on the emotional and spiritual level?

Change…no doubt, it is a reality in everyone’s life. It’s unavoidable; it’s impact can truly be life changing and life altering.

Change stirs the emotions of love, joy, happiness, excitement, gratefulness, and hope. However, it also can touch and stir up emotions of fear, anger, resentment, hopelessness, and anxiety.

I cannot help but think over my life and reflect on the multitude of changes that have impacted my life. I have memories of events throughout my life and how they have changed.

This year marks my 70^th year of life and 49^th year since I was ordained into ministry. Any changes there? My grandchildren marvel when I share my “when I was your age” stories and they discover that some of the things they have grown up with didn’t exist “then.”

The nature and challenges of the church and ministry have changed radically. Unfortunately, not all of the changes have been for the better. We live in a world that is seeking to push the church, God, theology, the Bible, and the very definition of “right,” “wrong,” and “faith” into a world shaped bottle. And we are feeling the pressure.

In a way, many of us feel that we are nothing more than “collateral damage” and out of control when it comes to finding and determining our own way. We feel that we are unwilling participants to Franklin’s observation that change is the only constant we have…

We are pushed into the corner and confronted by the attitude expressed by Alan Watts , “The only way to make sense our of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”

Dr. Wayne Dyer expressed his philosophy thusly, 

“Look upon every experience you’ve ever had, and everyone who’s ever played any role in your life, as having been sent to you for your benefit. In this universe, which was created by a divine, organizing intelligence, there are simply no accidents.”

In his book, Your Erroneous Zones (©1976 – Avon Books), his advice was, “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”

So, is that it? Are we simply powerless victims to change? It is true that change is the only constant in life?

Have you ever heard of a guy by the name of Jesus? He did some really awesome things. He was born of a virgin, lived a perfect and sinless life, went to a cross and was sacrificed on our behalf, shedding his blood and dying so we might receive ultimate forgiveness and the right to become the sons and daughters of God by adoption.

He was placed in a borrowed tomb where his body laid for three days and rose again victorious over sin, death, and hell.

He calls us, as his followers, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor (the people in the world) the same way he loves us.

He commissioned his followers to engage the world in which we live, share his message of salvation and make disciples of every nation while teaching them by word and example what it means to be a follower and disciple of Jesus.

He ascended to heaven with the promise that he would return and gather his church to himself for eternity.

Here’s the kicker – not too theological, I know, but – everything I have just shared with you is unchanging and constant, untouched by the world and unphased by those who would oppose him and his truth.

How do I know? Ever read Hebrews 13:8? If not, here it is:

“JESUS CHRIST IS THE SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND FOREVER.”

Years ago, when I was early in my ministry, I was helping one of the church trustees repair a broken waterline at the parsonage (remember those?). As we were working, brother Alva looked me in the eye and asked, “Preacher, did you ever plow a field using a horse?”

“What kind of a question is that?” I thought to myself, he knows I grew up in the city.

He also knew that I was green as a gourd, young, inexperienced, and (dare I say) full of myself. He was setting me up to hopefully teach his young pastor something he needed to learn.

“No, of course not, have you?” What a stupid thing to say! I knew better but the words came out before I could catch them and stuff them back into my throat.

Alva, unphased responded, with a twinkle in his eye, “You familiar with Luke 9:62 where Jesus said that anyone who puts his hand to the plow and looks back isn’t fit for the kingdom of God? Do you know why that was important?”

I just stood there, positive he was going to tell me whether I wanted him to or not.

“When a farmer plowed a field with oxen or horse the only way he could keep his row straight was to focus on an immovable object. He had to keep his eyes fixed on that object. If, at any time, he looked back to see how straight his row was, his plow would go crooked every time.”

“I didn’t know that.” I responded.

“Preacher, the only way to keep your life movin’ forward and plow a straight row is to keep your eyes firmly fixed on the immovable object. That immovable object is Jesus. Don’t ever take your eyes off of him!”

I wish I would have taken Brother Alva’s words more seriously and recognized the wisdom he desired to share with me back then. I would have soaked up every moment with him.

Fortunately, there was enough of that conversation that planted itself in my heart that one day it took root and bloomed. Someday, I’m going to have the opportunity to thank him for seeing something in a young preacher that caused him to share some of his country wisdom and biblical understanding.

Change? Yeah, it’s all around us. Some we can impact, some we can’t. But we can take comfort that change is not the only constant we have in our world and life.

We have an unchanging Savior whose promises, truths, and presence can never be diminished by any change this world throws our way.

About the Author: Danny Risinger is the pastor of Mount Pleasant General Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, Indiana. He recently celebrated 51 years of marriage to his wife Shirley, and 48 years of being an ordained minister. He is a graduate of Oakland City College and Newburgh Theological Seminary.