Inspiring and Challenging Dreamers

Just For the Pastors 10: The Responsibility

One of the elements of pastoring that is not talked about enough is that it is a very serious and deep responsibility. You do not have the authority or right to control someone’s life, your job is not about constantly telling people off, but on the other hand if you do not get involved in people’s lives – you are not pastoring properly.

The Bible is very clear about this. It says: Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit. (Hebrews 13.17 NLT)

Notice here, that the work of the pastor is to “watch over souls”. You are supposed to watch out for people and help them not make dumb mistakes, to see things coming that they didn’t see coming and help them. The Greek word for “watch” here actually literally translates as never sleeping. We as pastors need to be alert, not sleepy, we need to be attentive and aware of what is going on around us. Many pastors are living in a dream world, asleep all the time, only doing what makes sense on a logical and reasonable level. Many pastors are not even watching their flock, they are watching themselves – they preach to impress not feed, they are always looking around to be noticed, to be promoted, they are wanting to preach here and there, and it’s got nothing to do with being a pastor but being a self-promoter.

A few years ago, someone in my church in Dagenham came to me and said “can pastor such and such come and preach in our church” – it was a pastor I knew fairly well, but had no plans to invite to preach. I said “why would you mention him, does he have a revelation that especially blessed you”, and the answer was that this pastor had contacted someone in my church on social media and actually asked them if he could persuade me to get him to preach. That kind of behaviour makes my life grief not joy – as I have to then correct it, and it causes strife in the church. I am praying that pastor does not reap what he sowed by ignoring the order that God has created in the church to try and platform himself. That is sleeping.

I remember another pastor, one that I had raised up in ministry, one that I had opened many doors for, and I took him away to a conference for a few days, and I was hoping to disciple him, but he had zero respect for my wisdom and seemed bored to be with me. At one stage, we were talking and his body language was like he was going to fall asleep. Then one of the conference speakers walked past, and he jumped up, alert and ran to the conference speaker to thank him for an awesome message. I am glad he was so respectful to the guest speaker, but a pastor should be above the Uncle syndrome! That is not a pastor who is watching and noticing what is going on, and this is a pastor that will be amazed when his own church treat him like that!

How can you make yourself the best watcher there is? Let’s look at some ways.

Be an example. Make sure you are obeying your spiritual leaders. If you are a pastor as part of a family of churches, then obey the leaders of that family of churches and make it easy for them to pastor you. Do that and I guarantee the harvest of that in your church will be nothing but pleasant. I have found out that God appoints pastors in places and gives them pastors so they can sow joy into their pastors so that the people they pastor bring them joy. It’s a great deal if you notice it.
Think about things. When you read the Bible, think about it. When you are counselling people, think about the principles of the Word. When you are hearing good teaching, consider it. When you read that the Israelites spent forty years in the wilderness consider it – they were arrogant, stubborn and rebellious – they did not honour God or Moses. So think about it, do you want everyone in your church not seeing the prophetic words God has spoken to them and the next generation to enter the promised land? No – so teach on these things, share your wisdom. Part of the wisdom of the pastor is to see these things coming and teach on them.
Pray for your people. Peter did not know satan was coming for him and bringing him to a place where he falls so far, denying he was even a disciple of Christ. Jesus did though. And He spent the time not just counselling Peter, but He prayed for him! I recently spent five hours praying for someone because I can see he is about to fall. He can’t see it, but the anointing and grace (and a little experience) that I have means I can, so I pray. Sometimes you watch and pray – you see something then go to pray. Other times, you pray and watch. While you start praying for someone in your church, suddenly you get revelation and wisdom.

You are shepherd, you need to be watchful. You need to be aware of what is going on (not nosey, but just aware in the spiritual sense). It was shepherds who saw the birth of Christ first. They knew what no one else knew. Maybe that is a picture for us as pastors – we are supposed to see where God is moving on earth first.

You have to spend time with the Lord, and let Him show you what is going on in your church. Let Him show you who to counsel, who to love, who to pray for. Let Him show you as a pastor how to relate to your pastor and how to make their life a joy and how to sow that seed in a way that will bring you a harvest into your church and ministry.

