The Enduring Anchor: Re-Affirming the Call of the Pastor

In Episode 2, Ben sits down with Pastor Mitch Burch of the Buffalo First Church of God in Buffalo, West Virginia, for an honest conversation about the call to ministry and what it takes to stay faithful to it over time. Drawing from over 50 years of ministry, Mitch shares his personal journey into the call, the pressures that can cause pastors to question it, and how God uses both seasons of fruitfulness and deep personal tragedy to anchor and sustain His servants.

This episode addresses the tension many pastors feel but rarely talk about, measuring success, facing discouragement, and navigating doubt, while pointing back to what truly matters: faithfulness, intimacy with Christ, and trusting God with the results.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Well, hello and welcome to Pastor on Point. This is your host, Ben Liston. We are here to have real discussions about real ministry. And joining me today is Pastor Mitch Birch, Pastor of the Buffalo First Church of God here in Buffalo, West Virginia. Mitch, welcome to Pastor on Point. Glad to be with you. Thanks for the invite, Ben. Yeah. We're going to have an honest conversation today about the call to ministry and staying faithful to that call. And I think maybe the best way to start the conversation today would be uh just share your personal call to ministry, how that how that all went down and what the Lord did in your heart. Yeah, well.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

It's kind of ironic that you ask that question to start with that question because my first sermon ever was right here in this building. And uh my mom sat right up here on the second pew, and uh she was so excited to record on cassette tape my first sermon, and she was so excited that uh she forgot to press record. She play she pressed play, but you know you had to press press play and record. She forgot to press record. So no one knows what I said in my first sermon, but that was 50 years ago, Ben. Wow. This coming September. This September, I will be, I will have been preaching for 50 years. Um, and um the call of God, of course, uh captured my spirit uh as a kid. I I grew up right here in this little town of Buffalo on the Kanawha River, uh third house across the tracks. And um my dad, of course, pastored this church for many years, and during those years, he he was not bashful to ask uh O. L. Johnson, Bill Neese, John Connolly, Arlo Newell, Boyce Blackwelder, some of the greats of the greats in our movement uh to come preach here. Dad, he wasn't bashful, he wasn't embarrassed about the smallness of the church. He didn't care. He he wanted the best of the best. And and uh they they stayed in our home, and uh I I was uh privileged to uh know them personally as friends. And so I I watched these heroes, these preaching heroes, um, as I was growing up. And so uh I I sat right there on that back pew every Sunday, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, and came in the back door late after a little league baseball practice, took my spikes off at the door and walked in and sat down. Uh so I listened to my dad the whole time. And of course, I come from a long lintage of preaching and preachers. Uh right across the field from where we're sitting, uh Bertie Smith was born. That's F. G. Smith's wife. Bertie Smith was born, which was a preacher in her own right. Um, and she and her sister got on the floating Bethel over here on the Kanawha River, floated to the Ohio River, and went to Moundsville and became a part of the Gospel Trumpet family in Moundsville. So I I come from a long, long, long heritage. She was my aunt, uh, my great, she was my great-great aunt. Wow. And uh so I come from a long heritage of preachers. Uh my dad, my uncle, uh, my grandfather built the first church of God here in Buffalo years and years and years ago. So I I grew up in it. I grew up in it. Now that did not call me, that didn't call me to the ministry because I had a heritage of ministry. But I did see it. I watched it, I observed it, and uh I observed with interest, I've often said. But when I got saved and gave my life to Christ as a young, a young teenager, um I I wasn't, I wasn't bashful. I had been singing and leading singing here for a long time. So I wasn't bashful, wasn't afraid of the platform or pulpit. Uh and so I was asked one time, my father had my father had uh resigned and moved on to Green Valley Church of God after 17 years here at Buffalo. And our new pastor asked me to stay on and do the music, so I did. And one Wednesday night he was going to be gone, so he said, Would you lead prayer meeting? And I said, Well, what do you mean lead prayer meeting? He said, I want you to share, share a word. And I said, Well, I don't have a word. I I've got a song to sing, I don't have a word to preach. He said, No, no, you you have a testimony. Give your testimony, share your favorite scripture. And so I did, for let your light so shine before men they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven, Matthew 5, 16. Yeah. So I I I shared that verse and I shared a couple of experiences and uh shared a little bit of a of an admonition. And I walked out of this building, this very building, and people were saying, Wow, Mitch, that thank you. That that touched me. That that that blessed my heart. Thank you. And I went on, you