The church interests me a great deal. It helps that I’m in it. I have, for a number of years now, been pondering on the various ways in which I see church structure, and particularly church leadership structures, work. I may want to claim that I have found the answer, but that could put me with a league of people who have no idea what they’re talking about after trundling along, regardless of people’s comments 15 years down the line.

Mark Driscoll tries to put leadership into certain categories. It pleases a whole host of people because it’s fresh language restating basics on church leadership. He wrote a chapter on it in ‘Vintage Church’ and then recommends his little book of church leadership.

He maintains there are three roles within the church:
1. Prophet
2. Priest
3. King

The prophet loves the bible, the priest loves the people, and the king loves to organise everything; to oversimplify.

Thanks Mark.

I was in a different camp, and I’m still there. Ephesians names 4 offices in the church:

1. Apostle
2. Prophet
3. Evangelist
4. Pastor-Teacher

There is overlap with Driscoll’s observations, but I find the Ephesians model more helpful, and easier to find in the bible.

The apostle starts and oversees the church. The prophet sets and communicates the vision of the church. The evangelist is the primary agent in growing the church. And the pastor-teacher looks after the people in the church.

I used to see it like this:
Apostle — Lays foundations never laid before
Prophet — Says things never said before
Evangelist — Tells things never heard before
Pastor-Teacher — Deals with things already there

I would like to revise my pastor-teacher definition to:
Ensures the flock are feeding on fresh grass, leading them forward to new pastures when the current pasture has been exhausted. (This does need to be a tad shorter.)

The pastor is the primary agent in keeping everyone together. Unless you have at least 2 of the 4 in the list from Ephesians, you have an unbalanced and stagnant church.

The prophet upsets people, so only the core will remain, the apostle can bore people, so only the new will be interested, the evangelist will bring converts, but those who have matured and are not gifted in evangelism will move on, and the pastor will be happy with who he has, acutely aware that adding to the current number may upset things.

Church leadership was designed for team ministry. It’s how it works best. Balance and wisdom come from an eldership made up of a few of these offices.

I heard a sermon a few years ago on the radio relating many stories of men who rose to fame in Christian ministry only to end in defeat or humiliation.  The stories sobered me because you seldom hear “the rest of the story.”  The speaker shared statistics which indicated this is actually the more common outcome, rather than the exception.  I have been reading over the life of Solomon lately, and this sermon came back to mind.  We have no shortage of examples in scripture or in modern Christianity.

An interesting paradox in our Christian walk is that the greater a gift God gives His children, the more potential we find for the gift to become our bane instead of a blessing.   The first temptation is to love the gift more than the One who gave it, not realizing we have misplaced our highest devotion.  I believe this was Solomon’s downfall – his heart being drawn after the women in his life and passively following their spiritual desires at the expense of his love for the true God.  Sometimes the gifts and blessings of God overwhelm me, and the temptation is to focus all my energies on those things, especially my children and family.  But if we make an idol out of our career, house, family, church family or a charismatic leader, our love will quickly grow selfish, constricting, conditional, and even abusive, as we have cut ourselves off from the true Source of real love.  These idols are hard to see because we are supposed to love and nurture these things – but not more than we love God.  We often don’t realize we have crossed the line.   But others can often tell something is wrong, even if they don’t know why.

The other trap, especially in the area of ministry, is the feeding of our pride.  We mistakenly begin to ascribe to the sometimes subtle belief that our gifting originated in ourselves, not in God, or we may want to think He gave it to us because we are special in some way.  This describes the first evil found in our universe – when Satan became lifted up in his own beauty and aspired to sit on God’s throne himself.  We can never delude ourselves into believing anything good originates in us, and not lose the benefit of it in the end.  Solomon asked for wisdom in humility, telling God he was like a child who did not know how to go out or come in.  I wonder how long he remembered this was his natural state before God answered his prayer?

This is where we learn that the greater our revelation, the more we must be willing to suffer.  The great men and women of faith I admire the most, have suffered things I can only imagine. Why is this?  God’s mercy I believe, as Paul wrote:

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.   Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.   But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  2 Corinthians 12:7 -10

This is why we are instructed to not despise the correction of God.  He does it in love to protect us from ourselves.  Not every calamity comes for this reason.  Some obstacles we are called to stand and fight against in spiritual warfare, but we must have discernment to hear when He says to us, “My grace is sufficient.”

God’s giftings come with testing built in – to see if we will love Him the most, and walk in humility before Him.  But if this is not enough, the church turned institution developed an over-dependence on leadership not found in the New Testament.  This structure places men on platforms they should not have to stand on, and binds burdens on them which should be shared by other giftings designed to work together as.. a body…. maybe?   This damaging symbiosis weakens both the pastor and the flock.  One is taxed to the point of his flame being burned out, even if he does not fall into temptation, and the flock becomes passive, expecting the leader to spoon feed them, inspire them,  hear from God for them, soothe their every wound, and do the work of building the church by reaching the lost.  Some enjoy being large and in charge I suppose, but I have known those who have crumbled.  They need intercessors urgently – especially those who truly have a heart for honest truth and obedience to the Spirit.  Spurgeon said his ministry was a result of fervent intercession by those called to pray for him and the body.  Once during the Israelite’s wilderness wanderings, God allowed the burden to fall on 70 other men to prophesy with Moses – to lighten his load.  Moses declared at that time he wished all of Israel would prophesy.  This is the reality of what we have in the New Covenant and of God pouring out His Spirit on all flesh!  Yes we need leaders most definitely – but they are not ordained to be our everything.

Burnout, falling into sin, being distracted from our First Love in idolatry – just a few reasons why we do not end well.  Paul spoke of running the race and seeking the prize at the end.  I don’t believe he meant striving to be saved, but striving to end with integrity and faith, glorifying Christ.  In Ecclesiastes it appears that Solomon gained the greatest wisdom in the end – realizing the vanity of this world and the importance of a singular focus on God Himself.  Yet the consequences of his disobedience played out in a sad story of a divided kingdom.  We are living in an age of divided families, friendships, and churches.  We are not ending well, and it is my greatest desire and prayer that our true focus may be restored – to the praise and glory of God alone.

