Right now my ministry is stagnant, because I’m not sure what to be when I grow up.

I do love the ministry.  I love the contact with the people.  It’s important for me to know that I am there when they need me.

My husband is also ordained clergy.  We are not currently serving a church, but over the last two days, we have taken stock of what is going on in our lives and we feel God’s movement.  And, you know when God starts moving you need to be prepared to start running.  That is the feeling I love.

Working with the Lord is the most important thing I have done in my life.  Knowing and believing that he called me, Joyce, to share with him in his work, is humbling. I do find it hard some time to understand what it is that God “saw” in me that made him believe in me.  I’m glad he did.

My ministry is to do the Lord’s work, however he may guide me.  He will make the choices for me and he will prepare me to fulfill the job.  God is awesome.

Through my bible study and prayer it has been coming to me more and more that we do need to redeem the time, for our time is limited.  We need to act in our lives what we proclaim that we beleive in our hearts.

Further it has been coming to me that it is far too easy to be false prophets, proclaiming “Peace, peace” when there is no peace. 

God calls us to be holy as He is holy.  We claim that we want to live with God and be like Him, but without changing our daily lives.  This cannot be.  We must live just what we believe.

I’m just wondering if “urgency” and “hurry” are the same thing?  Is God in a hurry?  If He is, why doesn’t it seem like it?  If things are “urgent” then God better get with it.

I’ve been in ministry for 25+ years and have always been in a hurry because I thought I didn’t have much time.  I’ve stayed stressed out and impatient because of the “urgency.” Most of the time it seems to me that I’m the only one in a hurry!  My family, my health, and probably my sanity have all suffered because of urgency.

Careful about this urgency stuff...it may put you in an early grave and/or alienate the ones you love.  Life and ministry is not going to happen at the pace you want it to.

I am not lazy, nor negligent; I have goals and purpose, I’m accomplishing things and headed somewhere and leading the way. But urgency?  I don’t know.  I think the better word might be “fervency,” or “passionate,” or “focused...”

Faithfulness, balance, confidence in God...Believe this:  God can do more in one day than you can in a lifetime of urgency!

By the way, Chuck, excellent post.

Ricky said,

“I find that when people say that urgency is needed in ministry, it is just a ploy to ramrod THEIR goals down the throats of people who may just want to enjoy building relationships, which takes a lifetime.”

What a cynical view, Ricky.  But I’m not suprised.  You’ve obviously been hurt in the past.  It shows.

It doesn’t change the premise though:  Time is short.  Doesn’t mean anyone ramrods anything or anyone.  But we do have to use our time wisely.

Todd

Having been in ministry for 20 plus years and having done this from many different flavors and styles, everything comes back to some very simple principles that are really brought home in the original post.
When we value what God values and love what God loves, we really experience Great things in the Kingdom.  I have found that when I was doing all that I did (with urgency, focus, passion, etc) from the standpoint of trying to “please” God.  I became stressed out, burned out and worn out.  (I’m not suggesting this is any other posters position, I’m simply sharing my journey.)
But when the reality that Jesus had brought peace between me and God, He loves me totally, and that my serving Him was out of expressing that Great Love.  Then I began to realize that it was not my responsibility to “fix” everybody.  (my congregation, etc).  But if I was consumed with Loving what God loves…then I could accept people where they were and lead them into the arms of a God that knew exactly how to handle their issues.  I understood that I could not do for people what only God can do.
From there I could focus on equipping people to fulfill what they were created to do.  We could focus on building leaders that would equip others.  And from there we could really begin to impact our community for God.

First:  God Loves His Son.  Everything we do should express that Love for Jesus that is in our hearts.

Second:  God Loves His Church.  He made the way for us to become His people and brought us together as what He calls “the church”.  We are in Love with the House of God.  We’re family, we can work through anything.

Third:  God Loves the Lost.  John 3:16 says it all.

This has been such revelation in my life…stuff I always knew, but it had not become rooted in my heart.