I want to, as we draw near to Christmas, to challenge every pastor reading this – be like the shepherds in the Christmas story and keep watch of your flocks by night. While everyone else is going to sleep, buying the turkey, shopping like crazy, you get on your knees and pray for the people in your church, ask the Lord to show you what to preach on this month – not to impress but to bless. Ask the Lord to show you what to pray for, what to do, how to serve, so that your sheep will have the best Christmas of their lives. Ask the Lord to show you any sheep in danger like Peter was, and like Jesus pray for your Peters! This is your responsibility, and nothing takes the place of this high calling.

When the shepherds in the Christmas narrative watched their flocks by night, they encountered angels and found Jesus. I wonder how many encounters we have missed and how many times we have failed to find Jesus because we were not watching the way we should be as pastors.

Just For the Pastors 09: Beware of Wolves!

In our last post, we looked at the fact that some people in your church are sheep and some are goats, and how you as a pastor can tell the difference. Often the people themselves do not know the difference! Many goats in your church think they are sheep but they are always fighting, always jumping out the fence to find something better. It’s true! They think they are correctable, but all correction must be received on their terms! That’s not correctable!.

Now, I want to let you know that some people in your church are also wolves. The easiest way to sum up the difference is sheep eat grass, goats eat rubbish, but wolves eat sheep.

David, our prototype pastor, found out that when you look after sheep, other animals will come and try and kill them. He had to chase and fight a lion, he had to chase and fight a bear. Now, I have never fought a lion in the physical realm, but I can assure you I have had to fight more than one wolf in the spiritual as they came into our church for only one reason – to attack and steal the sheep.

Oh they can wear sheep’s clothings and look amazing, and look like good little nice Christians, but they only want to stop people coming to church, to hurt people, to destroy people. I have on occasion literally thrown people out of church, in one instance while a youth pastor, I physically picked a young man up and took him outside as he was only after a young lady to seduce and corrupt and hurt.

When people see a pastor dealing with a wolf, most people are unaware the person is a wolf, and their first instinct is to look at you and presume that you are impatient, unloving, unkind, intolerant, etc etc. That’s not a nice place to be in – you rescue your sheep from a violent, nasty, spiteful, vicious animal and save them from destruction and they then turn on you for being too aggressive!

No matter what people think of you, no matter who misjudges you, listen to me pastor – do not tolerate and put up with wolf in your sheepfold. You take your sling, you take your whatever and you do not let that wolf do anything. They have come to steal, kill and destroy your church and the people in it.

Some come as a false prophet giving people false words and manipulating them. We have had people give others in the church words like “you do not need to go to church that often, God says that’s ok”, or “you do not need to tithe, God knows your heart”, or some such – that’s demonic! That is a wolf. It’s not a misguided sheep, it is a wolf. That false prophet is destroying your people and if you do not act to keep them safe, that is in you, God appointed you the shepherd and it’s your responsibility to keep the sheep safe.

Now, because we are Christians and not thugs, we confront in private. We don’t gossip, but we sometimes have to make it exceptionally clear to people: as long as you embrace this attitude and do this action you are not welcome to join our people. When you change, you meet me for coffee first and we discuss it before you come back.

When that happens, don’t expect the wolf to smile and agree. Or they may, but if they do they are lying. Expect them to text people in the church, to arrange to meet people in the church, to run the church down and keep trying to devour the people. But that’s then on the sheep, you have done what God has called you to do – keep the sheep safe.

There are several people who years ago said to me “Ben, you are being too harsh on this person” but then they are now pastors themselves, and they have come back to me and said “Now I get it”. Often the sheep will never get it, they will never understand. The sheep think a wolf in sheep’s clothing is a sheep, but you know better.

I have experienced wolves at every step of my ministry. But the good news is we have never had a church split, we have never had to deal with false doctrine, we have never been an unhealthy church – because when I see a wolf, I chase that wolf. I deal with it. I won’t let a wolf be in my congregation, and I certainly will not platform a wolf.

Several times, people have interrupted a church service to prophesy over me either judgment or a certain direction I should go. But I am a pastor, a shepherd, and I will shut that down. I stood down a pastor once for not correcting false prophets in the church because that is not keeping the sheep safe. I have had guest speakers try and find out who the richest people in the church are and try and manipulate them for money. They do not get invited back. I have had worship leaders who will not open their Bibles, will not give a penny to the church, and will not follow simple instructions and are totally unteachable. They are not platformed again.

