Obedience is God’s love language.

Obedience..Let’s be honest, it’s not the most exciting word. In fact, there’s a pretty good chance you are tempted to quickly tap on the little red “x” at the top of your browser, or “accidentally” strike the escape button. Don’t do that. Hang with me for a couple of minutes.

It was about three years ago when I began to notice a major stirring in our household. My husband and I, married at the ripe age of 21, had spent our entire marriage building. Most of the building was in our careers. Having married while I was still in nursing school (10/10 do not recommend), we worked long hours to simply survive in the beginning. We threw all of our time and energy into building ourselves a future and a home.

Life was moving at a rapid pace. We had children almost immediately, climbed the corporate ladder quickly, built our forever home, and I left my nursing career to operate my own business. Finally, we had “arrived”….Or so we thought. That’s when the stirring began.

There was a restlessness. I saw it in my husband and in myself. I noticed the more time I’d spent in the word, the hungrier I became. Conversations with the people around us suddenly included rumblings of “What if God is asking more from us?” I spent hours trying to rationalize how or why we’d ever pivot from the life we had built to something imaginary and less secure.

Even having parents and grandparents in full-time ministry, I still didn’t have the eyes to see it yet. Surely, the Lord wasn’t nudging us to walk away from everything WE had accomplished…I mean, everything he had just blessed us with…

I’ll spare you the long version of this story because it’s quite layered. Ultimately, God was asking for our obedience. Per the recommendation of my former pastor’s wife, we picked up the book “Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge” by Mark Batterson and intentionally created a circle around us to intercede on our behalf. We didn’t even know what we were praying for. There was no indication of “what” God wanted us to step into. We just prayed that God would reveal His first step to us.

On the morning of day 40, my husband was announced to have joined the staff at Center Point Church in Hendersonville, TN. That’s the polished way of saying he said yes to leaving his six figure job in corporate America for a part-time position in our church with a milelong job description. Welcome to ministry!

Here’s the thing. I’ve been taking notes over the last three years…a lot of them. I could tell you story after story of what God has taught us. I could show you how He’s been faithful to us financially when it made absolutely NO sense on paper. I could share a lot of wonderful things we’ve seen God do in and through the people of our church. I could also shed light on the pain, grief, and loneliness of entering ministry with very little mentorship. But this season of our story started with an act of obedience.

What’s your love language? Personally, mine floats between acts of service and quality time. Obedience is God’s love language. John 14:15 says “If You love me, obey my commandments.” What He’s asking from us, and for us, is right there in scripture. Eccelsiastes says in the conclusion to “Fear God and keep His commandments.”

Obedience > Outcome.

Oftentimes, I think we overcomplicate Christianity. We forget to teach those coming behind us that it’s not our job to control our lives, but to be in relationship with the Lord of our lives. That first “yes” of obedience our family took into full-time ministry was the EASIEST act of obedience yet. To the world, it made no sense. And by world, I mean we had family and friends we love who didn’t understand or fully agree.

I am beyond thankful the first “yes” was confirmed in so many ways because it gave us laser focus clarity. Without that, I think there would have been many times we would have questioned the call. Can I tell you why? Our big acts of obedience don’t usually compare to the difficulty of walking out our everyday obedience.

Obedience is hard because holiness is hard. Obedience is what keeps us in the word each day. It’s asking God to search our hearts and prune us, even when it hurts our pride. Sometimes it looks like continuing to show up and steward the ministries He’s given us when we feel worn out, defeated, or even lost.

Practically speaking, it’s not responding to a text message the way our flesh wants to when someone gets us wrong. Or waiting to have a hard conversation until after you’ve prayed about it. We walk out our everyday obedience because that’s how God feels loved. It’s mesmerizing to me that the pages of His word are infused with a beautiful love story where the God of the universe is saying “I created you because I love you! And I just want to be loved back!” He makes it clear. If we love him, we will obey him.

Here’s the caveat. The level we obey him, is based upon the level in which we believe the above is true. Do we believe we are incredibly loved by God? Are we leading our teams and churches from this place of love and security, or from our own doubts, insecurities, and fears? If we want to walk out an obedient life, we have to ask ourselves the hard questions. So let’s ask ourselves:

What part of God’s character am I struggling to believe today? How is my unbelief affecting my obedience to Him? Take some time to wrestle with these questions, and then be obedient to what God reveals to you.

About the Author: Lauren Pugh, and her husband Thomas, serve on staff at Center Point Church in Hendersonville, TN. They have a hunger to seek the presence of God and to make Him known.

In Joshua 1 we find an interesting beginning to the book. God makes the statement that Moses is dead. Immediately Joshua seems to be distraught and begins to question his capabilities and his calling. God tells Joshua in the first nine verses of the book that he needs to be strong and courageous a total of three times. God also made a promise to Joshua that if he would stand firm for God’s kingdom and meditate on His word, then God would in turn be with Joshua just as he was with Moses.

Undoubtedly, the last few years have been tough for all of us. Covid-19 made a huge impact on the entire world and the church world was not spared from its ramifications. Yet, this new season of life has presented itself with fresh perspectives, various ways to evangelize to people, and the opportunity for many churches and pastors to reevaluate their methodologies. My friends, I share with you a comforting message. In the New Testament, Jesus says that He has overcome the world. That tells all of us that there is never a time to throw our hands up in dismay or hang our heads in defeat.

Instead, spark new life into the church and your local community. This might be a time when it would be good to launch a discipleship program or challenge the Timothy in your church to branch out for God’s kingdom. Whatever your church decides to do will be a positive step forward. Just as Joshua allowed God to lead him during one of the most uncertain times of his life, we too should shift our focus to what God is leading us to do. Just as Joshua found out time and time again, there is nothing impossible when God is in control. 

