derrickhurst.org

living for eternity today

Tag: disciple (Page 13 of 31)

Are They Even Qualified?

December 13, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Over the past couple of weeks, splattered between some devotions for Advent, we’ve covered a couple of posts on the idea of discipleship. It’s one of those sticky words and is about a process that’s often left undefined at best. If you haven’t looked at those posts, I’d encourage you to take a quick peak before perusing what follows. Here are a couple links to help you out.

The two posts I referred to above are titled Sticky Words and What Discipleship Is NOT.

Assuming you’ve read those, we’ll continue with the qualifications needed to be a disciple. Here’s the list…

Yep that’s the list. Did you get it all? No you did not miss a paragraph. There is no list of qualifications needed!

If you dig through the Bible you’ll probably see some pretty odd characters being invited to the process of following Jesus. They didn’t come from the same background. They didn’t all have jobs in the church. None of them were people who were super well respected. Most were uneducated. And not a single one of them was the head in their class in seminary.

Discipleship and leadership in the world Jesus lived in had nothing to do with your qualifications. Actually it only had to do with Jesus’ qualifications and your surrender. The disciples that Jesus called to come and follow him were not the prime candidates to change the world! We’d call them the misfits. The B team. The not quite good enoughs. The bottom of the barrel. You get the point.

So if that’s how Jesus gathered his disciples, then why don’t we do it the same way? Or at least in a similar fashion? I think we tend to make things way more complicated than they really have to be.

We make the hurdles higher for people to come into our churches as members than we do for admission into Ivy League colleges. We make leaders and pastors in churches go through enough classes they could be doctors but they aren’t. Now I’m not saying that we go out and just throw everyone into the hopper but perhaps there is a better way? or maybe another way even if it’s not better.

A group I’m part of uses the phrase belong before you believe in a few different scenarios. And I think we could apply this here as well. Look at what Jesus did with his disciples. None of them believed in him when they started to follow! They didn’t even know who he really was, aside from the son of a woman named Mary and guy named Joseph. That’s pretty much it. He was a carpenter’s kid who looked, talked and acted pretty normal from what I understand.

So when he invited them to follow him and be part of his life, he didn’t make them take a test first to see if they got it or not. He invited them to walk with him and shared some pretty amazing life experiences.

Could it really be that easy? Could we really invite people into the journey of a lifetime? Treat them like they are real humans who really belong to something far bigger than themselves without putting up a bunch of hurdles? Then walk with them as the Holy Spirit does his work?

I mean I hate to be the one to break it to you but we don’t really play an active role in the whole believing and transforming gig anyway. That’s the Spirit’s job. So how about we do what we can do and let God sit in the God seat. He’ll take care of the qualification part. We just need to do the loving and relationship piece of the puzzle. It’s really just that easy.

So if we’re going to be really practical here, take a look at your life. Who do you know? Who are the people in your circle? Your barber or hairstylist? The dude at the gym? The girl on the volleyball team? The kid next to you in class? Your neighbor? Yeah even that one, the one who really gets on your nerves. When you make a list of who is in your life, you can see just how many chances there are to enter into these relationships with great intentionality.

After you make that list of your own personal who’s who, hang out with them. Walk with them. Talk with them. Have a beer with them. Sit down for coffee. Don’t preach to them. Just ask how their day is going. Show them how much you care. Show them that they actually belong somewhere. When that relationship is grounded in real care, the next steps will be way easier…and we’ll talk about that in the next post.

I Got It

December 13, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Some days I miss the cartoons from when I was growing up. You know the kind I’m talking about. Not nearly the animation technology we have today, but we didn’t really care. They were often corny but we all got it. I can remember the symbol in those cartoons for when someone had an idea, one of those moments when the light goes on. 

As we prepare for Christmas we often fill our lives with artificial lights. We put them on our tree and string them around our house. We light them as candles in our windows. We even have things that shimmer and reflect the light around it. I’m a sucker for all things Christmas. I love the tree and lights and fire crackling in the fireplace. These are just part of the season to me. But they can’t replace the real light we all need this time of year. 

There’s a story in Joshua 24 that deals with the darkness of the world taking over the hearts of God’s people. They were confused who they should follow. They got distracted by all the shiny things around them. The glamour and light of popularity and fame, money and power were all the rage. But Joshua calls them back again with one of those lightbulb moments. 

