Musings on Spiritual Matters

Jeremiah 12:5 proclaims “If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses?  And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?”  I love this verse.  All ministers go through difficult times.  It might be a “firing”, or betrayal from an elder or friend or wife, but it was painful.  Your heart bled within you.  And you wondered, “how could God allow this to happen?”  But these difficult times, these times of testing produce character in the leader. Because as the verse says, if men have wearied you, how are you going to compete with horse.  If you cannot handle the stress, pain, and agony of life, you will not deal with ministry well.  God is actively involved in developing leaders.  And a leader is strong in character.  Your character is what counts.  You will face all forms of persecution, some members will turn on you, there will be elders that have it out for you, the reality is that it takes character to fulfill your ministry.  When you are called into ministry, you are called into suffering, the servant is no better than the master.  Some congregations believe that it is their job to make preachers suffer, unfortunately.  What is funny is that preachers fake being happy.  There are always men that must put on the smiley face  before the congregation and others.  Of course it is wise to be positive, but it is sad when churches never see how unhealthy they are.  The reason is that churches hire preachers who they like.  A church wants resumes, and it hires the man that seems to be the best.  And the church expects the minister to keep them happy.  When we are no longer happy, you will be asked to leave.  So the preacher is trained to fake happiness because no one likes a negative and sad spirit, and heaven forbidden it be the churches fault or the eldership’s fault.  So we are creating fake atmospheres in our congregations.  Now some preachers need to quit whining like over paid babies, and realize that the work of the Lord is not easy.  If you cannot handle some church issues, you will never handle Jordan, and your ministry will never increase.  God cannot trust you.  God will not increase your influence because your influence means more attacks on you.  You are dangerous to Satan, and he will be coming after you.  God is going to try to protect you from the thickets.  So do not be shocked when you remain in the same level of influence in the church.  If you cannot be trusted with a few, you will not be trusted with many.  So whatever the present attack on you is, rise up, face Satan in the face and overcome.  God will reward your faithfulness with fruitfulness!

Related posts:

1. Leadership from the Center
2. Styles of Leadership
3. Leadership Survey
4. Reflections On Leadership
5. Appointment of Leadership

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This entry was posted by Matthew on Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at 11:19 am and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.