Prayer for Pastors

Father,

I know it’s not easy to be a servant leader. To find the balance between what the people want and what they need. You have called us to serve and not be served. To love people before we lead them and never to lead them in search of significance, status or substance for ourselves. Help us today God. Father my heart bleeds for your church. We have strayed so far from “freely you have received, freely give”.

What have we done?! Forgive us?

Help Pastors and ministers all over this country and the world to hear your voice again. Bring the hearts of Pastor back in line with your heart. Help us to remember the poor and powerless, the broken hearted and the discouraged.

Father we need you, we depend on you, we love you. Help us in this hour of need not to focus on our greed, on ourselves, on our lust, in Jesus name.

Amen

Feel free to add your prayer for Pastors.

 

Re-thinking Pastoral Authority

 

Every member of clergy, and every lay person at some point, has to come to clarity on the issue of pastoral authority. Where does it start and where does it end? If pastoral authority is not recognized, we nullify the structure of the church that our Lord, its founder, set in place. If no boundaries are observed in pastoral authority, we’ll find ourselves mindlessly following every wind of doctrine and would have reduced our salvation to nothing more than a game of “Simon Says.”

God has clearly called us to love Him with all our minds, and that means we are required to confront hard topics, study, and intelligently come to a conclusion on the matter. In short, we are called to be thinking Christians. For far too long we have accepted folk theology and tradition as law. Certainly there is a place for tradition, as we study what the fathers of the faith have to say on the issue we wrestle with today. Yet, more and more it seems we have elevated those with titles above or superior to the rest of the Body. Somewhere in church history we seem to have confused the titles Pastor/Bishop/Elder with King/Lord/Crown. We seem to intertwine the words ‘servant’ and ‘sovereign.’

Those of us who have grown up in the church and/or find ourselves a part of an abusive church often become desensitized and explain away over-extensions of authority or spiritual abuse as the will of God. We are often waiting for God to tell us it’s time to leave. Do you believe that spiritual abuse is real? Why or why not.

Spiritual Abuse is rampant, so much so that there are a number of books and other resources for those in need of recovery. Not quite sure whether you’re a victim? Chances are that if this article makes you really uncomfortable, you are. To take a test from TOXIC FAITH by Steve Arterburn and Jack Felton, click here

Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer. Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’ Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and he’s in heaven.” Matthew 23:1-9

You should also read 1 Peter 5: 1- 6 and 1 Thess. 2:7-8 and Mark 10: 42-45

Being a part of the church for the last twenty-eight years and being in ministry for at least the last sixteen, I have both experienced spiritual abuse first-hand and stood witness while it took place. I have seen pastors tell people when they could and couldn’t get married or divorced. I’ve witnessed pastors demand the tithe or else. I’ve witnessed others use the pulpit to get the last word or hurl insults. I’ve heard it stated that when the pastor speaks, you might as well accept it as if God himself was speaking to you. I’ve seen too many victimized to stay silent. I don’t know what you feel reading this, but for me it hurts. The reality is that people leave broken and often times never make it back. Talk to me. Have I gone too far? Have I said too much? Or is time for us to get things back in biblical order? Click here to respond unless, of course, you need permission from your pastor… Lighten up if you’re not laughing.

 

For the love of our children

Yesterday my daughter wanted to go walking. She wanted to add to her rock collection. It was a chance to spend time with the family outside of the house, and I love walks anyway, so off to the park we went. We get there and the state park has a fee. We didn’t feel like paying to walk, so we went to the trail we noticed close by. Out of the car and on paved path, easy enough I thought.

We start walking, noticed some interesting signs about poisonous snakes and plants and animals that bite that we shouldn’t feed. Then the paved path disappears and before I know it, I find myself climbing a mountain. I’m not walking, I’m hiking! Half way up the mountain not knowing how far I have to go, I’m thinking to myself, “Oh, the things we do for the love of our children.”

All in all “Nature girl” inspired us to try something new and actually wonderful. Now I’m on a quest to find a longer hiking trail. I love a challenge! Have you ever been hiking? Do tell.

 

Rethinking church Size; does it matter?

Rethinking church Size; does it matter?

 

As we approach the church plant, here in Texas, where everything is bigger including churches we have to confront the question of size. How big is too big? We wonder. Then the obvious answer seems to be, you’ve grown too big when you can’t be effective or efficient, but you have to know the purpose of church to figure that out. What is the purpose of The Church?

 

Do you remember the days of church when everybody knew your name, and we were very much family. Do you remember the days of the community church not just the church in the community?

 

These days there are Mega churches in America that boast from 2000 to as many as 47000 members, restaurants, gymnasiums, bookstores, coffees shops, light shows, video productions, gift shops and more all in the church. Visitors have described the experiences as a kin to being at a rock concert or a great show. Some love it, some hate it. Click here to share your thoughts?

 

On the other end of the spectrum there is a rise in churches that are deliberately small being called micro churches. These churches are all about relationship and community impact. They meet in homes, coffee shops, on the job and some even in bars. You loose the hype the screens the technology but you gain intimacy. Some say there cool and focused on reaching those in need of Christ. I love the concept. What do you think?

 

Re-thinking the way we dress for church

Have you ever thought about how you dress for church? Is dressing up reverent and dressing casually irreverent? Is your choice of dress a deliberate decision or are you just following a tradition, expectation, or mandate even?

I remember as a young minister being admonished and later rebuked for not dressing like a minister. I always wore slacks and a dress shirt but, once a minister, I was expected to add a tie and a sports jacket. Even better, a suit would be nice, and an expensive one would be best.

Some say it’s a part of worship. Some say we should honor God with our best presentation or appearance. They argue that we should look different than the world. Some go as far as to put restrictions on what is and is not acceptable. The church of my childhood forbade men to have long hair and required women to keep long hair or keep their hair covered. They still do. Some restrict jewelry and make-up. Is there really a biblical basis for such a mandate?

On the other side, pastors preaching in jeans and polo shirts seem to be on the rise. I recently went to a conference and some of the presenters even had flip-flops on. They argue that being you is important. Further, they say that a person’s dress has very little, if anything at all, to do with their reverence and worship of God. Arguments here and here seem to run even deeper, claiming negative socio-economical implications and irrelevance to the culture are just some of the results of the “Sunday best” mentality.

Is “Sunday best” dressing out of place for church today? How are the poor or less fashionable to feel about all of this? What about the leaders of your church? Do you expect them to “dress the part?” Are we dressing to impress others, God, or ourselves? Think about it and let’s talk. Responses here please.