Choose this day who you will serve…but for me and my house we will serve the Lord.This is Joshua’s call to the people to come back to following God in verses 14-15. 

As we approach the day that all of these lights point us toward, we can’t lose focus. We have to remember that all these extra lights of the season can’t replace the real light we have in Jesus. The meaning of this whole time of year is found in the light that would come into a darkened world. That light wouldn’t come in fancy things or lots of money. It would come in a towel wrapped baby. In a manger for a bed. It would come in the most unexpected plan you could ever imagine and that’s what made it the perfect plan!

How Did You Get Here?

December 10, 2023 / / 0 Comments

The Christmas season brings with it several parties and celebrations. We have family and friends, coworkers, special teams of people with whom we work, bosses, teammates and the list goes one. Each one of those has a special list of invitees. We wouldn’t invite our boss to a family gathering. Or a friend from college to a party with our coworkers. 

When someone shows up that’s not invited it generally brings with it a hiccup in the plans. But what happens when the wrong person is invited to the party? You can’t undo the invite. That just isn’t right. Or perhaps the better question to ask is who says they’re the wrong person? 

In the book of Acts we meet a man named Saul. He’s a bit of a nasty one. He’s even worse than the Grinch if we’re being honest. He didn’t steal kids stockings. He would beat people for a living. But in Acts 9 we find Jesus meeting Saul on the road and inviting him to a party. Ok so it’s not a party with gifts or special platters of food. It’s not really a party but more of a movement. 

Jesus invited Saul to change his name and join his team. When Paul switched to the Jesus Team, he wasn’t really liked at first. He was kind of like the not so nice boss walking into your family Christmas. Who wants him there!? Simply put, Jesus wanted him there. 

Jesus has a tendency to include some pretty sketchy people into his life. Shortly after he was born, the Bible includes a group of traveling fortune tellers that we call Magi as some of his famous visitors. But why would they be there? It was about who they weren’t and what they brought. You see they weren’t Jewish people which reminds us that he came for an unexpecting people that no one would have considered. And they brought some gifts with pretty cool meanings. Gold was the gift for kings. Frankincense was the perfume used in temple that reminded of God’s presence kind of like the prophets would remind us of God’s presence in various situations. And myrrh was the oil used to anoint the priests. By welcoming this unexpecting group of travelers he was reminding us that he would be the perfect prophet, priest and king. 

And all this by using unexpecting people. Imagine what he can do with us! 

What Discipleship Is NOT

December 8, 2023 / / 1 Comment

We’ll start this post by saying it’s ok if you disagree with me, and I know some of you will. So don’t get your undies in a bunch over it. If you don’t like what I’m about to say, then scroll on and walk away or reach out and we can chat.

Some people in my tradition think that the crux of discipleship is going to worship. Some feel that being in a worship service where the hymnal is used is the best way to make sure discipleship is happening correctly. I’ll be honest. I think this is a ridiculous concept! If someone believes that the best and most effective way to do discipleship is by going to a worship service, then by default you’re saying Jesus didn’t use the best way!

Jesus didn’t invite anyone to “go to worship,” at least I don’t remember seeing that invitation in any of the gospel accounts. Now before you take those words and form some arsenal against me, don’t mix up my words. I did not say worship isn’t good, essential, necessary, etc. I said it’s not the way Jesus did discipleship.

I think a person who is growing in their relationship with Jesus will go to worship and be a part of a larger group of people following Jesus. But I don’t believe going to worship means you’re a disciple of Jesus. I think it means you’re going to worship and that’s it.

Also, discipleship isn’t memorizing your confessional documents either. Sure they’re important to know and really beneficial to help you understand how you do certain things in ministry and church life, but they are not markers of discipleship.

If you remember from an earlier post, the definition I use for discipleship is the process of being transformed into the image of Christ for the sake of others. This definition has at its core transformation of the person through relationships.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the function of worship is transformation of the person worshiping. As a matter of fact the Bible says that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. I don’t see the primary function of worship being to renew our minds. Worship is about receiving the gift of forgiveness in the fellowship of other believers and returning praise to God.

Worship is an expression of a life being transformed but it’s not the primary avenue this transformation happens. So how then does discipleship happen?