know, uh, and uh so then as time went on, he asked me then on on one week, he said, I'm gonna be gone. Can you can you speak on Sunday night? And Ben, for the life of me, I thought there was a difference. I thought there was a difference between what I would share on Wednesday night and give my testimony and would you speak on Sunday night? Well, I had this delineation. I I well, well, I I can share on Wednesday night, but I can't speak on Sunday night. Uh and so, but anyway, I I started working on what I thought was a serm sermon, and I'll never forget what I preached on first. And that first that first Sunday night was the night I just told you about in September uh 50 years ago. Uh I chose to preach on We Are Created a Little Lower Than the Angels. And when I text when I told my dad, when I told A Wayne Birch what I was preaching on, he said, son, maybe you could have chosen a little simpler theology. And I but I preached on it. I I again nobody knows what I said because mom forgot to record it, but nonetheless, you know, and from there, I I just sensed, you know, God kept giving me opportunity and kept uh moving in my heart to study scripture and to read into it and to get my life in a in a position where I was studying regularly and and looking at commentaries and listening to great preaching and watching and and and observing great preaching. And I I it this captured my soul. It captured my heart. I've often said, man, I I wish I had this glorious, glorious moment where you know God put something in the clouds and scripted something, you're called to the ministry. I I don't have that kind of a deal. I had a burning in my heart to share my faith. I had a burning in my soul to study scripture. And by God's grace, people started saying, Wow, that's helpful to me. And God called me to the ministry. He put me in the ministry. Yeah, you know, and and the the reality is my my dad said, I'll never forget it. When I first went to dad and said that, I think maybe Jesus is calling me to preach. He never hesitated. He quickly said, son, if you can do anything else and be satisfied for your life profession, do it. Do not do the ministry. I mean, he he he did not want me to try and follow him. Right. Uh he wanted me to follow Jesus. And so I I took that seriously. And and I I was I was on my way to being a basketball coach and going to Concord State College and playing basketball and getting a teaching certificate and being a teacher and a coach. That's what I was gonna do because I was I was gonna not do the ministry, you know, I wasn't gonna do that. But but then I realized I could preach on the side. That's what my dad did. He was bivocational for many, many, many years, most of his career. So I thought, you know, if God calls me to preach, I I will I will teach school and coach basketball and preach a little bit here and there. Uh and so that was kind of my plan until John Connolly came to a state camp meeting and he preached one one night. I'll never forget it, it changed my life. He preached on Moses throwing down the rod. And I was already on a trajectory to play basketball at Concord State College and University and get my teaching certificate. And I was really, really interested in a young lady here in the valley. And Dr. Connolly preached, throw down the rod. He he meant throw down the the gift of God, throw it down and see if God will use it. And if you'll use it, he'll let you pick it up again. If not, let it alone. Let it alone. So I threw all that down, I threw my plan down, I threw my courtship down, I threw all of that down, and God never let me pick it back up. Instead, I enrolled at Gulf Coast Bible College. So uh that that's kind of the that's kind of the journey.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Yeah. Wow, uh what a what a story that is. And I um there's something I can identify with. My father said the same thing to me, yeah, that your father said to you if you can do anything else, uh do it. And um and there is um there is sweet peace um about being in the center of God's will and God's call. And you know if you are and you know if you're not. Absolutely. And um what uh what what confidence we can have, not in ourselves, but in in the assurance that God has called us uh to the ministry. And uh I I think sometimes along the way um we get we definitely get weary. Uh sometimes you get frustrated. Um the enemy has a way of uh you know uh helping you doubt a lot. Um and I want to talk through some of those some of those reasons why we we doubt our call. And um I think sometimes we don't like to talk about the fact that we we question the call or doubt the call. Uh that's kind of taboo. Um you're either called or you're not, and uh and so we don't really share much about that uh amongst other ministers because we don't want to be the one that's weak or whatever, whatever we think it might be. Um but I want to talk uh specifically about questioning this call. Um let's talk about uh results. I think sometimes pastors get really caught up and really discouraged when they don't see visible results. And what I mean by that is people coming to the altar or people getting saved or whatever, you know, visible results, um but also understanding that it's not all about visible results, uh that the Spirit is always working in the hearts of God's people and and sinners that uh will come to Him. So can you talk about results?

