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A recent book that I have been reading (From Barrenness
to Fruitfulness, Frank Damazio) related the importance of
maintaining a sense of purity of heart and motive. The late
Peter Marshall, who for many years served as the Chaplain
to the United States Senate, frequently told a story called,
"The Keeper of the Spring." There was a quiet
forest dweller who lived high above an Austrian village
along the eastern slopes of the Alps. The old man had been
hired many years ago by a young town council to clear away
the trash and debris from the pools of water in the mountain
crevices that fed the clear spring flowing through its town.
With very faithful but silent regularity, the old man patrolled
the hills, removed the leaves and branches, and wiped away
the silt that would otherwise choke and contaminate the
fresh flow of water. Over the course of time with the active
work of the old man, the town became quite renowned for
it's beautiful stream and mountain scenery. Swans floated
peacefully along the crystal clear spring, the mill wheels
of businesses located near the water turned productively
day and night, farmlands around the small village were irrigated
naturally, and the view from the restaurants was picturesque
beyond description.
Years flew by. One evening at a town council meeting, a
budget review stimulated what was to change the whole venue
of the city. One alderman's eye noticed the figure for the
salary being paid to the obscure Keeper of the Spring. The
keeper of the purse, asked "Who is this old man? Why
do we keep him year after year? No one ever sees him.
For all we know the strange ranger of the hills is doing
us no good. He isn't necessary any longer!" By a unanimous
vote, the aldermen dispensed with the services of the Keeper
of the Spring.
For several weeks nothing changed. By early autumn the trees
began to shed their leaves. Small branches snapped off and
fell into the pools, hindering the rushing flow of sparkling
water. One afternoon someone noticed a slight yellowish-brown
tint in the water. A few days later, the water began to
appear much darker. Within another week, a slimy film covered
sections of the water along the banks and foul odor was
soon detected. The mill wheels moved slower, some even ground
to a halt. Swans left and so did the tourists. Clammy
fingers of disease and sickness reached into the village.
Quickly the town council called a special meeting. Realizing
their gross error in judgment, they hired back the old Keeper
of the Spring and within a few weeks the veritable river
of life began to clear up.
The wheels started to turn and new life returned to the
little village.
The whole emphasis of this little tale is that one must
continually keep a watch over his spiritual life. There
must be a Keeper of the Soul. I must take personal responsibility
to see that a lack of private devotion
and worship, unbalanced ministry goals, impure motives or
attitudes do not fester within my soul. Such things will
create a stagnation that
will often become a detriment to the whole output of the
soul.
Sometimes it appears that successful ministries and successful
churches are more prone to difficulties than those who have
to fight for every single victory along the way. Sometimes
the usefulness of the things that God has blessed us with
may prove to be a detriment. Be very careful in all that
you do. The very subtle enemy will do all with his power
to create a misstep. When those in ministry have missteps
it trickles down to those to whom God has called that man
to serve and it leads to all kinds of spiritual maladies.
First and foremost, ministry must be driven by purity and
a hunger and thirst after righteousness and not necessarily
a hunger for revival, of which there is a difference.
Ministry must come from the overflow of the devotion to
the Spirit.
Otherwise one is limited to personal talents and gifts.
The elements that can subtly soil a man's soul were clearly
faced down in the temptation of the Lord. In all three aspects
of His struggles, each of those things sought to elevate
the flesh or rather lower the flesh, dependent on how you
look at the matter. The first temptation was to turn the
stones into bread. One of the most threatening temptations
of ministry is to become self-reliant and self-sufficient.
No matter how gifted or barren you make think your ministry
may be, there are some inherent and valuable gifts that
God has given to you. To discover those gifts are extremely
rewarding. However, to totally depend on those talents without
any spiritual influence is very vain. When men lean toward
flesh, they remove the "strength" from the "weakness"
that God uses. God revels in using men with limitations.
Paul's thorn elevated him to a new level. Jacob's limp changed
his whole character. Moses, the stutterer, became a gifted
communicator (he was a great intercessor and great leader
both of which require some communication skills).
Hannah's barrenness
caused brokenness which lead to fruitfulness.
Remember always that good men never graduate from trouble,
it merely breaks the fallow ground and so that new seed
can produce new and greater victories. A study of a man
who leaned on his "strength" and lost his power
of "weakness" was Samson. God doesn't really need
your (nor mine either) independence. He needs your dependence
to build the church that he wants to shape in your city.
The second struggle that will clutter the fresh streams
from heaven is that of being sensational and spectacular.
That is what the devil wanted Jesus to do. The second most
threatening temptations of ministry is to become sensational
and spectacular. The devil wanted Him to be spectacular
and sensational by leaping from the roof of the temple.
Sensational stunts will work for a while but what happens
is that each "performance" must outdo the last
one and soon a vicious cycle develops.
To my rookie colleagues (and I do not say that disparagingly)
who are just beginning to preach or pastor, if your ministry
has to be driven by
the compliments of people, you will be in for a frustrating
lifetime of ministry (if you last that long). You will never
be sensational nor spectacular enough to live up to the
expectations of people every single week. So set yourself
some very noble goals (spiritually driven goals) and work
toward accomplishing them.
