Principles
of Ministry
Calvary Chapel Ministries
By Larry Taylor
[No copyright was printed or to be seen on this text]
Table of
Contents
I. It is Not By Might, Nor By Power, but By My Spirit Says the Lord of Hosts (Zech. 4:6)
It is imperative that we as pastors rely on the supernatural
power of the Holy Spirit in our ministries. Perhaps one reason why the church
has turned to secular humanistic psychology with such enthusiasm is because it
lacks the supernatural power of God.
The church is God's. Jesus said "I
will build My church..." (the personal pronouns are emphatic in the Greek). It
is His work, the problems are His problems, the people are His people. We are
not to be building our personal kingdoms, we are to be flowing with Him.
To do so, we must seek His will for the ministry daily, confess our
personal inabilities, and rest on His strength. How easy it is to fall into the
trap of relying on self, especially in areas that are routine.
Christian book stores, seminaries, and denominations are filled with
programs that propose to teach us how to raise money, how to attract new folks,
how to administrate, how to counsel those in need, how to evangelize, etc.,
etc. But one key to the success of Calvary Chapel is that Pastor Chuck and
those who have learned from him ignore all that. We are not interested in
spiritual "how to" books and seminars, instead we seek the direct guidance of
the Holy Spirit. We look to Him each day in prayer, we search His Word, and
there we find direction for the ministry for today. He gives us ideas and
plans, He instills vision that is breathed by His life.
So many of the
programs around us are adopted from the world. Evangelism programs are based on
worldly sales techniques, administrative courses come from business management
principles, counseling techniques come from secular psychology, the "science of
church growth" is based on demographics and marketing strategy. And of course,
much of it works in the sense that you can build a church that way. The problem
is that it's not the Lord's church, so if you build it, you'll have to sustain
and maintain it.
Laying all of that aside is hard on the flesh, but in
the long run much easier. Rather than striving to build and sustain, we can let
God do His work. It takes all the worry out of ministry. It's His work; I can
just relax and enjoy watching what He'll do. My responsibility is simply to
seek His face, rely on His Spirit, and obey Him.
When we do rely on
Him, all the glory and honor goes to God. And, we must be very careful to give
Him the credit for what He does; and, conversely, we must be careful not to
blame Him for what we do. God will not share His glory with any person, He
knows we can't handle it. All praise and glory must go to the Master Builder,
the chief cornerstone, the Head of the Body, the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. The Servant of the Lord Must Not Strive (2 Tim. 2:24)
If you're building your kingdom, you'll find the work
strenuous. But if you can relax, rely on the supernatural power of the Holy
Spirit, with all of His gifts and glory, you'll find ministry to be delightful.
You may get tired in the work, but never of it. "Burn out" is unthinkable if
we're resting in Jesus.
As Pastor Chuck [Smith] says, "God wants
inspiration, not perspiration." If we seek to "pump up" a ministry with
programs, hyped up "worship", or charged up emotionalism, we'll not only be
exhausted, but we'll have to strive to maintain what we built. True inspiration
comes from a heart yielded fully to God, a life in a state of being continually
filled with the Holy Spirit, "speaking to ourselves in psalms, hymns, and
spiritual songs."
Pastor Chuck loves to take ventures of faith, like
Jonathan of old. He loves to just step out and see if God wants to do
something. If He doesn't desire to move in that way, that's fine, you withdraw
and move on. But sometimes, God will move mightily. He was just waiting for
someone to step out of the boat.
When you recognize that God is in
charge, and Jesus is building His own church (without our help if need be), you
can relax, not strive, not push, not worry. Sometimes if will become obvious
through the lack of fruit that God's not in a particular venture. If so, fine,
if God's not in it, let it go. That's one reason why each part of Pastor
Chuck's ministry is financially independent. That way you're not taking away
from something God is blessing to prop up something He's not. [That's a
principle straight from George Mueller's life of faith, where money designated
for one purpose, or donated for one purpose would never be spent for another
purpose.] All of our churches and ministries don't have to be identical, maybe
God doesn't want a bookstore here or a touring music ministry there. Let God be
God. Go with the flow.
