Just For Pastors 27: Just for Guest Speakers

Today’s blog post is for guest speakers, whether you a travelling evangelist, an associate pastor, or an intern or elder or deacon who is covering the pulpit for a weekend.

Whether you are an apostle, prophet, evangellist, teacher – or a pastor but in another church to your own – you should submit yourself to the pastor of that church. You should be aware of his authority. Those sheep are not yours – you are merely a guest. You should behave as a guest.

You have zero right to go into another church and raise your own offering, build your own mailing list, do anything to bring increase to yourself. I have had people come to raise their own offering or do their own thing, and I never invite them back. I have had people on Monday morning skip lunch with me to have lunch with some wealthy people in my congregation and try and hit them up for money! They never came for one minute to serve, help or love our church, but came to steal from it. They came to take what they wanted.

On the other hand, good guest speakers, the ones who keep coming back – they will go to the pastor and say “do you know I love you? I am honoured to be with your people – I am submitting to you in your church, tell me anything you need to tell me and I will do it”. I am on both sides now, I travel a lot, I am an apostle over a family of churches, and I still pastor local churches. I know how I have been treated on both sides, and I know what honour is on both sides. I would never take advantage of a pastor, I come to serve. As a pastor, you need to know what the travelling ministers you invite are like – not just what they preach – and travelling speakers need to honour the pastors.

Just For Pastors 26: Get the Clippers Out!

Every church has two kinds of people – there’s other ways to classify people – but this is one that every pastor needs to know. You have the plugged in people and the hanging around people. You know – and it is only the people who are plugged in should get power!

What do I mean? If they don’t do it your way, don’t empower them, pastor! People who are not prepared to do things the way of the local church are passing through. They are goats mainly and will not stay long.

Think about it – you have a conference for leadership training in February (just a random example!) – and someone misses that to go to another leadership conference. That person is not plugged in to your church. They are not in a small group, but they lead their own little get together? Not plugged in.

Now a strange thing about sheep, I am talking about actual sheep here, is that they actually enjoy being sheared. They enjoy getting a severe haircut. I do not enjoy getting my hair cut, so I don’t understand that, but apparently that is the case. The reason being is that they cannot produce new wool until you shear the current wool off. Another thing about sheep is this – sheep are the only creature in the universe that can have baby sheep. A shepherd cannot have baby sheep but sheep can.

Sheep multiply sheep! When you have true sheep in your churches, true plugged in people, then other people will start getting plugged in, and new people will come and get plugged in. But the people who sit at the back on a Sunday morning, never turn up when there is work to be done, and never go to a conference or special meeting – they are not plugged in, they are not sheep. They will often be short lived in your church. I have no doubt they were called to your church, but that independent attitude they have means they will not respond to the call.

A person with a goat, independent attitude, will not normally tell you they are leaving the church – they will just be gone.

When I first started the Tree of Life, every time someone left I felt like the worst pastor in the world, a total failure, it used to hit me very hard. If I was a better pastor, better able to meet their needs they would have stayed, therefore I must be a bad pastor. I had to realize very early on that it was rarely my fault – people just have an attitude. Do you know I bet there are people in your church who are born again, tongue talking, but they have never done anything of worth for the kingdom. They are still loved by God – but they do not produce. When they leave your church, it is like God is cleaning your church up a little bit. It’s generally a good thing. It’s sad, but it opens the door for more fruitfulness.

Not everyone wants to live for God, not everyone wants to bear fruit. We live in a very strange culture where people just want to do what suits them. They have this independent spirit. So shear the lot of them, and the ones that appreciate it are the true sheep. Step on their toes, stand up for the truth, shine for Jesus, let them know you stand for the kingdom, and you need to know that you will stand before God one day and give account of what you have done as a pastor. That is not a light thing.

At the same time, do not get angry with the sheep. Love them, even when you shear them, even when you stand on the truth and stand on the Word, love the people! The goats will leave anyway – they don’t want their hair cut, they don’t want their toes stood on, they just want yet another sermon on how righteous and glorious they are and how God loves them no matter what they do – that’s true, but it’s not the only ingredient of a healthy diet!

Selah.

Just for Pastors 25: Let Them All In!

You don’t have a mandate from the Lord to run a church for one sort of person – a youth church, a Nigerian church, a middle-class church, an elderly church. A church should have a mix of whatever is in the community around it – that is a healthy church. A church should mirror the demographics of their community. Tree of Life is a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-cultural church because that’s what London is like. Every church should reflect their community.