This is how you keep the sheep safe. I now only invite travelling ministers who I know they know they are there to help me as the shepherd build the church. I cannot equip the saints by my own, but I am very selective about the other ministers I invite.

I only platform and promote people I know have my back. When an elder says “I do give, but just not to this ministry”, then it is time to ask them to go be an elder for that ministry. You are looking for a platform, not a partnership, and I am not interested. I am not looking for someone who is willing to do whatever it takes to get into ministry and make a name for themselves – remember lone wolves are nearly always wolves!

Pastor, deal with the wolves, no matter the consequences. Get out there and fight for your sheep.

Just For the Pastors 08: You Can’t Pastor Goats!

Jesus says on a number of times that some people are sheep and some people are goats. Every pastor realizes this but often cannot articulate and often does not know what to do about it.

Here is what pastoring looks like when you cannot tell the difference between sheep and goats:

You feel like you fail with certain people because you didn’t meet their needs during church
You feel condemned and beat up by the people
You feel hurt by people leaving

You need to realize that not everyone in your church is a sheep person. There are some goat people. We have some people in some of our Tree of Life Churches that act like our church has a revolving door. They treat church like a restaurant. They will leave and walk right out the door and never once think to call or text you. And yes, even when you understand they are goats, it will still sting, but the worst of it is taken out.

Here is the difference – sheep eat green grass, goats eat any old rubbish. That means that if you are leading the people forward, maybe teaching a series over months, the sheep eat it up. If they have to miss a Sunday message for any reason, they have listened to it by Monday evening. They are at the conferences, they are at the Wednesday live stream. They know what you are teaching and they love it. They come to get fed, and because they are fed in the church, they love the church. So they start serving, they start investing, they start tithing, they start becoming part of the furniture. They are the people who are going with God – and it starts and is perceived with a love of what you are feeding them as the shepherd.

Goats eat any old rubbish. They are the ones that give you the CDS or post you the videos of the speakers they are always listening to. You know the ones that are talking about chem trails, or how God wants us poor and sick, or that contradict what you just taught on Sunday. Because their soul diet is rubbish, they end up thinking rubbish. Goats are easily offended, they do not plug into what you are doing, they are always looking around for more rubbish to eat. They are the spectators of the church, watching as the sheep serve, love and prepare the service for them. But even during the service, they are not hungry for the good food.

It’s goats who are telling you the worship is all wrong, it’s goats that come against what you are teaching. They think they are sheep, but they butt all the time – but this, but that. Oh, they would happily lead worship, happily preach for you. One goat told me that for years he had prayed every Sunday that I would give the mic to him! Sheep are different – sheep can be corrected, sheep can be taught.

If you want to want to know where someone is, look beyond Sunday morning. Ask them – did you watch the Wednesday live stream? No. Oh, but you have watched it since then? No! You missed Sunday, did you catch up online? No. Do you know why they are not listening – because goats think they know best. They think their way of doing Christianity is the best way.

It’s the goats that come to you and say “pastor, why doesn’t this church have a youth ministry” – “pastor, why doesn’t this church help the homeless”, “pastor, why doesn’t this church have this or that”. And if you do not personalize the church specifically to them and their needs, they will leave.

You will beat yourself up every time someone leaves unless you realize this: some people are goats. They were never with you even when they were with you. The church is there for them, but they are not there for the church. They like the benefits of the church, not the vision. They love the pen but not the grass.

Goats are not really with you, so mourning their loss is mourning what was inevitable. Selah. You cannot pastor goats because the first step of pastoring and being a good shepherd is providing good grass – and goats don’t love grass.

Just For the Pastors 07: Equip the Saints!

Part of the ministry of the pastor is to “equip the saints to do the works of ministry, till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children…” (Ephesians 4.11-13).

