Tag Archive - Pastor

Your Desert Experience in Ministry – Part 2/4

November 28, 2011 in Concepts, Faith, Leadership, Ministry with 3 Comments

In part one, I described the rationale behind desert or isolation experiences in ministry. Click here to read about it. Essentially, God uses desert experiences to accomplish things through us that we would never be able to accomplish apart from these desert experiences.

Today I would like to go a bit more in depth and define the different types of desert experiences one might experience in ministry. There are two broad categories of desert experiences. Shelly Trebesch calls them involuntary and voluntary isolation experiences in her book, Isolation: A Place of Transformation in the Life of a Leader.

Another way of looking at them is: unplanned and planned desert experiences.

Continue Reading…

Your Desert Experience in Ministry – Part 1/4

November 19, 2011 in Concepts, Faith, Leadership, Ministry with 5 Comments

Baz Ratner—Reuters

Although leading, serving, and being with people is a central component to ministry, every leader will go through desert experiences, or isolation experiences, where one is forced out of one’s context, or where one will voluntarily leave one’s context.

If you haven’t yet gone through one, then expect to. If you have, then you probably know that these experiences are the most formative experiences in our lives: personally, spiritually, and ministerially.

This is part one of a four part series where I will explore these desert experiences in ministry. Today I will explain the rationale behind these isolation experiences.

God uses desert experiences to accomplish things through us that we would never be able to accomplish apart from these desert experiences. In fact, some of our ultimate leadership insights and contributions may come from these desert experiences.

Continue Reading…

Every Believer is Called to Full Time Ministry

July 14, 2011 in Church Planting, Community Life, Ministry with 0 Comments

“Every believer is called to full-time paid ministry – God just chooses to route our paychecks through different sources.”

- Jeff Vanderstelt

Why I ditched the M.Div…and am still a pastor

January 19, 2011 in Leadership, Seminary, Strengths with 21 Comments

Back in 2009, I wrote a post entitled, “Where to go to seminary? A preliminary comparison between seminaries in Canada, the United States, and Korea.”

Since then, a lot of things have changed – especially my outlook regarding seminary and the usefulness of theological education. I touched on that topic briefly in my post, “The Future of Seminary.”

Well, after viewing some activity over those two previous posts, I thought I’d give my view as to where I think the future of seminary education is heading by explaining where I’m at. Namely, why I ditched the M.Div (Masters of Divinity) and am still a pastor.

Here it is…

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No such thing as a "Lay" Christian

May 26, 2010 in Concepts, Faith with 1 Comment

So often, Christians create faux-categories to justify and rationalize their laziness and desire to compartmentalize their faith. We think that there are certain Christians who are “called” to be pastors, and others who are “called” to be missionaries, but what about everyone else? Well, if you’re not “called” to be a pastor or a missionary, then I guess you just fall into a third category called – “lay” Christian…where you just go to church on Sunday, sing some songs, listen to someone preach, and then go home.

When you search the New Testament, there is no such thing as a “lay” Christian. Sure, different people have different roles, but there is no such thing as a “lay” Christian as we know it today. It’s a false category! Continue Reading…

our calling in life…

August 22, 2008 in Culture, Faith, Strengths with 4 Comments

“Every assignment that God gives His people is His primary means of sanctifying His leader.”

These are the words of Crawford Loritts that have encouraged me today.  In a sermon entitled The Call to Courage from the 2008 Desiring God Pastor’s Conference, Loritts digs out an amazing insight from Joshua 1:1-9 regarding the calling that God has given us and how God uses it to sanctify us.

Here it is:

“Every assignment that God gives His people is His primary means of sanctifying His leader…some of us are getting burnt out because we are separating the sanctification process from our ministry. I understand boundaries, rest, variety in life, etc…

…but the very thing that God is using to draw you to Himself is the calling that He has given you.”

Wow.

The primary calling that God has given me is to love God and love others.  More specifically, he is calling me to do that through pastoral ministry.  Getting even more specific, God has given me a desire to minister to those who are intercultural (those people who are attempting to balance their different cultural backgrounds and upbringings).  And to really hone in on exactly what God is calling me to do – he has given me a calling to minister to 2nd generation Asians (those born and raised in a country that their parents immigrated to) and to those who minister to 2nd gen Asians.

Perhaps that is why I am so energized and have such a renewed sense of calling upon coming back from ministering to 2nd gens in Korea?