I have a real concern about black churches and white churches, we should we worshipping together if we live in the same towns and communities – firstly it prepares us for Heaven, and secondly, it gives us insight that we haven’t seen before. People from other backgrounds and cultures see things we haven’t seen before and gives us perspectives we haven’t had before. Why? Because we take seriously our responsiblity to love everyone!

It’s so important we don’t judge a book by its cover, it’s so important that we do not pre-reject God’s grace for someone. We have to believe God can transform anyone. The moment we are building a church for a certain group of people, we have become respecters of persons, and stopped being like God.

The pastor is called to equip the church, the church is called to shine as light and bring all men and women to the knowledge of the truth. Our job is not to go and have cups of tea with people, run a bake sale, play bingo – as a church our purpose is to share the truth with people. A healthy church will always be doing things, but let’s make sure we are doing the right things – let’s make sure we are doing kingdom things and letting people encounter God and His grace., Your church is a city on a hill, a light to the world, salt – and your job as a pastor is welcome everyone, but then let them know the mission – we are not here by accident, we are here on purpose – and the purpose is to get the gospel to people.

If a church exists, it exists for a reason – find out why it exists and let the people know that mission. For Tree of Life, our churches exist:

  • to make disciples built only on the complete work of Christ
  • to create a church full of the Word, full of the Spirit, full of the nations and full of love
  • to plant churches that plant churches

All are welcome, but at some point you have encourage your people to switch from being the mission field to being the mission – and if you are actively against the mission then you can go, we have something so important to do.

It takes wisdom to know how to impart that vision, that dream, to build that culture, to transition people from mission field to mission. It’s a core part of being a pastor – pray for wisdom on how to do it more effectively.

Just For Pastors 24: Take Charge of Your Service!

Every church service should have the power of the Spirit manifest, we should be seeing the gifts happen. It’s that simple. You have to provide a system in which those gifts flow – and you both enable those who have something from God to share, and those who are a little kooky and spooky to be restrained and prevented from sharing nonsense – thereby protecting your flock.

Freedom is not freedom to be kooky. It is freedom to serve responsibly. If you have an open mic, trust me someone will take advantage of it, and it will take a while to clean up and it will be harder than you think. You think you have sorted it and weeks later someone is still trying to live and die by some nonsense word. Paul never told the immature and foolish and ambitious Corinthians to stop using the gifts, he gave them ways to use them in order. As pastors we have to do the same. Paul started with the basics – if you want to drink alcohol, stay home, don’t come to church. Then he said things like no more than two tongues messages per service – no more than two prophetic words – only one person interprets a tongues message.

It is up to you as a pastor to learn these Biblical principles and insist your church follow them. We had a worship leader who would stop the worship and let people share testimonies between songs. It stopped people truly getting into a place of worship, the testimonies became blander and blander, and the songs became less reflective and less focused on Jesus, and more of a performance. Now as the pastor, I cannot let that happen – I had to insist on certain standards for the worship service. It is my job – and your job – pastor – to train and equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. Our services now have much more powerful worship, more gifts, and more glory – it’s wonderful.

If the saints are being equipped and trained you have a healthy church. If the worship connects people to Jesus, you have a healthy church. If the gifts flow, you have a healthy church. If your church has no Holy Spirit, and your services have no flow, no gifts, no power – or on the other hand, no order, no restrains, no standards for those you platform – then you are failing your church and your people.

At Tree of Life Church, we have certain standards for people who are at the front – whether it is preaching, leading worship, leading children’s ministry or youth ministry, or flowing in the gifts. You have to be loyal to the church, in regular attendance, a tither, part of a small group, and not driven by the spotlight. In addition, you have to be sexually pure – not living with your boyfriend or girlfriend for example. Those standards protect our people and line us up with the Word, and bring more glory, more freedom, more power and more gifts to our church services.

As pastors we either enforces these standards and see God’s glory, or we fail to, and then that is on us. Take charge of your service!

Just For Pastors 23: Titles and Respect

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If you want to survive in ministry, you need people not just to like you but to respect you. They need not just to relate to you, but they need to appreciate your fruitfulness. Now, at the end of the day, people are going to make their own choices, and many are stubborn, selfish and do not know or care to be part of something bigger than themselves. Many love travelling speakers and Bible College and conferences and TV ministries because they can like the speakers and not respect them, but for a church to be healthy, there must be respect for the pastors.

Sometimes that is hard because people can get used to anything. Keith Moore last night was talking about the rebellion of the Israelites happened while the glory of God was visible in the camp! We can get accustomed to anything. A guest speaker from a foreign nation with a different accent and a different slant on things can be very exciting, especially if we have seen them on TV first.