III. Blessed are the Flexible For They Shall Not Be Broken (See Acts 18:9-11)
This third principle is a necessity if you're adhering to the
first two. In fact, you can't do the first two without being flexible. Lack of
flexibility is why we're often attracted to pre-packaged programs; we like our
lives to be regimented, scheduled, so we know what to do and when. It drives
our flesh crazy to not have a five year plan.
Any ministry associated
with Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa must be flexible, "instant in season and
out", ready to be used of God at any time in any way. If you're not flexible,
you'll break.
In ministry, there are no interruptions, just
opportunities to minister the love of God to others. If our lives are guided by
the Holy Spirit, we need to be open to hearing and obeying His voice as He
speaks to us from His Word.
It's not necessarily wrong to have a
schedule, only to be a slave to it. Perhaps God has other plans. I planned to
write letters today and tie up administrative details, but maybe God's plan for
me was to visit in the hospital or share Christ with the letter carrier.
Walking in the Spirit implies an openness to have one's schedule rearranged.
Everything God wants done will get done.
Of course, we need to be
diligent, good stewards over our time, well organized. But simultaneously, we
must be flexible, able to accept change, willing to go wherever the Lord leads.
In a big ministry that God is blessing, you may be called on at a moments
notice to teach a Bible study, pray with someone, counsel another, or fix the
air conditioner.
The flexible never break.
IV. Where God Guides, He Provides (see Phil 4:6,12,19)
There is never any good reason to beg for or manipulate
folks into increasing their financial commitment to the Church.
Usually when we do so it is because we are seeking to sustain or build
something of our own making. Where God guides, He provides. If He's not
providing, maybe He's not guiding.
So many ministries have been
discredited by pastors and evangelists putting the squeeze on people to give.
The opposite happens at Calvary Chapel. A while back, a woman persuaded her
wealthy husband to come with her to a Thanksgiving service at Big Calvary.
Pastor Chuck shared about how blessed we all were materially. "So, here comes
the pitch for money", the man thought. But then Pastor Chuck went on to share
that he couldn't enjoy family Thanksgiving if he knew anyone there was in want,
so he encouraged anyone in need to contact the church office for a free turkey.
The rich man was blown away, in fact he got saved because he'd never seen a
church that didn't beg for money.
God doesn't need your money.
He's not poor. The kingdom of God is not teetering on the edge of
bankruptcy.
But, you protest, the people need to learn
Biblical principles of giving so they can be blessed. Granted. So teach those
principles when you naturally get to them in the course of a verse by verse
study of Minor Prophets or Paul's Epistles, not as a special message because
your budget is low. Is our motive in teaching giving really to bless the folks
(if so, got for it), or is it rather to raise money? We are instructed in the
Bible to be "blameless", the word means of pure motive, not sinless.
It
is equally important not to ignore finances. We are to not be "slothful in
business" (Rom. 12:11, KJV). Frugality, good stewardship, being careful with
every penny of God's money is vital. As a pastor, I never wanted to know who
gave what--I don't want to treat anybody differently than anyone else. So we
set up a careful, theft proof system to count, record and deposit tithes that
did not involve me, and a careful system of purchase orders to watch diligently
the outgo as well. Every penny at Calvary Chapel is carefully accounted for,
and used only very sparingly as the Lord directs. Even in minor purchases, we
always ask, (a) do we really need it?--and (b) is this the best?
V.
The Greatest in the Kingdom Must Learn to Be the Servant of All
(See Mt.
18:1-4,23; 23:11; Mk 9; Lk. 9; Lk. 22)
The way up is down. If you would stand tall in God's church,
you must learn to be on your face before Him. The Lord's way is exactly the
opposite of the world's way. It saddens me to see flow charts in churches. If
we must have a flow chart, stand it on its end. God's order is an inverted
pyramid. The "higher up" you go, the more people you have the opportunity of
serving.
God Incarnate, the Creator of the Universe, the Almighty God,
girded Himself with a towel (John 13), knelt down, and did the work of a slave
by washing His disciples' feet. Are we greater than our master?