I’ve embarked on a near impossible task.  I have about 7 gallons worth of mixed up Lego toys(thousands of pieces) and I’d like to put the sets back together and keep them apart from the miscellaneous Legos.  It’s rather daunting but will be worth it in the end(I think).  I was struck by the similarity between this task and learning doctrine.  Legos don’t come in big mostly assembled parts, they come in small individual mixed up parts.  In the same way, when we learn Bible doctrine, we learn one small thing at a time and before long as we put the small pieces together we see larger and larger portions of the bigger picture.  Whole doctrines become clear one small piece at a time.  Legos also come with instruction booklets which could be like the Pastor Teacher giving you each days set of  instructions “put parts a,b, and c with the previously constructed x,y, and z”.   It’s a loose analogy but a fun one just the same. 

We shouldn’t get discouraged by the slow growth or the small thing learned each day.  That is how we are supposed to grow. 

Keep Sailing,

Mary

Well, I got back Monday afternoon from the Northern California Bible Conference which was held in Burlingame, CA (just south of San Francisco on the Peninsula) and sponsored by Grace Bible Church but which my Pastor did not attend, and so, obviously, did not teach at. Instead it was taught by one of the pastors my pastor has ordained, a man who has started his own ministry out here in the west.

The subject was Authority — how it is the most important thing in the universe. The question asked was “Do you know who/what your authority is?”

The answer… it’s a threefold construct — a triangle of God, His Word and the Pastor Teacher God has assigned to you to communicate that Word.

We were reminded that God is not the author of confusion. (I Co 14:33)

That God does things in ones — One Lord, one faith, one baptism (Eph 4:5) — and that we each have one spiritual gift and one pastor teacher assigned at a time.

We reviewed the scriptures that document the fact that we are assigned a Pastor Teacher — Ephesians 4:12, 13 which tells us the gift of Pastor-Teacher is given for the training of the saints for the work of the ministry. I Pe 5:3 reveals that each pastor is assigned a specific congregation, and I Th 512 adds that each believer is assigned a pastor… and thus a specific congregation as well. The local congregation operates as a body in itself, and all the parts are needed by all the other parts. (I Co 12)

In times past the notion of staying loyal to an assigned pastor and local assembly was mostly unchallenged due to the difficulties of travel and the limitations of technology. If you wanted to hear someone you had to be there. Or perhaps, as in the first century, ou could rely on letters or books. Now with the explosion of printed material as well as internet technology which puts the works of thousands at our fingertips, and with transportation having advanced to the point you can travel thousands of miles in a day… this is more of a challenge. And that challenge was what the bulk of the teaching — and the conversation — at the Northern California Bible conference was about.

With the proliferation of prepared, doctrinal pastors in recent years, many of whom have their messages recorded and made available through the internet or other digitized means, it has become very easy to go “church hopping.” Don’t like what your pastor is teaching this week? With a couple of mouse clicks, you can see what Pastor B is teaching. Angry and offended because your pastor has dared to tell you the truth and thereby become your enemy (Gal 4:16), you can click out of his site and go to someone else who teaches more in line with what you want to hear. Do you just want to accumulate knowledge?  Feel good about your life and your self? Or are you simply curious as to what else is out there? Are you bored? Familiarity can be a subtle attack on your mental attitude with respect to doctrine which can cause you to become dissatisfied, restless or feel dry — though sometimes that dry feeling is just part of the Christian life, a test to see if you will proceed regardless or wander away in search of something new and more exciting.

The problem with this “spiritual adultery” (as the concept was taught this weekend) is that even prepared, experienced doctrinal pastors disagree in what they teach. Some say the rapture will occur at the end of the church age and other place it mid Tribulation. Some say we don’t need rebound (confession of sins to regain the Filling of the Holy Spirit) and others say rebound is central to the function of the Christian life. Some have taught that you can reach in this life a state of sinless perfection and others are aghast at such a suggestion.

All of them can support their positions scripturally because, as my pastor says, you can make the Bible say anything you want it to. So then, how does the congregant determine which is right? To think that you have the ability to discern through all the different teachers and pick out which one is correct here and which is correct there is really pretty arrogant. It assumes that you out of all of them are the one with the greatest knowledge and ability to see truth. It’s especially arrogant if you consider the fact that most of the men you are critiquing spend their days digging into God’s word, study the Greek and Hebrew and have spent years doing so, whereas the average congregant has devoted maybe only 20% of the same amount of time to their studies.

Actually, that mindset, the one of roaming about sampling from this and that source as you determine (or perhaps you think the Holy Spirit is guiding you… but not anyone else, apparently, or wouldn’t they be right?) is pretty close to today’s post-modernist thinking that says you don’t need an authority, someone to teach you, but that you can figure things out for yourself. It says that there is no absolute truth, either, that image is more important than words, that personal experience and emotion trumps reason.  A 2002 article in Christianity Todaypoints out that “when we speak of truth…our postmodern neighbors hear just one more opinion among many.”  I wonder if that might not also apply to some of our fellow Christians, their thinking influenced by the prevailing viewpoint of the times. 

But the Bible doesn’t hold that a man’s opinion or his experience is important. God’s ways are not man’s ways; His thoughts are not man’s thoughts. The fool is right in his own eyes. The ways of a man seem right to him… And pastors were given to train and instruct the saints for the work of service. Yes, the Holy Spirit is our ultimate teacher — we can’t understand a thing the pastor teaches apart from Him; nor can the pastor study and teach correctly apart from Him. But that doesn’t negate the fact that the gift of pastor teacher has been given for our edification and we need him. One pastor. One human authority at a time to respect, trust and submit to – not merely to the man himself, but ultimately to God, who provided the man and delegated the authority to him.

I mentioned yesterday that once I began to study under the Colonel’s ministry, opposition came in. When I shared my excitement with my old church friends of what I was learning, how real it had become, how it was all making so much sense I was told to stay away from Thieme. He splits churches, I was told. I said, “He just teaches truth. If people leave a church to follow that, he’s not doing it, the people are.”

I was also told that Thieme would steal my soul. But when I asked how that might be accomplished, the person couldn’t tell me.

Col. Thieme taught that the “blood of Christ” did not refer to the literal blood of Christ (He didn’t bleed to death after all, since He said himself that His work was “finished” before He died physically) but to the expiatory work of Christ’s spiritual death on the cross, during which he was separated from God the Father for the first time ever as all the sins of the world were poured out on Him and judged. This was major anathema to my critics.