Now I am not writing this post to the church but to the pastors, so I am not saying “respect your pastor” – if I was talking to the whole church, I would. I am talking to the pastors, so I will say this – you have a role to play in whether people respect you. The way you dress, your punctuality, your respect for others, the way you handle money, the way you treat your wife – all of this will come into how people respect you. You should be shocked when people are all mate-y with you and treat you like a chum, rather than a pastor.

I have never been one to adopt the title “Pastor”, some people say my name like one word “Pastorben”, and that is because I don’t see it in the Bible, and neither do I come from a culture where titles are used much, we don’t in the UK call people by their job role, be it Prime Minister or Coach. However, there should still be a respect for the office. I do understand why people do that, because there has to be a respect for the office because otherwise it simply will not function. You cannot benefit from a ministry you do not honour.

There must be a distance, it should not be as much as some say it is, but there should be a place for people to accept your preaching and teaching as it is – you as the chosen man of God for the church leading and feeding the church (I taught on honour once at a summer conference, and a person I had marked for a key leadership position left the church because he disagreed with the teaching, and I am so glad I taught it because of that, that would have ended badly – leaders need to honour God, the Word and you) – and you also act in a way that enables the church to trust and respect you. You need people to realize you genuinely love them, that they are a human to you, not just a number or whatever. Ask the Lord today what two or three things can you change in your life today to make it easier for people to trust you and respect you.

Do not compromise, but being all things to all men to win some is a Biblical principle.

Just for the Pastors 22: Let’s Talk About Money

As a pastor you have to understand on a very deep, heart level that money is not evil, and you should not be poor. You should have a lot of money, and because of that, you should be learning how to handle money with wisdom, faith and gentleness. If you cannot handle money well, satan will destroy you. I know many ministers who have been destroyed because they cannot talk about money, cannot handle money, cannot raise money, cannot save money, cannot spend money. Part of your job as a pastor is to set a great example when it comes to money.

The first step to this is simple. Never ever ever ever minister for money. It’s that simple. Never make a decision for the ministry based on gain for you. Never care for the flock, never pastor, never preach for what you will get out of it. Make your mind up you will go where God calls you, be faithful to the people God calls you to without thought of reward. We get upset when a businessman leaves your church to move to another town for a meagre pay rise, but I have seen pastors leave flocks or assignments for an even more meagre pay rise so no wonder people do that with so many bad examples in the church leadership.

Peter had to tell elders and pastors:

And now, a word to you who are elders in the churches. I, too, am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I, too, will share in his glory when he is revealed to the whole world. As a fellow elder, I appeal to you: 2 Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. 3 Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example. 4 And when the Great Shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of never-ending glory and honor. (1 Peter 5.1-4, NLT)

You serve God and you do what the Lord Jesus tells you, not what money tells you. You serve God for God not for money. Not for what you will get out of it. I know guest preachers who will not go somewhere unless they are guaranteed so much up front, a minimum offering, and certain requirements while there. I’m not interested in that at all. You have to set the bar high as a pastor because you are influencing all your people. I have gone to preach in places, they gave me an offering, and I gave it all back to them because they needed it more. I have given personal offerings straight into the church before. I have never asked for a minimum amount, and never taken a preaching engagement because of money. It’s that simple.

Money gives you power. If you do not know how to handle money, you do not know how to handle power, and power not handled well corrupts. In the last post we mentioned sexual sin, well, there are money sins too, and as pastors we have to resist temptation and serve God not money. Ask God to help you here. Of course, you are worth being paid and so on, but do not focus on that and it will come. Seek the things and nothing happens. Seek God first and His kingdom first, and the things will be added to you. That’s for everyone in your church, so do not merely teach it, model it. AMEN.

Just for the Pastors 21: Let’s Talk About Sex

Lester Sumrall said that ministers only fall for three reasons: power, money and sex, and the hardest fall is when it involves sex. When a minister commits adultery, there is always steps before that, often pornography. Sexual sin will not just destroy your ministry, it will destroy your soul and your family too. It’s serious.

Now one thing that happens is that pastors assume God is not disappointed with their sexual sin because they can still minister life and work miracles. There was a pastor not far from where I live who had a large church and saw miracles and healings week after week. It later turned out he was having an affair for over seven years, but still every Sunday he preached with power. The gifts of God are without repentance, but we should still repent!