Well, I’m glad you asked! I don’t like to give a bunch of negatives without giving a little bit of best practice as I’ve seen it. In my mind, discipleship best happens in a setting with a smaller number of people who agree to journey through life together. It’s highly relational. It’s profoundly personal. It’s intentionally individual while at the same time being curiously corporate. Ok that’s enough alliteration.

If we want to see the best way for discipleship to happen, we need look no further than the life of Jesus. He was kind of the master at the whole discipleship gig. He didn’t sit them down in classrooms. Didn’t ask them to read a book. Actually I don’t even think he required bible memorization. From what I read, he invited them to walk with him so he could show them what it looked like.

He did two basic things which we’ll dive into over the next week. He taught them, or maybe better yet, he reminded them what God had said. Then he led them to a place where they could see it in action. And if we want to get really serious about it, we have to admit he made some pretty high expectations known for those who sought to follow him. It’s pretty much that simple.

Knowledge that led to actions which became a set of expectations for a transformed life.

The long and short of this post is that you don’t need some massive ministry plan to make disciples. You don’t technically need to have someone come to a worship service to be part of this journey either. It’s about walking relationally with someone in an adventurous lifestyle keeping Christ at the center. We don’t transform anyone. That’s God’s job. So start with the journey. Start with the relationship and let God handle the God part. It’s a way bigger job than many people think, but it’s way easier than we make it out to be!

Sticky Word

December 6, 2023 / / 0 Comments

There are some words that I call sticky. They’re the kinds of words that you hear and don’t really know how to categorize. You have them. We all do actually. And you might even have an idea what they mean but really don’t have a clear and concise way to explain them.

One of those sticky words that is super prevalent in the church world right now is the term discipleship. Ok so it’s not new by any stretch and it’s actually been one of those sticky words for quite some time. That probably has to do something with the final command of Jesus being for the people of God to focus on making disciples.

Throughout history we’ve done our best to draw pictures, make up definitions, write books, craft bible studies, and have cleverly worded mission statements that are all focused on discipleship. We want so badly to do this but just don’t know what it even really means…much less have a concise way to communicate it to anyone.

I really don’t think it’s quite as hard as we make it out to be. And even more I don’t think making disciples is something that happens in a book, bible study, worship service, or some kind of bible memorization tool. These are all really good things! And I completely advocate all of them as part of the overall life of a person who follows Jesus, but I don’t think it’s quite the whole picture Jesus intends.

Discipleship isn’t some assembly line process where we run a group of 60 people through a program and they all come out looking the same. That’s just not how it works. Put 60 people into a worship service or bible study group and you don’t get 60 exact replicas come out the other side on fire for Jesus.

I really believe that it all starts with a definition. You have to define the term. I’ve defined discipleship the same way for years. Discipleship is the process of being transformed into the image of Christ for the sake of others. Is this your definition? Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. But you need somewhere to start. So either use this one or come up with your own based on your study of the Jesus’ words.

After you have a definition you’ll have some picture of where you’re headed. And for me this definition gives some clarity to what discipleship does and does not look like. It’s not an event in time which is why we call it a process. It’s replicable to an extent which is also part of that process language. There is a change that is expected as you progress through this process, hence transformed. The output of the process is Jesus. If you’re simply trying to make members of a church or denominational clones, then you’re not really doing discipleship. Finally it’s about relationships, for the sake of others kind of talk. It’s about a journey not a jolt in time.

Unlike the assembly line imagery, discipleship is more of a life-to-life adventure. It’s about inviting someone into your life and letting them walk with you through the mundane. It’s not about adding another block to your already too full calendar either. Discipleship is about adding someone else to your calendar. Discipleship is not about tasks or to dos. It’s about people and relationships.

Look. I really hope discipleship stays one of those sticky words, not because we don’t know what it means either. I hope it stays sticky because we’ve finally arrived at some form of clarity on just how important it is to live around people for the sake of a greater mission.

Don’t Strive For Success

November 10, 2023 / / 0 Comments

In a culture that is bent on getting ahead and being the best and coming out on top, this is not a very popular idea. But if you hang with me for a bit hopefully you’ll come around and see things a little differently.

Success is defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

At face value success isn’t really a bad thing. Actually there’s nothing really wrong with success in and of itself. Being successful simply means that we’ve done something the way it was expected of us.

