Balanced View
As I was reading this week I came across a question that really got my attention. It is found in the Gospel of John chapter one verse 22: ”Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?” Who art thou, in my opinion, can be cut and dry. A description of your job title or position. I am a missionary. I am a preacher. I am a father. I am a husband. My name is Tony. Yet the last question dug at me. ”What sayest thou of thyself?” How do you describe yourself? John told them in verse 23 “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.”
This would have been an opportune time for John to take advantage of the situation. ”Don’t you know whose cousin I am?” ”I am not the Christ, but we are great friends!” John could have elaborated greatly on how special he was to God and the purpose God had for him even from the womb.
What sayest thou of thyself? John said, I am just a voice of one crying in the wilderness. No parades needed. No photo opportunities. No fashion consultants. No special phone calls. No name dropping. Me? I am just a voice. A voice with a message that must be heralded with all that is within me. My University? Oh we are a small lot. You have probably never heard of us. A guy name Paul will enroll here one day. It is Holy Ghost University where we are taught by God.
We must beware of the desire to promote ourselves and take advantage of situations by building ourselves up. John’s whole attitude was one of Christ and Christ alone. That Christ would increase and that he would decrease. His disciples, he gave to Christ. His ministry, name, position, and even life, he gave to Christ. Do I have an over inflated view of myself that makes it where men can not see Christ?
What sayest thou of thyself? I want to be a voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. Has your ministry been more about you than Christ? What sayest thou of thyself? Not much for I must take every breath and say much of Christ.
I know this is random, just dumping my heart on you today. It is not about us, but Him. Be a voice even if everyone else falls into silence. Be a voice for Him.
Bro. Tony
Great Idea
I was recently in a church, and being the nosy person that I am, was asking about their different ministries. One thing they do is have people turn in prayer request sheets on Wednesday night for prayer. This sheet has information like who is giving the request, date, person to pray for, relationship, describe condition or prayer need. This is filled out and turned into the pastor. If the people desire a card to be sent they add the address to the request form. The person is prayed for and also sent a card by a group of people volunteering to do this. They add names and addresses to a running list each week.
One man gave the testimony that he had received cards every week for over three months with what he was going through and his own church had not sent one. (This is not to steal members but to minister!) A couple weeks before I arrived at the church a man had accepted Christ because of the door that was opened through this ministry.
Just an idea to work from but I really liked it.
Bro. Tony
Rodney Holmes On His Way!
Today is Tuesday, August 25th, and I just spoke with Bro. Rodney Holmes. It is 9:00 a.m. and Bro. Rodney and his family are at the gate in Atlanta getting ready to head to Peru, South America. He will go there for language school and train with South American director, Chris Gardner.
This is truly an exciting day for this family and I just want you to remember them in prayer as they make this transition. Bro. Rodney and his family have worked so hard on deputation and been a blessing to many; South America will be getting one of our very best.
Their field is Venezuela. Pray that God would have His good hand on Rodney and, like Nehemiah, the “king” would grant him passage. The president of Venezuela is not friendly to missionaries.
Rodney let your family know that they are loved and prayed for.
Bro. Tony
Stateside Young People
The following I received from the World Evangelism quote of the day. If you do not receive this, I highly encourage you to sign up. This stirred my heart and I wanted to share it with you. May God use you to stir up young people to serve God while you are in the states.
“You wonder why people choose fields away from the States when young people at home are drifting
because no one wants to take time to listen to their problems. I’ll tell you why I left. Because those
Stateside young people have every opportunity to study, hear, and understand the Word of God in their
own language, and these Indians have no opportunity whatsoever. I have had to make a cross of two logs,
and lie down on it, to show the Indians what it means to crucify a man. When there is that much ignorance over here and so much knowledge and opportunity over there, I have no question in my mind why God sent me here. Those whimpering Stateside young people will wake up on the Day of Judgment condemned to
worse fates than these demon-fearing Indians, because, having a Bible, they were bored with it—while
these never heard of such a thing as writing.”
