The reason are many!
- I get to go on exploring expeditions daily. Digging through the Word and through the treasures of those who have commented on the Word is fascinating. I love to learn. The more I study the behinder I get. Each week I assume I will learn something about the kingdom I had yet to discover.
- I get to solve puzzles. I love board games. Scrabble, Upwords, Boggle, etc. are such fun. Kingdom life is so much more fun. Riddles are presented to us in the forms of dilemma and even trauma. We get to see what we could offer in service to connect the traumatized with the Trauma-solver.
- I get to carpenter. I love to build. Each day provides opportunity to build up one another through life-words and through service projects. Preachers are construction engineers who do everything from pulling stumps to ribbon-cutting celebrations! As we build people, God constructs His kingdom.
- I get to watch for God. He is never stumped. I often am. He speaks to me just as much as I pray to Him. I expect Him to give me direction because I ask Him for it. Oh, there are those who don't believe God works directly, I know. But when I heard some of them pray years ago, God, give Terry a ready recollection of those things he has studied, I realized even then they believed God must work directly.
- I get to work out. Preaching has this amazing spiritual gym where one takes in criticism and practices handling it. Endurance is built. We find ourselves very hurt....very. But we don't quit. We learn through each hardship not to quit. Jesus never did. We won't.
- I get to possess the highest hope. God can do anything He wills....anything. I get to learn what it means to stay out of the way. I anticipate Him working in dead settings bringing about abundant life. In hopeless moments there is certain hope.
And on the list could go. If any man is out there pondering preaching, I tell you go for it and don't look back. You'll never be in control, but you will never be sorry. Some in the church will kill you and as long as you can remember you've got it coming just as Jesus had it coming, you'll never regret getting to be you! If you've got to die over matters in life, consider dying over things that really matter....people. People are some of God's best ideas!
However, I'll stop so you can comment. You, as a preacher or an elder or a servant would cheer future leaders on by finishing the sentence: The reason I love being in my role in the church is..........
2 comments:
The reason I love being in my role at the church is...as the preacher, I get to be at nearly every special moment in a persons life. I get to be there when the babies are born. I get to see the excitement of the kids when they learn about Jesus. Many times, I'm there when they decide they want to be a follower of God. I'm there through the tough times and the good times. I get to laugh and cry with them. I get to hold their hands during these times and encourage them. I'm there when marriage comes along. And if you think it was exciting to be there when the kids were born, just wait until you see the pictures of the grandchildren. I'm get to be there when the celebration of life here on this earth is over and the journey in heaven begins. Through all of this, I get to spread God's grace all around. Wow! What a wonderful life!
The cool thing about being in the Kingdom is that anyone can experience all of these things -- not just the preacher. Does having a job outside the church make this more difficult to do it? Yeah, it does, especially when it comes to your time. But it is not impossible and all it takes to experience it is having love for people.
I too, get to be there when babies are born. I too, get to see kids excited about knowing Jesus. I too, get to be there when people decide to become followers of God...So does every other member of the church.
Isn't that cool?!
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