MINISTERS MATTER

VALUE 4. WORD GIVEN - WORD KEPT

EIGHT RELATIONAL VALUES
FOR HEALTHY MINISTERS AND MINISTRIES

Word Given-Word Kept

Philippians 2:1-4; Colossians 3:12-17; Jude 20, 21;
Colossians 2:1-7; Romans 9:1-5; Romans 1:8-15.

Review the story of God’s Word to Abraham in Genesis 15.

Every situation (good or bad) is an opportunity to express what the Lord has put in our hearts. Relationships are about promises. Word given and word kept. There is not commitment that is not first spoken and meant.

In football terms, declaring your commitment gets you out of the stands and into the game. It makes you a participant not an onlooker. The strength of Paul’s declared commitment was full of passion.

Romans 9:1-5

In every circumstance we must declare our intention. In times of tension and difficulty, silence can be wounding. Never assume that people know how much you are for them. Always declare it with thoughtfulness and love.

• Be intentional to one another.
• Plan to be someone’s good friend.
• Live out who you really are with people.
• Being devoted to people means being committed through good times and bad.
• Take time to upgrade your current friendships.
• Express affection and compassion.
• Maintain the same love even when people are inconsistent.
• Declaring your commitment makes a difference to you as well as others.

ACTION
Meditate on the people around you, who mean the most to you. Think about them and what they are facing and declare a commitment to that friendship. A word, a card, a gesture, a gift, a phone call will make a lot of difference to someone and you will feel better about yourself.

VALUE STATEMENT
Declaring your commitment to others is the best way of understanding and receiving God’s commitment to you. The scriptures are God’s declaration of commitment to humanity. His whole heart is in His word to us. When you declare your commitment, your heart follows your involvement.

At Mission O, Ministers Matter!

VALUE 3. BELIEVING THE BEST

EIGHT RELATIONAL VALUES
FOR HEALTHY MINISTERS AND MINISTRIES

BELIEVING THE BEST

1 Corinthians 13: 7-8; Romans 12:10-12; Philippians 4:8;
Titus 1:15; Colossians 3:12-17; Luke 6:31.

Review the story of the Rich Young Ruler in Matthew 19.

How we see people is often a mirror image of how we see ourselves. How we accept others is a significant indicator of our own self-acceptance in Christ. We believe the best about others because we believe the truth about ourselves in Jesus.

Giving others the benefit of the doubt will lessen the doubts we have about ourselves. This enables us to express an incredible depth of love and freedom to people. We are bestowing the gift of acceptance and receiving it afresh in each human transaction.

• Be patient with defects – yours and those of others.
• Treat others how you would love to be treated.
• Love is the perfect bond of unity.
• Be devoted to one another in love and prefer one another in honour.
• Do not be wise in your own estimation, be humble.
• Respect what is right, cover what is wrong in grace.
• Practice Philippians 4:8.
• Relational breakdowns are really opportunities to believe the best … cunningly disguised.

ACTION
Ask to Holy Spirit to enable you to see people as He does. Think of how you would speak to them with this newfound understanding. Be aware that tense moments in relationships give you special opportunities to practice loving acceptance by believing the best.

VALUE STATEMENT
It is impossible to grow relationships when living in an atmosphere of disapproval. Believing the best about people is not about ignoring their faults but about recognizing that everyone Christian wants to change and become like Jesus. We are always a work a progress and therefore deserving of mercy, grace and love.

Whenever we see Christ in one another, He is Present!

At Mission O, Ministers Matter!

VALUE 2. OPENNESS AND HONESTY

EIGHT RELATIONAL VALUES
FOR HEALTHY MINISTERS AND MINISTRIES

OPENNESS AND HONESTY

Romans 12:9; Ephesians 4:15;Romans 2:1-11; 2 Corinthians 4: 1-2;
Romans 6:12-14; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 2 John 1:5-10.

Review the story of Esther 3.

A truly humble person does not fear being exposed. The great weakness in the Western Church is our refusal to accept that brokenness is a part of all life in the Spirit.

His power works best in humility. Living in accountable relationships enables us to walk in the light with God and expose our own inner darkness. This removes the strategies of the enemy that can destroy our relationships and us.

