Jeremiah 7: 30, 31: “The people of Judah have sinned before my very eyes,” says the Lord. “They have set up their abominable idols right in the Temple that bears my name, defiling it. They have built pagan shrines at Topheth, the garbage dump in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and there they burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing!

God is taking his people to task for their practice of sacrificing their children on the altars of their idols. What possible application does that have for us? We are far too sophisticated and enlightened to engage in such a barbaric ritual as this! Aren’t we? Before you go off on a self-righteous diatribe, I suggest that you slow down and give it some more thought.

First, let’s define “idol”. Quite simply, an idol is anything that is an object of worship other than God Himself. An idol is something that syphons away our resources of time, talent or treasure away from from being wholly lavished upon and committed to God. An idol is anything that detracts our attention away from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. An idol is anything other than God to which we look for help or hope. An idol is anything that successfully competes with God for our loyalty and passion.

What, then, might be some of our idols?
…Success?
…Materialism?
…Sensuality?
…Independence?
…Entertainment?

How are our children being sacrificed on the altars of worship to these gods?

• When we exalt work and ministry over the emotional and relational well-being of our children, we are sacrificing our them on the altar of success.
• When we subscribe to the life philosophy, “He who has the most toys at the end, wins”; when we fail to teach our children the vanity of gaining the whole world but losing your soul; when we mortgage our future by accumulating stuff AND debt, we sacrifice our children on the altar of materialism.
• When we fail to live spirit-controlled lives that are marked by discipline and self-control; when we cultivate a culture that utilizes sex and sexuality to promote everything from toothpaste to television sets; when we value profits from pornography ($10 billion industry – more than the NFL, NBA and MLB combined) we sacrifice the moral purity of children the altar of sensuality.
• When we fail to model for our children an active prayer life; when we fail to do life together as a part of the community of faith; when we fail to acknowledge our deep need for others by ignoring the role that they have played in our success, we sacrifice our children on the altar of independence.
• When we value style over substance; when we spend more time playing than we do praying; when our weekend activities take precedence over worship; when our homes have more TV’s than Bibles; when we practice Consumer Christianity by church hopping to find the best programs to fit our needs, we are sacrificing our children on the altar of entertainment.

Have I overstated the case? Perhaps, but I don’t think so. The proof is in the pudding. The Psalmist Asaph encouraged the nation of Israel to faithfully teach it’s children the word, works and ways of God with this positive result:

So each generation should set its hope anew on God,
not forgetting his glorious miracles
and obeying his commands.
Then they will not be like their ancestors—
stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful,
refusing to give their hearts to God. (Psalm 78:7,8)

The challenge of the Word of God is to tear down our idols and false gods that promise much, deliver little and cost so much more than we budgeted to pay. Our present actions have generational consequences, impact and repercussions.

What are you worshipping?

Happiness is the self-focused pursuit of personal pleasure;

Joy is the internal satisfaction with Divine purpose.

What are your thoughts about this?

Today, however, I want to share with you a new book that has been written by one of the most influential people in my life. Eddie Broussard came into my life after my sophomore year in college. We were both involved in the Navigator ministry at the University of Illinois. Eddie became my mentor over the next two and a half years walking with me through some difficult spiritual and relational times, never letting me wallow in them and relentlessly pointing me to God. He taught me more about studying the Bible, having a passion for knowing God and pursuing Him in scripture  than ANYONE ever has and probably ever will. When I am studying scripture today, I still use the methodologies that Eddie taught me from from 1980-1982. He would challenge me to memorize, not verses of scripture, but passages and chapters. At one point, we even tackled memorizing the entire book of Philippians!

He was the first person I ever met that actually understood the Tabernacle and was able to, not only explain it, but was able to show me how to apply it to my own life and devotional time. He blew my mind then, so I cannot wait to see how God has developed this in him over 30 years and in full book.

Eddie is one of the most Godly men I have ever met and there is no question that this will come across in his book, Beauty in the Desert. He writes, “During spiritual deserts, we can find love in God’s dwelling place, the tabernacle. Applying the spiritual  realities of the tabernacle as a way of devotional life, especially during desert times, can yield a deeper intimacy with Him.”

You can pre-order the book at http://www.navpress.com/product/9781617471582/Beauty-in-the-Desert-Eddie-Broussard.