To me it was the first time the whole blood thing ever made sense.  I’d always wondered why would God be interested in some plasma with red corpuscles, platelets and white blood cells. How could that do anything about sin? It made no sense. The moment I heard this teaching I knew it was truth. So many things fell into place. But when I tried to share it people got very upset, so I soon learned not to.

Other friends wrote a lengthy letter detailing a metaphor for Christian living that involved a wheel with spokes — there’s Bible study, witnessing, prayer, giving, singing, fellowshipping, etc. Get too much of any one category, that spoke grows and the wheel won’t work. Clever metaphor, but it didn’t sway me. The word of God is not a spoke equal with those other things my friends listed, it’s the axle around which they all turn! The word of God is the mind of Christ and when it becomes our mind, it informs all those other things, so that we do them in accordance with His standards and in the power of His Spirit.

My mother, an unbeliever, thought I was in some kind of cult like that of Jim Jones, whose Guyana fiasco happened around the time I was just gaining momentum.

The weirdest thing though was the strange assault to get me to buy into tongues. Orville had told me right off that they weren’t for this age, but as soon as we got into the small churches in northern Arizona, we were bombarded with people telling us this was the right way to go. Col Thieme agreed with Orville, and backed it up with extensive scriptural evidence. 

Still, the people kept coming. Our landlady was into tongues and tried to convince me it was good. Then when we moved to an apple orchard, a woman showed up at the door to buy apples, and as we got into conversation, she told me that I needed to have the baptism of the Spirit so I could speak in tongues. A teacher friend invited for dinner, one of the few non-Mormons, confessed that she spoke in tongues whenver she didn’t know what to pray and began doing so right there in my kitchen.

We went to a Bible study where a woman sat looking spacier and spacier as the study concluded and when the pastor started to say the closing prayer she raised her hand and said she had a message from the Holy Spirit. He waved her on and she began to speak in tongues, looking as if she were in a trance. I was absolutely creeped out. All I could think was that it sounded like something from the devil.

When she was done, she offered to give the interpretation (in violation of protocol set up in the NT — it was supposed to be someone else who did that; in fact, mostly tongues was a sign for the Jews to witness to those who had gathered from afar and spoke other languages) wqhich was that God wants us to worship Him “in this way.” I stared at the floor praying God would get us out of there right away.

Thankfully, she finished, the Pastor said his prayer and to my horror, my husband was suddenly in conversation with the person beside him. A pair of shoes appeared on the floor before mine and I looked up into the eyes of the woman who had spoken (there were about 30 people present — and she was some distance away, separated from me by several people when she spoke). She invited me to come to her Bible class. I thanked her, and refrained from telling her I wouldn’t attend if it were the last bible study on earth.

My husband finally stopped talking and we left. Outside I told him of my intense negative reaction and he told me that as soon as she’d begun speaking he’d prayed that if that was really something from God He would make it clear, and if it wasn’t, that He would make it stop. And immediately it had stopped.

We never went to that bible study again, nor the church that sponsored it.

And then, in the most bizarre event of all, our Landcruiser broke down in the middle of nowhere between Globe and Winkleman one very hot summer dayas we were on our way down to Tucson. Stu got up on the Toyota’s roof and spied a trailer hidden behind some trees not far off, so we took our dog out of the car and walked down to see if we could use the phone. I don’t know what was done about the Landcruiser, too excited to discover that the woman of the house was a Christian. We talked and talked and I told her how I’d gotten saved and she took me down to Winkleman for some reason where I told some other people how I’d gotten saved… and then she started in on the second blessing and tongues and how she’d awakened one night to find Satan standing at the foot of her bed. She prayed him away to a radius of one mile from her home.

I probably listened like a deer caught in headlights and was quite relieved when we left. But somehow she had gotten my address and sent me several letters urging me in this direction.  I know I asked her several questions regarding what speaking in tongues did for her but the only one I recall is her saying that it made her certain she was saved. I was already certain of that, so didn’t tongues to do it.

Anyway, this all went on over a period or a year or so, and only when I was  solid in my understanding of the relevant scriptures  and absolutely convinced that tongues are not for today, did all that stop. Since that period of time I have never had another person show up out of nowhere telling me about tongues.

I was saved in the fall of 1974, by the words of a man who taught the college class Sunday school at a Conservative Baptist Church in Tucson, AZ. Orville Smyth was a letter carrier, back in the days when they didn’t drive trucks but walked from door to door. During his route, Orville memorized scripture. He also taught himself Greek (although not, I think, while he was walking…). And he taught in the Sunday school — adults and young adults.

In addition to the college class, he taught a new believer’s class on Monday nights which I and my now-husband attended — salvation by grace, salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, eternal security, the inerrancy of the Scriptures, 1 John 1:9 and more.  In the college classes he worked from Lewis Sperry Chafer’s Major Bible Themes, and taught us… well, the basic doctrines of the church age — all the above plus the essence and character of God, the angelic conflict, the depravity of man, Dispensations…

I had about nine months with him before my husband and I were married and we moved to Northern Arizona. Orville gave me an excellent foundation for my spiritual life. But there were a lot of other things… I had so many questions. Especially over that summer as we sought to find a new church home and every place we went more or less struck out. They were either way off the doctrine we believed or weren’t interested in studying at all.

The tiny Baptist church we were attending in Heber was either searching for a pastor or having a revival — I can’t recall any more — but the speaker’s subject was “yielding to the Spirit.” I’d already heard about yielding, but no one could really tell me how that was accomplished or what it actually meant. I mostly thought of yellow yield signs when I thought of the word, and not driving into oncoming traffic. Which wasn’t terribly useful.

The temporary speaker suggested that to yield we write all our sins down on a piece of paper and then light a match to it. By doing that, we would be yielded.

So I did that. I didn’t feel any more yielded than I had previously. And worse, it wasn’t an hour before I was committing another sin again. So that whole paper burning thing didn’t seem to have done much good. Besides making me feel terribly silly.

Then my husband got a job teaching math and biology and coaching football at the high school in nearby Lakeside and started about two weeks later. About a week into his teaching experience, he didn’t come home for dinner, so I turned down the heat on my simmering meatballs and went to school to find him. Football practice had held him late, but he was about ready to go when I arrived.

