“TELL US THE STORY . . . “

As a former missionary, pastor, and now pastoral coach, I have been told countless times, “tell us more of those incredible stories of your life in ministry, and especially, from your life as a missionary.”

Here’s one of those stories. Actually it’s two stories: one of life and one of death; one, a dream, the second, a nightmare.

 

STORY #1: A MINISTRY DREAM COME TRUE – LIFE!

Years ago I was privileged to be part of a team of pastors and missionaries that launched a new Bible and ministry training school in Ukraine, only months after the nation had broken away from the former Soviet Union. The nation was still in transition politically and economically. There was no national currency or postage stamps, stores were empty and no one was yet sure how these systems would be developed, or even how the nation would eventually look.

This time of transition gave us an open door to enter the country and lend ministry assistance to a Ukrainian Pentecostal church group. It was an incredible experience, one filled with stories that could have come out of the Book of Acts . . .

We were privileged to teach and train quality young ministers from across the former Soviet Union;

Preaching the Gospel from town to town in western Ukraine, we were the first outsiders since the             Communist Revolution of 1917 to visit many villages, the first to openly preach the Gospel, helping a faithful underground church come out into the open (I will never forget meeting one pastor and his father, also a pastor, who wept as they greeted us after a city-wide meeting);

We met pastors whose lives were out of the pages of the Book of Acts, pastors who had sacrificially             shepherded their churches through the incredible persecution of atheistic communism;

We met faithful believers whose family members had died in gulags or by execution;

We preached to hundreds of people from Chernobyl, a city made famous for its tragic nuclear reactor failure: all lived with the knowledge that they had been exposed to fatal doses of radiation;

We saw lifelong atheists believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be transformed before our eyes             (churches love to hear the story of my encounter with my “Russian Bear”)

We ministered to a woman who was on her way to commit suicide in the mountains when she “took a chance and snuck” into one of our services. She left that day set free by God, the recipient of the eternal life that only comes through knowing Jesus Christ as Savior; I still find her story mesmerizing (It too remains one of the stories most requested by churches in which we preach);

We saw the Holy Spirit sovereignly touch and transform people on a daily basis as we preached the             Gospel across the western border of Ukraine;

We often saw hundreds of people saved at a time and had the privilege of praying with and placing a             copy of the Word of God in the hands of each person who received Christ;

We saw those people connected with pastors and congregations for discipleship and community;

We met many wonderful new believers, people who stopped us on streets to thank us, often in tears,             for bringing the Gospel to them; on one occasion, a young man who had the day before met Christ in             one of our meetings, not only cried tears of joy, but, as a token of his appreciation, tried to give back to us as a gift of thanks, the very Bible we had given him the day before when he received Christ;

We were privileged to work with a Ukrainian leadership team that was second to none in my extensive experience of working with leadership teams in Europe and in the US;

And, oh yes, we helped that exemplary leadership team as they launched a tremendous Bible and ministry training school.

 

STORY #2: A MINISTRY NIGHTMARE – DEATH

But there is one story from Ukraine that is far less than a praise report. It’s a story that still haunts me today.

As members of our team and I were descending a stairway in a building where we were holding outreach services, we met several young adults ascending the same stairway, Bibles in hand. Seeing the Bibles, we assumed they had received Christ as Savior in one of our meetings, so we greeted them and stopped to talk with them. They were only too happy to speak with us.

But the conversation did not go as we had anticipated: it turned out they were members of a well-known cult. In fact, they were recent converts.

We commented on their relatively new Bibles. Our ministry hosts had told us that Bibles were extremely difficult to obtain, given Ukraine’s recent breakaway from the communism of the former USSR, so I was interested to learn how these cult members had obtained their copies. They told us that some weeks before, Americans had visited their village, distributing the Bibles as gifts.

Intrigued, we asked to see their Bibles and were stunned to find, stamped inside, the name of an American evangelical ministry that had also taken the opportunity of Ukraine’s new freedoms to enter the country and simply distribute Bibles in towns and villages before moving on to the next locale.

What these evangelicals did not know was that religious cults had also flooded the zone, not with Bibles, but with workers and leaders, plans and strategies for converting people and discipling them. Cults simply used the Bibles provided by American evangelicals to convert Ukrainians and then to plug them into local faith communities where they were taught by cult leaders.

In effect, American evangelicals had provided the resources for cult members to convert and disciple many. The cult was willing to let American evangelicals pay for and distribute the Word of God while they followed behind, providing the pastor-teachers and faith communities.

As I saw the name of the evangelical organization that had purchased these Bibles, I thought of an American pastor I knew. He had once told me that rather than financially supporting “boots-on-the-ground” missionaries overseas, his church sent Bibles to foreign countries. As I held this cult member’s Bible in my hands, I wondered if my colleague and his wonderful church had helped to purchase them.

