It's Me

On my train ride to work, I began reading a book entitled “Changing Lives through Preaching and Worship – 30 Strategies for Powerful Communication”. There is no one author for this book but many contributors. Great preachers/pastors/authors such as Gardner Taylor, Warren Wiersbe, Chuck Swindoll, Jack Hayford, Eugene Peterson, and many others.

I read part on Personality – Your Preaching is Unique written by Warren Wiersbe. As I read finished reading I had to pray and ask God to forgive me because at the end of 2010 I was extremely hard on myself in personal/private ministry. However, Warren Wiersbe’s writing has made think as well as repent for attitude and actions as it relates to my pulpit ministry. I want to post a few statements of pastor Wiersbe’s writing that has reshaped my thought process for the assignment I’ve been given.

The Difference a witness makes – page 7

A Christianity Today/Gallup Poll some years ago showed that ministers believe preaching is the number one priority of their ministries, but it’s also the one thing they feel least capable of doing well. What causes this insecure attitude toward preaching?
For one thing, we’ve forgotten what preaching really is. Phillips Brooks said it best: Preaching is the communicating of divine truth through human personality. The divine truth never changes; the human personality constantly changes—and this is what makes the message new and unique. – page 7

God prepares the person who prepares the message. Martin Luther said that prayer, meditation, and temptation made a preacher. Prayer and meditation will give you a sermon, but only temptation—the daily experience of life—can transform that sermon into a message. It’s the difference between the recipe and the meal.

The experiences we preachers go through are not accidents; they are appointments. They do not interrupt our studies; they are an essential part of our studies. Our personalities, our physical equipment, and even our handicaps are all part of the kind of ministry God wants us to have. He wants us to be witnesses as well as heralds.

The myth of “The Great Sermon” – page 9

As an itinerant Bible teacher, I know what it’s like to “hit a place and quit a place,” and I can assure you it is not easy. After thirty years of ministry, which included pastoring three churches, I’ve concluded it is much easier to preach to your own congregation week after week. You get to know them, and they get to know you. You’re not a visiting Christian celebrity, but a part of the family. It is this identification with the people that gives power and relevance to your preaching.
Accepting what we’re not – page 12

I learned very early in my ministry that I was not an evangelist. Although I’ve seen people come to Christ through my ministry, I’ve always felt I was a failure when it came to evangelism.
One of the few benefits of growing older is a better perspective. Now I’m learning that my teaching and writing ministries have enabled others to lead people to Christ, so my labors have not been in vain. But I’ve had my hours of discouragement and the feeling of failure.
God gives us the spiritual gifts he wants us to have; he puts us in the places he wants us to serve; and he gives the blessings he wants us to enjoy.

I am convinced of this, but this conviction is not an excuse for laziness or for barrenness of ministry. Knowing I am God’s man in God’s place of ministry has encouraged me to study harder and do my best work. When the harvests were lean, the assurance that God put me there helped to keep me going. When the battles raged and the storms blew, my secure refuge was “God put me here, and I will stay here until he tells me to go.”

A word from the Scottish preacher George Morrison has buoyed me up in many a storm: “Men who do their best always do more though they be haunted by the sense of failure. Be good and true; be patient; be undaunted. Leave your usefulness for God to estimate. He will see to it that you do not live in vain.”

My prayer: Father, forgive me for believing in my own accomplishments and ambitious expectations to determine Your usefulness for me. You’ve called, prepared, and predetermined my future. So Lord, help me to be disciplined personally to avoid those temptations that seek to destroy Your divine purpose for my life. Lord, help me to be disciplined in my study and prayer time to insure proper interpretation of Your Word to Your people that will foster life change. Lord, allow my worship to be filled with truth and spirit that will spring forth worship in the atmosphere of every worship service. I’m in Your hands do what You will as I remain faithful to You and my assignment. In Jesus name, Amen!