Not to go home and eat the meatballs, however. No. We had been invited to a Bible study at one of his fellow teachers’ homes. So off we went. I was not in the best mood for new people, a new Bible Study (most til then had been extremely lame) and no dinner. Besides, what about my meatballs!?

Looking back it makes me laugh. Little did I know how great that meeting would impact my life. And there I was, like Martha, all worried about meatballs.

When we got there everyone else has arrived and instead of meeting in the spacious living room, we were ushered to a dimly lit back bedroom that had been converted to a sort of study. There were file cabinets, several Western saddles on stands, shelves and shelves of 8 track tapes and a reel-to-reel tape player, which was to be the source of our “Bible Study.” I thought it was all  terribly weird, including the people.

And then the Colonel began…His voice and his manner were both annoying and compelling. His doctrinal content was what I was looking for, but he was so in-your-face. He taught like a drill instructor! (given his preparations, no surprise!) And in that first lesson, he was criticising lots of things I held dear — environmentalism, being one of them. The rest is lost to time, but Stu and I went home laughing about his dogmatic, forthright manner, his critical words, and totally un-pastor like demeanor.

But there was truth there and we came back the next week. I don’t recall whose idea it was. I think it might have been my husband’s, but I’m not sure. In between the things I didn’t like were lots of things I did. For one thing there was this matter of yielding.

That, taught Colonel Thieme, was merely another way of saying we needed to be filled with the Spirit. He delineated between the Indwelling of the Spirit, which all church age believers have all the time, and the Filling of the Spirit which is transitory. The first time we sin after salvation, we lose the filling of the Spirit, which is where He controls the soul. 1 John 1:9, which tells us to confess our sins, brings back the Filling of the Spirit and temporal fellowship with God. A baby believer spends more time out of fellowship than in. But as we grow and as God’s word begins to transform our thoughts, we begin to avoid the more obvious sins and spend more time filled with the Spirit. It’s a long slow process.

But it made sense. And it works. I knew it was truth as soon as I heard it. Suddenly all the floundering around, all the vagueries of what “yieldedness” meant had been circumvented and I had a concept I could hold on to and actually apply.

Thus  began what was for a few months (or was it years?) of a love-hate relationship with the man. His personality was abrasive. He made an issue of his authority. He sometimes used “bad words”. And while none of that bothered me all that much, it sure did bother others.  And that did bother me.

But even so,  I couldn’t stop listening; it was the only place I was getting fed, and boy was I!  I ordered cassettes of the basics series through the mail and listened to three of the hour-long tapes a day — because I was so eager to hear the next one. I just couldn’t seem to get enough. Since I had no kids, no job and no car, I had time. Also no telephone, and no TV. And, it being Mormon country (almost all the teachers at the school were LDS), and us being new to the area, I had few friends as well. I listened, took notes, then copied them over into neat transcriptions with all the references. I also read most of the publications, and taught myself beginning Greek.  

 The Colonel’s teachings on Moses made him come alive. I saw him as a real person, with flaws and faults and foibles like the rest of us, even if he was the “humblest man in the earth.” It told me that sinless perfection was not the goal. That those people in the Bible were not “saints” in the sense of holier than thou individuals but people just like me, with very similar struggles.

I LOVED the story of Joseph, which is echoed in The Light of Eidon…

Col Thieme’s teachings on the angelic conflict, which elaborated on what Chafer had uncovered, answered all sorts of questions and made so many things fit together into one understandable whole. The difference between the Indwelling and Filling of the Spirit, the concept of human viewpoint versus divine viewpoint,  the notion of mental attitude sins, the clarification of what a pastor’s job really was, why we need to get the word taught every day… everthing was so vital, so exciting and compelling and useable. The Christian life came alive as never before.

But of course, because we are in a battle with spiritual forces of darkness in the heavenlies, there had to be opposition, and there was…

My first pastor, the one through whom I was introduced to doctrine, and under whom I studied for something like 23 years, and one of the two men I credited in the acknowledgements of Arena and the Guardian King series went home to be with the Lord last Sunday. Here is the press release:

Robert B. Thieme, Jr., pastor of Berachah Church from 1950-2003 and president of R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, passed through death into eternity Sunday, 16 August 2009 at 8:45 PM and is now “absent from the body and face to face with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8b). He was the beloved husband of Betty Beal Thieme and devoted father of Robert B. Thieme III. He is also survived by his sister, Ann T. Wallis, and his cousins, Fredericka Botts and Nancy N. Harder.

Bob was born on 1 April 1918. His father, Robert B. Thieme, and mother, Anna Cloakey Thieme, of Ft. Wayne, Indiana moved to Beverly Hills, California in 1926. Bob graduated from Beverly Hills High School in the summer of 1936, having lettered in football, track, and gymnastics. He was a member of the Beverly High Alumni Association.

Bob enrolled at the University of Arizona in Tucson in the fall of 1936 where he majored in classical Greek and joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. After a distinguished college career, he graduated on 29 May 1940 magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He was also commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve.

With the goal of becoming a pastor, Bob was licensed to preach by the First Baptist Church of Tucson, Arizona on 5 June 1940. To further his ministerial preparation, he enrolled in Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas in 1940. After one semester, his seminary studies were interrupted by the impending entry of the United States into World War II.

On 3 April 1941 Lieutenant Thieme began active duty service in the Army Air Corps. Because of the nature of his assigned duties he received rapid promotion and by the end of the war had attained the rank of lieutenant colonel. LTC Thieme was the Director of Military Training for Flying Training Command. In this position he was charged with initiating, prescribing, and standardizing military training for all categories of personnel in the Aviation Cadet programs. His duties included coordinating training at 120 Army Air Corps installations throughout the United States and authoring publications that standardized this training. By 1943, he had written The Military Triad, Strategy and Tactics for The Aviation Cadet, and Get Smart, Mister. His final assignment was to supervise and direct the gunnery training at Harlingen Field, Texas. Bob returned to Dallas Seminary in 1946 to resume preparation for the ministry. The academic training he received in Greek, Hebrew, theology, history, and textual criticism became the foundation for a rigorous professional life of studying and teaching the Word of God. As a student, he became the interim pastor of Reinhardt Bible Church in Dallas, Texas. Upon graduating summa cum laude with a Master of Theology in May 1949, he continued to pastor at Reinhardt until April 1950.