Now, all sin has been dealt with once and for all by the blood of Jesus, but if you as a born again, righteous Christian, persist in sin, that sin will lead to death, it will pay you the wages of death. Now if you repent and turn from sin, you can be made clean and forgiven, and God can also as your Good Shepherd restore your soul, and restore your pain, and your marriage. Several times I have seen marriages restored after adultery. On the other hand, I have seen people divorce, remarry quickly and then get into the same messes as before because they never dealt with the sin in the first place.

Of course, the best advice is Paul’s – do not give place to the devil (Ephesians 4.27) – do not give the devil a place. It is not your job to provide for satan! You are a representation of Jesus Christ when you minister. You are not in ministry for your gain, but to honour Jesus Christ and represent Him.

As ministers we have to be very careful. On a personal level we need to control our sexual appetite. It seems sad to have to talk about this, but I have met far too many ministers who have committed sexual immorality and thought it was no big deal. I have met far too many Christians who are having sex before and outside of marriage to know we have to talk about this. I have met Christians who would literally pray together then have sex outside of marriage. They have no sense of the fear of the Lord, no sense of holy living. As pastors, we need to be sure of our purity, then develop a culture of purity in our churches. It is essential.

Teach your people boldly that sex is for marriage and marriage is for life. Teach them boldly that faithfulness and commitment is part of being a disciple of Jesus. Let us be a force of purity across this nation.

Just for the Pastors 20: Keep Good Company

1 Cor. 15.33 is very clear: do not be deceived, evil company corrupts good habits. As a pastor, you have to be careful of the company you keep. There is definitely a time we need to minister to people, but there is also a time in which we need to fellowship with the wise, we need to not associate with the foolish.

If you hang around the wrong people for a long time, it will corrupt you. Happy Caldwell, once, at a pastor’s conference I was at, asked everyone, would you carry a poisonous snake in your pocket, hoping it would change? The answer is no, and we should not be fellowshipping with immoral people – even if you think you would change them. If they want to change, they know where you are!

When the hand wrote on the wall in the wild, evil, Babylonian party, Daniel was not at the party, he was at home with the Lord. But they knew who to call and called him!

Every pastor reading this has had a lady tell them they are planning to marry a non-Christian man (or a man who is just casual about the things of God) and you have said as kindly as you could to maybe think twice about it, and you were told “I will change him when we get married”, and you know that will never happen. It’s the same when you hang around a crowd of sinners hoping to change them. It won’t happen like that.

Selah.

Just for the Pastors 19: Learn the Power of Withdrawal

For the last month in our Dagenham church, I have been teaching about powers that every Christian has – the power to perceive, the power to give, the power to prepare and the power to receive God’s Word.

But today, I want to talk about a super-power that is available to every pastor. If you use this superpower, you will free up time, you will bring life to your congregation, peace to your soul and strength in life.

I call this the power of withdrawal, and this power is given to us by Paul in the second letter to the Thessalonians. Before you read this Scripture, remind yourself that you are a Bible believer, and if you read something in the Scripture you will believe it, receive it, declare it and do it.


In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. (2 Thess. 3.6 NIV)

Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. (2 Thess. 3.6 KJV)

Now we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother or sister who leads a disorderly life and not one in accordance with the tradition which you received from us. (2 Thess. 3.6 NASB)

As you can see, Paul’s instruction is clear – if someone is living a disorderly life, is idle, disruptive, and out of order with what you are doing in the church, you are supposed to withdraw from that Christian and keep away from them.

There is so much pain in many pastor’s lives because they ignore this Scripture and think they are better and smarter than Paul, and ignore his wise advice. Let me tell you, after planting eleven churches, running a family of churches, I know Paul’s advice is wise. Withdraw yourself from those who are out of order! It’s a superpower that will honestly lift your life and the life of your churches to a whole new level.

The Word of God says you should not even have lunch with people in sexual immorality (1 Cor 5.11). This is talking about Christians, not the world, otherwise you would never be able to have lunch with non-Christians ever! At this point someone might say, but that might make them feel outcast or shame. That’s the point! Now, if someone is new to the faith, and growing, you can minister to them and tell them the truth of God’s Word. If they continue to walk in their path of immorality and are out of order, you are to withdraw.

If someone is misbehaving around you, playing up, causing strife in the church, you have no obligation to come running when they call! Notice the NIV calls these people idle, which means they are doing nothing. Because they are doing nothing, they have the time to be disruptive.

None of you would carry a poisonous scorpion around in their pocket, so why are we as pastors going out of our way to spend time with and associate with scorpion people? It’s often an overconfidence that we will change their minds – no you won’t. It is the same principle as the young girl who is dating a non-Christian expecting she will change him, but it won’t happen that way.