Your job is to equip the saints to grow up, to be ministers, to do the works of ministry, to help people mature. But the truth is in my experience, most pastors do everything themselves. That anointing that leads them to gather people leads them to serve those people every second of every day, when trul the most loving thing to do is to equip the people to serve themselves. The Biblical model is not a one man band doing all the ministry, but rather one man equipping all to minister and creating a safe space where people can grow up and mature and become effective ministers, full equipped to doing the works of ministry.

You need to teach your church about what the Bible calls the MINISTRY OF HELPS and give people space to be put to work. Now, sometimes – and listen carefully here – the reason why some pastors do not promote others or even let them serve – is pastors can have great, big egos. I guarantee there are people in your church who are better at ushering than you, better at cleaning the church than you, better at organizing a conference than you, better at making lunch than you, better at a whole host of things. That should not threaten you, it should make you very grateful indeed. God will always send people to help in your weak areas and that is nothing to be embarrassed about. God will send you people who are strong where you are weak, and you should embrace them, equip them, and eventually employ them.

Let the people who you put in place (within reason) do the job their way and use their wisdom and grace. Let them hear God how the job should be done. Obviously they should be submissive enough to run things by you, and no one should ever usurp your authority and leadership, but don’t shove everyone on the floor just to make sure everyone knows you are the boss.

Here is the bottom line – if you do not give space for your people to serve, they will never mature, and there is seriously nothing worse in the world than a church full of immature, childish people. Have you ever been in a restaurant with a couple of children just being immature, misbehaving, screaming? Ever been stuck on a 10 hour flight with a screaming baby? Now that’s acceptable because that is not their fault, but if a Christian stays immature, that’s their fault, and as their primary feeder and leader, that can often be your fault as well.

Some pastors like their church immature because they like to be the one adult in the room, but eventually that gets boring and you need some adult company. Pastor, whatever God has called you to do, you cannot do it with a team of toddlers – so start equipping, and making space, and pushing your people to lead and serve so they can mature and eventually run departments, plant other churches, move forward and win big team battles.

Selah!

Just for the Pastors 06: Challenge Inclusiveness!

One of the worst false doctrines today is given the high sounding name of ultimate reconciliation. What it means is that everyone will eventually end up in Heaven – including satan! Sometimes it is called inclusion or universalism – there are several differences in the pathways, but they all mean the same end thing – they believe everyone is going to end up in Heaven eventually. Some think some people will go to hell first, others a purgatory, others believe everyone goes straight to Heaven, but they all believe everyone ends up in Heaven.

The implication is that it does not matter how you relate to God, how you live, what you say, what you do, because no matter what you are going to Heaven when you die. A lot of this comes from the fact that our society has gone multi-cultural and people are scared to say Muhammad is not the way, Buddha is not the way, Krishna is not the way – but the only way to the Father is through Jesus Christ.

This multi-culturalism says everyone is ok, everyone is a child of God, everyone is right, everyone is saved, everyone is godly, everyone is good. And so, it leads to a toleration of all sins. Someone gets two women in the church pregnant, just let him minister in the gifts. Worship leader won’t speak to you because he is so immature, won’t listen to godly leadership, won’t read his Bible, just let him keep leading worship. There are even churches that are supporting and welcoming homosexuals into church leadership. Of course they should be loved, but love would never put someone in that situation into leadership.

The truth is everyone wants to go to Heaven, but very few people want to live Heaven on earth. The truth is that we are not all right, we are not all good, we were born in sin, we were born selfish and we need a Saviour, and there is not a list of Saviours to choose from, there is only One, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. We are not all children of God. We are all created by God, but we need to be born again to become children of God.

This truth not only needs to be believed by every pastor, it needs to be proclaimed clearly. You should be giving altar calls in your church services, you should be asking people if they have been born again, and you should be teaching and explaining what it means. People should be left in no doubt that there is only one way to God, and people should not be left in any confusion that there is only one Saviour, and that every other religion is wrong, and that there is a truth, there is a way that we are expected to live as Christians. Everyone should be aware that you believe there is a hell to shun and a Heaven to gain, and it is not automatic. It’s not by works, but it is by faith, and we should be using the words and speaking the truth that produces true faith in people.

Selah.

Just for the Pastors 05: Handling Greatness!

We are not called to be neurotic perfectionists and we are not called to copy the world, but we are called to be excellent in the way we do things. For the next few posts, I want to talk about being excellent. The first way to be excellent is to bring excellent gifts.

