So You Want to Make a Difference?

You graduate from Bible College, Seminary, or quickly find that you are still woefully unprepared for what ministry looks like "on the field." There were no classes on how to handle disputes among mothers in the nursery, how to minister during a pandemic, or how to balance home life and ministerial life. That is not to discredit formal education, but after our classes have been taken and our diplomas have been received we recognize the task ahead is greater than our education.

You find that most of the information that you have relentlessly worked to store away for future use is undeniably limited in light of the scope of ministry!

I now sit a few year from my last undergraduate and seminary courses. If I may, though unworthy, I would like to offer some advice for the journey ahead.

1) Your family is your first mission field. Too many children of pastors have left Christ and His Church who were raised in a pastor's home. This is a tragedy. In fact, Paul says this is disqualifying for being an overseer in the church. This is significant. How can you disciple people in the church when you cannot disciple people that you live with every day? Your spouse needs time with you. Your children need time and direction from you. Do not rob them of God's call on your life.

If you ignore this, your years following your last assignment will contain heart ache and regret. Find a retired preacher and ask him or her what they regret most about their life. They will often mention that they did not spend enough energy on discipling their own family.

2) Be a person of the Bible. People are starving for God's Word in a world that is Biblically illiterate! Preachers have resorted to therapeutic sermons, theological treatises, or ideological agendas. Preachers are looking more like rock stars or Hollywood elite and sounding more like a psychologist with a clerical collar. Many pulpits are filled by people who have been shaped and formed by cultural ideologies and philosophies. 

The people in our pews are hungry for something with real power. We (preachers) will not be able to offer that until we are regularly saturating in the Word of God.

People obviously haven't received what they need from sociology and psychology. They haven't received it from the false prophets called tele-evangelists (not all of tv-evangelists are false prophets... just most of them). They haven't received what their souls yearns for from the hyper-cool church leaders either! But they will receive what their hearts and lives desperately need through the faithful proclamation of God's Word!

Be Biblical. Read God's Word over and over. Live it, breathe it, and speak it.

3) Keep the fire burning. Don't get bogged down in the politics, administration, academics, worship-wars, or other "rabbit trails" that always lead away from Christ if they receive the focus. Some have built their whole ministry around manipulation and control through church politics. Some have built their whole ministry around their theological IQ. Some have built their whole ministry around their exciting style of worship. Some have focused on their creativity and "cutting edge" style. Ministries that focus on temporal things have temporary effects... not eternal. 

A word that many of our holiness pioneer pastors used was unction. It is a KJV word that is often translated anointing. The anointing had to do with the evident presence of the Holy Spirit. The prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament said there was a fire in his heart that felt like it was shut up in his bones and he could not keep it in! When we lose this fire, we have lost more than we realize.

John Wesley said in a letter to Alexander Mather, August 6, 1777: “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen, such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth.” 

4) Fight for the souls of the lost. Spiritual warfare is not easy. It is wearisome, stressful, disappointing at time, and exhausting. But while there are many costs involved, the harvest is well worth the effort. Going to visit the drunk who had been down to the altar the week before is discouraging to say the least; but do not give up! Fight for the souls of the lost.

Step away from managing the healthy sheep in the fold for a moment to step onto the uncomfortable ground beyond the gates of the sheep fold to find the sheep lost in the thicket of sinfulness. Put your calendar of programs and events down long enough to see the spiritually blind reaching out for someone to point them to Christ. Set aside the tongue of eloquent speech for one of honesty and integrity (although eloquence and integrity are not necessarily mutually exclusive).

The Great Commission is about seeing those who were lost come to know the saving and sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit and become disciples! Anything less is an investment in the temporary. 

5) Find men and women who are living today that are radically & absolutely sold out to Christ and get close to them. There will always be those who sound off on social media as experts who have consistently been unfruitful. Do not follow their lead. There are those with robust extroverted personalities. Do not follow their example. 