For fifty-three years Robert B. Thieme, Jr., was the pastor of Berachah Church in Houston, Texas. As pastor he developed an innovative system of vocabulary, illustrations, and biblical categories designed to communicate the truths of God’s Word. His scholarly, expository approach to teaching the Word of God and the worldwide distribution of his publications and biblical teachings without charge or obligation have made Pastor Robert B. Thieme, Jr., a major voice in Christianity today.

A memorial service will be held at Berachah Church at 10:00 AM Sunday, 23 August 2009.

**

As I read this I realized for the first time that Col Thieme had already started preparing for the ministry when he was called into military service. But despite the press release’s implication that this service was an “interruption” I suddenly saw that it was anything but. It was not only God’s preparation for what was to be his life’s work but a wonderful metaphor for what Col Thieme would do as a pastor: train the army of God. I knew he had been involved in the Army’s training program, but it didn’t register until now just how extensive that work had been. First he developed a program for training the country’s soldiers. Then he developed a program for training the soldiers of our Lord’s heavenly kingdom. And that is just… awesome.

I also had completely forgotten that he had started out as interim pastor at Reinhardt Bible Church. Yes, I know I heard him mention it on occasion, but I did not recall it until now — certainly not when I came up with Cam Reinhardt’s name. Too funny.

I don’t think I can even get my mind around how greatly this man influenced my life. I am so grateful for his diligence in studying and teaching and protecting his sheep, in the face often of tremendous opposition and persecution. What he gave to me is a something I shall literally cherish forever.

But I’ll save that musing for another day.

The R. B. Thieme, Jr, Bible Ministries website has a wealth of his materials available for ordering free of charge. As with Grace Bible Church, the financial policy is one of grace, whereby anyone interested in receiving doctrinal information is free to do so and contributions are made solely on a voluntary basis. There are audio tapes, MP3 CD’s, DVDs and numerous booklets. I own and have read nearly all the latter, and still go back to refer to them from time to time.

Beware the sweet, gentle, helpful individual in the local assembly who really only wants to “enlighten” you.  They didn’t come to your congregation to learn. They aren’t wholly focused on working out their own salvation.  They don’t really believe the Pastor Teacher has all the truth.  Sure he has pretty good doctrines( he’s missing the vital ones of course) and they are just waiting around for the opportunity to “teach” you something they think you are missing.  They truly believe that God has brought them to you or your congregation to give you “truth” and they think it’s noble, right, and their calling.  They think they can possibly get the Pastor Teacher to accept their doctrines given enough time and if that doesn’t work they will be available to teach and be so nice and sweet and have just enough truth to wheedle their way in to a leadership position(so they can give the real truth to at least some). Or maybe hold an outside Bible study where they can work on the weak and searching. Then after the damage is done they leave feeling martyred for having their “truth” make them unpopular, after-all God must be calling them somewhere else to share truth with all those who don’t have it like they do.   Beware! be on guard.  Watch out for this attack!

Don’t become this person. 

It’s never anyones job to be in a local assembly for any other purpose than to learn doctrine under their right Pastor Teacher and work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.  If it is indeed their “right” Pastor Teacher the teaching will be challenging and their personal study based upon the Pastor’s Teaching wholly absorbing.  If you find yourself disagreeing with the Pastors doctrines you need to be absolutely certain you can back up your disagreement with scripture and then quietly leave.  We have absolutely no business being in a local assembly where we think we know more than the Pastor.  It is never ever our business what doctrines our fellow believers know or don’t know.  It is certainly not our job to fill the deficiency even if there is one. Where in the Bible are we commanded to fix doctrines in someone Else’s congregation? Each believer in the local assembly is accountable to God for their own knowledge of Him and God will only expand that knowledge through the teaching of Bible doctrine under the filling of the Holy Spirit by their Right Pastor Teacher not Mr. or Mrs. congregational member(no matter how knowledgeable or gifted in teaching).  I’m not saying that God can’t show you something through a friend, encourage you or have the doctrines you know echoed or expounded upon, or help to get a point across to you by another believer but when it comes to learning doctrines and being grounded in truth, or fixing doctrinal deficiency, that is the Pastor’s Job.  If you are in the plan of God your face will be pressed forward like flint and you will be barely aware of anyone but you and God in the local assembly when it comes to teaching.  After the teaching there is room for fellowship and service but don’t forget to mind your own damn business and if you just can’t help trying to “teach” everyone what they lack.  Get your own damn church and leave everyone Else’s alone! 

We are free to share doctrine with anyone and hope for others to know it (friends, family,acquaintances, co-workers etc) but not to go into a local assembly with that purpose unless we are the Pastor Teacher of that local assembly.  If teaching corrected doctrine is necessary in a local assembly you are a part of… then you shouldn’t even be there.  It’s not your right Pastor or the place God wants you to be. 

I’ve seen this first hand and been confused by the sweet personality and sincere intentions and that is why I decided to write about it.  It only recently became clear to me as “false colors”  and worse. 

I don’t want anyone to confuse what I’m saying with helping each other, encouragement, and sharing doctrine with all those around us in our everyday life whenever possible.  Or having a discussion about doctrines with other members of our congregation and learning something from them.  Or giving advice when asked.  Hopefully what I was trying to say is clear.  Don’t subvert the Pastor’s authority in ANY local assembly(good or bad) by your arrogance and good intentions.  Go forward in the plan of God being taught. 

Keep Sailing,
Mary

Sit Walk and Stand was the theme of this last year’s Bible conferences all over the country.  The lessons were inspired by a Christian writer named Watchman Nee.  Conferences are a really great time to be with other believers and listen face to face from our Pastor Teacher since so many of us listen through the internet.  It’s also a time where we get to focus for a brief time on a single subject apart from our regular lessons.  We weren’t studying Watchman Nee specifically but our lessons were inspired by the subject of Sitting, Walking and Standing as it relates to the Christian way of life. 