- Jim Elliot
Resources
I have been burdened about making sure those on deputation have the resources that they need. I am asking those of you who are currently on, or have been on, deputation to give me input of information that would be helpful to you.
Please sent your ideas to howeth@mwbm.org I will do what I can to make sure you have what you need as you prepare for the field. Thank you for your ideas and input.
Bro. Tony
Five Essentials For Victory
In reading “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu I thought it interesting his five essentials for Victory.
1. He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
2. He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
3. He will win whose army in animated by the same spirit throughout the ranks.
4. he will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
5. He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.
How could you take these five essentials for military life and apply them to the ministry? We must never forget that we are in a spiritual warfare and whether we believe it or not, it is real. May we walk in the victory that is through Christ our Lord.
Bro. Tony
Please Pray
Well this week starts youth camp for Promisedland Baptist Church in Gastonia, NC. Pastor Tony Bazen is a great friend and I thank God for him. Please keep me in your prayers this week as we preach and encourage these young people to serve God. Communication will be difficult so I will update you at the end of the week. May God bless you as you serve Him.
Bro. Tony
Deputation Testimony
The following was sent to me to encourage those on deputation. I have not changed it in any form. It is from a missionary who has now gone on to the field but wanted to lovingly challenge the ones still on deputation. God is good…..all the time!
Bro. Tony
Do you have faith or is it unbelief:
How many times as we are on deputation or even in our Christian walk, have we asked or said these things.
*How are we going to make it?
*What are we going to do for meals?
*Where are we going to get the money form for our bills?
*I wonder if this church is going to take us on for support?
*Are they going to give a good love offering?
*I hope this vehicle makes it one more time.
*We don’t have the money to go to some of the meeting!
*We haven’t seen God do much through us lately.
I can go on and on.
Wives, let me ask you something, how many time have you nagged your husband about these things? You are always saying we can’t afford to do that; we can’t go to that seminar we don’t have the money. We can’t afford the motel room.
My wife and I faced these things the two and half years on deputation. There was one time we were going to the Our Generation Summit in TN in Dec. of 2007. As we were going to a meeting in Wilmington, DE my wife kept on ask and saying what is the meeting about, why should we go, we don’t have the money now because of Christmas, why does it coast so much for the rooms, and we are wasting gas just for a seminar.
Does this sound familiar guys?
This was my reply. Now don’t miss this!
What are you doing about it? In your prayer time are you asking God, and do you trust Him? Are letting God build up you faith?
For you see men they are just relying on us for the faith and not with in them selves. And so she got quiet, and let me tell you what happened. We went to the church that night for the meeting, presented, preached, and had a wonderful service, (yes, in the north). I was handed an envelope by the pastor, (which I knew it was a love offering) and also a man in the church handed me a mission’s envelope and it felt empty, and so we went out to eat and didn’t think to look until later that night. Do I have to tell you the rest? Let me put it this way; it was enough that will pay for the room in TN and a little extra.
We went to the meeting in TN and they didn’t have us down for a room, so now what. Just by luck; yah right; another missionary was in TN that had a cabin and they offered for us to stay with them. So you see we worry for nothing. God has it all in control and we just need to trust Him. If He wants you to be there and you have prayed about it and God confirms it, the “Just Trust Him”.
God is trying to build up our faith before we go to the field, because the “Just shall live by faith”. Not just in us men but in our wives as well. If she doesn’t get a hold of this faith, then she can be a great hindrance on deputation, and in the work when you get to the field.
No name: just want you to give God all the glory and hope it will be a blessing to encourage you all on deputation.
Matt. 13:58
Maybe it is because of our UNBELIEF!
Rom. 1:17; Gal. 2:20, 3:11; & Heb. 10:38, 12:2
Starting A Church
This was written by a man who has started several churches in the States. I can not stress to you the importance of preparing yourself before you start a church so that you will be (somewhat) ready when the church does start. God bless you greatly.
There are many different ways churches have been started. I am in favor of any honorable method that proves to be successful. Any method that works, you might say, is a good plan. However, my experience tells me that some methods are better than others. Unfortunately, many church plants are not successful and there are reasons why they are not successful. Though there are many ways to successfully start a church, there are methods that are more likely to fail.