When you get it, let’s read it together and see where God takes us.

Jason

I am no novice at international ministry. This trip is my seventh on 4 different continents. Over the years, I have spoken before thousands of people, but there was one element about this trip that set it apart from any other engagement – I was speaking through an interpreter. For some reason, the thought of this was really getting in my head. All day long I found myself obsessing with my delivery, about whether I would be able to relate well in Honduran culture, whether or not I would be able to get into a “flow” through interpreter. By the time the evening arrived, I was pretty nervous about the whole deal. This was out of character for me.

My gift is teaching and I have been told that I am a very good communicator. When I was in seminary, one of my preaching professors made an assessment of my preaching that both challenged and changed me. He said, “Jason I have good news and the bad news for you. The good news is that you are the most naturally gifted preacher I have ever had in class. The bad news is that you are the most naturally gifted preacher I have ever had in class. The danger for you will be to relax and begin to rely on the gift rather than the Giver.” That valuable advice has rung true in my ears and heart ever since. It forever changed the way that I prepared my messages – I write out a complete manuscript to ensure I have thought through the sermon and am not just “winging it.”

But on this night, nothing was reducing my increasing anxiety level. That was until I began to write this journal entry. After only a few sentences, God began to speak to me asking the oh-so-convicting question, “Just on whom are you depending? Have you begun to trust so heavily on your gift to communicate that you have written me out of the script?” This was a wake up call for me! It was as if I had been saying to God, “I’ve got this” to which God was replying, “Really?” He was not finished.

That evening, our team gathered at church along with a few church members. Prior to service, I knelt at the altar in prayer, confessing to God my sinful self-reliance and rededicating myself to dependence on Him. Meanwhile, a fierce tropical storm had picked up and we had become engulfed in a torrential downpour. Then we lost electricity and was plunged into deep darkness. In the midst of my prayer, I began to laugh with God at His sense of humor. It seemed as if God was saying, “If your concern is about who will see you and what you will say, I can take care of that for you.” Because they all walk to church, the storm kept the vast majority of the congregation away from service. The pounding rain on the corrugated steel roof was so loud that no one would have been able to hear a word I said anyway without the sound system which, of course, was dead with no electricity. God fixed it so that the only power in the room was supplied by Him!

We ended up having service by candlelight and experience a powerful, powerful time of praise and worship. I preached with a confidence, born not of my personal ability, but fueled by a renewed dependence upon the One who has both privileged and gifted me to be His herald and communicator of His good news.

But this experience, as freeing as it was, also revealed to me what I suspect to be an unfortunately common dark side of those called to communicate God’s word. At the beginning of our ministries, the awareness that:
… the ink was still wet on our covenant with God,
… like gangly teens we were still trying to grow into our newfound spiritual bodies,
… the fear of looking foolish before an expectant congregation humbled us,
… our license to preach was still only a short distance away from our learner’s permit
drove us to our knees in prayerful dependence on God.

But is that still true of you today?

• Do you still approach the pulpit with the reverent awe of standing on holy ground?
• Do you approach your shepherding responsibilities like young Moses who arrogantly thought his position and abilities entitled and empowered him to fulfill his calling?
• Are you more likely to plan and program than you are to pause and pray?
• Have you slipped into in a comfortable sense of self-reliance?

I challenge you to examine yourself. I know I’ve had to do so.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ignoring the need for money in either the personal life of the pastor or the corporate life of the church. That would be foolish. Nor am I suggesting that the calling to pastoral ministry carries with it an implied vow of poverty. That would be irresponsible. I am simply stating that we have to know that we can trust God to provide for our needs and not make money the dominant, focal and defining point of our life and ministry.

There are a couple of significant benefits I have learned from settling this money business with God up front.

First, you will not be afraid of people. If you think that keeping your ministry’s “paying customers” happy is the requirement for financial stability, you may find yourself being guilty of the sin of partiality. You may begin to look at people financially (What can they give?) rather than spiritually (What do they need?). James warned against this sin: “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool” (vv. 1-3). But when you know that regardless of who writes the check, it is the Lord that pays your salary and your bills, it will reduce your reduce your temptation to compromise truth or cater to givers to keep them happy.

