Field Notes of an Ordinary Pastor
10 links to check out over the weekend…
(Photo: Ryan McGuire)
Superheroes of the Faith – Thomas Barnardo
Powerpoint Pictures: Bedroom; Bunk Beds; Bed; Toys
What is your bedroom like? Is it your own bedroom or do you share it with your brother or sister?
What is your bed like? Is it comfy? Is it a good bed to bounce up and down on? Does your mum or dad tell you off if you do?
What else do you have in your bedroom? Do you have lots of toys to play with? Do you enjoy spending time in your room, chilling out, reading a book, playing games?
Well, 150 years ago, in London, at the time when Queen Victoria was on the throne, there were lots of children who didn’t have a bedroom.
Not a bedroom of their own. Not even a bedroom to share with someone else. They didn’t have any toys or fun stuff to play with. Nor did they have bed to sleep on. Not even an uncomfortable bed to sleep on.
They did not live in a house but on the street.
Now there was a man called Thomas Barnardo who wanted to be a missionary to China, to tell people there about Jesus. But when he saw all the children living on the street in London, he decided that it would be better for him to help them than go to China.
He knew that God loves children. Psalm 68 verses 5 and 6 tells us that “God in his holy dwelling is a father of the fatherless and a champion of widows. God provides homes for those who are deserted.”
And because Jesus loves children, he should too, and that he should help them. The way he did that was by opening homes for the children to live in and schools for them to learn at called Ragged Schools. He found places for children who had no home and no bedroom to stay.
He wanted to help and care for children who were poor and sick and sad and alone. He had a famous motto: “No Destitute Child Ever Refused Admission.”
And in these homes and schools that Thomas Barnardo set up, he made sure they children as well as being cared for, were taught about the one who cares for them the most. As they were taught to read and write they learned about Jesus the great Saviour who loves His people and died on the cross to save them from their sins.
Thomas Barnardo reminds us that God loves children, that He cares for them especially those who have no-one to look after them, and that He wants them to hear about Jesus, and so should we.
This talk was adapted from Everyone a Child Should Know by Clare Heath-Whyte.
More talks about Superheroes of the Faith can be found HERE.
005: Pastoral Communication Strategy
There are loads of different ways in which a pastor can communicate with the members of the church.
Face-to-face in-person meetings.
Phone or Zoom.
Text or WhatsApp or other forms of messaging.
Email.
Handwritten letters.
But which one should they use? The answer is, it depends. Whilst in-person, face-to-face meetings are ideal, they are not always possible.
Reagan Rose has written a really helpful article on creating a personal communication strategy to help you strategically minister to people especially using technology to communicate.
He notes that in the New Testament we see both a desire for face-to-face in-person communication (see 1 Thessalonians 2:17, 3:10; 2 John 1:12), but also the use of technology (letters) to communicate when this was not possible.
In choosing which communication strategy to use, he highlights two factors to consider: Warmth and Time-Commitment. Warmth refers to the “personal-ness” of the communication whereas Time-Commitment is the amount of time required to communicate in this way. The warmest communication (in-person, phone, Zoom) is also the communication that has the highest time commitment.
One other point he notes is that the types of communication that are warmer and with the greater time commitment are also those which is better for conversation (synchronisation of a time with other person required), whereas the others for correspondence (synchronisation of a time with other person not required).
How can I put this into practice and use these different forms of communication in my role as a pastor.
1. Face-to-face in-person meetings: Plan 1/2 pastoral visits a week (with the aim of visiting every household in the church each year); Personal interactions before/after services and other meetings (in post-Covid world).
2. Phone or Zoom: Plan to phone a member each day ending every call with pastoral prayer.
3. Text or WhatsApp messaging: Plan to send 3 texts a day to ask for prayer requests or to let people know that I have prayed for them. In addition, WhatsApp broadcast lists are a great way of sending daily encouragements (a verse of Scripture or a quote) and devotional notes on passages of Scripture.
“If you keep a prayer list why not commit to sending an encouraging text to everyone you pray for that day? Just keep it simple, “Was praying for you about X this morning. Hope you have a great day!” (Reagan Rose)
4. Email: Plan to send 2/3 emails each week with news and updates about church life [you know about mailchimp, right?]
5. Letter writing: Plan to send 2/3 postcards each week to let people know that I have prayed for them and what I have prayed for them.