Recently a young man spoke to me and said, “I believe God wants me to start a church, but I’m not sure what I should do first.” Some of the following thoughts are those I shared with this young man.
1) You should d
The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become. – Henry Martyn
How you believe God perceives people will determine how you respond to them. etermine whether or not you are prepared to undertake such a great challenge. You, as a church planter, must receive the approval of your home church and especially your pastor. If your pastor cannot approve of your plan, how can you expect other preachers to approve of your actions? Probably no one is ever fully prepared for the task of church planting; however, I am confident some men would be wise to wait until their church believes they are ready. A premature start may signal failure and perhaps end future aspirations of starting again. A young man that is sent out with the blessing of his church and his pastor has a greatly increased his possibility of success.
2) You must determine where you believe God would have you start this new church. In which town or city will you begin? It is difficult to raise support and make plans if you do not know where you are headed. There are many considerations in knowing where God would have you go, but you must go to the place of God’s leading.
3) You must determine if your home church will be your reproducing church or if another church may be closer or more capable of helping to reproduce the church. Remember, churches start churches. Allowing a godly and experienced preacher to advise you in this endeavor reveals your wisdom and will result in God’s blessings.
4) Set a time schedule. Usually one year of planning is necessary to get off to a good start. The final six months prior to the first service are especially intensive. It is similar to a wedding. You wonder how it could take so much planning for a wedding, but by the time the wedding date arrive the bride and groom are exhausted.
5) When the initial plans are set, you need to develop a web site, a prayer card, and possibly a flyer. Remember, Mickey Mouse belongs in Disney World, but not the ministry. All your printed material should be done professionally. Professional work is expensive, but losing people is more expensive. The only opinion many people will have of your church will be what they see on your post card or flyer. Once you have your printed material prepared, you should begin calling key churches and pastors to set up meetings. Raising support is an important task for almost all church planters. Learning the best methods of raising support from experienced pastors will greatly enhance your success. There are important keys to raising support and fortunately, there are some good men who can help you learn how to do it.
6) During the process of raising support, the final six months must be planned. Many times churches will donate the John and Romans for new churches and other churches can be solicited to help distribute them. The final four weeks will be a blitz of the area, where every day you are visiting all day and many volunteers can help as well. A direct post card mailing can be made during the final two weeks and an advertisement in a local paper should be considered. Phone calling, if utilized, should be done about six to eight weeks prior to the first service.
The alternative to planning a good start is to do no planning and have a bad start. Once the church is started if only two or three people attend, you will face an uphill battle trying to overcome the stereotype you have set. I am convinced that starting well is of extreme importance. Seeking and receiving counsel from godly men and willingly placing yourself under the authority of a local church are the best way to start.
Dealing With People
One of the definite things about the ministry is that you will have to learn to deal with people. Deputation is great for this due to the fact that you are meeting so many different types of people. You need to learn how to deal with them today because you will be working with them tomorrow.
Here is another article I came across. Glean and evaluate. How well do you deal with people?
King David is dying; Solomon is now king. David challenges Solomon to be strong, to be a man, to obey the Lord, to go forward and to deal decisively with those who threatened the throne. Solomon led forward wisely and decisively. I Kings 2:12 says, “and his kingdom was established greatly.” Adonijah, Joab and Shemei provide a snapshot of some of the challenging people you will face in ministry.
I have heard many experienced pastors say that there is usually a honeymoon period when a pastor assumes a pastorate or starts a church but eventually you will encounter problems with people. It’s a shock to the system when you wake up to the reality that everyone doesn’t like you. Sometimes you will face challenging, difficult and rebellious people in the ministry. Solomon provides us with wisdom about how to deal wisely with difficult people. Solomon deals fairly and decisively with every one of his enemies and sets a precedent for his future leadership. God will allow difficult people to enter your life to change you, teach you, and establish you as the leader of your congregation. We can learn great insights into human nature from this chapter.
- Pastoring requires submission to God.