Self-disclosure is vital to the process. We end up with a group of friends who each know a part of our life and together know it all.

• Public and personal integrity through accountable friendships.
• It is the un-shared areas of our life where Jesus is not Lord.
• Humility and honesty have the same root.
• Self-disclosure is a process.
• Humble people are small in their own eyes, honest about their struggles and open to discussion and willing to admit the need for change.
• Rest in the truth that you are loved, accepted and forgiven in Jesus Christ.

ACTION
To begin the process of openness and honesty, start to look around and discover who, in friendship, may be trusted with certain parts of your life. Begin to develop a friendship with those people.

It takes time and love expressed before we can trust ourselves to self-disclosure. The important thing is having a plan for friendship that includes accountability.

Value Statement
Relationships of openness and honesty allow us to drop the mask and the image we unconsciously present to the world and ourselves. In this way we live in conscious freedom and joy before people as we do before God.

We rejoice that we are deeply loved, blessed with faith and highly favoured in Jesus Christ.

At Mission O, Ministers Matter!

VALUE 1. NON-NEGOTIABLE LOVE

EIGHT RELATIONAL VALUES
FOR HEALTHY MINISTERS AND MINISTRIES

NON-NEGOTIABLE LOVE

John 15:9; Romans 12:10; Colossians 3:12-17;
1 Corinthians 13:1-13; 1 Peter 4:8; Matthew 5:21-24.

Review the story of David and Jonathan. 1 Samuel 18 & 20.

There is nothing we can do to make God love us more and there is nothing we can do that would make Him love us less! His love is based on who He is within Himself, not on our performance.

He is consistent and faithful in how He loves us. His love is never on the negotiating table when we are in sin or conflict with Him. How can we be anything less for each other?

His love enables us to be true to one another when we have difficulties. Keeping His way of loving in the forefront of our minds in times of complexity helps us to be true to others.

• Love means being patient and expressing kindness.
• Love does not remember slights, hold grudges or recall bad history.
• Love is unselfish and thoughtful.
• Loving people, bearing things and believing the best of others.
• Truly forgiving and forgetting is the hallmark of God’s love in us.
• Love is not provoked and foregoes vengeance.
• Love never fails.
• Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.
• Love is an action not just a word.
• Real love allows people to change.

ACTION
Think of someone recently where you have not fully been the loving person the Holy Spirit was expecting you to be in the situation … correct your behaviour and seek to be reconciled.

Take time to thoughtfully upgrade your love with the people around you.

VALUE STATEMENT
Non-negotiable love is being the best expression of Jesus Christ to another human being. Putting love first and last in every situation keeps us in the abiding Presence of God.

Non-negotiable love can heal and seal the problems that occur in all relationships.

At Mission O, Ministers Matter!

VALUES BASED MINISTERS

Over the next eight days, I will share the eight relational values that motivate all I do in ministry. May I encourage you to develop your own value system so you too will be seen as a value based minister.

Many years ago I heard the statement that values must precede vision. That stuck with me. There is no shortage of vision in ministry today. What is often in short supply is character.

For ministers, credibility is an important value. Can we be trusted? God calls us and entrusts the gospel, ministry and people to our keeping and care. How are we handling this trust? Without credibility in ministry, little can be accomplished.

Credibility is doing the same things over and over for the right reasons. It is putting into practice those values you’ve chosen to reflect your personal behaviour in all circumstances. For a values based minister, being spiritual is more important than looking spiritual.

Real life shows that credibility takes years to build and can be lost in a moment. One day we can be on top of the world and the next the world is on top of us.

Credibility is more important to the people we lead than our credentials. People look to us in the ministry to have integrity, to be authentic, accountable and to handle temptation in a godly manner. Without values, our resistance is weak and we can mishandle the trust given to us.

Values help us deal with our own issues in a proactive manner.

The ministerial life of John Wesley included questions like the following to keep ministers accountable. We need to review them and evaluate our own lives as credible ministers.

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am a better person than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?

2. Am I honest in all acts or words, or do I exaggerate?

3. Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence? Can I be trusted?

4. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work or habits?

5. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self -justifying?