I love my “Sit”.  I love to go to Bible class.  I love to learn the Word of God.  I just want to learn more and more.  There is more to the Christian “Sit” than that but I’m just going to touch on intake.  Everything about the spiritual life begins with the intake of God’s word and  a right thing must be done in a right way.  God has give the Pastor Teacher a special gift for digging into the Bible and extracting the truth in such a way that it can be clearly taught and then easily absorbed by the believer.  By all means we can pick up a Bible and learn for ourselves but I believe without a doubt, after years of doing that exact thing that I was crippled in my ability to gain a full understanding without the gift of the Pastor Teacher. Though I went to church, I did not believe that I needed any man to teach me.  Plus how was I going to be able to avoid being deceived by a false teacher if I didn’t learn it all for myself.  I didn’t know at the time about my own sick head and deceitful heart.  When I was first approached with this idea of a “right” Pastor Teacher.  I balked.  I struggled.  I got mad.  I wasn’t going to trust some man to have the truth that I did not.   I was new to Bible Doctrine teaching at the time and the doors of my soul were flying open with what I was learning.  It was like I had been dying of thirst and I didn’t know it or starving to be more precise.  I was being fed and based on that and a lot of questions, my friend Karen was able to talk me down from my mistrust of a Pastor Teacher.  I trusted that the Lord would show me if it was really Biblical or not and He did.  Sometime later, I realized that I had been saying to the Pastor Teacher “I have no need of you” as per 1Corinthians 12:18-21.   The gift the Pastor Teacher has to gain insight into the word of God is a gift from God the Holy Spirit to the body of Christ, the Church, made up of believers.  God the Holy Spirit uses the Pastor Teacher’s gift to give the fullest understanding of the word to those he is assigned to teach.  If you cut yourself off from the gift of Pastor Teacher or go seeking a teacher of your own desire, you are now limited.  You have excluded yourself from the insight the Holy Spirit has given to the Pastor Teacher you have been assigned to.  So you try and fill that void with your own human IQ and study alone.   Subsequently your own gift becomes inoperable because it is tied into a full understanding of what the Spirit is teaching.  Sure, you may do many “good” works but they will be your own and not from God.  Not the ones He has prepared for you.  You will become frustrated, weak and weary. 

It is not hard to sit and listen daily.  It is not hard to rebound (1John1:9) and have the Holy Spirit in charge of your thinking and filling your soul with doctrine.  The “Sit” is restful.  The sit takes humility to sit under a prepared teacher and receive.  It takes concentration and then sometimes it takes a little effort to check out what the Pastor has said.  It’s not a blind following of the teacher.  My teacher is very good and lays all the information out so that you can go and make sure it is backed up by scripture and the original languages.  I very rarely have a question anymore because the teaching is very clear to me. 

I think that is all I have to say for now on the subject of “sitting” in the Christian way of life.  For more on the subject of Pastor Teachers  you can go to www.gbible.org and do a search.  I also reccommend a blog post by my friend Karen on that subject which you can check out here: http://karenhancock.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/eusebeia/

Keep Sailing,
Mary

This last homeschool year was a real turning point for me.  Everything changed. 

I was a very focused teacher.  I had a plan.  I had all the best curriculum.  I had goals for what I wanted my children to achieve for at least the next 3 years.  It all sounded really good but in the end we were all miserable when it came to school.  My lofty goals were far beyond necessary it turned out and were actually a hindrance to learning.  So, while there was nothing wrong with the curriculum in and of  itself my approach was all wrong. 

I left no opportunity for the plan of God in my day.  I left no room for His input.  I was going to force that round peg into the square hole and I wasn’t going to bother asking the Lord if maybe He had other plans.  I went through the majority of the entire school year before I hit the brick wall I needed.  The Lord had started working in my misery sometime around February and I backed off quite a bit from the schedule I had been keeping.  Everyday was a struggle and I hated school and so did the kids.  I didn’t know at the time that the Lord had plans to set me free from the bondage of fear and insecurity I was living in when it came to homeschool.  Our family took an extra trip and went to the Oregon Bible Conference this year too.  Our church puts on Bible Conferences around the country so that all the people who listen through the Internet get a chance to have face to face teaching with their Pastor Teacher and have fellowship with each other.  While there, all this stuff about school inevitably came spilling out to my very wise and doctrinally minded friends.  One of which had homeschooled her son for something like 8 years and he is now grown and the other who has taught school for many years.  I started by asking questions not wanting anyone to know how bad things really were for us in regards to school.  I was shocked to find that my friend who had homeschooled had not followed any kind of schedule like mine.  I couldn’t wrap my head around how this could have worked out for her.  Her son is very smart, has a really good job and went to college etc.  This bugged me for a while and the next time we had a chance to talk I told them all about my schedule and plans  and frankly they were appalled.  They quickly started to set me strait and didn’t pull any punches.  They managed to get right down to the root of my motivations in teaching.  These are such doctrinal ladies and the word of God is like that.  When you use it as a rational for living, it cuts right to the quick and through all the BS of human thinking.  In about 2 hours I could see all the lies I was holding on to and the arrogance of my plans.  I had decided that since I never went to college I was badly educated and I was determined to get all that I had missed through teaching my kids.  I wasn’t really interested in their education as much as I was interested in mine.  I wanted to have a little pride when it came to how smart my kids are and all I had done to achieve that.  I was also terrified of failing.  I had been so insecure about whether or not I could successfully homeschool I had turned curriculum and schedule into an idol. 

Here is the beauty of God’s plan, I rebounded.  I confessed my sins to God the Father and that was that.  No guilt, no regret.  I was free and I could hardly believe what the Lord was showing me.  He wanted me to stop having a plan.  What! No Plan!!  I found that instead of being scared I felt exhilarated.  I only had to live one homeschool day at a time.  He would do the rest.  He is the one with the plan.  I’m supposed to relax and let Him show me moment by moment what’s next.  I could let go of my curriculum.  I could use it if I wanted but I wasn’t going to be a slave to it anymore.  I also realized that I am not badly educated.  I am bright and able to learn anything I need to know.  It is a sin to always think less of yourself like that. 

Since then we have done less and learned more.  Who would have thought.  With God things are often backwards.  His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways.  I still have a penchant for getting excited about curriculum and ideas and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that but I do have to be careful not to turn it into an idol or a law that I have to follow.  We can take what we want from it and leave the rest.  Anything can be learned later.  Some things are better learned later anyway.  I’m sure I have many more pits to fall into but this was definitely a growing experience. 

