Dope Slap From a Friend - UPDATE

I got a comment from a long time friend of mine. Reverend Rod Hall. He is a pastor in Aberdeen South Dakota. He's also the prime influencer of my becoming pentecostal long ago. I can't thank him enough for leading me into the fullness of the Spirit. In a way I am fruit of his ministry. Thanks Rod. Looks like I have the wrong Rod. But, truth is truth and thanks revrod anyhow. I guess he says I'm welcome. Rod Hall's still a good guy however.

I posted a complaint litany below about what a Pastor really thinks. Rod posted an essay floating around the net that David Foster wrote.

I read it and hung my head. I agree with what Rod posted and what brother Foster wrote. I just need to be reminded of why we do what we do. If there ever comes a time that at my core I no longer feel like Brother David does I'll hang it up.

Here's the text:

Being a pastor/church leader does not make me immune to the Monday Morning Blues, especially after a weekend of intense and focused engagement where I’ve loved, led, helped, created, pulled people together, taught, preached, led small groups and managed crises. Like everyone else, I need to be reminded why I do what I do. So here are the reasons why I love being a pastor:

1. It’s my calling. It’s what God called me to do. I know deep down in my bones this is what I was made for. If you don’t have a calling, you may never understand why we often say we can’t walk away from the ministry. That would be to live in open defiance to God. And that’s not something we can do.

2. I love the Gospel. It’s changed my life. I’ve lived it many decades and it’s still as powerful, still as sweet as it ever has been. Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so still moves me as much as it did 35 years ago when I met Jesus Christ.

3. I love people. I love being around people who come together with the same purpose, same heart, organized around a great mission to accomplish something really great for God and good for people.

4. I’m a leader. I was born that way. I’ve also been working hard to be made that way. I love leading people, influencing people to become more together than we ever could become separately.

5. I love pastors. I love being around them. The majority are loving, good, committed people; smart, fully-engaged, learners, leaders who love God and want to make a difference in the world.

6. I love what happens when a person is converted as a follower of Jesus Christ. I love seeing life change. I love seeing marriages being put back together. I love seeing people be set free from addictions and sinful habits that are destroying their lives, into a lifestyle of love, freedom, and joy.

7. I love being part of something that redeems culture in the world in which I live. I love being a part of a movement that knows no geographic or cultural barrier; that like water, finds its way into every crease and crevice of humanity.

8. I love being a pastor in leadership and ministry because it forces me to engage the Scripture in a way that transforms my life. I’ve never had a problem in the false dichotomy between reading and studying the Scripture for my own personal improvement, or reading and studying to teach. I can’t divide the two. I have to teach out of the overflow of what’s going on in my life as I engage the full scope of Scripture.

9. I love the Bible: not the pages, not the ink, not the leather; but the words, the ideas, the concepts that teach me that I serve a great God.

10. I do this because I believe that the Gospel is the only hope of the world, that when church is done right, it is absolutely amazing.

11. I continue to do this because I accept the fact that the church of Jesus Christ can at one moment be an amazing and healthy, loving, growing environment, and in another can be a very toxic, destructive place. How could we expect anything different when we get broken people coming together confessing the reality of their own sin and brokenness? There are bound to be sharp edges among us.

12. I do this because I believe in advancing the good. The best way I can do that is promoting the redemptive mission of the gospel.

13. I do this because it is the best way I can spend my life. I’ve got to do something. I might as well be doing something that matters for eternity.

14. I love pushing myself to greater understanding and innovative ways of redeeming culture.

15. I love being around people who don’t get it, who struggle, who have questions, but are hungry and are open. I love presenting the gospel to them knowing it’s not my job to convert them.

16. I am in this work because I’m a seeker of truth. I love the truth. I embrace both mystery and certainty all at the same time. I do believe that Jesus is the answer, but not all the answers are available to me right now in the state I’m in.

17. I do this because I love being a part of a worldwide movement that has indeed changed the world and it continues to change it. It is not bound by lines on a map, or by race, creed, or color.