Ministry means service. It means opening your eyes and seeing what
needs doing and doing it. It means that we consider no task to be too low or
common. If it needs doing, do it, don't get others to do it, don't hire a staff
to do it, do it yourself. If there's trash, pick it up. If a light's out,
change it. If the nursery is short of help, baby-sit.
Motivated by love
for God's people, it is our calling to serve them, to make them happy and
comfortable, to bless them. I once went to Israel with Pastor Chuck and a group
from the church. He led the tour, taught 4 or 5 Bible studies on location, each
day, and spent the night running medicine to this room, encouraging that
person, helping this other one. If we're above any of that, we're not servants
of the Lord.
Every minister at Calvary Chapel lives a very simple life
style. Once you're standard of living is above your people's you are no longer
a servant.
Some people aspire to ministry but won't lift a finger to
help out in practical ways. Others are willing to help if you specifically tell
them what to do. Both drive me crazy. A true minister is a servant, a voluntary
daily slave of the people; he sees what needs doing, and he does it. The fields
are white unto harvest, but the laborers are few. The self appointed clergymen
who want prestige are many, but workers, laborers, true servants are few.
That's what Jesus said to pray for more of.
In all my life, I have
never met anyone who is more of a servant than Chuck Smith. You can find him
installing urinals in a new building in the middle of the night, picking up
trash at the conference center, crawling in an attic to fix a leaky pipe, in
the parking lot jump starting someone's car, baby-sitting children, always
helping, always blessing others. Why does he do it? Because he loves God and
loves His people.
You never out grow service. It's not something you do
until the church is big enough to get others to do it. The greatest in the
Kingdom is the servant of all. Gayle Erwin's ministry is a dynamite
presentation of this principle; but Gayle lives it, he doesn't just teach it.
VI.
Minister to Others, Don't Try to Get Them to Minister to You.
(See John 13
and 14:13)
So many people in ministry today, especially those on radio and
television, spend most of their time trying to get the people to minister to
them, rather than ministering to the people. It may be an effort to get the
people of God to send them more money, or it may be a pastor angrily accusing
his board of not taking care of him, or it may be a subtle manipulation so
others will praise or encourage us. As ministers it is not our responsibility
to seek anything for ourselves. God will take care of all that. He'll supply
our financial needs. He'll meet our emotional needs. It is our responsibility
to die to self, and care for others.
Near the end of his life, General
William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, sent a message to his co-laborers
that contained nothing except the word "others". That was the essence of his
life. Live for others, not self. Seek the good of those God has sent you. Seek
to bless, not be blessed, to love, not be loved, to care for, not be cared for,
to minister to others, not have them minister to you.
Feed the flock of
God with the pure Word of Life. Serve them in love. Give. Live for the sheep;
if necessary, die for the sheep. You are a shepherd, and that's what shepherds
do.
If you're in the ministry to get your own needs met, either repent,
or quit. Jesus is looking for people with hearts for the sheep. He sees the
people scattered, bruised, bleeding, dying, ravaged by the wolf, and His heart
breaks for them. He longs to enfold them in His love.
As pastors and
ministers, that is our calling, to enfold the sheep in the loving arms of
Jesus. I have personally known Chuck and Kay Smith for twenty years, and they
have both always led me past themselves and into the arms of Jesus.
Minister to others. Lead them into the arms of Christ, He is the
loving, great, and beautiful Shepherd.
VII.
Sheep Beget Sheep
(see John 15:16)
The whole Calvary Chapel movement started with Chuck Smith and
Kay Smith sitting near the ocean at Huntington Beach praying fervently for the
lost young people that were all around. [This was during the Hippie movement,
era.] If we are walking with the Lord, it is essential that we have a heart for
the lost, a deep burning, unquenchable desire to see the lost evangelized and
missions throughout the globe. Our zeal for missions and evangelism should go
deep. Our congregations must catch the vision to reach the lost and be involved
directly in missionary work, and evangelism.
Beware, however, of
mission and evangelism programs and gimmicks. As pastors, our primary
responsibility is to feed His sheep--the Christians--in order that they might
do the work of the ministry (see Ephesians 4). If we are feeding the
flock the pure Word of God, verse by verse study of the whole counsel of God,
they will be healthy. And healthy sheep will automatically and naturally
reproduce without the artificial aid of programs. Healthy sheep share their
faith, they have a burden for missions, they seek the lost. We do not have to
pump them up or push them, it flows naturally. Feed the flock and it will
reproduce.
