Life Here and There

I love being a Pastor. I’m passionate about preaching. I am humbled that God has called me to shepherd a flock of His choosing. And I especially love the fuel that fires me up – the Word of God and what it has to say about whom I am.

One of my favorite passages on the subject is Paul’s gut-wrenching goodbye to the Epehsian elders who met him at the island port city of Miletus. It’s recorded in Acts 20:17-38. I’ve been reading it afresh today and have discovered a pattern of ministry I hadn’t spotted before…

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Today was gorgeous – slightly chilly but otherwise what I was expecting from southern California. I have had the privilege of meeting some great people this week who happen to have online identities.

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I wanted to wait to post about this tragedy until I had two big pieces of information to pass along. One is that a Pastor we know well named Francois Norcilus was in Port-au-Prince to attend a funeral when the earthquake hit. We have finally gotten word from his son that he is alright, but tells us the situation there worsens by the hour.

I also wanted to pass along some information from a relief organization we work with called Aid for Developing Countries. I just got this email from Bill Moore…

Brandon,

I am sending out a call for help. We are putting a team together to go to Haiti as soon as we can. This event is changing (for the worse) by the hour. Many people are asking me what can be done. So many that I am no longer tracking the number of calls we are handling but it is heavy. What I can tell you now will be different soon. However, we have heard from some of our partners and we have offers of everything from satellite phones to medical clinics. Water and food will be the most important resource that we can provide. Renita, and I should have a team of people put together by Thursday to go to Port Au Prince. The most important resource that we can have now is money. I do not say this to be crass, but we may have to purchase items where we can when needed. We will have to make these decisions on the fly.

From our previous mission trips, we have a lot of friends in country that we will rely upon as we arrive. I have had limited contact, but as they get more communications we will be able to check on our associates. Please be in prayer for Bro. Francois Norcilus, our local missionary. He has not been located yet. (note above) Jean Claude, his family, Emanuell Samuel, Theodore Trusaunt, and many others that we have not heard from. Right now search and rescue is paramount, but we will soon have to deal with the dead and living. PLEASE keep these in your prayers. I will try to keep you informed as often as I can. Please feel free to pass this along to as many people that you know.

May God give strength to those in the field.

Bill Moore, President,
Aid for Developing Countries
A 501 (c) (3) Public Charity
EIN # 26-0483101

Send donations to:
502 Northeast A St
Bentonville, AR 72712

Contact AFDC
Phone:479-426-3029
Fax: 479-927-2459
Email: wdmcel@msn.com or
Bill@afdc-haiti.org

Bill has led at least a dozen mission trips there and his relief organization currently works toward providing cleaner water in some of the more remote areas. I know Bill – he’s a member of my church and I’m on the Board of this organization, so I tell you without a doubt that it’s a trustworthy way to support people who are going there to meet huge needs head on.

Pray for their team as they try to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Give if you can by sending donations to the address above. And help spread the word!

I love church planters and I love cutting edge, innovative ministry. I’m encouraged by the growth of a kind of Christianity that calls us back to the New Testament model of worship and ministry as we head into the turbulent waters of this next decade. But I’m concerned with what I perceive sometimes to be youthful arrogance, and this concern includes myself.

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Every time I stand up to preach, I have the privilege of watching God’s living word accomplish dynamic things in the lives of people. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul spells out three distinct functions that the Word of God performs in our lives…

As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father does his children.
~ 1 Thessalonians 2:11

Now watch this…

To “exhort” is to BUILD UP people.

To “comfort” is to HOLD UP people.

To “charge” is to FIRE UP people.

I don’t know about you, but I need all three of those in my life every single day I need to be built up because I crumble on my own. So Word of God… exhort me. I need to be held up because I falter on my own, so Word of God… comfort me. I need to be fired up because I flicker out on my own. So Word of God… charge me.

And every time I preach, counsel, advise, or encourage, let me do these three things in the lives of others.

Yesterday, our church family blessed us (yet again) with a wonderful luncheon for Pastor Appreciation month. I’m honored!! I often stand before our congregation and tell them I’d do what I do for free (of course, I don’t mind that they don’t take me up on that) because of the joy it brings. They really make it easy in many respects to be their Pastor. Let me tell you some ways this is true…

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I just finished reading Building Your Leadership Resume: Developing the Legacy that Will Outlast You (aff) by Johnny Hunt. Here’s the bottom line… I feel like I’ve sat at at a table in a coffee shop with one of America’s great Pastors as he’s filled me with word upon word of great advice!

The book is forty short chapters in length, each one centering around a different aspect of the Pastor’s leadership (and any leader, for that matter). He deals with the huge heart issues as well as the day-to-day tasks and productivity issues. Rather than try to summarize all of the chapters, I thought I’d pass along the things I’m inspired to do more and better now that I’ve read this book:

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I’ve owned the domain ministrysitehosting.com for a year or so and have done nothing with it. The other day, a friend of mine (Chris Price) suggested I do some kind of post about how churches can get started with a web presence. Instead, I decided to use this domain to open a single page web site to offer some basic information. I’d like to add to it and tweak it to be as helpful as possible, but for now, meet ministrysitehosting.com and by all means, spread the word.

I have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m saved and secure. I’m on my way to heaven someday. But I still live here and I know that my purpose is to glorify Jesus Christ in all of the life that I have left. But how?

A common plight Christians suffer is this wrestling between getting ready to do something, and doing it now. When I surrendered to God’s calling on my life to ministry, I wrestled – do I spend some years in school, doing little and learning much, or do I get involved, doing much but perhaps learning little. I’ve heard it preached both ways. You have too, and it’s confusing, isn’t it?

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I’ve now had the experience of hiring several staff members, and as of last night’s family meeting at Bethel, will soon be hiring another (a part-time worship leader). Each time I’m faced with this task, I remind myself of the five “C’s” of hiring staff…

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