When the Queen of Sheba went to go see King Solomon, she brought a caravan full of gifts. When the wise men went to go see King Jesus, they brought gifts upon gifts. Peter J Daniels did research that said the armed escort for the magi was over 1000 men. There was some giving done there!

Maybe you don’t have a million or two like the Queen of Sheba, but never appear before greatness empty handed. I did not turn up to Andrew Wommack’s pastor’s conference without money to give. I turned up with money to give. That’s what I am talking about.

Greatness is not so much taught as caught, but to catch it you have to be around great men. Many pastors are never around great men, because they do not know how to appear in the presence of greatness.

Selah.

Just for the Pastors 04: What it Looks Like!

As pastors we should have a concern about what things look like. Many pastors and churches looks a lot like the world. And people need to realize you do not get the world to come to church by being worldly.

Others look like they have just woken up. So in that sense, some care should be taken for outward appearance.

However, Biblically speaking we have to pay much more attention on the appearance of the heart because God looks on the heart. What makes a good pastor? Heart. What makes a good elder? Heart. What makes a good worship leader? Heart. God always looks on the heart, and part of our job as pastors is to learn to look on the heart.

I’ve had people want to be elders in the church, and lead worship, and they look great on the outside, then I go on their social media, and they are smokers or drinkers, or into all kinds of things, they are railing against others and all sorts of things. That’s heart, and that is what we must be looking at!

God does not pick and choose based on appearance. He looks at the heart. God does not look for perfect hearts – or else no one would be in ministry. So God knows you are not perfect, He knows you disagree with Him sometimes, He knows you get annoyed sometimes, He knows it all.

But God knowing it all is no excuse for us as pastors not to work on our heart. Everyone who has sinned – that sin came from their heart. Satan has never forced someone to do anything, it came from the heart. No one falls into sin, they chose to sin because of their heart.

So, we need to work a little on our outward appearance. But what we really need to work on is our heart. We have to work on resisting temptation, we have to work on resisting sin. Sin starts in the heart. David’s adultery started in his heart.

But on the other side, great things start in the heart too. Dreams start in the heart. You can dream to see healings, salvations, miracles. You can use your heart to believe for mountains to move as you speak to them!

So, pastors – work on your hearts!

Just for the Pastors 03: The Church is Utterly Essential

Nothing is more important to the purposes of God on earth as the local church. When we are saved, Jesus Christ of Nazareth personally picks out a local church for us to go to, and has decided a role, a place, a position, for us in that local church. We are all members of the body of Christ, and we are all different parts of that body. That teaching is found all over the Bible, especially 1 Corinthians 12, and I am not going to rehash it right now, but the truth that is essential for today’s blog is that God has put every single Christian into a local church – for His glory, not necessarily to make that person happy.

That includes you as a pastor. You do not get to pastor the church you might want to pastor. You might not get to teach what you want to teach. You might not have the people there you want to have there. The family you really like might leave, and the family you hope miss church this weekend might stay.

You have to catch a vision in your heart that the church is utterly essential. It has to be in you so others can catch it. There is a movement across the globe right now and it is utterly satanic, and sadly people from all streams of Christianity are embracing it, even the grace and faith people. It basically says that all the important things about following Christ we can do on our own, and going to church is really a bonus, a superfluous matter of our personal preference like whether we watch a film in the cinema or our own TV, or watch the football in the stadium or in the pub or at home. A lot of it stems from a real sense in our culture that no one should be accountable to anyone else. So even when some people go to church, it is because today, I believe this service is important for my personal path that I designed all by myself, rather than a deep conviction that church is essential to God’s plan for every single Christian. Many see church as a nice optional part of their very personal walk with God – and by personal I mean they designed it all by themselves to suit themselves. But the truth is that the church is the heart of God’s purpose for planet earth. The truth is that the church is the heart of God’s plan for grace to be revealed. The church is utterly essential. You cannot be church at home. You cannot be church at home even if you have a Bible, Alexa playing worship songs, and listening to your favourite Bible teacher. That will never ever lead to spiritual health.

The culture of the day is private, personal, and consumer-driven. We are not to be like that. We need to be part of a robust Christian church that we have found our place in and are planted in.