Mission programs, outreaches of evangelistic nature, social
help and relief are all vital, but they are by-products, they are the fruit of
solid Bible teaching, not ends in themselves. You'll never find peace by
pursuing it, it is only found in Jesus, find Him and you'll have peace as a
by-product. Similarly, you'll never build a missions program by seeking it
directly (at least not one that God's in). Feed His people, and missions will
be a part of the fruit.
And where does it start? With prayer. Get
together to pray for the lost. Seek God's face that He might give you souls for
your hire.
VIII.
Be Submissive and Loyal
(see Titus 3)
The men God had raised up to help Moses helped him best when
they stood by his side and held up his arms. That is our responsibility towards
those God has placed over us. Here at Calvary Chapel Bible College and
Conference Center, it is my calling, my responsibility, my duty to assist my
pastor. Chuck Smith is the director of this ministry, he is the shepherd whom
God has charged with overseeing this ministry. My job is to ease his burden, to
make his job lighter, to hold up his arms, to help him in any way that needs
doing.
My job is to pray for my pastor daily, to encourage him if I
can, to give him lots of data so he knows everything that's going on, so that
he's never surprised by anything, to give him input and opinion, to support him
and help him. Pastor Chuck doesn't want or need a yes man who nods dumbly at
everything. But on the other hand, he doesn't need some independent cowboy
seeking to build his own kingdom.
God has placed somebody over you.
Submit to him. Love him. Pray for him. Help him. Above all, always be loyal.
Never betray those with whom you minister. Never ever backbite or criticize
publicly. Never gossip or be a talebearer.
If there's something you
can't live with in a ministry, quietly leave. Never try to build your own
ministry on another man's foundation. Touch not the Lord's anointed. If he's
off the wall, God will deal with him; who are we to criticize another man's
servant?
Never cause strife or division. Help, encourage, submit,
lighten the load, assist. Don't try and be a star. Serve God by serving the man
God has placed you under. If I'm doing my job right, Pastor Chuck will never
have to worry about this part of the ministry because he'll know that it is
running just exactly as it would if he had the time to be here and do it all
personally. The only reason he hired me is because he doesn't have time to do
it all. If he did, he'd do it himself. It is his ministry, I need to guide it
just as he would.
I've heard people say that Pastor Chuck is hard to
work for. Let's go on record that that is simply not true. If you have a heart
for God's people, are a servant, and are willing to put sincere effort into
your service, you'll never have trouble with Pastor Chuck.
IX.
Emphasize What God Has Done for us, Not What We Can Do for God.
(see Rom 8)
Grace, the unmerited favor of God towards those who deserve the
opposite, is the heart of the Gospel. It is grace we must teach, and grace we
must live in the ministry. So many pastors continually emphasize what the
people need to do for God--give more money, pray more, study more, volunteer
more. The genius of Pastor Chuck's ministry is to emphasize rather what God has
already done for us; Jesus loves us, He died for us, He rose from the grave, He
ascended to the right hand of the Father where He ever lives to make
intercession for us, He prays for us daily, His thoughts toward us are
continually thoughts of blessing and love, He has forgiven us all our sins, He
is always with us to help and guide, He has empowered us with His Holy Spirit,
He is preparing an eternal abode for us.
Teach the people what God has
already done for them, and their hearts will overflow in love and gratitude;
gratitude that will manifest itself in loving service and devoted prayer.
Lead your people past yourself and into the arms of Jesus. They need
Him, not you. At one point in my ministry, I got overwhelmed with a huge
counseling load; then I realized I was training the people to rely on me,
rather than the Lord. I repented of the sin, and started to emphasize His
loving grace, letting them see Jesus clearly.
Seeing Jesus clearly
should be the goal of every service, every study, every gathering. Our goal at
Calvary Chapel Bible College is for every man and woman to know Jesus better
when they finish than they did when they started. Our goal for the Conference
Center is for every person who attends a retreat here to know Jesus better when
they leave this mountain than they did when they came up. We want every
student, every retreater, every room renter, every staff person, every visitor,
to see Jesus clearly shining through us, to know His love and grace, and to get
to know Him better.
