Archive for the 'Pastors' Category
Pastors and their Passion
A passionless pastor cannot lead people towards a better future. A passionless pastor will not move people with his preaching. A passionless pastor is unable to motivate people to reach their community, nation, and world for Jesus Christ.
Quite honestly, the phrase “passionless pastor” is an oxymoron to me. The phrase is incongruent and contradictory. How in the world can a God-called pastor lack passion in his life?
Our Lord had passion. He was driven with an intense desire to redeem people from their sins. Even the last week of His life is referred to as “Passion Week.” Those final days were filled with joyous passion as the people threw their palm branches and blankets before Him as He rode down the Palm Sunday pathway. The people were filled with tears as He prayed over the city of Jerusalem. These days were even comprised of immense and intense emotion as He became so disturbed by the marketing and commerce that occurred in the Temple.
From the humility He showed by washing the feet of His followers, to His last supper with them, to falling on His knees in prayer in Gethsemane, to His betrayal by one of His followers, to the injustice of His trials, to the denial by one of His beloved true disciples, to the loneliness of His last hours, to the ruthless scourging moments before His walk to the cross, to the nails driven into His hands and feet, to His desire to win the thief on the cross, to becoming the sin of the entire world, to His separation from His Father, and to His final breath, our Lord Jesus exuded passion. He could not have accomplished His life purpose without passion. Neither can you.
I am amazed at the lack of passion
Sometimes when I listen to a pastor of a ministry or a church stand before a group and try to move them towards a worthy goal, I am amazed at their lack of passion. I often think to myself, “Do they really think people will be moved by their life and words — which appear to be so passionless?” A major part of leadership is rallying people toward a better future. The role of a spiritual leader is to rally people toward fulfilling what they believe is God’s will for their life and church. Pastor, whether you lead a student group of 25 people, a worship service of 100 people, a Bible Study for 10 people that want to help you plant a church in your city, or teach before a classroom of students, or preach before thousands, you will not move or keep one person without passion.
Pastors Should Be Most Passionate About
1: Their personal walk with Jesus Christ
Since Christ saved you by His grace from your sin, He desires greatly for you to now grow in His grace. This cannot be done without a devotional life built rock-solid upon pouring the Word of God in your life daily. This will not be done without prayer becoming one of your major priorities in your life and ministry. A pastor who is passionless is usually a pastor who is not having an intimate, consistent, devoted time with God daily. I have found in my life and leadership, that the greater my devotional life is, the more intensely passionate my leadership becomes.
2: Their calling to the ministry of the Gospel
Most pastors have lost the thrill of their calling into the ministry of the Gospel. We can blame our circumstances or the churches we have served through the years for dampening our passion, but if we have lost some of our passion, it is ultimately on us. Our passion should not come from the praise of men, but from the God of Heaven who chose us to give our life to the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have forgotten the humility of asking, “Why me, Lord?” and exchanged it with the pride of declaring, “I deserve more.”
When a pastor is more passionate about his golf game than he is about God Himself, he needs to resign. When a pastor is more passionate about his favorite sports team than he is about the message he is going to preach on Sunday, then he needs to resign. When a pastor is more passionate about the numbers in his retirement account than he is about the number of people his church is reaching and discipling for Christ, then he needs to resign. When a pastor is more moved by planning something for himself than he is about planning for his church, then he needs to resign. A pastor without passion cannot and will not lead the church effectively.
3: Their opportunity to see lives changed
Just think about this pastor, you have the privilege to give everyday of your life to seeing the lives of people changed. One can touch a life by selling them some kind of apparel to wear. One can affect a person’s day by giving them food to eat. Another can alter a person’s future by teaching them about economics. But pastor, you can see a life changed today and forever when you lead someone into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Realize that God has let you give every waking hour of your life to leading a ministry or an entire church towards the common goal of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with every person in the world and to making disciples of all the nations.
If this does not fire you up, light your jets, and help you get up each morning with a greater passion, then it is time to rethink your life, reignite your walk, and renew your calling. Get away one day. Draw aside to Jesus. Confess where you are. Open God’s Word. Lay before Him. Open your spiritual ears. Plead for a Word. Journal your thoughts. Act on His Word. Return with a resolve. Share with others what God has said. And please do not forget pastor friend . . .
Live And Lead With Passion,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
The Church And The NFL Draft
This past weekend, the 32 teams that comprise the National Football League (NFL) conducted their annual draft of college players. Even though our house was filled by two of our grandchildren, I tried to watch the draft throughout the weekend. I love the game of football and always wanted to be a football coach until the Lord called me into ministry.
NFL teams determine the players they desire to draft on the basis of the team’s needs, the value of each player by position, the personal interview held with each player, and the personal life of each player off of the field. While considering all of these things, it is the player’s availability and value that usually moves each team to determine which men they are going to draft onto their team.
NFL teams spend millions of dollars on reviewing and investigating every player they have on their board of consideration. To them, it is not just about winning games — even though that is dominant — but also their multi-million dollar investment in each player which makes the draft somewhat of a risky business. Each team must to do all they can to know as much as possible about each player in order to lower the margin of error of drafting players on to their team.
Lessons the church can learn from the NFL draft
Lesson #1: Understand that everyone in the church is drafted by grace into God’s family. Unlike NFL teams that choose who fits into their system and on their team, the Lord and His church extends grace to each person. As each person responds to the grace of God, discovered only in repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone for salvation, they are drafted by the Holy Spirit into the family of God. Therefore, at salvation, each person is endowed with spiritual gifts that God has given to him or her through His Sovereign will.
Lesson #2: Everyone in the church has value. We must recognize that every person has value and it is up to Pastors and church leaders to see their value, develop it, and deploy it into action. NFL teams believe that every player on their roster has value and it is up to them to develop their talent and get it on the field as soon as possible. The church must be about developing people and their spiritual gifts in order to deploy them into Kingdom action as soon as possible.
Lesson #3: The church has many needs. The church that believes they have no need for leaders or more leaders in different places, usually will end up with few to no leaders at all! When God brings people into the church, it is our responsibility to place them into the right ministry area to meet the needs of the church. NFL teams do not place big, oversized men who should play tackle in the position of quarterback. At times, the church places the wrong people in the wrong places of ministry. This never ends well.
Lesson #4: The church must evaluate people. We need to seriously learn the value of Biblically evaluating our people. We have to know what each person brings to the table of ministry in the church. NFL teams know how fast their players are, their agility, their strengths, their weaknesses, and what they are best at. Most churches know very little about their people. This is just flat-out wrong. NFL teams do personal interviews, check out players’ lives outside of the game of football, evaluate attitudes, as well as the tangibles that are all very important. All of us in the church need to embrace this principle of evaluation. We should be doing personal interviews with our people, checking their outside testimony, looking at their attitude, as well as the tangibles that are so very important — like their gifts and passions. If our churches were as deliberate as NFL teams in evaluating our people, we would stop placing our “spiritual tackles” in the role of “spiritual quarterback.” Do not under-estimate the value of evaluating people for the purpose of placing them at the right ministry place in God’s time in His church.
Lesson #5: The church is here to win. The teams of the NFL are very committed to winning. What about the church? Are we committed to winning? Winning others? Winning in the community? Winning our nation? Winning the world? Every NFL team is committed to doing whatever it takes to win. The church must be even more intentional in winning. A winning atmosphere is critical in the church. Church, in Jesus we win. Because of Jesus, we win.
Yours For The Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.