Pastor Pusch

With every job comes it’s ups and downs. There are portions that you love and elements that you endure. I suppose that can be said about much in life. One part my job I really enjoy, an element that keeps me coming back, is the opportunity to be a pastor to pastors; a minister to ministers. Everyday I get to work with pastors and their churches in all sorts of ministry aspects, especially in the realm of Christian Education and Discipleship, an often over looked ministry in the local church.

If there is one are in the local church where we really struggle, it is in the area of discipleship or ’spiritual transformation’. The phrase ’spiritual transformation’ was introduced to me by some friends/Christian Educators who lead in another denomination. I like the phrase because it accurately conveys the change that is to take place while on the road of discipleship. The Greek word for disciple, “ma-thay-tes”, means “learner” or “pupil”. In other words, a disciple is one who is a learner or student. In the world of Christianity, a true believer is one who submits himself as a learner or student of Jesus Christ and His teachings.

Where is the struggle? There several areas within the church that gives explanation as to why they struggle in the area of discipleship. Here are 5 situations I have dealt with the last 4 years, 1. Sunday School/Small Group is just a time filler 2. It’s all about Big Church 3. The Pastor does not care.  4. HELP 5. People just do not get it.

1. Time Filler – Sunday School/Small Group (whatever you call) is more than just “something” till fill up an hour of time. I would almost rather encourage churches not to have such ministries if the only intended purpose was to fill an hour because “that is what you are supposed to do”.

2. Big Church – One of the elements I enjoy most about church is corporate worship; gathering in one accord, the body of Christ comes together for the sole purpose of exalting the name of the Lord. The problem is that most of our attention is given to this ONE ministry in the church. It seems to be the church’s only focus so much so that more effort, time, and resources are devoted to it while discipleship, spiritual transformation suffers. For too long numerical growth has been the measuring rod to determine the success of a church. The thought is that a church must be successful if they are growing numerically. Numerical growth is not necessarily a bad thing, however, if transformation is not taking place, the size of your church means absolutely nothing.

3. Pastoral Apathy – While the pastor may never come out and say he does not care, his leadership would speak otherwise. Pastor Johnny Hunt of First Baptist Church, Woodstock, GA reminds his people repeatedly that if there are only going to give one hour to the church, they should go to Sunday School. He knows that is where the rubber meets the road. It is the pastor responsibility to train and equip people for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:11-13)

4. Help – Unlike number 3, the pastor really does care about the spiritual growth of his church, but he is having a hard time recruiting help.

5. WE JUST DON’T GET IT! If becoming a Christian means that we believe Jesus is God and by that we accept Him as Lord in our lives then how is it we can ignore the “follow me” imperatives of scripture. By accepting Christ, we are placing our lives in Him, yet the thought of being imitators of Christ is unappealing. It is as if we only want the benefits of what it means to be a Christian without having to become living sacrifices. Instead of placing our lives in His, we place God in our lives. Big difference.

Pastor Johnny Hunt refers to the process of discipleship as becoming “fully devoted followers of Christ.” When we are truly saved, the process of sanctification begins. It is a life long process of become more like Christ.

It happens. When crisis strikes, our level of urgency rises. True? I think it is something that just happens naturally. Our senses just seem to spike whenever something unexpected happens, when crisis hits, or tragedy strikes. Over the last several weeks I have been thinking about the “how” and “why” this happens. During my stay at Baptist Hospital and then again at St. Thomas Hospital (for the actual brain surgery) I found myself more in tune with my relationship with God. My “God talk” was bigger, brighter, and bountiful. My conversations with God happen more and more frequently as I was concerned about what might be happening to my body. God probably heard more from me in those short days than He did in the weeks or months prior to or at least not with the same level of urgency or fervor. Why? CRISIS. Crisis always heightens our level of urgency.

On Sunday mornings, our pastor has been preaching on a series of messages in Acts 22-23 entitled, Shipwrecked: Navigating through the Storms of Life (I think that title is acurate). One Sunday morning, our pastor asked my wife and I to do an interview before the church to talk about the unexpected storms of life and what my recent experiences through brain surgery has taught me about navigating through such storms. The last question Pastor Mike posed to us was, “what advice would you give to us who might soon face an unexpected storm?” My answer was simple. ”It is only unexpected to us.”  I really tried to make that my testimony during the entire process. Yes, I confess to you that there moments where doubt and fear took over, but I kept telling myself that God already knew what was going on. While this whole ordeal came as a complete and utter surprise to me and my family, this did not take God by surprise. This fact simply amazes me everytime I think about it. As creator, He knows me better than I will ever know me. I stand in awe.

My approach to God during those days at times was a “God, you need to act fast” approach. It was as if I was filling God in on some information He was clueless about. There was passion, fervor, and great sense of urgency. Why? Crisis! This is how we respond to crisis in our lives. Our senses our heightened. When the crisis settles or the storms begin to calm, we return to status quo and our relationship with God slips back into a more settled state. When crisis strikes again, God again becomes our “good luck” charm and again, He becomes our central focus. The question I ask today is, “where is that level of urgency outside of the crisis?” This is where I want to be more intentional about life. We must be more intentional about life. I want to posses that same level of passion and fervor in walk with God regardless as to what might be happening. Everyday we are showered with His grace and mercy. We are filled with His spirit, His love, His peace, His joy. We are His children; children of the living God (“Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God. AND WE ARE!” I John 3:1). God must be the centralized focus in our lives regardless of circumstances for without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:4-6).

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another (above yourselves). Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:9-12

Now that is a great title! Perfect church… is there such a thing? I heard one pastor tell his people that if they found a perfect church then they needed to leave because then it would no longer be perfect. Very true.

I want to try to keep this post as short as possible, because I would really like to hear back from you on this subject of what makes a great church. Lately it seems that I have been reading a lot on church growth and strategy. While I have found much of what I have read to be very insightful, I wonder sometimes if our focus may be out of whack. I wonder if sometimes we over strategize our strategy which in turn overly complicates church ministry all together.

My question I would like to pose to you is “What do you look for in a church?” My only request is that you leave personal preferences out of your answer. What do you mean? Preferences and principles are quite different. While some would love to pass off their preferences as the only way to do church, it simply isn’t true. Please do not misunderstand me, I have my preferences as I am sure you do, the problem comes into play when we start allowing our preferences to become principles. Here are couple examples of what I am not looking for….

Church A – Southern Gospel Music, Hymns Only, and preaching from the KJV
Church B – Drums and electric guitars a must, What’s a Hymnal, and preaching from the Ebonics Bible

I don’t really care to hear about what you think people ought to wear or how they should be singing or what the pastor’s priestly garbs should look like. If you say, “solid biblical preaching,” I would say, “great, what do you mean.” For some (unfortunately), solid biblical preaching would simply mean the louder the better (although content might be a little shabby). Others would consider solid biblical preaching to be a message that stays in line with the context of scripture and speaks relevancy into their lives today.

What about other elements to the church? Children’s ministry? Youth? Young Adults? Community? Missions? Community Involvement? When it comes to ministries of the church…like Children’s Ministry, what are you looking for? Maybe it’s a dumping ground. A place where you can drop off your kids and not have to worry about getting them for an hour or so. Maybe your looking for a partnership within the church that will come along side your family and provide ministry that will help reconnect church and home.

What do you think? Maybe there are some things happening in your church that you believe ought to be the standard in church ministry. Let’s hear it.