Emphasize what God has done for us, not what we can
do for Him.
X.
Feed, Don't Beat, the Sheep
(see John 21:15-19)
When I was a young pastor, I used to think Jesus said "Peter if
you love Me, beat my sheep". And I did a good job. I rebuked everything and
everybody from the pulpit with the fire of an Old Testament prophet. And the
people loved it. They were so used to being beat up on that they thought they
weren't spiritual if they left church feeling any way but miserable.'
Moses was not allowed by God to enter the promised land because he
misrepresented the Lord. He gave the people the impression God was mad at them
when He wasn't. Moses beat the rock in anger, and therefore, never tasted a
grape in Canaan.
We must be very careful not to misrepresent God. He's
not mad at these folks, and if we are, we need to get back in touch with the
Lord.
Feed God's people. Teach them the Word of God. Speak the truth in
love. Share the pure Word of God in love.
As a young pastor, I would
often preach at those who weren't there. If four people showed up for a
mid-week service, I'd rant and rave (with plenty of proof texts) about
diligence and commitment. I was talking to the ones who weren't there, not to
the four faithful sheep who were. Pastor Chuck taught me to forget about who's
not there and lovingly feed those who are. It was then that the ministry
started to grow.
Guard your heart, watch your motive. The only
legitimate motive is love. That is why we teach, that is why we preach, that is
why we worship, that is why we serve.
If you love Jesus, feed His
sheep. [John 21:15-17]
XI.
Present the Word of God in a Loving, Relaxed, Relevant Manner.
(see John 15
and Jer. 3:15)
I grew up hearing preachers that either put me to sleep or
yelled at me. They put me to sleep because their messages were not relevant to
my life. They yelled at me and fed my guilt without showing me the love and
freedom of Christ.
"Line upon line" is the way God speaks to His
people. Topical sermons are a scattered diet. Sheep don't grow well on topical
sermons. Pastor Chuck has taught us to feed the sheep--to teach line upon line,
verse by verse through the books of the Bible. Doing so keeps us balanced. We
don't get off on pet doctrines, we cover the whole counsel of God. The people
get fed. They grow. They produce fruit for God's glory. God is seeking for
pastors who will feed His people, who will teach them verse by verse and stick
to what the Bible actually says without adding to it.
Stay current on
political affairs. Keep the studies relevant. Scatter throughout your Bible
studies information on prophecy, the political climate, social problems,
evidence for creation, etc. Read magazines and newspapers, be informed. [I am
going to add a quote from a biography about John Wesley that is appropriate
here. "At Leeds in 1766 Wesley was careful to impress upon his preachers the
necessity of possessing a book-shelved mind, and entered in the minutes, "Read
five hours in twenty-four...' 'But I have no taste for reading.' 'Contact a
taste for it by use or return to your trade.' John was trying to make certain
there were to be no preachers the feet of whose minds paced across their
sermons with a leaden step..." Now I have no idea whether John Wesley meant
five hours a day in purely secular reading or a combination of secular and
Bible study, probably the latter. But his point is clear.]
Present the
Word of God in a relaxed manner where anyone will feel welcome, even those from
different church backgrounds or varying ages. It's no secret why so many of us
hippies wound up at Calvary Chapel--it was the only place that accepted us just
as we were. They accepted us and we accepted Jesus. Someone recently wrote me a
letter saying that they thought it a shame that Calvary had lowered its
standards to let me in. Praise God, this ministry is still lowering its
standards to let sinners saved by grace of all kinds in.
While we
believe in the informality of worship, it is equally important to keep our
services respectful, to do things decently and in order, and with dignity.
Depending on the community to which you live, that may even mean wearing a suit
and tie on Sunday morning (Chuck does).
XII.
Worship is Vital
(see Eph. 5:18,19)
At Calvary Chapel great emphasis is given to music and worship.