I once was at a meeting of pastors where one of the major topics of discussion was church finances. There was much lamenting about how many people gave far below their capacity to give. In the car on the way home, I asked a pastor why, if giving was such a problem in the church, it was not addressed by means of challenging people to pay tithes and offerings. The pastor told me that, quite frankly, he and most of his colleagues were afraid that if they preached about money they would anger people and thus risk losing what money those people were giving.

When you have come to a place of peace with God about the issue of money (and who controls it), people don’t scare you as much.

Second, you will not be afraid of not providing for your family. The responsibility of providing for a family can add significant stress to a pastor. Adding a wife to my faith journey added a new layer of challenge. In the early years, the challenge was for her. However, the longer we were married and then added children, I found that the challenge became for me. I took very seriously the mandate that I should protect and provide for my family. When I was flying solo, waiting on the Lord to provide, I did not have a hard time making sacrifices, but when those sacrifices were having to be made by my wife and kids, I began to struggle a bit more. I didn’t want them to go without (or with less) because I was in ministry. I wanted to be able to take care of them without the “stress” of earlier years of waiting on the Lord.

When I moved to Denver in 1999 to take a position with a new ministry and a fat new salary, I made the promise to my wife that I would never put her in that financially challenging situation again. I should have whispered, because God heard me and I don’t think He appreciated my misplaced self-confidence. Within months after our relocation, we were in the same position again as the ministry did not have the funds to pay my salary. The combination of the understandable frustration from this situation combined with my ill-advised promise was a toxic cocktail that threatened my ministry, (it made me want to find a regular job that would eliminate these financial swings) and my mind (I was discouraged, angry and despondent).

When we shared this situation with my pastor, he provided a concise evaluation that has forever changed my perspective. He said, “First, that is a promise that you should never have made because it is not one you can keep. You don’t know what God has in store for your life. Second, God is the provider for you and your family, not you.” That was just the reality check I needed to push (more like slap) me back in line. As I reflected over the years of God’s faithfulness, He reminded me that it was always Him and not me that had provided for my family. Nothing had changed.

Make your peace with God right now about the issue of money. Don’t let your concerns about it, your pursuit of it or your fear of the lack of it derail your ministry. Learn to trust God with this area of your life because you will pay a great price if you don’t, but have great peace if you do.

JP

We are living in an age when the “prosperity gospel” has grown in enormous popularity and taken a strong grip, if not a stranglehold, in many Christian pulpits. Simply stated, is a theology that defines spiritual blessings in financial terms. It’s a worldview that pairs a lack of material means with a lack of spiritual muscle. I am willing to go on the record in stating that not only is this an inaccurate interpretation of scripture, it is dangerous and harmful. For the purposes of this blog, I will limit my comments to the impact of this thinking on the pastors and spiritual leaders.

Why do you think there is so much discussion in scripture about money? I think it is because God knows that the almighty dollar is a force that comes about as close as you can get to matching the power of the Almighty God. It should be noted that right at the top of the list of the qualifications for the overseer of the church is being ”free from the love of money” (I Timothy 3:3). God knows that money has a way of stealing our loyalty and diverting our attention – “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24).

Because many pastors feel overworked and underpaid, money and issues surrounding it can become a serious distraction, if not downright temptation. Your attitude about money, both on a personal level as well as a corporate level, will be a great determining factor in your satisfaction with ministry. I want to share with you some important lessons (actually, only one) I’ve learned concerning money that have saved both my ministry and my mind.

The most important lesson I’ve learned is this: confirm your call, not your salary. If God has called you into His service, will He not be faithful to provide for your needs as well? Isn’t that the promise of Matthew 6:33? “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

In Luke 22:25, not long before His death that would propel the disciples into the scary, lonely world of ministry, Jesus called the disciples together and asked them a crucial question: “And He said to them, ‘When I sent you out without money belt and bag and sandals, you did not lack anything, did you?’ They said, ‘No, nothing.’ Earlier, Jesus had challenged them to put God’s needs above their own, by focusing on kingdom work and trusting that their own needs would be met. They took the challenge and now it was grading time. God passed with flying colors.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ignoring the need for money in either the personal life of the pastor or the corporate life of the church. That would be foolish. Nor am I suggesting that the calling to pastoral ministry carries with it an implied vow of poverty. That would be irresponsible. I am simply stating that we have to know that we can trust God to provide for our needs and not make money the dominant, focal and defining point of our life and ministry.