Have you got a plan for pastoral communication?
(Photo: Julia Joppien)
The Big Read – Daily Read
Matthew 24
v1-3: Though the temple in Jerusalem was truly glorious it was stained with the sin of the priests and the people, and was infected with the evil teaching of the Pharisees. Now with Christ’s coming it’s glory was eclipsed, and it was time to bring an end to the priesthood and sacrifices and the rest of the ceremonial law, as Jesus spoke of its certain and total destruction.
v4-35: In these last days when people will shrink back and give up following Christ, it is encouraging to know that there will be some who will endure to end. They will endure “to the end of their lives, to the end of their present state of testing, or to the end of these times of suffering,” and those who endure to the end in this way, who suffer for their faithfulness, will be eternally saved.
v36-51: There is a day and an hour coming which has been fixed for God’s judgment called the day of the Lord. But when that day and hour is, is one of those secret things which belong to the Lord our God. Because we do not know when this day and hour is, we should be watchful, showing that we are ready for its arrival, by waiting for and serving the Lord. However, if we are carelessly waiting, it will be a truly sad day and hour for us when it comes.
Matthew 25
v1-13: We are to look for and love and long for the appearing of Christ and show this by our conduct. In addition to revealing God’s patience and giving time for people to repent, Jesus’ apparent delay in returning, tests the profession of His people, giving them opportunity to show that their faith is genuine. “An external profession, performed convincingly… will not take them through to the end.”
v14-30: “Christ’s servants have and receive all they have from him; in themselves they are worth nothing, nor do they have anything they can call their own except their sin.” What we have received from Christ, and everyone has at least one talent (spiritual gift), we are to use in His service as good and faithful stewards, while we wait for His return.
v31-46: God’s kingdom has been prepared for us. Reflect on this. “The Father prepared it for [us] in his thoughts of love, and he provided it for [us] in the greatness of his wisdom and power. The Son bought it for [us], and he has entered the kingdom to go ahead to prepare a place for his people. The Holy Spirit, in preparing [us] for the kingdom, is, in effect, preparing it for [us].” God has prepared this kingdom deliberately for you, personally and particularly, because you have been chosen for salvation.
Quotes from Matthew Henry’s Commentary.
(Photo: Brad Neathery)
Sermon I preached on Matthew 16:1-12 at Banstead Community Church on 20th September 2020.
1. Be careful that you don’t ignore the truth about Jesus
2. Be careful that you don’t miss the truth about Jesus
More sermons can be found HERE
(Photo: Carson Arias)
The Big Read – Daily Read
Matthew 22
v1-14: Wherever the gospel is preached, people are invited to the banquet. What a wonderful invitation it is, announcing that “the Father is ready to accept us, the Son to intercede for us, the Spirit to sanctify us; pardon is ready, encouragement is ready; the promises are ready, ordinances are ready to communicate to us God’s blessings; providences are ready to work for our good, and heaven is ready to receive us.”
v15-22: The Pharisees and Herodians were right to call Jesus “Teacher”, for He was both a skilful teacher and a faithful teacher. He knew the way of God, the right way in which we should go, and He has made it known to us. “This is the character of a good teacher, to preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and not to suppress, corrupt, or stretch any truth, for favour or affection, hatred or goodwill, either out of a desire to please anyone or a fear to offend anyone.”
v23-33: Those who deny the resurrection of the dead, either are ignorant about what the Scriptures teach or do not believe them. “Christ rose again according to the Scriptures, and so will we.”
v34-40: We are to love God as our God. “To love God as ours is to love him because he is ours, our Creator, Owner, and Ruler, and to conduct ourselves before him as ours, in obedience to him and dependence on him.” But we must also love him as our God because He is our Saviour and He has reconciled us to Himself, and bought us with the precious blood of His Son.
v41-46: “What those rabbis could not then answer, we thank God, is something that the plainest Christian who is led into the understanding of the gospel of Christ can now explain: that Christ, as God, was David’s Lord, and Christ, as Man, was David’s son.”