But there’s a problem when success is our aim. When all we care about is success at all costs things go off the rails quickly. And just like a train that goes off its rails, when we go off the rails people get hurt. Innocent and unexpecting people get hurt.

When we strive for success it will quickly overcome us. Success isn’t the problem. We are the problem. When we let success become the driving force behind what we do, it quickly takes over. If you’re in it for yourself then success might take you a decent distance. But it will always have a ceiling. Success can only take you as far as your achievements allow.

I’d like to encourage a little different approach than mere success. Instead of success strive to be a person of value. The difference between striving for success and striving to be a person of value is that a person of success will never surpass their talent, but a person of value builds on the success and value of the rest of the team or organization.

Being a person of value means that you’re not just in it for yourself. Being a person of value means that even when you don’t succeed you still don’t fail because you maintained value for the team or organization.

Striving to be a person of value is something lacking in so many aspects of the world today. Instead of getting ahead at all costs, perhaps we could stop and find how we can add value to the group granting us an even better chance at long term success.

A Pastor’s Prayer

November 8, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Have you ever wondered what was on your pastor’s heart? Like what got him excited in the morning? What keeps him up at night? What breaks his heart or brings a smile to his face?

There are three short verses in a small letter in the Bible that really drive at what’s on a pastor’s heart. Here’s the set of verses – Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you,  and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. There are a few things here that really stand out.

May God our Father and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you.

The first part of this prayer has two really important pieces almost hidden in plain site. You may have noticed that I re-ordered the wording of this line. Most bibles will read “our God and Father and our Lord Jesus” but I think this misses a really cool thing that’s happening here.

Paul wrote this in a specific way to highlight that God is Father and Son simultaneously and yet there aren’t two of them but one God. He shows how God is Father and Sovereign Lord all at the same time. There are two subject (Father and Lord) but the verbs in Greek are singular. So many but one, one but many all at the same time.

Now the prayer is that we would come together. This is a theme everywhere in the Bible – the coming together of the people of God for the worship of God. The prayer of this pastor’s heart is that they would be enabled to continue to meet together.

May the Lord make you increase and abound in love

All too often we get tunnel visioned on what we don’t like and the things with which we don’t agree. We get vocal about our opposition to the newest bill that was passed or the lifestyle choices of those who live differently than we live. Here the prayer turns to enhancing and nurturing what we’re for instead of what we’re against.

The two words used here – increase and abound – are kind of two sides of the same coin. It’s like he’s praying that love would abound abundantly in us. A bit repetitive I know! But the point is that this concept is vital to who we are as Christians. Yet it’s so easy to leave this one by the wayside when we’re upset or don’t get our way.

Establish your hearts blameless in holiness…at the coming of Jesus.

There is a ton packed in this little section but we’ll focus on just one part of it. This is all about God’s acting for us. Have you noticed that every single verb here has the same subject. The same actor. The same person making it happen. In each of these God is the actor. Jesus is the one who’s bringing these things to be.

He’s the one who will make us holy and blameless. This is such a great part of the prayer. We don’t make ourselves good enough or holy or blameless. No matter how hard we try, it just doesn’t work. But God in His Son Jesus, has already made us blameless. Now the prayer is that we are kept in that blameless and holy way of life until Jesus returns.

The prayer of the pastor’s heart is one of togetherness, love for one another and submission to who Jesus is. We pray other things too but this is the heart and soul of all we pray for the people God entrusted to us. And this is my prayer for you even if I don’t know you personally just yet.

The Gospel

November 1, 2023 / / 0 Comments

This week in the church I serve we talked about something called the reformation. Now the reformation is celebrated by some as an event in time, a day that happened over 500 years ago. Some consider it a work of a team of men who sought to reform the church to a more biblical time frame.

I’m not one of those guys. I don’t necessarily see the reformation as a day or period in history. Well not exactly. Sure it was a time in history and several guys were part of this movement that we now call the reformation. Yes it was about bringing the church back from the cliff of bad theology. But it was so much more. To relegate it to a historical period I think does it injustice.

In my mind, the reformation had a pretty singular focus. The Gospel. It was about re-understanding the wholeness of the gospel. It was about finding the heart of the gospel and what it meant for our lives here, now, today. The reformation wasn’t just a period in history. It was about a new way of living as followers of Jesus. It was intended to be a believe that would redefine how we live and who we are.