Worship is not just a warm up for the sermon, it is actually and literally
entering into the Holiest of All, coming through the gates with thanksgiving
and the courts with praise. Jesus said the Father was seeking those who would
worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Way back in the early days of
Calvary Chapel there was a sign out front that said "Jesus Christ is Lord,
adore Him with us". That's true worship--adoring Jesus.
We like to stay
away from performance type music where the congregation is just watching others
worship, in favor of participatory worship that everyone can enter into.
We also like to emphasize songs to Jesus, rather than just songs about
Jesus. We are singing to Him, adoring Him, loving Him. We are not just filling
space until the late comers get seated.
You can always tell a church
that is moving with the Lord. The sanctuary fills up early, people love to sit
up in the front row, and they sing with all their hearts.
True, heart
felt, Spirit filled worship is vital and essential.
XIII.
Be Balanced Theologically
(see I Tim. 4:16. II Tim. 2:23-26)
Pastor Chuck has always sought to avoid those issues which do
nothing but divide the Body of Christ, and, as he once said, "when Christ's
Body is divided, pray tell, who bleeds?"
Calvary Chapel is unique in
the world today because it fills a gap that other churches do not.
On
one side of the spectrum, there is an extreme form of pentecostalism with its
emotional expression of "charismania", an emphasis on gifts of the Spirit to
the expense of the Word of God. On the other end of the spectrum is
fundamentalism with its opposition to gifts of the Spirit. At Calvary we
believe in and allow for the operation of all the gifts of the Spirit, but
always decently and in order. We believe that the Holy Spirit never interrupts
Himself, so tongues or prophecies are not allowed while the Word is being
taught, for example, Calvary Chapel is the balance between pentecostalism and
fundamentalism.
On another spectrum, there are the hyper-Calvinists who
teach that Jesus died only for His elect, that man has no free will, that one
group is elect for heaven, another is elect for hell, and there's nothing you
can do about it. Opposite them are the hyper-Arminians who forget the
sovereignty of God altogether and believe a person must be born again each time
they sin. Again, Calvary Chapel is the balance between the two. As Pastor Chuck
said: "I believe in once saved always saved, if you abide in Christ". [And this
is in total agreement with Scripture, for Jesus said in Matthew 24:13 "But he
who endures to the end shall be saved." I.e. you can fall away, as Hebrews
10:26-31 also indicates. See also John 15:1-6. These are all serious warnings
that we as Christians must abide in Christ. Read them. Take this seriously.]
The Bible teaches the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man; it
teaches the security of the believer and the perseverance of the saints. We
will never intellectually reconcile the two; we just need to accept the fact
that God is bigger than we are and teach all that the Bible says.
There
are other areas where we tend to get out of balance. Some groups preach
pro-life to the expense of the gospel. Others mix in so much psychology that
the Scriptures are forgotten. Stay balanced. Stay true to the Word of God.
XIV.
Get Your People Praying and Keep Them Praying
(see I Sam. 12:23; Lk. 21:36;
Mt. 6)
Jesus said that men ought to always pray and not faint. Samuel
said it would be a sin against God to stop praying for the people. Paul prayed
whole heartedly for the Philippians.
Prayer is the life blood of the
ministry. The church moves forward on its knees. Every successful ministry has
had dedicated prayer warriors behind it.
Be creative. Get people
praying. Use prayer letters, prayer rooms, elders meetings, whatever. Get them
praying. Then, keep them praying.
Prayer is not a means to convince God
to give us what we want. It is a means by which we can participate in His will.
It is the channel through which He works. Prayer moves the heart of God.
Saturate your ministry with prayer. Lord teach us to pray.
XV.
When You're Confronted With That Which You do not Understand, Fall Back on What
You do Understand.
(See Prov. 3:5,6)
Pastor Chuck told me the statement above when my oldest son
died. We are often in life confronted with things we do not understand. As a
young pastor, I had all the answers, there was nothing I didn't understand.
But, now I know that there is much I do not know.
People often come to
us with unanswerable questions. Why did God allow this? Why is this happening?
Our best response is to simply say we do not know, but there are things we do
know. We do know that God is love. We know that our sins are forgiven. We know
that Jesus will never leave us. We know that we're headed for heaven. We know
His Word is true.
When you're confronted with something you don't
understand, fall back on what you do understand.
