Have You Given Your Pastor the Option?

Have you given your pastor the option?

I took this picture a couple of years ago. During this time it was uncertain where our next duty station would be (what my new job would be). How would our church family handle the possibility of us leaving them after 14 years? How can we ever find another church when this church is our home?
Oh, dear Lord, who will assist our pastors?

Who is able to attend to our pastors in such a way that no disruption in service is able to be felt? It hit me then and still does: who did I train up so that my pastor would not have to be burdened, did I give my pastor “the option”?

Are you giving your pastor the option? I don’t believe I gave my pastor the option in my opinion because, I did not build depth in the crucial area of servant leadership. As an armour-bearer (aka personal assistant) in ministry I was just beginning. I learned that your ministry as an armour-bearer is unique. I learned that your ministry does not just stop at the carrying his bags or bringing him water before he takes the platform. Rather, it continues when the pastor has finished praying the last prayer with someone, and encouraged the last person at the altar. It even extends to where they get escorted to their car and drive home.

As an armour-bearer you ADminister to the minister; the man or woman of God who is responsible for the flock of God. It is a tremendous honor and yet the most demanding as a pastor. He or She needs your support.

My pastor quoted once in jest that “ministry will either drive you away or draw you to God”. It ignited within me a passion to help any way I could. So I pressed into the presence of God during my times of prayer and prayed for him and his family. I asked the Lord what could I do to help this awesome Godly man fulfill the vision God had given him for people of that beautiful city. Now who could I find that feels the same as I do for what God is doing there?

Armour-bearer, are you building a team of people to support your pastors? Can they call you and ask for prayer in all confidence? Can you make it your focus to pray for your leadership? Are you able to support your pastor by guarding his time? Can you give your pastor the option of an armour-bearer who is able to stand beside him and not behind him as he faces the principalities and powers of this dark world?
If not, you may be giving your pastor a lack of options…….

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Staying Power

Jan 15

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“What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You’ve heard, of course, of
Job’s staying power,
and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That’s because
God cares, cares right down to the last detail. ” James 5:11, (MSG) 

It’s January 2013.   The begining of many “firsts”……..

You know what I mean.  We plan our resolutions to improve ourselves or our outlook.  I will just speak for me right here;  I have started back up on my fitness regimen.  My work requires me to be within standards and now it is especially important because promotion boards are convening soon.  I don’t want to be behind on anything, so why not start a lifestyle change at the begining of the year?  Which brings me to my blog post.

I could have made this post earlier this month.  It would have been customary to push this out the first of the year.  I believe this is the time where many including myself can wane and drift off our original plan for this year.  This time is crucial after all (for me). It takes only thirty days to create a habit.  Did you know that in an aircraft if you are one degree off course in your flight plan you could be miles if not hundreds of miles from your original destination?

I don’t want that to happen to me or you either.  God has equipped us and gifted us with abilities that can be used greatly to cause a change in our environment!  He has CALLED us before the foundation of the world was created to have DOMINION over this planet and to become effective managers of the rescources  entrusted into our charge.  Don’t you believe for a nanosecond that God set you up to fail. GOD HAS SET YOU UP TO WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It does however come with a price.  It includes our focus and total dependance on Jesus coupled with our obedience to him.  I have now been convinced more than ever that if I want to make an impact, I must be obedient to God.

This is staying power, the secret to staying the course on the treacherous road  I call life.  When I don’t allow Jesus to become the capstone or foundation for my plans, they will fail.  It may look successful, however only at the expense of  carnal mistakes- those moments when we act out of sorts.

In context, this passage was refering to looking at the prophets of old and add them to mentors in your life, learn from their example. Do you have someone to gauge your performance?  Perhaps you may have a mentor that may  encourage you or correct you?  In either case count it joy that you are now staying the course.  We are continuing the great journey like they did working through ridicule or slander without complaining and honoring God all the time.  I learned the hard way that  I must lean on God because I am not built like the world and cannot operate in its parameters. Would you agree? As I close this message I will get up and head to the gym before work, start eating smart and look to God to refuel me every step of the way. God cares even to the last detail.

 

 

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Esteem Away

Esteem Away

Dec 28

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There are people in life whom I have held in great esteem. For example, when I was a young teenage girl many of the pop culture music stars had my attention. Now when I say they had that attention I don’t mean only when I watched a music video. I attended to their articles in popular magazines that decorated the checkout stands, watched the talk shows that they appeared on, and even news segments that highlighted their lives. I took the time to get to know who they were as an individual and valued what they had to say. As I was in my early twenties, I held a great regard for friends I had built a certain amount of trust for. Giving them the same type of attention as I did to those stars, I would take a genuine interest in their lives. Unfortunately, as my trust was breached I easily let go of the value I held for their words or even who they were as a human. This became my defense mechanism; a wall so carefully built that it could not be penetrated by people rather taken down by God himself.

During the season of  what I call my “heart renovation”, I was very skeptical of people and their intentions, inadvertently keeping at bay great people for fear of a catosrophic repeat of pain. Yet, one day I came across these words in the Bible, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4). This verse literally changed my outlook on life and my position in it.

You see, I would give to people the attentive dedication only if I didn’t feel threatened-my good was the first thing considered; not theirs. However, this is not how God freed me to live. He has freed both you and I to live and give of ourselves unhindered. As God’s children, we don’t have to walk around guarded, or looking out for our own interest all of the time; that is our heavenly father’s role. We can freely look out for the good of others.

We can highly regard people over ourselves, this is the model that Jesus displayed on earth. Although it isn’t always easy to do, it is much easier than painstakingly building walls that keep you bound to the pain of the past. Esteem my dear friend, esteem away.

Teresa Escalante

Posted in Christian Living, Marriage, Women

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