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Yeah, I I did not understand what my dad really meant when he said, if you can do anything else, uh do it. But what he meant was has it now been fleshed out in 50 years of ministry because of the the difficulty and the struggle and the battle and the conflict and the and the the the burden, the the the consistent, relentless burden that you carry. Um and part of that burden is is this whole notion of when am I effective and when am I not, and what if I what if I'm not effective for a season? What if I'm not effective for a couple of years in the life of a church, what's gonna happen? Uh and and all of those things weigh heavy on a pastor's mind, a minister's mind. So that that's really what dad meant when he said, if you can do anything else, do it, because uh I think the tangible results in other fields are it's a little bit more measurable. I mean, if I was gonna coach, how many wins do you have? How many losses do you have? Well, that that's tangible results. Well, that that's hard to quantify in the life of the ministry in the church. So uh early on, I'll just be honest, early on, man, I my my my life, my ministry was shaped largely by the church growth movement. And uh I I went to every John Maxwell conference, every Rick Warren conference I could afford to go to. And I've got books and books and books and books that have sat on my library mantles for ages, and I have seldom ever referred to them again. Uh because it was for me, I would go to those conferences trying to find a way to get larger, to get bigger as a life in the life of the church, how to how to expand. I'll never forget I went to John Maxwell's conference on how to take your church to a thousand. And don't get me wrong, I I got some good information, really, really good information. He built a great church, Scott on Westland Church. But I'm but I'm saying uh I I was driven by the result. I was driven driven by you know the growth and the explosive growth. And and by God's grace, I I've experienced in the churches I've pastored a lot of growth, a lot of growth, and I'm grateful for that, thankful. But early on in my ministry, I was seeking that. I was trying to get there. Uh and I I'm sure, just being honest, I'm sure a lot of that was driven by my own ego. And and I had to get that in check. And uh you you don't have time on this podcast for me to tell you the story about how God checked my ego, but but it it it it was a dramatic moment in my life where he took me to the backside of the desert and uh and just stripped me of everything and all the success and all of the accolades and all the recognition, all the camp meeting preaching and all of the all the large church development, all the building programs that I'd been through and done successfully. He stripped me of all that and showed me what I was without him, which was absolutely nothing. Well, when I came out of that desert-like experience, uh I came out with a a new recognition, a new understanding of my identity in him, and that he loved me not for the results.