6. Did the Bible live in me today?

7. Do I give it time to speak to me each day?

8. Am I enjoying prayer?

9. When did I last speak to somebody else with the object of trying to win that person for Christ?

10. Am I making contacts with other people and using them for the Master’s Glory?

11. Do I pray about the money I spend?

12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?

13. Do I disobey God in anything?

14. Do I insist upon doing something for which my conscience is uneasy?

15. Am I defeated in any part of my life? Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?

16. How do I spend my spare time?

17. Am I proud?

18. Do I thank God I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisee who despised the publican?

19. Is there anybody whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?

20. Do I grumble or complain constantly?

21. Is Christ real to me?

At Mission O, Ministers Matter!

LEADERS LEAD BY EXAMPLE

Church history has had many amazing men and women who made a difference in their generation. R. A. Torrey was just one of those men. He qualified leadership, revival, renewal etc., with a simple quote which became known as his first rule for revival. "A few members of any church must get thoroughly right with God."

When you pastor a congregation or lead any area of ministry, that simple rule needs to apply to you first. It could be written this way for me. "Let Pastor Barry get thoroughly right with God as a first step of being a disciple qualified to make disciples."

During my ministry at The Life Centre, there were some seasons of discontent. I was going through the motions but something was missing in the motives. I remember one Sunday as I was preaching through the Minor Prophets, I heard myself say to myself, "Why don't you sit down and just shut up."

It was a time of spiritual thirst and hunger for more and I had come to the end of myself.

These are the moments when you need to get alone with God and pour out your soul to Him. On one hand you want out, on the other you want in. You find your leadership tested to the breaking point. Your emotions run wild as you contemplate quitting, taking a sabbatical, going on stress leave, finding a replacement, but inside you know you are called and you don't want to follow in Jonah's footsteps by running away.

It is usually at this juncture that you are willing to give back your Academy Award for portraying a pastor in your own movie. You ache to be authentic, not an actor. Others may think you are doing well but you know it is taking everything you have just to keep your sanity. You are troubled, confused, mixed up emotionally yet wise enough to know that falling on your face before God is the best thing you can do in situations like this.

2 Chronicles 7:14 is one of those promises from God that encourage us to keep pressing. If we, the people of God, including the pastors, humble ourselves, pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways, then He promises to a) hear from heaven b) forgive our sin and c) heal our land.

When I took the time to meet with Him, He met with me. He ministered to my brokenness, filled me to overflowing, refreshed me and spoke to my heart that from now on I would no longer work for Him but with Him. What a difference that has made in my life and ministry!

Turning to God can turn all these things around as each leader is renewed and the fires of ministry are rekindled.

Here is an amazing note written by a fully functioning pastor in rural Africa.

" I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The dye has been cast. I've stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of His. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colourless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, chincy giving and dwarded goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by presence, lean by faith, love by patience, lift by prayer and labour by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, hire away, or turned back, diluted or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, shut up, let up or burn up till I've preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up and stayed up for the cause of Christ.

I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop and preach till everyone knows.

And when He come to get His own, He'll have no problems recognizing me...my colours will be clear.

At Mission O, MinistersMatter!

PERSONAL GROWTH FOR MINISTERS

Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting with the pastoral leadership of a nearby city. It was clear, in the midst of our sharing together, that ongoing personal growth was important for us in the ministry.

While we were called to feed the sheep that were under our care, we needed to make sure we were feeding ourselves as well. Healthy minister = healthy ministry. As I was driving home, I thought about my own life and wondered what I would do differently today.

How would I go about replenishing my own soul, not for others, but for me.

Here are some thoughts.

I would invest more time by reading great books by authors who had dared to be caring ministers rather than professional clergy. Books on prayer, fasting, Christian disciplines, as well as emotional and spiritual health. I would seek out mature leaders and ask to spend time with them over coffee. I'd listen to messages that would be more about personal growth than church growth. I would make sure that I was cross-pollinating myself within the body of Christ so I could grow in love and be stretched in my thinking. I would give some senior leaders permission to speak into my life and help me reach my personal goals. I would take at least two full days off each week to 'pastor my family' and a three-month sabbatical at five year intervals just to keep pace with and process what I was learning. I would book Joyce and I into a marital retreat each year to keep the fires of love burning and deal with issues that might otherwise go unchecked. I would get professional help to guide me in understanding the implications of my past, what I need to be doing to keep moving forward and then activate tools that could measure my ongoing progress.

