Tag Archives: Ministry
Pastor, Are You Praying for Your Congregation?
A prayerful ministry is the only ministry that brings the preacher into sympathy with the people.
Are You a Bee or a Wasp?
Let us, dear friends, as a church and people be working people. Faith works; let us work because we have faith. I wish that every member of this church were at work for Jesus. I have very little to complain of, because I do believe that the major part of the dear brethren and sisters associated here are hard at it; but if there are any of you who are not serving the Lord, I pray you bestir yourselves. You must work, or your faith will be questioned, and your love will be suspected. We are a hive of bees, but what will happen if instead of making honey the workers all turn to drones? Why they will next turn to wasps. If such a change cannot take place in nature it certainly does occur in morals and spirituals, for we have seen companies of good hard-working Christians suddenly break out into factions and quarrel furiously. When bees turn to wasps there is nothing but fighting. May our good Lord save us from such a calamity. I do not mind being like the queen bee in the hive, king of the bees, but a leader of wasps I cannot be. Dear friends, do get to work for the Master: you, I mean, who stand all the day idle. Go work today in the Saviour’s vineyard. Oh, my beloved brethren, I beseech you do not relax your energies. Continue to be a lively, energetic church.
Pastor, Do You Want Cheap or Fruitful Ministry?
All spiritual ministry flows from the reality of our knowledge of God and the vitality of our fellowship with Him and His Son. A successful, fruitful ministry does not just happen — it is purchased. And the more influential the ministry, the steeper the price. It cannot be paid with a lump sum; we pay for it in gradual increasing installments. There is no such thing as a cheap, fruitful ministry.
The Essential Quality of Spiritual Leadership
The first and essential quality of a herald of the Gospel is ever a thorough broken and contrite heart for it is only after having obtained mercy as guilty criminals, that we are in a position to ‘strengthen the brethren.’
The Terrible Secret of Leadership
This is the terrible secret about leadership and life: we achieve brokenness by falling off our throne. To be broken is not a choice; it is a gift. I don’t know anyone who has made the decision to be broken and achieved it as an act of the will.
The Expensive Cost of Leadership
Leading is very likely the most costly thing you will ever do…. But if you want to love God and others, and if you long to live your life now for the sake of eternity, then there is nothing better than being a leader.
Preaching Is Worship
The sermon is a present-day revelation of God’s holy will, leading to the searching of the hearer’s soul, and then to the acceptance of the newly revealed truth as it bears on his life among men. Thus the sermon is an act of worship, an act which means that the light of God is shining out today through the pulpit.
The True Spiritual Leader
True greatness, true leadership, is achieved not by reducing men to one’s service but in giving oneself in selfless service to them. And that is never done without cost. It involves drinking a bitter cup and experiencing a painful baptism of suffering. The true spiritual leader is concerned infinitely more with the service he can render God and his fellowmen than with the benefits and pleasures he can extract from life. He aims to put more into life than he takes out of it.
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