Have you ever been Flogged?

I have this problem where I work too much. I don’t think its a bad problem.
I have really been learning the importance of having family time and time for rest. Both are biblical and very important.

Having said that, I do have a off the wall perspective on youth ministry and ministry as a whole that most will not agree with.
“Your Ministry will only grow as much as you are willing to suffer” . I know that sounds terrible and not fun at all. Ministry especially youth ministry to me is fun. Long hours hanging with leaders, planning services, hours of prayer, door to door outreach, going to schools. This to me is fun! So what do I mean we have to suffer? If we want and pray for a acts church, the church who added 3000 in a day, the church we all try to model after, then we truly have to do what they did. Paul says in 1 Cor. he becomes a Jew for the Jews and a gentile for the gentiles. He also says Run to win. He did not say be stuck in our own ideas and philosophy’s on how ministry should be. He didn’t say run to be second, third, or fourth. There was no bronze metal in the acts church. They lived on this principle. We have to tell the world about Jesus and save them from hell. Wow that seems so simple! It is! I think sometimes we put ministry in this box of roses. Ministry will not always be fun. Sometimes we can be stressed, Sometimes we can feel like quiting, sometimes we feel like we are hitting a brick wall. It is not easy being a Pastor. Sometimes we work so hard without any result. However I live by the principle if you are going to go somewhere you have never been then you have to do something you have never done.
I challenge us to realize it is not all roses and rainbows. Pastors in acts were flogged!! When is the last time you got flogged? When is the last time you truly suffered and felt even a little of what they felt in those days? I’m not condemning, just asking. Have you suffered? Have you done something you have never done?

We really have to get out of that silly traditional legal principle that ministry is 8 to 5 in our offices. Paul went where the people were at. He didn’t set and wait and wander why is youth group or church was small. When is that last time you did a outreach? When is that last time you walked houses in the community? When is the last time you went to a football practice? When is the last time you went to any kind of game?

You do not have to agree with my suffering philosophy. However no one can deny that God is a God who blesses those who dig the ditches, then he sends the rain. Just a thought.

In Gods Love,

Josh

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