It is so important that as pastors we set the pace – what I means is that we attend the church God has placed us in. That may sound strange to you, but I know pastors who are pastoring the wrong church. They have been led to Jesus to pastor a certain church, but they took another church because of money, prestige, ease, or a host of other reasons. Do not be that pastor!

There are enough people who go to the church they feel like going and never take the time to find out where Jesus Christ of Nazareth has placed them. I know people who have chosen churches based on the race of the pastor, based on the landscaping of the building, based on nice short services, and a whole host of reasons that are nothing to do with Jesus.

We need to be where we are planted. As a pastor you need to let people know that they need to be in local church, planted where Jesus instructs them to be planted, and then model it by being where God planted you!

Even someone like Kenneth Hagin tells a story where he pastored the wrong church because the board of deacon voted him in with 100% of the vote going to him. He later found out that God does not lead by 100% votes of deacons, but God leads by the Spirit of God!

I pastored a church I was never supposed to pastor before I started Tree of Life Church because I had a godly desire to be in ministry combined with an ungodly impatience. That is a fatal combination. I have seen so many people shipwreck due to that. They go to Bible College and graduate assuming they know everything, assuming they know more than people who have been doing the ministry for decades, and they want to preach and minister, and they feel that their pastor is holding them back, so they wander from church to church looking for a church that will platform them, rather than kneeling down and asking Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, which church they should be planted in and serve.

Maybe it will take 4-5 years of serving before you are released into ministry, maybe longer. It took me a decade between graduating Bible College and being ready to start Tree of Life. Rather 10 years serving a local church and learning how church functions than 40-50 years wandering around looking for a place to minister and never finding one, getting jealous of the people who put the Lord first when it came to church, not their desire to minister or have a ministry. Trust me – I know these people, this is not just me trying to push people into being planted. I, like Paul, genuinely only desire fruit to your account.

Now when I started Tree of Life Church in 2010, there were thousands of people who never came. People stayed away by busloads! We were a small, struggling church. During that time, I started by faith on a Christian radio station across London. It cost a lot and took a lot of time, but it really helped grow our church in the early days.

Anyway, one day I got a phone call. I was still working part-time, I was earning less per month than my mortgage payment, praying in tongues just to put food on the table every week, and really not seeing any signs of growth in the church, not in numbers, not in spirituality, not in anything. The phone call was from a church of several hundred people just south of the river. Their pastor had just abandoned them to take on a larger church, and they wanted a new pastor. They wanted to pay triple what I was earning, buy me a new car, and give me a house to live in. They had heard me on radio and loved my teaching and were very keen.

I must admit I was tempted, but only for a couple of seconds, before I told them thanks but no thanks, because I know where God called me and what God called me to do. I don’t just tell people choose the right church and get plugged in, I live it.

Our society is in a mess because people do not realize the value of local churches, and this shift starts from the pastors, the shepherds of the churches. If the pastor is in the right place, the Lord of the Church, the Head of the Body will bring the right people to us and join them to us. But it starts with us being where we should be.

Now when you are the pastor, and in the right place, doing the right thing, how can you help people find their place in the church?

Constantly teach on the need to submit to the Lord and be led by the Spirit
Teach people about the value of not looking on externals but look on the heart (I will cover some of this in my next blog post on this)
Never compromise to keep someone. What do I mean by that? If someone says for example “I will stay at this church if you let me preach”, or “I will only be in the services where I am leading worship” show them the door. Swiftly. The church is not their personal sandbox, it is the body of Christ, and it is utterly essential
Don’t let your ego in the game! In your spirit, you would rather pastor the 50 people God has called to you, than 500 people who are not called to you.

Just for the Pastors 02: It’s More than a Job!

Some of the things I have done in my life are just jobs – working in McDonalds, selling mobile phones, being a school teacher, working in recruitment. The job itself was not really the issue, earning money for my family was the issue. But being a pastor is not that. It is a calling. You do not need a qualification (although you should be a life-long learner), you do not need to go to Bible College first (for some people that helps them learn how to study the Word and develop faith, for others it gets in the way, puffs them up and they rely on that not God), what you need is Jesus Christ of Nazareth calling you into that role.