Keep Sailing,
Mary

Yesterday my friend Mary Hugill (whose blog I neglected to link to is here .  Be sure to read her “About” page –  she’s done a great job explaining what a “doctrinal ministry” is) allowed me to post some thoughts she’d shared with me about the importance of positive volition and God’s provision in a time of confusion regarding one’s right pastor teacher.

I loved every word of it, but of course I have some thoughts, as well, these more along the lines of my personal experience which backs up and illustrates some of Mary’s conclusions. (I, unlike Mary, have been involved in doctrinal ministries for over 35 years). Here’s my response:
 
You’re right, Mary, about the Pastor Teacher being a gift, not something you have to “figure out.” As for having a list of pastor/voices to choose from, I don’t think at the moment that there is such a list, even though there have been several pastors teaching from Pastor Bob’s pulpit. But that’s the key. When each of them is teaching from PB’s pulpit, I love their messages. I am rivetted. God speaks to me. But awhile back one of them taught down here at someone’s house, totally outside of Pastor’s Bob’s authority, and I could hardly pay attention. My mind wandered constantly, I kept disagreeing with things, having to rebound, asking God what was wrong with me… When I got home I felt like I hadn’t been fed and had to put on a lesson from PB.  I felt no leading whatsoever to attend the second session they had scheduled and did not.
 
For awhile I felt guilty, even though I was pretty sure I was being shown that he is not, at the moment, my right PT. As an affirmation, at a conference last summer, that same pastor shared in a Q&A that when he first heard Pastor Bob, he couldn’t listen to him.  Col Thieme was still his pastor. I believe it wasn’t until the Colonel retired that this pastor switched to Pastor Bob. So that affirmed for me my own situation.
 
All the men trained by Pastor Bob and speaking behind his pulpit at his behest and from his notes are pretty much extensions of Pastor Bob in my mind. They provide embellishment, a new angle of view, elaboration, etc., so I value their voices for the context they provide for the general messages that God the HS is pouring out through PB. But eventually they’ll have to leave. Keeping them at GBC is like keeping your 30-year old son at home answering to Mommy. They were given their gifts to go out and really use them, not to teach from another man’s pulpit but to be pastors fully in their own rights with all the pressures that go with the job. Would God then move me to their ministry? Maybe. My inclination would be to say no, but I know that my inclination is not a reliable source of information.

Which brings me to my second experience, wherein God moved me from Col Thieme to Pastor Bob. At the time, I had no interest whatsoever in leaving the Colonel, who I’d studied under for close to 25 years. I didn’t even want to listen to the tapes of Pastor Bob’s lessons that my friend had brought and did so only at her strong insistence and with the intention of only listening to a little bit (which is usually all I can do with someone not my pastor anyway).  But of course, everything came alive when I heard him, and I couldn’t stop listening.

Starting the day I heard Pastor Bob, I never listened to Col Thieme again. It had nothing to do with not liking Col Thieme– he was a fabulous Bible teacher; he trained Pastor Bob and ordained him – but everything to do with the fact that I HAD to hear the next message in Pastor Bob’s series. I hung on his every word, took copious notes, my mind never wandering even once.  It was very much like what had happened when I first heard doctrine — so compelling I couldn’t NOT listen.
 
Pastor Bob is still my pastor. Whoever he assigns to teach behind his pulpit I will listen to and learn from. I love those younger guys and get distressed to think of any of them leaving, but as I said, it has to happen. Maybe then I would be switched to one of those men. Maybe eventually I’ll be moved on to the man I couldn’t listen to in that home Bible study, which would be funny, and fit with the pattern God’s worked in my life of unexpected turns. Or it might be Pastor Bob til the rapture, which at this point is fine with me. I don’t know and it doesn’t matter. It’s part of God’s provision and I know that when He switches you, He does it and you don’t have to worry about it.

Endnote:  Mary’s and my exchange occurred last week right before Pastor Bob returned to his pulpit. Since then, I have to say, his lessons have been rich, exhilarating and convicting. As always. Today’s though, as God the Holy Spirit answered one of my questions of the day through Pastor Bob’s words, was particularly sobering. Maybe I’ll talk about that tomorrow…

Concern over my Pastor Teacher’s health and well being recently led me to consider what doctrines were really in my soul about that subject.  Would I know when I should need a new Pastor Teacher?  Was perseverance the right course of action at the present time?  

Thankfully these questions were answered shortly after I wrote this but I wanted to share it anyway. 

What is Bible Doctrine all about?  Where in the scale of importance does the “right” Pastor Teacher fall?  Is it the main issue in Bible Doctrine?  My understanding is that positive volition is the main issue in Bible Doctrine.  My “right” Pastor Teacher is not really MY issue at all.  The Pastor Teacher is a grace gift from God and as such it doesn’t really have anything to do with me, or my personal choice.   It can seem in the current situation as if there is a list of voices and I should maybe pick from those voices the one that I might “think” is my “right” Pastor Teacher.  It sounds reasonable but I think it’s a deception, I think it’s a tool of confusion in the hands of the kingdom of darkness.  Nothing gets me more confused than too many choices.  God is not in a hurry, no, God is NEVER in a hurry.  He isn’t worried or concerned about anything.  He has a perfect plan.  My issue is Positive volition so I’m going to go forward with my positive volition and have absolute confidence that when I need a different “right” Pastor Teacher, which I may or may not, He will make it certain and clear and I won’t have had to do a thing except be positive to the word of God. 