As I said above, at its core the reformation was about the Gospel. But what is the Gospel? Some narrow the message of the Gospel to some future hope to which we look. One day we’ll die and go be with Jesus forever in heaven. That’s a pretty nice idea. But the Gospel isn’t just about some nicety that one day will be true. At least that’s not how I see it!

The Gospel is about here, now, today. It’s about my life in 2023. It’s about how we see parenting, marriage, work, finance, health, fitness, the war in the Middle East. It’s about all of it – not just a future destination.

The people known as the reformers (aka guys who led the charge in making the reformation happen) were so sold out on this reality that they were willing to stake their reputations and even their lives on this new way of living. They wanted to get back to the basics of what the Bible was all about. The Gospel!

Sure the Gospel is about Jesus. It’s about dying and rising. It’s about grace and forgiveness and salvation and all those cool churchy words. But at its core, the gospel is really deeper than that. It’s about a transformed life. It’s about a fire in our soul that can’t be quenched with anything other than more of Jesus.

Yeah, yeah I know – the gospel in a nutshell (John 3:16) is all about Jesus dying and rising. What do we do with that? Well that’s part of it but not all of it. He died and rose. Yep. Not denying that one at all. But He didn’t die and rise only so I would have some future hope. If so then what’s the point now? He died and rose so that I can have a future hope and a totally different way of living today!

The Gospel at its core is about the difference that Jesus makes in every aspect of my life. The Gospel is just as relevant to my parenting and budgeting and healthcare as it is to my someday after I die future hope.

In short celebrate the reformation but don’t make it about a guy, a day, a time period, or even just about heaven. It’s way bigger than that! Happy Reformation friends!

Signs Of A Real Church

October 23, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I spend a lot of time with many people talking about church stuff. From pastors discussing how they do worship and lead programs to church members about getting involved in serving or studying the Bible to people who want nothing to do with church, I see them all. And each of them come with their own set of benefits and challenges.

Recently I talked about a book of the Bible, 1 Thessalonians. Ok I know weird name but we have some doozies in states around the country as well!

Thessalonians is a letter that was written to a very young church in parts of Europe around the year 50 AD. The church was just getting started after a man named Paul came and started sharing what he believed about Jesus and the whole death and resurrection bit. He talked about how lives should look different if we actually believed this all to be true.

Well his stay in this bustling town didn’t last very long because some people were threatened by a message that wasn’t theirs. So they ran him off. Fleeing to a neighboring city he wrote a letter to those that remained as part of this fledgling church. His letter is packed with encouragement and thankfulness. But woven into the first few verses are three things Paul highlights that I believe are marks of a true, real, authentic and spirit filled church.

Work of Faith

The first thing Paul mentions is this idea of a work of faith. Now we have to make sure to get this right. This is not a work that leads to faith or earns some favor with God. This is a work done because of faith. You believe something so deeply that it changes who you are and how you live.

There’s another verse in the bible that says faith without works is dead. This means a person can’t say they believe and then have nothing in their lives change! If you really believe it then it has to shape who you are and how you live. This little church start known as Thessalonians had just that – a powerful faith in Jesus that led them to live a totally different kind of life. Turns out that these new Christians didn’t just say they believed in Jesus, but they actually let it change how they lived as husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves. Just about every aspect of their lives was lived out in faithful obedience to God’s word. Pretty cool huh!

Labor of Love

The idea of something being a labor means it’s work, often hard work that’s not all that pleasant at the time. When you have to labor through something it often means pain, or at least discomfort. It means some bit of self sacrifice to make this happen.

Paul tells this little church that their love for people (people like them and not like them) was something to take note of! They loved their neighbors, even their enemies and it was obvious to just about everyone. The Bible tells us that the world will know that we are followers of Jesus, not by how we lead our worship services or what hymns we sing. Nope they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

This group of new followers of Jesus got the love part down cold. Not some roses and candy kind of love either. This was a love that was able to welcome the person no one wanted to be around. It was going out of their way to help widows and orphans. It was serving the poor at their own expense. This love was strong, powerful and super evident to the world around them.

Steadfastness of Hope

The idea of being steadfast is to endure or stand the test. The third mark of the true church that Paul here highlights is about hope that can withstand some pretty crappy stuff. This church was started under duress. Paul was there only for a few weeks preaching and teaching. Then he was run out of own by people who didn’t want anything to do with him.