unknown 13:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

He loved me for being his child. He just loved me as his as my father. Uh and and I and I got to relax uh in the I've got to relax in the last 20 years of my ministry with all of that pressure and all of that success-driven kind of an idea. Uh, because I I I recognize the best definition of humility I I've ever heard is one that the Spirit gave me, and he said, humility is when you understand who you are and who you're not. And I was not going to be John Maxwell, I was not gonna be Rick Warren, I was not gonna be some of the other notable names in ministry over the last many decades. I was gonna be the person God called me to be. And if I would be faithful to the person God called me to be, and faithful to the word and faithful to the proclamation of the truth, then God would take care of the results. And so, and so, I I'll I'll give you this little antidote. It used to be when I when I was battling in my ego for you know accolades and uh commendation and and applause, people would come out and say to me, come out of church and say to me, Pastor, wow, wow, wow, what a great sermon. Never heard anything like it. Man, that just that just that just feels good. I'm just telling you, it's a good thing. Uh and I I used to be kind of embarrassed when people would say that to me. I didn't know what to say in response. I didn't know whether to say, well, thank you. If if I I felt like if I said thank you, I was bragging. And so I I I was just, I would often say, Well, thank the Lord, or or something real spiritual, you know. Uh but then one day it dawned on me. I I I I've got a different answer for that. And now on occasion, when somebody comes out and says, Pastor Mitch, wow, that was fantastic. That was a great sermon, I often now say, We'll see. We'll see. And the reason I say that legitimately is because great sermons are not proclaimed. Right. Great sermons are heard, assimilated, and lived. And so if people hear and assimilate and live out the truth that you've just proclaimed, then that's a great sermon. I don't care what the articulation skill was, it doesn't matter what the hermeneutics were, it really doesn't even matter what the homilytics are. If they are living out the truth of Scripture because of the way you proclaimed it, guess what, friends? That's a great sermon. That's a great sermon. So um so success has has uh really evolved in in the way I have understood success in ministry and and uh early on, it early on it was a driver, uh, but in the last two decades, uh it's not that it's not important, it's just not all important.

unknown 16:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

You know, I still want baptisms every year because I want a soul safe, I want people to come to faith. I I love it when I read on the on the on Facebook or online how many people were baptized at so-and-so church. I I love that. That's glory to God to me. But but service after service, Sunday after Sunday, uh invitation response and and that kind of thing cannot be the driving force. It's what does the word of God do intrinsically when it is proclaimed and assimilated and lived out? And when it happens that way, then that's success.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Absolutely. Absolutely. I uh I've been preaching through the book of Mark, and um just two weeks ago I was uh working through uh the seed, and of course the seed is the word, and um uh something that the Lord really dealt with me about was the seed uh the sower, their own only responsibility is to sow the seed. Right. That's it. Right. Right. Be obedient, be faithful to that, then God will take the seed and he'll he'll give whatever result he's pleased with, but it's my responsibility to throw the seed. And uh it reminds me of a Charles Stanley quote. Uh he used to say, obey God and leave the consequences to him.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

And uh or you could say, obey God and leave the results to him, especially when it comes to our ministries.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

That that reminds me of a quote uh that H. Peter Schlegel uh mentioned when I was in college at Gulf Coast. He was my evangelism professor. He said one day, he'll I'll never forget this, and I use it all the time. He said, Let me let me give you an absolute perfect way to share your faith, and every time you share it the way I'm gonna share it with you, it will be effective. And I thought, wow, I'm gonna sit up on my seat, I'm gonna take me a note or two here, Dr. Schlagel. And he here's what he said, and I'll quote him. Great man of God. I love H. Peter Schlagel. He said, every time you share your faith, share the good news of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, and leave the results to God. That's the way you have it. That's the way you have an effective witness every time you share your faith. And that's true of the ministry. Share the word, give it, give it to the people as God has given it to you, and let God take care of the results. I water, Paul, Paul, what's the Bible say? Yeah. Paul uh planted a polished water, God gave the increase. Let God give the increase. I I I love that idea. And that really is what we're tasked to do. And the seed piece that you mentioned in Mark reminded me of a scriptural principle in church health and development, natural church development. The whole concept of natural church development, I know we're not talking about that, but we're talking about success, is is the the responsibility of the sower to sow the seed, cultivate the ground, sow the seed, and leave the results to God. Because the scripture says it grows all by itself. Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Well, there's a word for that. I I can't pronounce it in the Greek because it's 27 letters. But the notion is it's called a growth automatism. A growth automatism is when you do your part. You plant, you water, you cultivate, you fertilize. God has already built in the DNA of the seed growth.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Yeah, right. You don't have to make it grow.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