  I have seen people reject the right Pastor Teacher doctrine and I have seen the shipwreck of their spiritual lives.  I believe it to be a very important doctrine and right up at the top of the scale of importance.  I also believe that one needs to have confidence in the timing and faithfulness of God, confidence in waiting on Him and not rushing out to do it all right.  I may go in the wrong direction at times, I may feel disturbed and uncertain but I am never ever to be in doubt of who holds me in the palm of His hand.  He can turn every curse into a blessing every wrong direction into a scenic route on the way to maturity.  I am NOT lost though I may feel it at times.The way is narrow but I don’t have to find it by myself.  There is only one man to follow and that makes it easy.  Be positive towards The Lord Jesus Christ.  Love the brethren.  Endure.  Believe what you can’t see.  Be very strong and courageous…

Sometimes we have thought the spiritual battle was only something the Kingdom of Darkness was playing at.  Sometimes we haven’t believed they are really trying to destroy us.  On the battle field the fallen soldier is never left behind, never scorned or derided for getting wounded or killed.  No matter his condition his fellow soldiers go into the fire and get him even if it’s only the body left.  Those on the front lines take the greatest risk and the highest casualties.  Those who have poured out their lives for us deserve honor and respect.  It’s only those who wouldn’t go to the front, who ran from the battle before it began that get the scorn and punishment they deserve.  We may be proud of those who have fought and served and were wounded in battle.  We must also continue in the battle ourselves and fight on without dwelling on our fallen.  If we fall to despair we are not useful.  And a good soldier is mindful of the purpose of the war and whom they fight for.  Don’t be afraid to hold your ground and don’t ever forget that the enemy is not trying to annoy you; he’s trying to destroy you.  Stand firm.  

 New orders will be handed down at the proper time.  Until then we must always tune out the shouts and taunts of the enemy.  Their shadows and illusions must be ignored. 

 Psalm 7:8 “Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy.  Though I fall I will rise, though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me.” 

2 Cor. 11:3 “But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from simplicity and devotion to Christ”

 “Life is not a bowl of cherries.  Sometimes the spiritual life is the pits.  Just keep listening.”  Pastor Joe

 These are exciting times,

Keep Sailing,

Mary

Pastor Mark Lacanienta Lead Pastor (Bachelors of Science Organizational Leadership and Masters in Theology Talbot School of Theology) 

Sharing my Bible Doctrine experiences with the world is a trepidatious path.  As I was discussing with a friend last night, most of it is failure and embarrassment.  Generally it’s only after a lot of failure that I succeed at any application at all.  I think though that there might be some value in being an open book.  I suppose it is a way of laying down your life – so to speak.  Plus failure and embarrassment are only failure and embarrasment if you stay there.  Once you lay that aside it begins to be success. 

Success has actually been a theme in our recent Bible lessons.  I don’t think I can embark on this discussion of Sit Walk and Stand without first touching on the subject of success.  We as believers, especially doctrinal believers are hyper focused on success I think.  The truth is amazing and as you receive it, your understanding about the Spiritual Life broadens.  You learn how knowing God through His word sets you apart.  You have the opportunity to solve problems and think the way God does.  You also learn that with all that opportunity comes great responsibility.  You might actually end up a losing believer(not receiving all your rewards) through hearing the word of God, understanding it and then not applying it.  The warning is valid it comes right from God.  If we can succeed then we can also lose out.  So success and failure become a focal point.  We were focusing on learning God’s word, knowing Him, and living out that relationship through application but now we are hyper focused on our failures, just certain that they will rob us of success. 

I think as we get our eyes off the Lord and onto our performance (or lack there of) we miss the point of the warning.  We don’t really understand what the failure is that leads to a wasted life.  Likewise we misunderstand success. 

 At this point it gets a little sticky because I can only express what I understand about these things and I cannot give anyone the doctrine they must learn for themselves and I am fairly certain I don’t have it mastered or I wouldn’t be struggling with this issue almost daily. 

What I understand about failure is that I will fail a lot and failures can be turned into success through rebound (1 John 1:9).  True failure that leads to a wasted life is abandonment of God’s Word given through my right Pastor Teacher.  Failure is also hearing that same Word of God and becoming so apathetic or familiar towards it that application no longer matters.  I hear and understand but I refuse to apply. Stubbornness.  

So If I fail to apply am I a loser?  No, not necessarily, because who doesn’t fail to apply often.  Everyone fails.  It’s only the person who will not apply and will not rebound(1 John 1:9) who ends up in true failure.  Failing and confessing the failure to the Father leads to success through His ability to transform your thinking. 

What I understand about success is that if you never quit and you go forward no matter how much you fail, you will succeed.  You will be a winner and recieve the blessings that God has already assigned to you for time and eternity.  The greatest of those blessings I believe to be the intimate personal relationship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit whom you have glorified and who’s essence has been portrayed by your life.  When life becomes all about Christ in you and you in Him, that is the ultimate success.  All the other blessings of life mean nothing if someday I don’t have that in fullest measure.

So obviously I want to succeed.  I believe it is possible and promised.  Sinless perfection isn’t even a requirement, only positive volition. 

As I share things about my life that seem more like sitting, stumbling and crawling than sitting, walking and standing.  I think it helps to consider what the real goal of the Spiritual life is all about. 

A quote from Bible class  ”Success usually occurs in private but failure in full public view”

Keep Sailing,
Mary

I’ve been doing some research concerning the ministry.  It seems that the “profession” of ministry has been viewed at numerous different angles.  However you want to look at it, the ministry is tough work.  Harder than anything else I have ever done.  It takes physical, mental, and emotional stamina.  It takes an understanding of multiple professions.  It takes a lot.  Anything the Lord has commanded someone to do should be taken seriously.  I take the ministry very seriously, we all need to.

Check out what went on in Pastor Paul’s heart.  See if you can hear what he wants and works for regarding people. (p.s. do yourself a favor and actually read the verses.  Don’t just pass over it like you know what it says.  Read the passage, embrace it, understand the meaning of the text.)

• “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.” (Colossians 2:1-5)
• “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ–to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:3-11)

Paul had a passion for people.  His desire as a Pastor was to see people embrace a relationship like he had with Christ. To my fellow workers in the Lord, we are a rare breed.  Stay focused on what Christ has you to do.  Run the race that God has set, follow his lead, Shepard the people.  Cast vision, disciple, be accountable to each other, love God, and love others.

To the followers of Christ, church people, men and women who love the Lord, a couple thoughts for you.

• “Pray for us (pastors), for we are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to conduct ourselves rightly in every respect. I especially ask you to pray that I may be restored to you very soon.” -Hebrews 13:18-19
• “Remember your leaders (pastors), who spoke God’s message to you; reflect on the outcome of their lives and imitate their faith.” -Hebrews 13:7
• “Obey your leaders (pastors) and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls and will give an account for their work. Let them do this with joy and not with complaints, for this would be no advantage for you.” -Hebrews 13:17

Think about it, act on it.  Do something with the knowledge you have.

-Jordan