And as I looked at these young men and women, I thought of Jesus in Matthew 9.36:

“When (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and             helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

“Harrassed.” “Helpless.” “Sheep without shepherds.”

People without pastors. People who are helpless against the harassment of falsehood. Helpless and harassed because there is no pastor to provide the truth and to protect from falsehood.

Thank God for boots-on-the-ground missionaries around the world who walk with people as pastors.

Thank God for pastors in our neighborhoods who walk with us as Christ’s undershepherds.

 

THE STORY TELLERS: PASTORS

The Bible calls them shepherds: they spiritually provide for us and protect us, doing so as undershepherds of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, leading us in life even as they are willing to lay down their lives for us. Just like the Good Shepherd they serve (John 10.7-21).

The Bible calls them spiritual leaders, those who “watch over our souls” and continually speak the Word of God to us (Hebrews 13.17) as they model the Word of God to us (Hebrews 13.7).

The Bible says that pastors train us in the ministry for which God has equipped us, help us grow in the image of Christ, develop us in The Faith, help us come into unity with the body of Christ, protect us from false doctrines as well as those who spread them, and continually teach us the Word of God (Ephesians 4.11-16).

The Bible calls them tellers of the story of Jesus, those who continually speak the Word of God to us (From Acts to Revelation)

The Bible says that when there is a pastor among God’s people, we are strong and secure.

Thank God for pastors, solid and healthy shepherds who are able to help us grow in The Faith, strong and secure. And thank God as well that He not only gave us His Word, but He gave us faith communities in which we can experience and receive comfort and encouragement, challenge and accountability, pastoral care and guidance.

 

TURNING NIGHTMARES INTO DREAMS

Boots-on-the-ground missionary-pastors and pastors in the church: they are one critical reason why pastoral coaching is so important.

Surveys continue to reveal the nightmare faced by many in ministry. Consider these five facts:

Hundreds of ministers of all ages are currently leaving the ministry every month;

5 in 10 quit the ministry within 5 years of beginning in ministry;

10 of 10 of ministers have a friend from Bible College or seminary who left the ministry;

7 in 10 ministers feel they have NO ONE they can talk to about their struggles and stresses;

THE single, most effective step to surviving is walking with a pastoral coach.

BUT, pastors who only survive cannot be our final destination. Our final but dynamic, ever-moving-in-ever-moving-up goal must be pastors who thrive.

And once again, the surveys say that walking with an experienced minister – a pastoral coach – is the single most important action step a surviving pastor can take because it’s the single most effective action step a surviving pastor can take in his goal to be a thriving pastor AND to pastor a thriving church.

Church of Jesus, we’re distributing Bibles, performing acts of compassion, and more. Well done.

But what next? What about discipleship? What about inclusion in the community of faith?

God has given the spiritual gift of the pastor to the Church, and the spiritual gift of pastors to local churches. He has equipped and gifted those pastors to lead churches, to disciple and provide pastoral care for the believers in those churches. He has spiritually anointed pastors so that their ministry is not limited by human giftings, but infinitely maximized by the limitless power of the Holy Spirit.

 

THE FINAL CHAPTER

Surveys also continue to reveal the “dream-come-true” experience of many pastors and churches.

No, none of them are perfect. But, when healthy, life-giving pastors are in their places, strong and thriving, their churches are strong and thriving as well. These churches are not Matthew 9.36 “weak and helpless” people “like sheep without shepherds,” but they are Book of Acts believers, strong and secure in The Faith, in their faith, and in the body of Christ.

Day in and day out, Journey Pastoral Coaching pastors the pastors who pastor the churches. We do everything in our power – and, through heartfelt prayer, everything in His power – to see these pastors survive and thrive.

We do it for their sake, but even more important, we do it for the sake of those whom they pastor: that they might thrive.

We do it so that none of us will ever again live the nightmare of what I experienced on that stairway in Ukraine that day. We do it so that all of us will live in the dream of the Christ who died and rose again to give us salvation, and then that He might give us pastors who will teach us how to walk in that salvation so that we can be forever strong and secure.

May this be our never-ending story until we meet the Savior face-to-face.

It’s not just a story.  It’s a matter of life and death.  Eternal life and death.

 

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NOTE: Journey Pastoral Coaching provides pastoral coaching to Millennial ministers.

Saddled with large student debt, just beginning to set up homes and start families, and serving in low paying first and second positions, Millennials are those who most desire but can least afford to pay for pastoral coaching.

So we offer it to them at NO COST:  Member do not PAY for coaching; they EARN it.

We are able to do so through the faithful and generous gifts of friends who want to see young leaders not only enter the ministry, but remain in the ministry. If you or your church would like to help Millennial ministers in 21 US states and 5 nations build strong for a lifetime in ministry, please click here to contact us by email or to support Journey monthly or with your one-time gift. Thank you.

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