Jason P.

Several years ago, when I worked for Youth For Christ, I would often spend time mentoring new hires. I would always tell them that the most important thing they brought to the ministry was not their ability to get along with kids or their teaching skills, but their personal relationship with Christ. When you read about Jesus’ reinstatement interview of Peter in John 21, you see that there was only one question asked of him: “Do you love me?” Jesus said, if you love me, then feed my sheep. What qualified Peter for service to God was not his skills, education or resume, but his love for Christ.

I think we can learn something from Peter’s life.

Peter had a great and promising start!

• He left his day job to pursue the call of the Lord (Matt. 4:19).
• He was selected to be a part of Jesus’ initial ministry team (Matt. 10:2).
• He displayed great spiritual insight (Matt. 16:13-20).
• He demonstrated a willingness to step out on faith and trust God for great things (Matt. 14:22-34).
• He vowed on his life that he would never turn away from Jesus (Matt. 26:31-35).

But Peter flamed out.

• He denied knowing Jesus.
• He experienced an emotional breakdown.
• He returned to doing that which Jesus had called him from and influenced others to do the same.

How do we maintain long-term passion for the Lord?

• Follow God, not the ministry (John 21:19). We can’t find our identity and purpose in what we do or where we do it, but only in who we do it for. If we focus too much on people or ministry, they will fail and disappoint us; bore and burn us; distract and disillusion us. God, however, never will because He stays the same yesterday, today and forever.
• Follow closely, not from a distance (Matt. 26:58). In the whirlwind of preparing to feed others, we can’t forget to feed ourselves. We must nurture our personal (and not just our professional) relationship with Jesus through attendance His word and prayer.
• Focus on your calling, not someone else’s (John 21:20-23). Our passion for God can grow cold when we begin to measure the “success” of our ministry by seeing how it stacks up against another’s. Comparative shopping is a sure way to douse our fire.
• Focus on grace, not gifts (Luke 6:36-50). God does not call us because we are gifted; He gifts us because we are called. Our passion for God is fueled by our knowledge of how much grace God has to employ to use us as His instruments.

What douses your passion for the Lord and ministry?
How do you maintain your enthusiasm for the Lord?
Do you still approach God with a sense of expectancy or has it become routine for you?

Add your voice to the conversation. Someone may need to hear it.

In the funeral program the family included these words of his wisdom -

Five of the most important  lessons you learned in life.

• Be on time for your appointments.
• Never make a promise to your children and not keep it.
• Serve the Lord with all your heart.
• Be faithful to your spouse by God’s grace.
• Study to show yourself approved unto God (2 Timothy 2:15)

Share some of your insights for working well with others.

• Pray for them
• Seek to understand them. Solomon asked for an understanding heart (2 Kings 3:1-6).
• Be able to take it from people.
• Be willing to forgive – “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake has forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32).

We all need mentors like Pastor Crockett in our lives.

Do you have a mentor who speaks into your life?

Answering the call of God is no small matter – it costs you your life. As I continue to think on God’s call of Moses, I see a pattern of deconstruction for reconstruction that is necessary for anyone who will be effectively used of God.

Here I am (Ex. 3:4)- God may call, but that doesn’t mean that we have to answer the phone (or in Moses’ case, the bush). Answering the call begins with the simple, but frightening step of making yourself available to God. Most of us sense God’s gentle nudges towards our purpose, but sometimes we think that if we ignore Him long enough, He’ll get tired and leave us alone. It’s not until we yield our will (”Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening“) that God can begin to use us. But this yielding sets in motion a grinding, humbling, uncomfortable process of deconstruction.

Who am I (Ex. 3:11) – A new friend, Mo, is participating in a leadership development/spiritual formation program in our church. In response to my inquiry as to how it was going, she said, ”I am lost. I don’t know I am anymore.“ She went on to explain how God was challenging everything she thought she knew about herself. Becoming business partners with God can be dangerous to your self esteem. His greatness and perfection make us painfully aware of our own impotence and lack of qualifications. (”Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.“ Isaiah 6:5). When you yield to God and begin to experience His unfolding plan for your life, it can be overwhelming. But this is a necessary and unavoidable step. In the absence of this self-emptying, we will become self-important. We will rely on our own intelligence, talents and plans rather than wholly leaning on God.