- Pastoring requires a humble spirit. Laugh at yourself; admit your failures and mistakes.
- Pastoring isn’t a destination but a journey of growth. When you become a pastor it doesn’t mean you know everything; it doesn’t mean that every one should agree with you. It doesn’t mean you’re always right; it doesn’t mean you are any better than your congregation
- Pastoring requires seeking wisdom from God and counsel from godly men.
- Pastoring is a call to serve God and serve people.
To be established greatly as the pastor of your congregation you must:
1. Deal honestly with people:
- Provide a clear doctrinal statement
- Give every church responsibility a job description (Our church has a book of job descriptions for every area of service, which includes a code of conduct and a dress code. For a sample, you may request this by return email.)
- Provide a clear philosophy of operation either in the church constitution or in a separate written form.
- When people have doctrinal or philosophical differences try to teach them as long as they are teachable. When they are not teachable, it is wise to clarify your differences and give them the opportunity to leave and find another ministry without embarrassment.
- Give new believers time to mature and grow. Don’t expect them to change in one week everything they learned for thirty years.
- Don’t play politics with people. Saying what people want to hear in order to keep them attending is dishonest and dangerous.
- When you make a mistake readily, admit it. Honesty in confession shows humility and builds support among followers. They know you are seeking only the truth.
2. Desire God’s best for people:
One of the greatest challenges of a pastor is to keep people focused on the Lord and loving one another. Our goal should be Christ, not just a big church. Members should learn by the pastor’s example how to love and care for all the brethren.
3. You must confront people about their spiritual needs:
If someone in your congregation has a spiritual problem, deal with their problem privately. Don’t use your pulpit to fix them. You can’t confront every error in every person, but when sinful behavior influences the congregation or the leadership it must be confronted. One of two things will happen when you confront someone about their sin: 1. Humble repentance or, 2. Stubborn resistance. When you speak the truth in love…. Some will love you. – Some will fold their arms and hate you.
4. You must love people and guard your spirit towards those who are against you: Ephesians 4:29 – 5:2
Dr. Greg Adams said, “Hurting people – hurt people.” Understanding God’s greater purpose in trials will produce maturity and develop your leadership skills for the future. Recognize God is still on the throne and continue to focus on His purpose for your ministry.
5. You must walk wisely with regard to your enemies:
David charged Solomon to be strong, to be a man, to obey God, to go forward, and to deal decisively with his enemies. Adonijah, Joab and Shimei had proven to be rebels during David’s reign and he knew that Solomon had to stand strong against them or they would surely threaten his leadership and kingdom.
- Enemies will seek to push their own agenda. – Joab
- Enemies will seek fellow rebels. – Adonijah
- Enemies will seek the bleeding hearts in your congregation. – Adonijah
- Enemies will challenge your resolve. -Shimei
God will allow people like these three to enter your church and test your resolve as a leader. Beg God for wisdom. James 1:5
- Seek counsel from your pastor on how to handle the matter. Every pastor needs a pastor. Matt. 9:36
- Personal conflicts are very unsettling. Learn to pray about them. Ask God to intervene on your behalf.
- But don’t push them under the carpet. Realize you will probably have to act.
- Thank God for every spiritual conflict – God has something to teach you.
When you take a stand against a rebel, some very good people in your congregation will think you are being too hard. It is wise when confronting a rebel to have a trusted and spiritual brother with you. Solomon was proactive. He made the rules. He was upfront and fair. He was resolved to follow through. Solomon was not double-minded, he kept his word, and he wasn’t moved from principle by his emotions. Solomon was a good steward of the Kingdom.
We must learn to be proactive, upfront, and fair. Good leaders must be resolved to keep their word; they cannot be moved away from principle by their emotions. When problems arise, as they sometimes do, we must not react with anger. Instead, seek wisdom from God, and respond in faith with a heart of love. Remember, its important how you deal with a problem rather than just proving you are right. If you are right, but not humble, it will offend others in the church. Preachers have a great responsibility in dealing with problems and we must always follow biblical principles as we face every difficulty.