STUFF I’VE LEARNED THAT SEMINARY DIDN’T TEACH ME #25

 How many years have you done Gospel ministry?  Think before you answer. Do not assume that if you have been preaching and serving churches for 25 years, that you have 25 years of ministry. You may have done 1 year 25 times or 3 years, 8 times!  

What do I mean by that?  We may be tempted to do everything the same way we always have done it. The sermons are recycled from church to church, the ways we express ourselves, the daily routine, and the traditional methods may become like ruts in our lives, dug ever deeper through repetition. You know what they say about a rut—it is a grave with both ends kicked out!

What do I not mean?  I am not saying it is never appropriate to adapt a former sermon to a new audience. Just don’t make it a habit. Nor am I saying that certain disciplines do not cry out for constancy. 

Just don’t go through the motions!  Don’t be a pastoral zombie, just doing the job as a job—a hollow man who outwardly does the task like being on an assembly line, while mind and heart are miles away. 

Sharpen the edge. Seek the Lord for a fresh touch and rekindled passion. Recall the words of John Piper’s book, “Brothers,  We Are Not Professionals!”

STUFF I’VE LEARNED THAT SEMINARY DIDN’T TEACH ME #24

Never stop learning. When a tree ceases to grow, that tree is dead!  That will be true of you. Oh, you might be still walking and doing stuff, but so do the walking dead in zombie movies. That is hardly how you want to be.  Leaders are learners. You can even learn from those you do not totally agree with—remember that everyone may not be as brilliant as you, yet still have something to say. After all, a broken clock is right twice a day!  With some authors and preachers, you must eat the meat, but spit out the bones!  I understand that we are warned of those, “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy‬ ‭3:7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). Yet, but a little later, Paul instructs student Timothy, “ “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (‭3:14-15‬). What makes the difference?  In the former case, one judges truth by the world’s distorted lens, while in the latter, we judge truth by the Word’s eternal lens.