Sitting on a Gold Mine

During the California Gold Rush in 1849 300,000 men sought their fortune with pick axe and shovel in hand and made the arduous trip to the gold country. After a few years the vast majority left the mines disappointed with little to show for their efforts, but a few hit it big with one nugget weighing in at 160 lbs. that’s worth $4,352,000 today. Not bad for a day’s work. Mining was grueling hard labor loading the sluice box with tons of dirt and gravel, panning by hand or chipping away underground. If you watch the TV series Gold Rush that after months of hard work using heavy equipment the miners hold a jar of only 75-90 ounces of gold. The miners in 1849 and even today still have the hope and promise of gold that fuels their passion to continue.

I recently attended a small church pastor’s conference with this theme, Sitting on a Gold Mine by the Northwest Ministry Network. The analogy of pastoring a small church (under 125) with gold mining was very insightful and encouraging. Here were a few helpful nuggets I took away from this conference.

Gold is rare and valuable and so are the souls we are called to serve. Each person in your church and in your community is gold: the child in the nursery, the single mother, the supportive Deacon, the alcoholic who staggers by your church Sunday morning, and the hundreds who drive by your church each day are a rare and highly valued treasure to God.

God has called you, given you a claim, and equipped you to mine His gold. We understand the high calling of ministry, but do we always appreciate the stake he has given us? When mining becomes drudgery, when there are only a few ounces of gold in the jar, and we long for the big nuggets but only see small flakes we can become disappointed in our claim. Thousands of American ministers walk away from their claim each month. Some seek better yielding claims others give up mining completely.

Keep mining till God says, “Well done, you have completed your job”.  Keep at it, try new methods that might help you, be open to new opportunities to mine in your community like service to foster families, senior groups, coaching little league soccer, etc. If God says “there is gold in them thar hills”, then you can count on it being there.

Remember that 99% of mining is an ounce at a time. Modern miners run tons of dirt to produce a few ounces of gold, that’s a lot of work, time and energy and when we hear of someone digging up a big nugget or finding a gold vein in a tunnel and striking it big we can become envious and discouraged. The majority of successful miners keep on adding one ounce at a time to their jar.

I think of you, my fellow Shepherds, miners and friends and you have been given a claim with a highly valuable treasure within. Some of your claims have nuggets hidden in the creek beds, others have to dig deep underground, and others have to work tons of dirt just for a few ounces. When I hear of your mining stories, I am proud of you in your faithfulness, your creativity, your patience, your perseverance, your passion and your hard work in ministry.  Keep digging.

Campfire Question: Where have you discovered gold in your claim?

Passion In Ministry

Passion in our work and service is “an intense enthusiasm”, excitement, zeal, energy and enjoyment in what we do? I think back many years ago as a young, naïve Bible college student I was passionate about the church. I was opinionated with what I saw was wrong with the church, what it needed and a vision of what it could be? I had all the answers, the energy to charge forward and belief I could be a world changer. Twenty plus years later I have served the church in many roles from preschool teacher, janitor, youth leader, Children’s Pastor, Family Pastor and now Lead Pastor in church plants and congregations of all sizes. As I reflect upon this concept, “passion in ministry”, I feel the weight of negative experiences, disappointments, faded dreams, grinding work, unfulfilled expectations with little evidence of any harvest from my efforts. I feel like a wobbling spinning top with only a few rotations left.

Have you ever felt that way in ministry? I know that emotional, physical and spiritual state cannot sustain the work, vision and energy needed in this great calling of being a minister. Maybe during times when ministry is growing beyond our expectation passion is self-sustaining, but for those seasons of toil with little progress, passion can slip away like water through our weary fingers.  

Question: What is your current level of passion in your ministry?

How much time in your ministry weekly schedule is passionate work? What tasks or responsibilities do you look forward to with zeal and enjoyment? What do you dread? How can you regain some lost passion in your ministry?

My hope for you and myself is to take each step of this ministry journey with an intense enthusiasm, excitement, zeal and enjoyment of service to Christ within the church. Our present circumstances, perceived harvest or lack thereof, and aspirations and dreams do not define our level of passion, but in being the faithful servant we are called to be. I grasp onto the hope that He desires to renew my energy, vision, joy and strength to keep on spinning. Maybe, just maybe after my past failures, experiences, lack of faith, and disappointments God still sees me as a world changer.   

“The world will belong to passionate, driven leaders…people who not only have enormous amounts of energy, but who can energize those whom they lead.” – Jack Welch, former GE CEO

What Are You Reading?

Shepherds tend to be readers. Most pastor friends I know read continually for pleasure, to sharpen their skills, or explore new information. I seem to read in spurts. I will read 2-4 books on a particular subject all at once than not pick up a book for a month. At the present I have three resources that I am reading: Preaching-The Art of Narrative Exposition by Calvin Miller, Everyone Communicates Few Connect by John Maxwell, and Preaching magazine. It is obvious that God is leading me to sharpen my skills as a communicator and preacher which I readily admit needs sharpening. Who wants to be a dull preacher anyway, or maybe more important who wants to listen to a dull preacher?

What are you reading and what is God speaking to you through those resources? I have a friend who likes science journals and many of his sermon illustrations reflect his science interest. The same may be said of someone who reads leadership books, or history, biographies, archaeology, and various genres. Even in our “light” reading: fiction, magazine articles, browsing internet stories, etc., God will spur our imagination to enlighten us, make a spiritual connection, or reveal something within us.