The farmer don't plant the seed and stand there and watch and wait for it to sprout. He goes and does other things. He goes and does ever ever other kinds of things, farming things, agricultural things. He leaves the seed to God because God has built in the seed the DNA to grow.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

If you do your part, God will do his part. And that's true in every church. Every church has the DNA of growth. So pastors can can relax a little bit, right? Trying to not not make it happen. Preach the truth, be faithful, sow the seed, let God give the increase, and God get and when that happens, God gets the glory.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Absolutely. Yes. Yes, absolutely. Well, I think uh another area when it comes to uh where where some doubt their call to ministry uh is not just our human idea of results, but also uh just a general um life circumstance where that where life takes you um can have a major effect upon you questioning your call, uh sicknesses, tragedies, whatever it might be. Um so uh talk to us about staying faithful to the call, not doubting the call, even in the midst of great tragedy.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Well, I I I have to be honest, you know, and say, look, there have been in in the last 50 years, there have been um times when um without tragedy and with without dire circumstances, I have I have wondered, God, what what's going on here? Why is this happening, or why is that happening, or why is this not happening? Uh and I while I I've never categorized it in the area category of of doubting my call. Honestly, to be honest, I've doubted God. I know God called me. I I know he called me. I I've never really doubted the call, but I've doubted I I've questioned why God hasn't done this or that, why in his word he says he'll do this and he he just hasn't done it in my time or he hasn't done it in my in my uh So I've doubted some of that. I've questioned some of that. And I and I've learned in in in the last several years that God is big enough to take my whys. He's big enough to answer my questions. And sometimes he's even big enough to not answer my questions and just say, trust me.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

You got to trust me. Doubting the call or doubting God or questioning the call or questioning God I think can be a significant hindrance and is brought on by a variety of circumstances. Churches go into conflict or or people people quit giving or people leave the church. So there's there's multiple reasons why uh pastors like I like me have have doubted or questioned. But uh I I suppose the the most devastating time in my life was when when my wife and mother-in-law were tragically killed 11 years ago next month. Um and uh Shelly and I were 37 years in marriage, two grown kids and grandkids, and and I was well on my way to establishing uh tremendous ministry in town town Boulevard in Middletown and hopefully retiring there. That was my plan. Um and then the tragedy happened. And um within a matter of hours uh after that tragedy, and and you remember it well, you were there with me through all that, um, but uh she was killed on a Wednesday at 11 a.m. in the morning. And Thursday morning, my dad and mom and brother and sister-in-law got there. And uh dad walked in. Uh he he didn't say a lot when he first walked in. He was very emotional as you might can imagine. Uh but he and there was a house full of people, as I recall, and and he found made his way to me. And uh he uh he embraced me, of course, and uh wept with me. But when we disembraced, he s he looked me in the eye and he said, Son, I want to tell you something. I said, What's up, Dad? He said, This is tragic, and and we are so broken by this. But he said, Don't forget God called you the ministry before you ever met Shelley. And this does not end your ministry. You're still the man of God, you're still called of God, yes, devastated, yes, broken, yes, confused, no doubt, but the call of God was way before this relationship. And as much as we grieve her passing, we we want you to know that we're praying God will sustain you and your ministry in this. And so I I heard that. I heard that deeply, if you know what I mean. I mean, I I I I after she was killed, I I wasn't I wasn't even thinking about my call of God or the ministry or preaching. I wasn't even thinking about that. I was thinking trying to figure out how to survive the next 24 hours and get my kids there and all that. So I wasn't thinking about it, but dad reminded me of it in the middle of it. And uh I thought it was beautiful, it was beautiful. As I look back, it was just a beautiful thing because because I quickly then went back to that conversation, brief conversation I had with him. In the hours and week days that followed that, I went back to that and it became an anchor. It became a promise to me, man. Yeah. Like dad's right. Right. You know, I was 16 years old in Buffalo, West Virginia, when God called me. I was 19 when I met Shelley, and 19 when we got married, and lived 37 years together and happy, happy marital life, and and and kids and family. But the ministry was before, the ministry was during, and I'm happy to say that in the last 11 years, ministry after. Uh it's not been the same, but it it doesn't have to be the same. It it it it has its own identity, it has its own own life, you know. Uh at a point at while I was still grappling with staying at town or not after her death, I kept saying to people, I I I don't know if I can do this without her. Because our ministry, my ministry, while three three years of that was as a single young man here in the city of Buffalo, my professional ministry, my professional life and and ordained uh years was all with her, 37 years. Uh and I that's all I knew. She and I doing life and doing ministry together. So I wasn't sure how that was going to look or if it could even be following her death. But again, I came back to Dad's statement to me, and I knew that God, the same God who'd called me, was the God who was with me, and the same God who was with me will be with me every tomorrow. And uh so I I took that as um a word from God, a word of confirmation. I'm still, I'm still your your God, I'm still your father, I'll still lead you, I'll still use you by God's grace.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