Later Paul tells us not to hate these people as enemies, but warn them as brothers. When they ask, why have you withdrawn from me pastor? You have to in love tell them that until they stop being idle, stop being disruptive, stop being out of order, you have nothing to say to them.

I have found a strange thing that often these disruptive people will leave the church and you are no longer their pastor, but they will want to suddenly be your mate, they want to go out for dinner, to text you banal platitudes and be friends. But you were never called to be their friend and you are not their peer, you are just coming down to a lower level and spending time with a rebel. It won’t end well. You might feel very kind and loving, but that is not what is going on. You are ignoring God’s principles and it will not end well. We are not to fellowship with the idle, the disruptive and those whose lives are out of order as if there is nothing wrong. If you do, there will be no holiness in your church, no fear of the Lord, you will no longer have the time to minister to those you are called to, the sheep that hear your voice.

Discussing this in 1 Cor. 5, Paul says in v.13 that it is on us as pastors to “put away the evil from among you”. That is a quote from Deut. 24.7 and it refers in the Old Testament to capital punishment. Now Paul knows that we are under grace and do not stone people to death for their sin or disruptions, but let us be clear – the covenant of grace does not mean close your eyes when people are sinning, especially when it disrupts church and hurts other Christians.

This is not being judgmental, this is being godly. We are not playing judge and jury of someone’s life out of some personal fiat – we are pastors keeping the church clean. Go and ask for wisdom and outline the situation to a more experienced pastor if you need to, but if the church does not through the pastoral leaders, put the evil out, and if pastors we do not withdraw from those people Paul has told us to withdraw from, the church will never succeed in its kingdom mission.

Just for the Pastors 18: Help Stop Others Stumbling

9 But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. 10 For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? 11 So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer[b] for whom Christ died will be destroyed. 12 And when you sin against other believers[c] by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. 13 So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble. (1 Cor. 8.9-13 NLT)

Paul says here, and rather clearly, that if someone around you does not have the faith or clarity of conscience to be able to eat the food you are eating, then do not eat it in front of them. Go without. You never want to be in a position where you have the burden of causing someone else to stumble and miss it.

Paul said I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble. In Romans 14.13 he says “decide never to put a stumbling block in the way of a brother”. It means never do something that gets in the way of someone growing in Christ.

So, what is that talking about. Firstly, you have to be doing something that isn’t wrong. The context is that some Christians are stronger than others. And those that are stronger – and hopefully as the pastors we are among some of the strongest saints in the church – must treat those who are weaker with dignity and compassion.

Often weaker Christians see things as wrong that are not wrong. When I first became a Christian, in Scotland, there were some Christians in the church that believed that playing cards was wrong. It’s obviously not, but they believed it was. They believed that to play cards was inherently sinful. So, I would never suggest playing cards with those people or I would become a stumbling block. Today, some of the biggest stumbling blocks in the church are alcohol, eating meat, TV, films, computer games, certain styles of clothing, certain types of music. So, if they upset someone, just cut it out of your life when they are around. Play cards in your house if you like it, but not in the church, not in their house! I hope you can see this is not deceptive, it is wise.

I recently took some pastors out for dinner and we all had a meal of a certain animal, and I told the pastors not to put this on social media because I know some people in our church would have been stumbling over that. This is what I am talking about.

The stumbling block is you doing something that isn’t wrong, but because someone else is grieved by it. In Romans 14.15 Paul says if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are not walking in love by your eating. So, it’s not a mature Christian that goes “well, you can eat that, but I can’t, but we are both free in Christ”, this is the weaker Christian that is really cut by it. They are really upset. When that happens you have become the stumbling block.

Now, there are some people who will say they are upset by anything just to control you, and so you need to learn wisdom and discernment. But if someone is genuinely upset, you must not be their stumbling block. It might not be wrong for you to, it does not distract from your walk with Christ at all, but it might be an upset to others.

What will happen is that the weaker brother will copy you – not out of revelation but because you are the pastor – and as they copy you they will sin against their own conscience. They haven’t been persuaded from the Word, they are just copying you, and that’s not enough to resist guilt and condemnation after doing it.

You are strong enough to step over this issue, but they stumble over it and fall. Romans 14.23 says if you eat doubting, you will be condemned as you eat. They will go away feeling guilty for what they did and their fellowship with God will be damaged, and it is on you as the pastor for causing them to stumble. Do not do that!