Our sheep want a shepherd who is informed, primarily in God’s Word, second with the world and culture we live in. Karl Barth captures this idea when he said, preach with a Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. With a wealth of information at our fingertips (literally), we have a great opportunity to deepen our understanding of our world, sharpen our skills, and broaden our connection with others.

Campfire Question: What are you reading and why?

p.s. I invite you to leave a comment on the campfire question - my hope is this blog will not be a monologue but a discussion.  I am encouraged to hear from you and your insight.

Don't Sweat It

I admit that I love the reality TV series that focus on outdoor survival. My favorite is the original Survivorman with Les Stroud that has spawned numerous other shows: Man vs. Wild, Dual Survivor, and Man, Woman, Wild, all from the Discovery Channel. They must trigger my primal instinct to survive against whatever environment, terrain and nature throws at you, to find shelter, stay warm or cool, make a fire, hunt & gather something to eat, and always, always find suitable drinking water. One major survival skill that is repeated often is, when exposed to the elements, never sweat.

Our family has branded this one critical piece of information into our primal survival skill set, the one-liner from Survivorman, “never sweat, it can kill you”. In each episode, Les Stroud will make at least one, if not many, statements regarding sweat. In being exposed, dying of hypothermia, heat exhaustion or dehydration in all terrains: mountain glaciers, central American jungles, or high-desert plateaus. We never knew how dangerous and critical the issue of sweat was to our survival, but now we share our wisdom throughout our daily activities. “Dad, I am sweating, I need to take a break from mowing the lawn”, or while walking through the mall, “Dad, I feel some sweat forming, we need to stop and rehydrate…hey look, Jamba Juice”. Now when we take a day hike through the Mt. Hood National Forrest we bring along a pack mule carrying gallons of water and extra dry clothes…just in case we sweat.

I think this survival tip is a good reminder for us as Shepherds to survive in ministry. That just as sweat is the body’s reaction to overexertion and overheating, so we find ourselves often with mental, emotional, relational, physical and spiritual overexertion and overheating…and we sweat. The signs of sweat might be physical and mental lethargy, unmotivated work, feeling negative, irritable and critical, unhealthy physical habits of overeating and lack of exercise, isolation from family and friends, a lack of passion in our call and zeal in our service to Christ. The dangerous outcome of exposure to the elements without heading the sweat warnings are despondency, depression, vulnerability to temptation, outburst of anger, bitterness, and even laying down the Shepherd’s staff and walking away. Pay attention when you sweat.

When we recognize the sweat forming rings under our arms, or pools down our back, and we need to wipe our foreheads often, it is a sign we need to stop, rest, rehydrate and put on some dry clothes. We do that by taking our vacation time, getting away, or prioritizing recharge time with family, at the golf course, fishing, whatever. It is difficult to find those times to pay attention to our needs when the needs of Shepherding are constant, demanding, and ever increasing. Shepherding is hard work and hard work produces a lot of sweat, but our key to survival is to “never sweat, it will kill you.”

How do you find weekly times to stop, rest and recharge?  What activities do you enjoy that strengthen and encourage you? 

Walking in Ministry

The sun danced on the rolling waves as they bowed upon the warm sandy beaches. A light breeze from the vast expanse of the ocean refreshed all the senses with its salty, cool, marine air. This was a perfect day at one of my favorite places on this earth, New Brighton State Beach near Santa Cruz, CA. Charlene and I would take daily long walks on this beach. As we held hands, we would sometimes share the details of our day, dream of our future together or simply walk silently enjoying the moment. This was one of those moments, perfect beach weather, walking with my beautiful young bride, and then I stepped on something warm, soft and mushy and it pushed between my toes. I instinctively hopped on one foot with a yell of terror as the pungent odor filled my nose. Dog Poop! Somebody must have been walking a Saint Bernard which had just eaten two full bags of Extra Fiber Big Dog Chow. Gagging as I hop into the water and let the waves wash away the “stuff”, I am now filled with anger, disgust, and nausea. In an instant when all was perfect, suddenly was replaced with thoughts of drowning some guy walking his Saint Bernard on the beach.

At times ministry can be like that as well. It takes just one step into somebody else’s dog poop to ruin the day. Our full attention and thoughts focus on that smelly, irritating, nauseating poo. You know those times I am talking about. After you have given your best leading Sunday morning worship, Ms. Spiritual walks up and says, “Good sermon Pastor, but its too bad the Holy Spirit didn’t show up today, like it did when Pastor Moses (who could part the Red Sea each Sunday) would preach…now that was powerful preaching.” Or maybe the phone call from a starved sheep, who feels they are not being “fed” by your teaching, even though they only attend a third of the time. And we can step in the smelly poo, by being overly critical of our own missteps in the sermon, in relationships, in not fulfilling a task or role like we feel we should, etc. Being focused in the poo, robs us of the joy of what God is doing around us and through us as his Shepherds.

It is a privilege and joy to serve as Shepherd of God’s flock, and when we look around we can see the Great Shepherd at work in people’s lives through us. He is encouraging those ready to give up, through our affirming words and prayers. He is transforming lives from a worldly view to God’s view by the renewing of their mind, through our teaching in small groups, sermons, counsel and writing. He provides hope, peace, joy, and forgiveness to the flock through our ministry even in the simplest, ordinary act. God uses us as shepherds/pastors for his purpose and will, a gift from Christ to his flock.

An encouragement to my friends, my fellow Shepherds, and specifically a reminder to myself, be careful of dwelling on, being overly sensitive, or overreacting to the poo as we walk in ministry. It’s a picture perfect day and God is walking beside us.

Share one story of where God has used you to bring hope, joy, encouragement, or truth to another within the past month. Why did it affirm and bring joy to you?