I would want to evaluate the following growth points.

Am I walking as a son who enjoys intimacy with God as Father? Am I falling in love with the scriptures as I read them? Is Jesus present in my life and ministry? Is my prayer life vibrant? Am I daily surrendering myself to the Lord? Do I model holiness? Is the kingdom at work in me in righteousness, peace and joy in the Person and presence of the Holy Spirit? Am I maintaining pastoral relationships that keep me accountable, healthy and real?

In the end, I value the calling of God on my life. I want to see it continue to grow as I grow older. I acknowledge that my outer man is perishing but my inner man is being renewed everyday.

I have a vision of becoming a grey-haired man who is full of grace, wisdom and lives to invest himself in the generations that will follow.

Ephesian 4:1 reminds us to live a life that is worthy of the calling we have received. That can only be done if we are willing to nurture all that God has entrusted to our keeping and care, starting with our life in Him.

At Mission O, Ministers Matter!

INTERNATIONALS 'MEET & GREET' NIGHT

Tonight was one of those amazing moments in ministry. For the first time in the history of our city, 37 ministers, most who have immigrated to Canada from all over the world, gathered at the National House of Prayer for a 'meet and greet' night.

They were served by a small group of young women from 4MyCanada who laboured lovingly all evening. They could be seen setting up the dining room, greeting the ministers, and even hanging up their coats. These young people absolutely blessed us with their love of serving others. The team from the NHoP always amaze me with their dedication to excellence in all they do. Thanks guys!

Refreshments were ready as the guests arrived and the room was buzzing as they met one another for the first time in such a welcoming setting. There were leaders representing Canada's First Nations, Africa, South America, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Iraq and the USA. A special couple, Marc & Kim Wyatt from America, who work with immigrants, took time to share their 10 year ministry alongside immigrants in Canada. They blessed all of us with their dedication and love for people.

I hosted the evening and brought greetings on behalf of Mission O. It goes without saying that these leaders honoured our invitation and we thanked them for taking the time to come out.

I invited Rob and Fran Parker, the leaders of the NHoP to share the story of what God was doing with the teams who come from across the nation. Many of these international leaders were at the house for the first time and were overwhelmed with all that God was doing.

Pastor Jacob Afolabi, who encouraged many to attend, brought greetings and shared some of the history of previous efforts and how encouraged he was with tonight. He introduced us to Carl Nicholson and Meyer Burstein who work to help immigrants get settled in our community. They shared a little of what they do and offered their expertise to the pastors. Carl had spent alot of time at the house when it was a convent. He was delighted to be back and see it being used as a house of prayer.

We took a guided tour of the house and then settled into the upstairs prayer room for a time of listening to one another's story and heart cry for ministry. What a display of diversity as their stories were told. Our God is doing a mighty work in Ottawa and we were privileged to see and hear it from these dear men and women of God who have been brought here by Him for eternal purposes.

We concluded our time praying and blessing each other's life and ministry. That alone was worth it all. The intensity of prayer, the genuine care for one another, and wouldn't you know it, they didn't want to leave even though we ended on time.

The night wrapped up with a short time of fellowship. I am looking forward to more times with these international leaders. They are a blessing to the Body of Christ in the National Capital Region and we have much to learn from them and share together.

At Mission O, Ministers Matter!

YOU ARE UNIQUELY GIFTED FOR MINISTRY!

God is the author of diversity. He loves it. No two fingerprints are the same. Even our DNA is absolutely unique. There is not another person, among the 6 billion on earth, that has the same DNA as you or I do.

How many people, unjustly convicted of a crime, are grateful that their DNA was not a match? They may have looked like, acted like or even sounded like the one who did the crime, but it was not them? Our genetic blueprint doesn't lie and it sets us apart from others.

In ministry, God again shows Himself as the author of diversity. He has blessed the church with apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Each one is different from the other and yet fulfills a special role in equipping the people of God to do the work of the ministry. Without each one doing what God has called them to do, we rob the church of what it needs - biblical equipping.

