I notice in these new days of ministry, oftentimes, pastors, people, and staff alike, are so busy with innovation, technique, jet-setting to the next conference, stage sets, and “the next big thing” that many times forgotten are some of the most important acts of ministry we could do: Make phone calls to your people, take a hurting person to lunch, visit someone in the hospital, and just be a pastor to people. We are quickly losing factors like holiness, fasting, the passion of prayer, and just the basics of the Bible.
No doubt, we are seeing a revival of kingdom-mindedness, but we may be throwing in the towel on the above. People want relevance, sure! But they also still want revelation. If we just keep in mind the Psychology of people from the garden all the way up to today, it is still the same! People need people to care and do life with them, bear their burdens, love them, pray for them, show them the way back to God, give them mercy, give them grace, show them strong truth, and sometimes actually just listen. Our culture will continue shifting, dress will change, music will change, worship styles will change, and our world will evolve closer and closer to the soon return of Jesus, BUT, people are people and folk are folk and the inner needs that God made us all crave will ALWAYS be the same! For all of us, let’s not forget people as we journey forward……let’s not build our kingdoms while forgetting His and let’s not become ivory palace celebrity pastors while Jesus loved the common man. Give your email address out to someone today! Give your cell phone number out to someone today! It may very well be the accountability and deterent you need to stay humble and full of humility, therefore finishing well. There will be a day that you wish it would ring and that there would be mail in your box. I could name some leaders for you, but I won’t!
Wow! What a reminder that our activities, no matter how trendy or relevant, must come, not just from a creative mind, but from a heart that is reflecting Christ.
As much as I’ve read Oswald Chambers, I was reading today’s devotional in My Utmost for His Highest and it just destroyed me, in a good way. He said, “Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent; it came from the pit, no matter how beautiful it sounds.”
Great post, Shane.