I was called to be a pastor by Jesus Christ the day I was born again. I had a vision of Heaven and Jesus called me by name. Trust me, on that day, when I was 15 years old, never raised Christian, never lived for anything other than myself, I was not in any way qualified at all. But here is the great truth: the people God calls, God qualifies. He takes care of the whole package. He will put His Words in your mouth, He will grace you with ability you never had.

Ability will never by itself create ministry. But if you are called, God will give you ability, and ability that comes from the grace of calling will always turn into ministry.

Now, what I want everyone to know is that Jesus Christ calls all the fivefold, and if you are called to one do not try and step into another. A lot of pastors in the UK are actually people called to be evangelists, but it is easier to get an income as a pastor and (if you have never travelled a lot you may not ever realize this but) travelling can be very tiresome, so they step into a church but have no grace to pastor. Some pastors are called to be in business, but they want some spiritual validation or maybe familial validation, so there they are preaching nonsense with no grace and no calling.

A friend of mine started a church because it seemed like a good idea, and God confronted him and told him that he was called to be an evangelist and not a pastor, and he shut the church down and stepped into a powerful ministry all over Europe. We have to follow the calling from Heaven!

Sometimes it is more sinister than just a desire to be approved by people, some people become pastors because they like to control people, they like the authority a pastor has (more in some cultures than others), or because they see it as an easy way to make money (it is not!).

Pastors above all people should be able to see these things, because you are going to be helping other people into their callings on a regular basis. You need to know the difference between an apostle and a prophet, an evangelist and a pastor, a teacher and a businessman!

And if you are called to be a pastor, realize now it is the most demanding calling there is – but there will be a great reward for obeying your heavenly calling. At our summer conference this year, Greg Fritz spoke a lot on Isaiah 1.19 which says that if you are willing and obedient you will eat the good of the land. A good pastor is both willing and obedient to serve! Some people seem willing, seem full of enthusiasm, but never seem to actually do anything. Others obey, but with an attitude that makes you wish they had not bothered. But God is looking for the willing and obedient. He was not and is not looking for the talented and educated. He was not and is not looking for the rich and famous. He is and always will be looking for the willing and obedient.

And realize this – there are many good ideas that are not your calling. People come to me regularly and say something like “we should start a primary school” or “we should start a youth ministry” or so on. But people did not call me and I will not stand before them when I die. As a pastor, you have to keep your eyes, ears and heart before Jesus and do what He envisions you to do. Don’t do what you feel or what the people say and ask God to bless it – do what God says to do with a great attitude and that will be totally and utterly blessed.

Selah.

Just for the Pastors 01: You are Remarkable!

In this series of blog posts for leaders, I am writing to pastors for the next few posts. I have been pastoring and called “Pastor Ben” since 1998 when I was a student pastor at an Assemblies of God church. Since 2010, when I started the Tree of Life Church, I have planted twelve churches, raised up over twenty pastors, and I have a love for pastors that I believe is supernatural. Nothing gets under my skin more than to see pastors and local churches disrespected, especially by other ministers and ministries.

I woke up this morning realizing that if a nation is to be changed – if our nation is to be changed, it cannot be done by any other people than the pastors. Praying to change the UK is my top prayer project, and I have spent a long time today praying for pastors. Pastoring is not an easy job, it is not a job that engenders the same awe as an apostle, the same sensationalism as a prophet, the same fundraising as an evangelism, or the same respect as a Bible teacher. But it is the most important job in the world.

I believe with all of my heart that the hardest of the fivefold ministry jobs is the pastor. The apostle is concerned with two things: bringing something out of nothing and bringing order to chaos. The first is solved by developing a solid depth in the Word and the Spirit and building great faith, the second is done through wisdom and experience. The prophet is concerned with one thing: what is God saying right now in this situation. This is solved by spending time with the Lord and listening to Him and not other voices. The evangelist has two things: get out there and get people to hear the gospel and get those who have heard able and willing to share it. The teacher is concerned with making the Word accessible to people.

But the pastor has to deal with the most important and most difficult task of all. The pastor has to build the church, which is made up of people, and the pastor has to form, pray for, and love those people. All those people are different, and just when you think you have grasped it, someone does something that makes you think you do not understand people at all.