Matthew 23
v1-12: What the Pharisees and scribes said and did were two different things. They did not practice what they preached. Their way of life contradicted their teaching. They committed the sins which they condemned in others. They were hypocrites who urged others to believe and put into practice what they disbelieve and disobey. We are guilty of the same hypocrisy when we are great talkers of the faith but little doers of faith.
v13-33: The Pharisees were sworn enemies of the gospel of Christ and the salvation it brings because they did all that they could to stop people believing in Him and entering into His kingdom. “It is bad to keep away from Christ ourselves, but it is even worse to keep others away from him; and yet that is usually what hypocrites do; they do not want anyone to go beyond them in religion or be better than they.”
v34-39: Christ’s came to gather lost people to Himself to give them refuge and rest like “a hen gathers her chicks under her wings for protection and safety and for warmth and comfort.” He is eager to do this. He longs that sinners would come to Him. He takes no pleasure in and does not desire their destruction, but instead delights in their repentance. Sadly, like many in Jerusalem in Jesus’ day, “those who refused to come now at his call will then be forced to depart with his curse.”
Quotes from Matthew Henry’s Commentary.
(Photo: Brad Neathery)
The King’s Story – The King Saves
Download my teaching handout as a pdf
More teaching handouts can be found HERE
(Photo: MILKOVI)
004: Praying for a larger outpouring of the Holy Spirit
An elder at the Metropolitan Tabernacle wrote to Spurgeon with 10 suggestions about how to give practical expression to a desire for a larger outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the church and congregation.
1. Call a meeting of the Deacons and Elders of the church for special prayer for their own families.
2. Fix an evening to meet the older children of the members of the church to urge them to immediate attention to the salvation of their souls.
3. Call a church meeting for special prayer for a still larger blessing on the ministry.
4. Hold a general meeting of the church for thanksgiving for the blessings enjoyed in the past.
5. Invite from the pulpit all the members of the church to set apart, in their own homes, one particular day (which you should name) for special prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
6. Invite the Deacons and Elders and some of the members of the church to open their homes from 7 to 9pm for special prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
7. Set apart an evening in which yourself, with the Elders, should meet all those in the congregation who are as yet undecided, for special exhortation and prayer, urging them to immediate decision for Christ.
8. With the Elders, meet the students (of the Pastor’s College), the Sunday School teachers, the Tract Visitors, the Classes for special prayer and conference, that their labours may be made more effectual in the salvation of sinners.
9. Print out a selection of promises from the Bible which we might plead before God on this matter.
10. With fruit expected, have the Elders ready to see inquirers after the services.
Alongside his suggestions, he thinks “it is very desirable that our Monday Evening Prayer-meeting should be even better attended than it is.”
Do we pray enough together as a local church for a larger outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Would any of these suggestions work in our particular context?
Is it our desire that our evening prayer meeting should be even better attended than it is?
(Photo: Julia Joppien)
10 links to check out over the weekend…
(Photo: Ryan McGuire)
The Big Read – Daily Read
Matthew 21
v1-11: Jesus is humble and gentle. He is approachable. His entrance into Jerusalem shows this. “He did not come in wrath to take vengeance, but in mercy to bring salvation.” He came sitting on a donkey, a creature made to carry loads, and He has carried the greatest load of all, our sin.
v12-17: Christ, as well as being the great Redeemer, is also the great Reformer. By His Word and Spirit, He corrects ungodliness and gradually restores Christians and churches to how they are meant to be.
v18-22: True faith will produce fruit. A false and hypocritical profession may look good for a time, there may be leaves, but it will not last and will soon come to nothing. “A false and hypocritical profession commonly withers in this world, and this is the effect of Christ’s curse.”
v23-27: Before Jesus called the temple ‘a house of prayer,’ and here He is preaching there. Praying and preaching must go together when we gather as Christians. “To make up fellowship with God, we must not only speak to him in prayer but also listen to what he has to say to us from his word.” Elsewhere church leaders are commanded to give themselves both to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.
v28-32: “Many people speak good words and make fair promises in their religious faith, and make some good suggestions about what they will do, but stay there and go no further, and so come to nothing. Saying and doing are two different things, and there are many who say but do not do… Many people show much love with their mouth but have their heart going in a different direction. They have good intentions to be religious, but they always have something else to do; they find something precious to them that is too difficult to give up, and so their intentions come to nothing. Buds and blossoms are not the same as fruit.”
v33-46: The Pharisees and chief priests knew Jesus was talking about them. “A guilty conscience needs no accuser.” When the word of God rebukes those who hear it, and they realise it is speaking about them, “if it does not do them a great deal of good, it will certainly do them a great deal of harm. If they are not pricked to the heart with conviction and contrition, they will be cut to the heart with rage and fury.”
