ARISE and GO…

This weekend our church, West Hickory Baptist will be holding an Evangelism Conference entitled “ARISE and GO“. I know in our culture today, the idea of attending an evangelism conference may not be on our list of priorities, if at all. But, I am excited about this conference for a couple of reasons.

One, occassionally we encounter someone with incredible passion for the Gospel, and we secretly wonder what makes them different. Well, nothing makes them different, it’s just their enthusiasm stems from a deep understanding of what Jesus has done for them. This knowledge has transformed their behavior and their life. Pastor Terry is that such person that I am referring to. He has put this evangelism conference together because of his enthusiasm for Jesus Christ! This enthusiasm is inspiring to me and I hope to you (for those that know him). Jesus is alive, and has we will see in Acts 8, not even death could prevent the early church from sharing the Gospel with the world. See, in order to see the Gospel spread and lives changed, we need to do more than pray. We need to go!

Acts 8, an angel of the Lord says to Philip, “arise and go.” Well, Philip like many of us had two choices. 1.) Hear God’s voice, remain comfortable where we are and do nothing or 2.) Hear God’s voice, get uncomfortable about the idea of sharing the Gospel and Go. It really is that simple when it comes to how willing we are to share the Gospel. Philip chose to listen and obey and guess what? He was so passionate about sharing God’s word with anyone that he came across an Ethiopian who was eagerly awaiting for someone to . Here was his chance, the moment he had been called to and the outcome is beautiful.

“Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news of Jesus.” (Acts 8:35) How beautiful is that?

Too many times, we choose to remain comfortable in our church pews or seats and we sometimes forget how the Gospel has changed us.

Second, I am looking forward to this weekend that I may reevaluate what Jesus has done for me. I don’t want to just be a “comfortable” Christian, I want to be obedient to what God has called me (us) to do. Matthew 28:19-20 commands us to “GO”, so our only response to all He’s done is to get moving!

We look forward to worshiping and growing with you this weekend at our Evangelism Conference. We start at 6:30PM on Friday and 6:00PM on Saturday.

The Brick Wall of Ministry

Athletes often speak of “hitting the wall”, a moment when their bodies appear to be exhausted of all its energy and pleads to quit.

I borrow this phrase to share in this post about the day I finally hit my “spiritual brick wall” in ministry. This year marks twenty years I have been in ministry and I have always heard of pastors getting “burned out” in ministry. I have personally never been to the point of “burning out”, but this year I finally hit “the brick wall” in ministry.

Earlier this year my sense of certainty had been rocked. Finding my self sleep-deprived, my self-confidence threatened, I began to question my worth as a student pastor, and trying to pretend to everyone around me (even my family and friends) that I was fine. The truth is, I was far from fine. I was a complete train wreck on the inside. My body and mind had hit the “brick wall” in ministry. I was exhausted, anxious and to the point of depression all at the same time. I couldn’t bring myself to tell those closest to me the pain I was going through (yes, I realize now that was my pride talking).

I continued to stay in God’s Word but truly did not have a desire to listen to what I was reading, I had no desire to pray and seek God. It was at this moment, that I became scared and allowed Satan to have power over my insecurities, fears and doubts. I began to see my worth as a pastor as useless, making no difference whatsoever. I was shaken to my core, with no where to turn. But God in His rich mercy, broke through my pride, my weakness, my doubts and insecurities and reminded me that I was exactly where He had placed me. It was Him who called me to the ministry and that He would be with me wherever I go. (The book of Joshua and Ephesians was a huge help!)

Finally, three weeks ago I finally caved and shared with my wife where I was spiritually and physically. She was a little taken back at first, but it was during that moment that God was using her to begin healing my heart and my ministry. (Our wives are a very powerful gift from God!) Over the next few days, I began to slowly read Psalm 139 and while reading this amazing Psalm, I was brought to the realization that I was so focused on everything else that I had completely disregarded my own spiritual growth. The harsh realization was that I was trying to live on an empty soul, while at the same time trying to minister to others. That is a gut-wrenching moment, when you realize that you are running on an empty soul!

In the days since, I have made a promise to God and to myself that I would reorganize my life, my priorities and better yet, my relationship with Jesus Christ. It may have taken twenty years to hit a wall like this, but I never want to go through a wall-hitting experience like this again. (I will be ok, if this only happens once every twenty years!)

Just as athletes will eventually “hit the wall”, so too will pastors. No matter how much we think we are, we are not invulnerable. If we are not careful in protecting our hearts, our relationship with Christ and our ministries, we will always run out of energy and motivation. I have posted a video from Jeremy Camp entitled, “Empty Me”. This was the song that Jana and I had played at our wedding. It symbolized that we were committing our lives to serve God in whatever capacity that might be. Today, this is still my desire, to daily chase after God, the lover of my soul, to serve Him whole heartedly with everything that I have for the glory of God.