I will not forget one Sunday evening back in the spring of 1985. I was sitting on a the pew in the old sanctuary at Denman Avenue Baptist Church listening to Brother Charles Roberts preach. That was the first time I felt any prompting from the Holy Spirit that I had been selected for ministry.
I quickly dismissed the thought and went on about my senior year. In late June of 1985 I attended a leadership youth camp. Over and over again I felt the Lord calling me into ministry. I resisted. One night I sat in the closet of my dorm room on the campus of Baylor University in tears.
The following week I attended another youth camp. For three nights in a row I resisted God's call on my life. Finally on July, 4, 1985 I surrendered at the Pineywoods Baptist Encampment. I came to my home church the next Sunday morning and made the commitment public. I recall scores of people lining up to shake my hand after the service and I heard this question over and over again. "Are you going to be a pastor, youth pastor, evangelist, missionary?" I gave the same answer every time. "I don't know. God just called me to preach."
In my years in ministry I have been a youth pastor, pastor, and an evangelist. Right now I am serving as both pastor and youth pastor. I feel called to serve as a pastor but many around me see more as an evangelist.
I recently held an informal survey of about two dozen friends. I asked this simple question. "Do you see more as a pastor or an evangelist." I did not qualify why I was asking the question. Out of two dozen responses twenty-two said evangelist. Two people said pastor. Out of the twenty-two who said evangelist five said they saw me as both but more as an evangelist. The longer I thought about their comments the more disheartened I became. I have served as a pastor in four different churches now for more than eleven years. It seems I have not excelled in those ministries as a shepherd.
I found myself reading [Eph 4:11], "And He gave some as apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds (pastors) and teachers."
On my retreat I asked God what His calling on my life entailed. I wanted to know if He called me to be a pastor or an evangelist like so many people thought. I could see me in both roles. I have served in both capacities. There are even things I like about both ministries.
The answer did not come immediately but when it did come it surprised me. The answer is both! Primarily I am a pastor. I love feeding the flock the word verse by verse. I enjoy developing relationships though I know I have a tendency to keep many people at arm's length. Hundreds of times I have made hospital visits and ministered to people in sickness and tragedy. I have preached many funerals and feel God has used me to bring comfort to grieving people. Though never easy this is the part of serving as a pastor I take seriously.
Before the Shake the City Revival in Seminole back in the summer of 2010, I made many hospital visits. On one day the week the the revival started I made three visits in one day in three different towns. Once the revival started I felt something shift inside me. I no longer felt like a pastor and preached like an evangelist. God gave me powerful messages during those three weeks. Just as clearly I remember when the revival ended I felt the Lord shifting my heart to serve as a pastor again. For those weeks during the revival there were no hospital visits to be made. God kept us healthy in those days. Once the revival ended there were hospital visits, counseling, funerals and week to week preaching.
All my ministry God has opened doors for me to preach youth camps, retreats, and revivals. When those doors have opened I walk through them prayerfully. Some times I turn down the invitations if they require me to be gone from the pulpit at the church I am serving on Sundays. While those invitations come I accept some of them and when I do I operate under the anointing and call of God to be an evangelist. I love preaching in those settings and I have seen God move very powerfully.
That is not my favorite thing. I love faithfully feeding the flock week after week as we study through a book of the Bible. At CentrePointe we did this with James and Luke. At FBC Paradise we did this through I Peter, Acts, Colossians, and Luke. At Seminole we studied through Phillipians, I John, I Corinthians, and several Bible Characters. Here at Faith Community we have studied Joel, I Timothy, I Thessalonians, and are working our way through Mark now. This is my favorite preaching and teaching. This forces me to study and we dig into deep truth.
I serve as a pastor today and also a student pastor. Every Wednesday night I teach adults and then walk across the parking lot to teach our students and I feel God's anointing to do both. The bottom line is I cannot be shoved into any one mold. God has uniquely gifted me to serve as both a pastor and an evangelist in different settings. I embrace both callings on my life along with the calling to write. I can't explain it but I know God uses me to minister to and relate to children, students, and adults. While it all seems natural to me I know this is because of God's unique calling and gifting in my life.
There are some who will never understand me and this dual calling on my life. I have surrendered to God to serve as a full time evangelist if that is what He wants. To date the phone does not ring with invitations to preach. For the first time in years I do not have one outside preaching engagement at this time. So I continue to labor as a pastor and a student pastor. Back this summer when I preached our two week revival at Faith Community Church I once again felt God calling me to operate in the evangelistic anointing and calling He has put on my life during those meetings.
While I was in the middle of my full time evangelistic meeting I was asked to serve as an interim pastor at a church in Lufkin, TX. I loved those times with those people. Eventually I got so busy traveling that it became necessary for me to step out of the interim role.
I know I have a pastor's heart. I also know I have an evangelistic calling. I will do my best to serve in both capacities as God allows. I simply do what God puts before me to do. I am comfortable in both roles. I enjoy serving as a pastor more but will always remain open and to travel and preach where God opens doors. Think of me as an evangelistic pastor.
What is your role and ministry. I did not write this just so you could sit on the outside of my life and form your own opinion of what I am. What ministry has God called you to? What gifting has He bestowed on you for service?
All of us in Christ were created for good works which God prepared before hand. [Eph 2:10] We are to walk in those. Find yours and labor faithfully for the Master.
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