Someone has said that because God creates ex nihilo, out of nothing, He must first reduce His servants to nothing before He rebuilds and uses them for His glory.
God spent four decades humbling and preparing Moses for his destiny. What a contrast between 40 year old self-sufficient leader and the 80 reluctant servant!

We are not ready to be used by God until we are convinced that he have nothing to give Him. Our call continues with a reconstructing of a worldview on the foundation of a self-existent God.

I AM (Ex. 3:14) – God has not called me because I have so much to offer Him, but because He has so much to offer me. I must reorient my sense of self and purpose around who He is and what He wants to do (”He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.“ (John 3:30 NLT). My purpose is to serve Him and bring Him glory, not the other way around. When we looked at and lived life from our own vantage point, knowledge began with our own personal ideas and efforts. But Proverbs 1:7 tells us that ”the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge… .“ We live for years being indoctrinated with a worldview that tells us that we are the center of the universe and that we are the captains of our own destinies. Being a servant of God requires a deconstruction of that flawed philosophy and a reconstruction of a life built on the foundation of the great ”I AM.“ Anything less is bound to fail.

Do you agree or disagree that this is a process that every person called into ministry must engage?
What did or does this process look like for you?
Is it a one time deal?

Please add your voice to the conversation.

In a previous post, I referred to a blog post that shared some “sobering” statistics about pastors and ministry.

• Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.
• Fifty percent of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce.
• Eighty percent of pastors and eighty-four percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.
• Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
• Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
• Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.

As I sought to process these sad numbers, I thought back on my time in seminary when I met so many students who were in school to enhance their employability or to meet denominational education requirements, but talked little about being “called” by God to ministry. Is ministry a vocational choice vs. divine calling? What is the difference? I believe Moses’ story provides some great insight in to answering this question.

At age 40 Moses made a vocational choice in deciding that he would lead his people out of Egypt. I think there are several possible motivations feeding his thought process.

• A love and sense of responsibility for his people. Moses considered the Hebrew slaves as his “brethren” (Ex. 2:1; Acts 7:25).
• Conversely, perhaps guilt over the disparity between the privilege he experienced and the poverty his people endured (Ex. 2:10; Acts 7:22).
• An anger over oppression and a passion to right injustice (Ex. 2:11; Acts 7:24).
• A self confidence in his ability (Ex. 2:12,13).
• Words from his mother (Ex. 2:9).

When I think back on my own entrance into full-time ministry, I can see elements of each of these motivations in my own experience. These are not bad motivations, but alone, are they enough to justify entering ministry? When you look at the outcome for Moses, apparently, they were not. He failed miserably and left Egypt.

Flash forward 40 years and Moses receives a divine call from God to lead his people out of Egypt. Look at the elements of that call.

• God breaks into Moses’ life when he is minding his own business, faithfully doing his shepherding job and in no way considering ministry as a vocational option (Ex. 3:1).
• Events in his life conspire together to sensitize him to the moving of God (3:2).
• He makes the decision to take some time to explore this stirring (3:3,4).
• There is an encounter with a Holy God (3:5).
• God gives Moses a clear call and a God-sized mission (3:7-10).
• Avoidance, reluctance and rationalization (3:12-4:13). Moses pulled out all the stops in seeking to be released from God’s call on his life. The self-centered, self promoting, self-confident motivations that characterized his initial foray into ministry were conspicuously absent.
• The evidence from God is so overwhelmingly compelling that it is irresistible (3:18-20).

Again, when I think back on my own entering into full-time ministry, I can clearly see these elements of this process in my own experience as well. It is what has kept me going in prosperity and poverty and, in the words of A. Tate, the “joys and jeers” of ministry.

A few questions come to mind:

• Do you see elements of Moses’ call in your own?
• How does your calling impact your ministry?
• Can you leave or ignore your calling? At what costs?
• For those of you who have left the ministry, how did you reconcile this choice with your earlier sense of being called?

I ask these questions not in an accusatory or condemnatory spirit, but in a desire to 1) understand the decision-making process and 2) provide instruction for those who are in the process of questioning their own calling.

Scripture to ponder… Hebrews 5:1-4