Quotes from Matthew Henry’s Commentary.
(Photo: Brad Neathery)
A prayer based on Matthew 21:12-17.
Our Father,
We adore You for Your plan of salvation.
Lord Jesus,
We thank You for accomplishing salvation for us.
Holy Spirit,
We praise You for applying this salvation to our hearts.
Triune God,
We give You the glory that we are ransomed, healed, restored, and forgiven.
For the great hope of eternal life that has come to us through the gospel.
Lord Jesus, we are so grateful that You are the great Redeemer.
That by Your life, death, and resurrection,
You have rescued us from sin’s penalty and set us free from sin’s power.
And having set us free from slavery to sin, You are showing Yourself to be the great Reformer,
as by Your Word and Spirit, You change and transform us, making us more like Yourself.
We pray that You would do this great work of reformation in our lives;
that You would correct ungodliness,
that You would help us to give up every darling lust,
and that You would restore Your image in us.
Help us to follow Your will and Your way.
To listen to Your voice.
To walk in obedience to Your commands.
To depend upon Your strength and power.
To ask for wisdom to respond to every situation and circumstance in a manner worthy of the calling we have received.
To stick to the paths of righteousness.
To hate all the grieves the Holy Spirit.
To shun a careless way of life.
Imperfect though we still are, enable us to press on with eyes fixed on Christ, enduring whatever trial may come.
And Lord as You continue to conform us individually to Yourself, we pray that You would reform and restore Your church, this local church, to how it is meant to be.
To be a community who love You and who love one another.
Whose belief in You is genuine and who are marked by doing the will of Your Father in heaven.
Who encourage and spur one another on to holiness.
Who take sin seriously and are concerned for the purity of Your people.
Who fear doing anything that would dishonour the name of the LORD and cause others to malign the Word of God.
May we be marked by faithfulness and humble dependence, and be good examples to other, especially those who are children or who are young in the faith.
Would we not say anything or do anything that would cause them to curse You, our God.
Instead would they praise You as their Saviour and Lord and by their praise give You the honour that You deserve.
Amen.
(Photo: Freely)
The Big Read – Daily Read
Matthew 19
v1-12: “If husband and wife are by the will and appointment of God joined together in the strictest and closest union, then they are not to be lightly, and for just any reason, separated; if the knot is sacred, it cannot be easily untied.”
v13-15: The best thing we can do for our children and the children in the church is to commit them to the Lord Jesus and ask Him to bless them.
v16-22: An excessive love for the world and an enjoyment of it will keep us from eternal life. Christians shows that they are heirs of eternal life by preferring “heavenly treasures to all the wealth and riches of this world” and by being willing to “dispose of what we have in this world for the honour of God and in his service.”
v23-30: “When we think how good God is, it may seem amazing that so few are his, but when we think how bad people are, it is more amazing that so many are, and Christ will be eternally wondered at in them.” That so many are is entirely due to the power of God, with whom all things are possible. Faith is both brought about and sustained by that power.
Matthew 20
v1-16: God saves some when they are young, He saves others in middle age, while still others are saved when they are old. There is hope for everyone who turns to God, and there is no wrong time for us to do this.
v17-19: “Jesus spoke so frequently about his sufferings because through them he was to enter into his glory. It is good for us to think and speak often of our death and of the sufferings that we will probably meet with between this time and the grave; if we make them more familiar, they will become less formidable.”
v20-28: Jesus laid down His life as a ransom for us. Whilst He lived as a servant and went around doing good, it was His death that did the greatest good of all. He was made sin and a curse for us to rescue us. By humbling Himself and serving us, He has set an example for us to follow. We are to humble ourselves and serve one another so that all may be built up in their faith.
v29-34: Our prayers are to be marked by boldness, humility, faith, and perseverance. Remember that when we are praying, we are going to God through Christ, who came to save and to help.
Quotes from Matthew Henry’s Commentary.
(Photo: Brad Neathery)