Be real honest with
folks. Don't pretend to be something you're not or know something you don't.
Don't pretend to have all the answers. Be yourself. Love God and love His
people.
There is a great deal we do not know. But, on the other hand,
God has revealed to us in His Word all we really need to know for this life.
Quiet yourself, humble yourself, stay in the Word of God. Declare His
revelation to others, not your own speculations and philosophic musings.
XVI.
Be a Shepherd Not a Hirling
(see John 14-16, and the Pastoral Epistles)
Make your people the best fed, best loved sheep on earth. The
greatest gift of all is love. At one point in his ministry, Pastor Chuck was
praying for gifts of the Spirit, and the Lord spoke to him and told him that He
had already given him the greatest gift of all--the gift of love.
The
high priest bore on his breast the stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel.
Paul carried the believers on his heart. Carry the people of God on your heart.
Love them. Serve them. Have their best interest at heart in all things.
The shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Sacrifice self. Die to
fleshly ambition. Serve the saints of God with love. Serve. Give. Minister.
Care for people. Love them. Love them. Love them. Feed them the pure Word of
God.
The hireling seeks his own welfare. He's a man pleaser. He's in it
for the prestige, or the position, or the money, or to get his own needs met.
When the going gets tough, he runs, he quits, he gives up.
Don't quit.
Don't give up. Of course it's hard sometimes. Chuck and Kay spent 17 years
pastoring little tiny churches, they brushed their teeth in the backyard
because they didn't have indoor plumbing. Chuck and his brother Paul slept in
their car as they traveled about preaching and witnessing. Hang in there.
Persevere. God has called you. Labor as unto Him.
Die to self and
lovingly feed the flock verse by verse Bible studies. Love them, they're His
sheep. Make them the best fed, best loved sheep on earth.
XVII.
God is more interested in the minister than the ministry.
(See John
21:20-25)
The reason God has you in ministry is because he loves you. He
really doesn't need your expertise or skill. He could raise up rocks to preach
if He wanted.
No, He doesn't need us, but He wants us. He wants to
fellowship with us, deeply, personally, intimately, continually. He wants your
heart, not just your service.
Your personal fellowship with Jesus is
vital. Spend time in prayer and the Word--not to study for sermons, just to
know God. Knowing Him is far more important than serving Him. Knowing Him is
the reason you exist, and the reason Jesus redeemed you with His precious blood
on the Cross.
"Christianity is like measles", Pastor Chuck used to say,
"you have to have it to give it away." You can never lead your people closer to
Christ than you are. You can't impart what you don't have.
Be a man of
prayer. Be a man of the Word. Be a man who walks with Jesus like Enoch did. Be
a man after God's own heart like David.
Jesus, draw us nearer, take us
deep into your heart of love. Jesus lives in your heart, now live in
His.
[Some may wonder and ask at this point "How do you know these
Principles of Ministry are so effective? How do you know they will work? The
proof of the pudding is in the eating. The Calvary Chapel movement is a large
and growing group of congregations now spanning the globe, and all of these
congregations are affiliated with it's "parent" church, Calvary Chapel of Costa
Mesa, California--the congregation that Pastor Chuck Smith pastors.
This congregation in Costa Mesa that Pastor Chuck pastors is 35,000
strong in membership, and no, I didn't put the decimal point in the wrong
place. The Calvary Chapel congregation that David Rosales pastors in Chino,
California has 30,000 members, the one that Greg Laurie pastors in Riverside,
California has 10,000 members. Most the Calvary Chapels across the rest of the
country have in excess of 2,000 members, and in Massachusetts, the one meeting
in Rockland has over 1,200 attending. I was attending one when it had only 12
members meeting in a room of a radio-studio building. Two and a half years
later they had to rent a building, and packed it out with 125 attending. Now
they had to move again and have in excess of to 175 and are building a
sanctuary that will hold 440. This is in central Massachusetts where size of
congregations is never very large. Calvary Chapel's can be found all around the
world now. They started in a tiny congregation of 25 members in Costa Mesa,
California, pastored by Chuck Smith. Be sure to read Pastor Chuck's
Philosophy of Ministry, to continue this study.]