Just about anyone can get a book published (even if they have to pay for it). Any preacher that has enough money can be heard on the radio and television. Any ministry can establish its own website... but can you find those people who are pursuing Christ with all that is within them? Gravitate toward those who are obviously filled with the Spirit of God!

6) Commit to be faithful. Nurture a resolve. Ministry is long and can be wearisome at times. That is why the apostle Paul warned us not to grow weary in well doing. Choose at the outset that you will not quit. Resolve that you will not give up. Set your eyes on Jesus and "stay on the firing line."

You will find that there is something to be said for remaining faithful to your calling. This is not a fly by night ordination, but a journey to which you have committed. Regardless of the difficulty ahead... I will be faithful.

7) Commit to be fruitful. I am absolutely convinced that anyone can and should be fruitful in the work of the Kingdom. If we are not, then we have to place the blame somewhere. Is it the Gospel message? Is it the impotence of the Holy Spirit? Is it that God is not quite as mighty to save as we thought? Of course not! Maybe it is the congregation to which we have been called? Maybe it is our lack of financial resources? Maybe it is the fact that I am bi-vocational? Maybe because I'm not extroverted?

Too many started the journey convinced they were going to make a difference only to later be resolved to the idea that it is okay not to be fruitful. It is not okay to be unfruitful.

8)   Read preachers that God has used in significant ways throughout history. Read those who are no longer here on Earth, but have made a difference in the world for eternity's sake! Read people like John Wesley, Charles Finney, Martin Luther, Hannah Whitall Smith, Dwight L. Moody, A.M. Mills, J.A. Wood, E.M. Bounds, Leonard Ravenhill, Phoebe Palmer, Samuel Logan Brengle, Saint Augustine, Andrew Murray, Hudson Talyor, Charles Spurgeon, Jonathon Edwards, Corrie ten Boom, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, J.B. Chapman, C.S. Lewis, Richard S Taylor, and others. (This list is not exhaustive or in any specific order... other than the way they happen to come to mind.)

We are often caught up in our contemporary historical moment. It becomes difficult for us to operate, preach, and minister in the broader context of history and time. Too many preachers are urged forward by the current fad which will soon pass, along with their significance unless they jump to the next wave (fad). There is a reason that these men and women are still read today. Invest your time on something that has had long term impact rather than something hot off the press with a fancy cover.

9)  Passionately love the people entrusted to your care. It is no small thing to have the responsibility of pastoring a group of people. Do not diminish this responsibility even with a "small church" as there are too many "pastors" who are looking for their next step up. Care for those that you worship with week in and week out. Love for your church will help them see past your flaws as a pastor to your heart.  

10) Pray. More than a pastoral prayer or before a meal. Pray. Become a man/woman of prayer. May your voice be one heard regularly in heaven. May your petition and praise echo in the throne room of grace. May Satan shake when your knees hit the floor. May the gates of Hell fall back in retreat when your heart bows to seek the King of kings.

God's Word says we ought always to pray and to pray without ceasing and that we must! But we have traded off deep intimate times with God for prayer while driving down the road, prayer while standing in line at Wal-Mart, and prayer laying in bed waiting for sleep to overtake us. This prayer is good and important, but cannot take the place of retreating from all the distractions of the world and closing the door of the closet to spend powerful, life-changing, attitude changing, will conforming time with the Savior.

Pray for revival. Pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Pray for the lost. Pray for the hurting. Pray for your church. Pray for yourself. Pray for you family. Pray in thanksgiving seeking to remember every answer to prayer.

Pray when you have no more words due to the emotional pain you are experiencing. Shed tears of godly sorrow for those who are unrepentant. Groan in heart ache as you pray for situations and circumstances to which you do not even fully understand the problem. But whatever you do... pray. 


As you fulfill the calling God has on your life may your journey be blessed with the recognition of the Holy Spirit's constant presence, power, and direction.

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