Posts tagged ministry
HAVE YOU LOST THAT LOVIN' FEELING?
HAVE YOU LOST THAT LOVIN' FEELING?

Nobody tells you in Bible college that some church people are just not nice. But I quickly learned how difficult they can be in my first ministry as youth pastor at a small church a little way from the school I was attending in Illinois.

I remember one time in particular. I had just gotten home from a night class I needed to finish up my degree. It was 11:30, and when I checked my email, I discovered a rant from a guy complaining that the decibel level of the music in our student gatherings was too high. (The youth group had swelled to about 60 in a church of 170, and he wasn’t the only one threatened by the growth.)

No sooner had I shut my computer than I got a phone call from a 15-year-old kid in the group who said, “If you can’t get here in the next 20 minutes, I’m going to kill myself.” And I was 40 minutes away from her.

I stood in a corner and said out loud, “God, I didn’t sign up for either one of these things.”

I almost walked away from ministry that night. But in answer to my prayers, six months later my wife and I had moved to Compass Christian Church in Dallas. The leaders there cared about lost people and gave me freedom to go reach them as I saw what would work. But even there, in that positive environment, there were days when passion was hard to come by.

In fact, I can point to dozens of times, if not hundreds, since then when I’ve just gone through the motions of ministry. I knew theology. I had learned how to do church. But doing church and being the church are two different things. I remember times when I’ve stood on the platform and put on a face that said, “Things are OK,” because people couldn’t handle it if I didn’t.

I thought about all of this week as I re-read what God told the church at Ephesus, “Look how far you have fallen from the love you had at first” (see Revelation 2:4, 5). If the last year of pressing through a pandemic has taught me anything, it is that we must fall back in love with the God that transforms us, not the world that informs us. His remedy for the Ephesians and for us was a three-part approach I know I must pursue in my own ministry.

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Church, Leadership, LifeTrevor DeVagechurch, church leaders, repent, remember, repeat, restore, redeem, transform, transformed lives, ministry, leadership, leaders, leading, leadership struggleComment
EMBRACING LONELINESS OVER ISOLATION
EMBRACING LONELINESS OVER ISOLATION

I don’t know about most of you, but the last year of leadership in ministry has had some very lonely moments. For some it has even been isolating. There were moments where it was lonely pre-pandemic, but in the midst of it, it has been even more lonesome and even isolating at times. Throw in political, racial, and social upheaval, and you have a perfect leadership storm of loneliness that can turn isolating quickly.

“It’s lonely at the top.” Like most clichés, this one gets repeated so often because it expresses at least a little truth. In fact, according to some research, at least half of all CEOS report feelings of loneliness. As one researcher puts it, “You can imagine that … over time having to make a lot of tough, unpopular decisions that are constantly going to upset at least one part of your constituency could start to feel isolating.”

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Church, Leadership, LifeTrevor DeVageloneliness, lonely, alone, isolation, embrace, church, ministry, leadership, jesus, clarity, discover, desire, community, hurt, covid, corona, pandemicComment
WHY THE CHURCH MUST CANCEL "CANCEL CULTURE"
WHY THE CHURCH MUST CANCEL "CANCEL CULTURE"

If you’ve written off someone because of one mistake or dumb remark, you’re participating in what has become a growing problem, “cancel culture.”

“There is no single accepted definition of cancel culture,” according to Forbes, “but at its worst, it is about unaccountable groups successfully applying pressure to punish someone for perceived wrong opinions.”

In other words, you wrong me or offend me, and you’re dead to me. And you should be dead to all my social media contacts, too. I’ll tell anyone who will listen why you’re dead to me and explain why they should cancel you as I have.

The Forbes article gives several recent examples, some of them describing celebrities with careers ruined (although some eventually saw a boost in their following after an initial outcry over their remarks).

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Church, Leadership, LifeTrevor DeVagechurch, ministry, pastor, pastors, leadership, cancel culture, cancelled, cancel, culture, hope, help, hope dealer, forgivenessComment
THE PERIL OF THE PLATFORM
THE PERIL OF THE PLATFORM

It is easy, and perhaps even appropriate, to criticize, and perhaps even condemn, Jerry Falwell Jr. for his multiple indiscretions that finally led to his departure from Liberty University last week.

Most reports of his resignation also include a few facts about all that Falwell did to benefit the university: the property acquisitions, the fundraising, the endowment building, the enrollment growth. The school’s financial situation is exponentially stronger today because of Falwell’s accomplishments. So I’m pondering who’s really responsible for whatever negative fallout the school will receive because of this scandal. And who is responsible for the scandal itself?

Clearly, Falwell himself must shoulder significant blame. His repeated lapses in judgment and then clear violations of evangelical and Biblical norms leave him without excuse.

While some of these happened in private and the details surrounding some of them are in dispute, Falwell’s missteps have been known for years. Were those responsible for the school unable—or unwilling—to keep Falwell on a proper path?

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Church, Leadership, LifeTrevor DeVageleader, leadership struggle, character, speaking, platform, Jerry Falwell Jr, boards, management, mission, success, ministryComment