My brother-in-law (Mike Patterson FMD - Romania)
ran into one of our old Bible college instructors over the
Christmas holidays. Bro. Kelsey
Griffin is one of the most unique men that you will ever
meet. He told
my brother-in-law that he had set some new goals to accomplish
before he passed on. Up until that point prior to Christmas
‘99, his goals had been to develop and preach a message
from every chapter of the Bible, of which he had completed;
to preach in every state, of which he had accomplished;
to read the Bible through every year in the KJV and another
translation, of which he has been doing for many years.
Bro. Griffin has also read through the entire commentary
of the Bible by R. D. Lange among thousands of other books.
But now his goals had changed. Now he wants to
travel to every country in the world where a missionary
exists that he had taught in 25 years of teaching at A.B.I.
and T.B.C. He wants to spend six weeks to twelve weeks teaching
in a Bible college setting to the nationals in that country.
In addition to this he now wants to read the Bible through
once a month and if, he told my brother-in-law, he reads
three hours each day he can do so.
Those are tremendous goals and interestingly enough
his calling and success in ministry doesn't rest with who
compliments him or elects him, his relationship with God
depends on none of those factors. The role of the servant
is not meant to be a showy one or a spectacular one, just
one that serves others in their own quest for God.
The third temptation that the Lord faced was that of ruling
the kingdoms of the world. The third temptation in ministry
is to be powerful and in control. This is a struggle with
a lot of ministers. While leadership is absolutely necessary
in the setting of the apostolic church. . . . . . manipulation
never is. When manipulation takes over the capacity of leadership,
trouble is sure to develop. Notice what Jesus said, "Do
you love me?" Notice what his disciples said, "Where
can we sit in ruler ship in the Kingdom?" Ministry
is never about position, it is about encouragement.
Richard Foster pens these words: "Power can be an extremely
destructive thing in any context, but in the service of
religion it is downright diabolical. Religious power can
destroy in a way that no other power can. . . . . Those
who are a law unto themselves and at the same time take
on a mantle of piety are particularly corruptible. When
we are convinced that what we are doing is identical with
the kingdom of God, anyone who opposes us must be wrong.
When we are convinced that we always use our power to good
ends, we believe we can never do wrong. But when this mentality
possesses us, we are taking the power of God and using it
to our own ends. . . . . When pride is mixed with power
the result is genuinely volatile. Pride makes us think we
are right, and power gives us the ability to cram our vision
of rightness down everyone else's throat. The marriage between
pride and power carries us to the brink of the demonic."
That model of the Master with a towel and basin is one of
the most enlightening and yet disturbing pictures of our
Lord that we have. Most all of us in the next few days,
weeks, or months will be attending our respective district
conferences, I trust that before you ever walk in to the
conference that you will remember that picture of the Master
with the Towel. Ministry is not about platforms and power
but rather about serving and leading.
There is a North American church that desperately
needs to see some authentic men in ministry. I have a developed
a fairly close friendship with one of physicians that I
work with. He is an interventional radiologist who specializes
in vascular procedures in the reconstruction of iliac arteries
(those in the legs) with balloon angioplasty techniques
and stint placements. This is but a small area of his expertise.
For his age he is extremely gifted and talented in his practice
of medicine. A few weeks ago, he told me about his last
few days of his vascular fellowship in Portland, Oregon.
He said that one of his mentors took him out to eat and
began to tell him some things that he would face in life
as a physician. He told him that the first ten years of
practice would be a time of gaining experience through trial
and error. He told him that he would have patients who would
benefit tremendously from his work but at the same time
that there would be other patients that he would hasten
the disease process in their bodies, ultimately contributing
to their demise. He said those first ten years would be
a time of discerning judgment, it would be a time that both
victory and failure would create a heightened awareness
of his strengths but also of his weaknesses. He told him
that he would learn determination with the defeats and confidence
would come with the successful cases. He would learn the
discipline of working all day and then spending half of
the night working in a cath lab to save some patient's life
who would continue to be non-compliant (i.e. continue smoking
or drinking and refuse to change lifestyle despite the illness).
Yet something interesting would occur at the end of that
ten year period, as a physician he would reach the height
of his ability to practice and perform the difficult procedures
that he had been trained to do. In the course of this ten
years, the knowledge in the head would be transferred to
the skill and precision of the hands. Once this potential
had been reached, he would navigate on through the subsequent
ten to fifteen years experiencing far more victories than
defeats. But, he said that after that, his art and expertise
would began to decline and one of two things would began
to happen. He would either began to fight with young physicians
who encroached on his territory or he would become a respected
teacher of the young doctors who were exposed to his practice.
The choice would belong to him. My friend told me
that he had witnessed both types of behavior and he hoped
that when the time came he would be a teacher instead of
a warrior.
I realize that the majority of the people who receive this
letter are within that ten year "window" of the
beginning stages of ministry. I am in no way implying that
the practice of medicine has anything to do with ministry,
but I am telling you that experience makes all the difference
in the world. Somewhere along the way every man will have
to pay the price that comes with being the man that God
wants him to be. Let time be the teacher. Time is an awesome
competitor but it is the method by which God uses to teach
and shape us. To the elders who receive this letter, I intentionally
keep you on my list also because you serve as my point of
reference and you have been kind enough to help me along
the way. So to the elders, shape the generation of young
men who are coming along behind you. Impact us and help
us to realize that the Kingdom of God is larger than any
of our single ministries.
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