The Bible is the same every day, so teachers can go to bed and pick up exactly where they left off. During that same night, the people have developed foibles and ideas that mean that what you were doing as a pastor yesterday just won’t work any more.

Just this week, I was about to preach and I realized that my message (a great teaching, just to be honest) might have bruised someone in the church, so I adjusted. This is not me compromising the Word (if you know me, you know I would not do that), this is me taking seriously the command of Jesus to Peter: feed my lambs. A teacher never has to do that, an evangelist only has ten messages and six of them are to the lost (it’s an exaggeration, but not by much!) but the pastor has to be deep in the Word and deep into the needs and heart of the people as well.

When someone betrays an apostle, they leave his ministry and disappear. When someone betrays a teacher, they attack his teaching. When someone betrays a prophet they assault their gifting. When someone betrays an evangelist, they assault their numbers. But when someone betrays a pastor they assault his character. They go straight for the jugular and they have a flock of people ready made to spread gossip and innuendo.

So, the first thing I would say to any pastors is firstly know that you are called. Never just decide I want to be a pastor. You need to know from God, and you need some people who are pastors to affirm that call over your life. There is a grace to be a pastor, and only those Jesus Christ personally chooses to be a pastor have that grace. Pastoring with that grace can be difficult, but pastoring without it will wipe you out.

The word pastor means a shepherd. Jesus is the Great Shepherd, and our task above all is to reflect Jesus as a Shepherd to the people that gather around us. The pastor should always have the heart of a shepherd to people, and the only place they can get that heart is from the Great Shepherd Himself.

An apostle sees people as living stones to put in place, a prophet sees people as spirit beings to connect to the Holy Spirit, a teacher sees people as unrenewed minds needing to feed on the Word, an evangelist sees people as weighed down by bad news and needing the good news. A pastor sees people as sheep who need green grass and still water. As a pastor you must always see people as sheep. That is the only way to stop being cynical or discouraged. You need to see people the way Jesus does. This is a cliche, but it is true: you need the heart of a shepherd to your people.

A pastor also needs to be a very balanced ministry. A prophet can get away with not opening their Bible for a whole church service. A teacher can get away with never flowing in the gifts. But a pastor must be deep in the Word and deep in the Spirit. They must be Word based and Spirit filled, they must be Word led and Spirit led at the same time. More than any other ministry they have to guard their heart. More than any other ministry they have to lead people. More than any other ministry they have to remain faithful.

If a teacher falls, or evangelist falls, people are scandalized, but then the pastor just doesn’t invite them back to the church, and the pastor keeps the church steady. If a pastor falls, the church will be devastated, and many Christians will be damaged beyond repair – and who will soothe their pain when it is the pastor that caused it?

If you are called to be a pastor – you should be excited about that fact. Yes, I have explained that it is hard, that it is difficult, that the rewards on this earth are not what they could be, that you will be often unappreciated, often taken for granted, often overlooked for showier ministries. You will be with someone at 2am praying for them, and they will sow a seed to their favourite TV minister in gratitude. You will teach for months on a subject and they will get it when the guest speaker that you invited teaches for 45 minutes on it. You will hear the phrase “only a pastor” and be tempted to even dismiss yourself!

BUT – and this is the the big but of pastoring – you will be a co-labourer with Christ, building the church of Christ with Christ, building a community of love and grace that will support people, reach the lost, transform lives, give to world mission, support the other fivefold ministries, restore marriages, bring beauty from ashes and transform your local community and even your city.

What a task! To actually shepherd a local church under the Great Shepherd, to have responsibility to feed some of the sheep of Jesus Christ, to reflect His heart to His people and gather them and build a community that reflects the very body of Christ on earth. Pastor, you are remarkable!

And if you keep at it long enough, pastoring is the only ministry that becomes generational, and you will marry the children of people you have married, you will release into ministry people you dedicated as babies, and you will see fruit right in front of you.

So, if you are called to be a pastor, if you are a pastor, I am praying for you, that you will walk in your anointing, do everything that God has called you to do, and be a great reflection of the Great Shepherd and build a great people. I am also praying that you will do it with great joy.