With all this diversity in creation, how is it that in the church we are so fearful of things being diverse? We really need to learn to appreciate everyone's uniqueness, to celebrate it and affirm that we are gifted and called to a special function of ministry reserved just for us to do.

I know I was chosen to minister at The Life Centre in Ottawa. The mix of my personality and spiritual gifts, plus the gift mix within the congregation, made for a fruitful and lasting relationship. I am convinced that we function best when we are in the will of God, the place of His choosing and that we serve with excellence.

I know many serving in ministry today who feel like fish out of water. They are not appreciated for how God has equipped them and must endure being tolerated, rather than celebrated. For example, being a pastor, evangelist or a teacher is acceptable in most church settings today, but to be an apostle or prophet is to incur scorn, ridicule and a lot of misunderstanding.

Why not allow people to cultivate their calling and gifting? God gave it to them in the first place! Let's let them do what only they can do.

God wants to grow His church up. He reminded Moses to build the Tabernacle in the wilderness according to the pattern he was shown. I believe in Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4, we are being shown the New Testament version of the pattern.

Romans 12:4 says, "For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not have all the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them..."

Here is a list of gifts, from the epistles, meant to operate in today's church.

See which ones you can identify as being used in your church or ministry. Service, teaching, exhortation, generosity, leadership, mercy, wisdom, knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.

These represent a loving God's desire to bless His people with all the gifts they need. Gifts that are used co-operatively to build, equip and minister as servants of Jesus Christ.

Let me end today by echoing the words of the apostle Paul, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed."

Let us celebrate our uniqueness and enjoy the God ordained diversity of the Body of Christ.

At Mission O, Ministers Matter!

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT MINISTRY

The University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center found that clergy ranked highest in job satisfaction and “general happiness.” They even out ranked highly paid professionals such as doctors and lawyers.

The article reports: Eighty-seven percent of clergy said they were "very satisfied" with their work, compared with an average 47 percent for all workers. Sixty-seven percent reported being "very happy," compared with an average 33 percent for all workers.

"They look at their occupation as a calling," Carroll said. "A pastor does get called on to enter into some of the deepest moments of a person's life, celebrating a birth and sitting with people at times of illness or death. There's a lot of fulfillment."

Over 30 years of being a pastor, I would concur. Ministry has been and continues to be very satisfying. Nothing compares to witnessing the transforming power of the gospel in someone's life. From the youngest child in Sunday School to the hardened criminal in a prison cell, Jesus makes all the difference.

I have loved to watch marriages be put back together, mine included, and stood in wonder as God called each member of my family, and their spouses, to serve Him on the frontlines of ministry. Joyce as the Director of Ministries, my son Jason now as the Lead Pastor and my daughter Kim, the Children's Pastor. Thank You Jesus!

The congregation of The Life Centre has taught me that love is a two-way street. I have been called to love them and they have been called to love me as their minister. It has been, and continues to be, a 'love never fails' relationship. We are friends, walking together and sharing in the partnership of the gospel.

I have especially loved living and preaching truth. Dropping a plumbline on Sunday so we could all reposition our lives to the will of God. That has proven to be an awesome experience.

Over the years I've related to area pastors as well. This accountability has helped me review the necessary things of ministry like authenticity, family, marriage, money, doctrine, and the three G's of ministry. Don't touch the girls, the glory or the gold.

Looking back over the last 30 years I've appreciated having a front row seat in seeing people changed. I've loved the amount of relationships and the friends I've made. God has given Joyce and I a big extended family who we meet not only on Sunday but through the week around the city and even around the world.

The congregation has shown us grace, put their confidence in us, supported our family financially, socially, emotionally and spiritually. We have wanted for nothing, from a beautiful home, to our cars, and the flexibility to travel to almost 50 nations of the world preaching the gospel.

My biggest supporters have been those who have served on the Pastor's Council (The Board) and our leadership teams. Thank you for helping me fall in love with and stay in love with ministry.

My biggest lesson - God loves the minister more than He does the ministry. I've learned to rest in the Father/son relationship that has allowed me to be me. He loves me just the way I am but loves me enough not to leave me the way I am. To God be the glory, great things He has done, is doing and will do in the days ahead.

I love the ministry!

At Mission O, Ministers Matter!