Keeping up with the recent emphasis across our denomination that has been placed on calling, my family has answered the call to become missionaries to the Philippines after spending the last four years in Saipan. This new journey has begun with the deputation process. We would love to have the opportunity to speak with you and your churches. Please consider praying for us and supporting financially as God leads. You can contact us at justin.cook@generalbaptist.com. All offerings made toward our ministry should include “Cook Philippines” in the memo line.

May everyone be blessed by the continuation of their involvement in God’s work locally, regionally, and around the world. 

About the Author: Justin Cook and his wife Carolyn have served the past 4 years in Saipan. They have recently answered a call to become missionaries to the Philippines, where Justin will be serving as a professor at the General Baptist Bible College in Davao City. Justin’s passion is helping young men and women discover the call God has on each one of their lives.

While scrolling social media, I happened upon an open question from Travis Stephens that resonated with a conversation held just a week earlier with a few of my colleagues in ministry on the topic of churches struggling to fill positions of leadership, especially the role of pastor.

I reflected for a moment on my own calling and how, during that time, God used a single General Baptist church in White House, Tennessee to bring forward numerous men as pastors and leaders. Each of these men received or acknowledged their calling under the same man – Pastor Larry Treadway. My recollection from the late 90s and early 2000’s is that there were few, if any, empty pulpits in our local association; yet men were stepping forward in response.

Reacting to Travis’ question, “Why do you think fewer young people are going into ministry and what can we as the church do about it?”, I spewed out a “Top 12” list. Some were deep. Some not so much.

With a bit more substance…and in no particular order (beyond #1), I offer the following:

• We need more diligent, directed prayer specifically to see pastors called. It starts here. With all of us. Everyone. Not only pastors. Perhaps we have not because we ask not.

• Young people respond to example. We need more examples. Some churches have not seen a single person baptized in years, let alone step into ministry, leading some of our younger generations to perhaps question the stirrings in their own heart.

• Shrinking and/or Aging Congregations. There are no young men to respond to a call if there are no young men in the congregation. As well, a young person may be hesitant in preaching to a crowd of his elders. “What can I teach them?”  Timothy moment.

• Men respect strength and courage. A man that will fearlessly lead a church in the face of all efforts of the enemy will see men stand beside him and young men follow.

• The value of what can be accomplished in a small church by a pastor that loves Jesus is sometimes overshadowed by the flash and the prominence of “megachurches.”  The expectation of having to “deliver at that level” to be considered successful is daunting and unrealistic…and unnecessary.  Honor and encourage pastors and leaders in their service where they are and for who they are.

• Pastors should…with great discernment…seek out, recognize, and help to ignite the spark in a young person. Champion and encourage them. “I see God working in you. How can I help? Do you have any questions?  Again…Timothy.

• Many churches have removed Sunday and Wednesday evening services, which leads to a lack of opportunity for younger people to preach.  A church that previously had 150 services per year now have only 52, and it was likely these evening services most often utilized for training up young men and women in ministry. I fondly remember a time when young preachers were called up to deliver messages at local GB churches on Sunday and Wednesday nights.  The crowd was typically smaller, but made up of the “doors open” folk. Unintentionally, pastors can be protective of pulpit time. The reduced number of services also means fewer moments in the pulpit for those already serving. The first time that a young man stands in the pulpit is more often successful when approached with those who love them and want them to succeed.  Adding back something as simple as a quarterly Sunday evening reserved for someone other than the lead pastor can provide a great proving ground. Open the pulpit.

• Too many openly complain about how hard it is to be a pastor. Personal note:  This literally makes me throw up my hands and yell “Stop it!” “It’s not rewarding enough. It doesn’t pay enough. The world is against us. I’ll be canceled.” Speaking in private to an accountability team, spouse, friends who are discreet…completely understood.  But on social media or from the pulpit? Why would anyone want to be a pastor when the majority of what they hear or read about being pastor or ministry leader is negative? Pastors sharing “Why I chose to step down from the pulpit” articles on social media is not conducive to developing new pastors. Another caution here is how we speak about pastoring in front of our own kids.  Pastors’ kids have an upbringing that is different than most others, and what we allow them to hear has an unquestionable impact on their opinion of ministry. My own personal experience speaks here.

• Some small struggling churches have become comfortable being small struggling churches because growth would mean change…particularly in tradition. A young pastor might have new ideas and desire to do things that would change their demographics…like bringing in young people.  Or drums.
  
• The call to culture is in constant conflict with the call to ministry…and modern culture is LOUD in the ears of our younger generations.
  
• Not every young person is called to start out in youth ministry. Seriously.
  
• Lack of support and resourcing can take the feet out from under even experienced pastors. When a young person announces a call to ministry, the church should be ready and eager to help, support, and encourage them in every way possible.

Pulling these various threads together, my heart is drawn back to #1. Prayer. Diligent, intentional prayer for God to work a mighty work in the hearts of our younger generations and call them forward to proclaim the Gospel.

We should not only pray that God would move in the hearts of young men and women to respond to leadership, but that we…all of us…would be moved to support these men and women with affirmation, resources, finances, and celebration.

About the Author: Bill Petty is the Worship Pastor at Revolution Church in White House, TN. Alongside his wife, Cinda, and his children, Eve and William, he has served in multiple roles, including lead pastor, with more than 20 years in ministry…most of that time with a guitar somewhere close by.

General Baptist Ministries is trying to address this issue right now. Please join the Answering the Call Prayer Team to get updates on how God is moving in General Baptist churches all over the world. And for more info and resources visit our website.