It was under these conditions that this church came into existence. It was under these conditions that this little group of followers was forged in character of hope. If you can have hope in the power of Christ through these types of scenarios, then hope has become part of your DNA.

So there are probably more things that we could say about marks of the church. The whole preaching of the gospel and rightly administering the sacraments are hugely important. But here in 1 Thessalonians, Paul doesn’t use those as examples. He does however say he knows they are real followers of God because of their working faith, laboring love, and enduring hope.

This is what we should all attain to as Christians. Just imagine how different life would be if we had these three markers in all we do.

I’ve Never Had A Job

October 13, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Some of you are going to call me a liar here but I have never had a job. You’re probably thinking yeah right! I know you have a job because you tell us all the time that you’re a pastor. But just because I have a place where I go and thing that I do for a living doesn’t make it a job.

You might not agree but that’s ok. One of us is right and the other one is reading this right now. In all seriousness, to me a job is something that’s burdensome and a task that we all too often dislike. I’ve never had a job in that sense. I’ve worked at so many places that I can’t even list them all. From bartending to line cook to landscape to helping on the farm to building and selling cars I’ve done a lot of different things in life! But they all have one thing in common.

I really enjoyed each of them. They weren’t a job for me. They were work. They took an investment of my time, energy and effort but they weren’t a job. I didn’t dread them. Even when I worked at 3 different places at once, it wasn’t a job because I could find value in each of those places.

Enjoying your work is one thing but really thriving in it is a totally different thing. In my current occupation as a pastor I really feel like this is what I’ve been built to do. I’m not perfect at it but it’s something I’m passionate about and that is fulfilling. I love what I do!

Honestly though it causes me some trouble from time to time loving this so much. There are regular conferences and gatherings where I get to sit with other pastors sharing insights and stories and getting training to make me better. The biggest challenge to loving this so much is when I sit with other guys who do the same thing that I get to do and they talk about it like it’s the worst thing in the world.

I mean seriously as a pastor we get to do some pretty cool things. If you can’t find value and meaning in that, then you probably should do something else!

This is pastor appreciation month. I don’t say that so that anyone will recognize me. Actually I say that so that pastors can start to appreciate what they do! Do you know what your work means? Do you know what you’re called to do? It’s not a job! Your obligation is not to fill your church with people. It’s not to preserve rituals or traditions of how we’ve done it. It’s not to lead engaging worship or do great outreach gigs. It’s not to have great praise teams or strong pipe organ music.

None of these are wrong but they are not the point! They are all good and right in their own way, but they are not why you’re here.

You are to be a shepherd of the people. What do shepherds do?

  • Make sure the sheep have good food. Lay out a good variety of healthy options for them to engage in for spiritual maturity. Show them how to use their bible. Teach from it. Connect some of the dots between passages. Teach on different levels from generalities to specific details. Give them a good diet to choose from.
  • They keep the wolves away. Those who seek to harm and kill the sheep. We do this by exposing teachings and thoughts that are against scripture (not against our preference).
  • Challenge them to be in new places. If a shepherd kept the sheep in one place, the grass would be bare and nothing would be left. So often the shepherd needs to lead the sheep to new pastures. This doesn’t mean to use different things than the Bible. It means to find new ways to teach similar content. It means understanding the needs of the people you serve. It means different teaching styles and showing how the Bible actually is still relevant to our current culture.
  • Equip them. It’s odd that the Bible never tells us to spoon feed the people in our churches but to equip them with utensils and wisdom to know what is good food to eat and what is not. A good shepherd will make sure the sheep know what plants are against scripture and keep them away from the people at all costs. But this isn’t about preference it’s about the Bible.

Really those are the pieces we are called to do. If you can’t find joy in helping someone dig into the Bible or giving them tools to be able to understand what’s been written or fighting off a wolf or two then I think you might want to work at Build a Bear and stuff a heart into a ball of cotton. If you’d rather fight with people than show the truths of the Bible then join the military.

If you don’t like it. If you aren’t fed by doing it. If you aren’t passionate about the calling of being a pastor. If it’s just a job to you, then maybe it’s not right for you.

My goal is to never have a job. I’ll work my backside off everyday of my life, but I never want to have a job. And I don’t think you should either.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 derrickhurst.org

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