Today was just wonderful from beginning to end. After a very powerful time of worship from tbe student band – it was so powerful in fact, Andrew asked for an extra song! Praise God for leaders who can flow in worship and lead worship in the services.
Then it was the turn of one of my favourite speakers, Wendell Parr. Wendell shared some of his testimonies of his journey, and shared how he has never pushed a door open but always trusted God to open the door at the right time. In an age where so many aspiring ministers are pushing and pushing for a pulpit, this was so refreshing.
He shared how before he came to work for Andrew Wommack he had to settle in his heart that he would be faithful to Andrew’s vision over his own. Such a powerful moment, and again something all of us need to learn in this independent generation. The way to fruit is to be faithful in that which is anothers.
Wendell then taught us how to encourage ourselves when problems come. He told us to first look back and remind yourself of all the good things God has already done for us.
Then we need to look forward to God’s promises and what He had told us will happen in our future and remind ourselves of God’s future goodness.
Then we need to look up at Jesus and think about how awesome He is, finally we need to look inside and see how awesome Jesus has made us.
What glorious advice for anyone facing a problem. Take your eyes off your problem!
Then Dave Hinton reminded us to smile!
Andrew then took the offering from Haggai 1, which many of you will know is an integral part of our offering declarations, so that was awesome to hear him speak on honouring the Lord first. And it’s so true, we have to honour God with our finances.
Then Billy Epperhart got up and spoken one of the clearest messages to pastors I have ever heard. He compared pastoring to childbirth, in that if you have never done it, you don’t know what it is like, and said many pastors are discoursed because they didn’t know what it is like. What I was thinking was times when Amanda and I have raised up pastors, often our biggest piece of advice is just telling them… Yes, that’s what it is like.
Billy said we are called to make disciples, not just to babysit. He pointed out that soil just not provide food for the seed, but resistance. It is by pushing through the soil a plant is strong enough to survive on its own. We should not as pastors let anyone in our church just do what they want, but provide a vision that causes people to walk in step, and indeed that resistance to people is what causes growth.
He reminded us that Jesus sent us out as sheep among wolves, that although we must never be cynical and assume everyone is a wolf, we must also never be naive and assume no one is. Billy shared that the greatest challenge of ministry is leading people out of superficiality.
Certainly a lot of food for thought. I think I provide that resistance fairly instinctively and Tree of Life has never had an “anything goes” mentality and certainly we are seeing many people growing and becoming disciples, I also believe there is a lot of room for improvement and deliberately challenging people to step up and do God’s will not their own. I will be taking a lot of thought about this in the future.
Billy finished by reminding us we must be willing to be rejected by people to truly help them. I have certainly experienced that as I have discipled certain people suddenly they feel the need to go to another church, or suddenly feel the call to Bible College! True honour starts with respect, and if leaders “interpret” what you are sharing as vision rather than reflect it, they are not honouring you.
Food for thought indeed!
Just as an aside, today after the meeting, Amanda and I had a meeting with a couple who will be helping us take our media ministry into a major upgrade. It’s really exciting. Then we had dinner with Greg and Janice Mohr and discussed plans to take our family of churches into a major upgrade, which is even more exciting.
Praise God. Today has been one of the most fruitful I have ever had. And I had chicken fried steak too. Thank you all for your prayers and cares. The future is so bright.
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