Ministry has changed drastically from there for me.  We just baptized over 200 people two weeks ago.  And that has been the case every quarter this year.  We have more people connected in a group than ever in our churches short 7 year history.  More people are serving God in various ways than we have ever seen.  And I am convinced it’s simply because God has worked on our hearts and we have fallen in Love with what I listed above.  We measure everything by these three things; is what we are doing expressing what we say we believe.  If not, we stop doing things that way.

Blessings,
Preston

Strategy and urgency go together in this discussion.  I know many church planters and pastors and most of them seem to be “heart attacks waiting to happen.” My pastor just had one as a matter of fact.  His wife just died too.  If I asked him if urgency should have taken the place of his wife in the days before cancer, I imagine that he would say, “Absolutely not.” Why? Because I saw more people at his wife’s funeral than I have ever seen in his church.  The whole community was changed because of the passionate love that he shared with his wife. His lifestyle, marraige, and example were greater instruments than all of the hours of ministry that he urgently did. 

Hidden Agendas

Ministry is filled with Hidden Agendas. Massively filled with them when it comes to younger, transitional leaders. They amass churches that are really cool- but filled with people who usually aren’t getting the point. These ministers urgently build kingdoms that aren’t built on the real principles of life that are eternal and will be there from day to day, even in eternity.  Thats why a sense of strategy is so vitally important.  We must ask our selves, “As ministers are we rushing towards a heart attack to build something that has nothing to do with our original intents, or are we strategically using our time wisely to leave an indelible legacy?”

I think this is exactly what the article was about.

I agree with Ricky in that God does know whats going on with His creation, but we mush have an urgency about proclaiming Christ to a lost world filled with people who don’t know how much time they may have to nake that decision

10/03/05

I enjoyed all three of the questions. It is of the utmost importance that we as believers live every day as if Christ is coming right now. We don’t have time to continue to play the religous games. The word of God is very specific, about his return, and that he’s coming back for a church without a spot or wrinkle or any such blemish. We are cleaned through the word. We need to give Hollywood back it’s antics and take the church to Hollywood, and the streets.

It’s time to get down to serious business. Prayer and fellowship with God and each other is the beginning. We need to stop be self rigtheous and be self reliant on Jesus Christ.

There is such much I could say regarding this matter, but I want. We recently had a prayer vigil. Only five people came. That is sad. lChronicles 7:14 lets us know how important prayer is for this world. I was very sorrowful to see the carelssness of the people. Some of us talk a ggod game, but don’t follow through witht the serve.

His Servant,

Evangelist Elaine Capers

I know that I am coming to this discussion late, but I was busy yesterday spending most of my time in the hospital with a hurting church member.  Consider one thing: According to Genesis, God made the stars, moon, etc. for MAN to know the times and the seasons.  He told Moses that He was the “timeless,” God of the ever-presnet.  God knows nothing of time nor its restraints - He has no calendar and no watch.  Heaven is not run on a TIME schedule.  Consider removing the element of time from OUR considerations (theology, ministry, etc.) and see if doing so does not revolutionize our viewpoints and perhaps make them just a bit more like God’s manner of thinking.

How do you get them to shut off their T.V.’s and get at the task at hand?  Isn’t that the Pastors responsibility?  You have to build credibility and trust into your ministry and that isn’t something you do overnight! It works the same for those who are out there evangelizing (those whom you have been successful at equipping). It takes time to build credibility and trust to those they are leading to the Lord.  Jesus didn’t surround himself with a 100 disciples but rather 12.  He equipped them to carry the gospel to others.  If we are faithful to do all God calls us to then His will is going to be accomplished.  With or without that sense of urgency.  I would rather take my time and trust God to take care of that aspect of reality or life or eternity whatever you want to call it.  God is in control and all who will be saved will be saved according to His will.  I just want to make sure I am being obedient and doing all he asks me to.  I think the first thing He is telling me to do is shut off the T.V. and get out there and be His hand extended and to teach others to do the same. Urgency? Maybe. But I would rather be moved because my heart is breaking at the thought of people slipping into hell rather then an emotion driving me to fulfill some legalistic standard.