Yeah, and what a what a clarifying statement. Yeah. Or quirk, yeah, clarifying statement by your father. I that just I remember that. I remember watching that happen. And uh uh and you weren't even uh in that moment, you were so you know grieved and and dealing with things of of immediate need, yeah, you weren't even thinking about that. But yet in the midst of tragedy, God used your father to speak clearly to you.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

And um, I think that could that should be very encouraging to pastors that God, in the midst of your doubt, your frustration, your tragedy, God will use people around you to speak clearly to you and say, I I'm I still have a purpose for you, I have a plan for you, I have a call on your life, and um that that should encourage our hearts. Um if we will look for God, He'll be there. Yeah, he'll be there.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

I want to I want to also mention something that uh Pastor Claude Robold uh said. As you know, Claude was very, very close to me during during all the, and still is, but but was very close to me during the tragedy. He was so kind and generous. Um I asked him one day, it was I don't know, it was several months after Shelley had passed. I said, Claude, what in the world is my life gonna look like? I said, Claude, he and Gary Patton were both sitting in the same booth with me at a restaurant. And uh I said, what am I gonna how am I how am I gonna measure ministry? How am I gonna do this uh by myself? And I'll never forget what Claude said. He said, Mitch, God called you when you were a kid to preach the gospel and make disciples. He said, Focus on making disciples. He didn't say how many disciples you had to make. He didn't say you had to make a thousand disciples or ten thousand disciples. He didn't say you had to pastor a church of a thousand. He said, make disciples. So every day of your life, focus on making disciples.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

Come, bringing people to faith in Christ and making disciples. And that's what I do in this little church, man. I I make disciples here. I got I got disciples running everywhere. The whole point is my life still has meaning. My ministry has still has validity and and and and power in that I'm still preaching the gospel, I'm still preaching the truth, and I'm still making disciples and still advancing the kingdom. And I and I just want to say to every anyone who's watching or listening, you know, no matter what has happened to you, no matter what has befallen you, if you'll stay focused on the call of God in your life and stay focused on the purpose of God in your life, which is to make disciples, he will use you to his glory. He will use your tragedy, he will use your platform, he will use your opportunity to share the gospel through all that. He'll use all of that. If you'll be listening and you'll be watching, he'll you'll find him in every situation.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Absolutely. The call of ministry, our identity in the call is not in our circumstance.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

No, no, it can't be. We can't find ourselves. If that's where it is, then we will be we will vacillate with the wind, man. Right. And the wind will blow you every which way but loose. Uh you have to be you have to be solid in the call of God in your life so that as adversity comes, whether it's church adversity or or personal adversity or whatever the case may be, uh it won't it won't knock you over. You you'll keep going. And and hey, look, I I've had I've had open heart surgery. I I've I I have been on the brink, I'm told. Uh, and uh I thought, well, maybe this is it. You know, I don't know. Maybe this is it. But but you know, God's given me strength and grace, and and while I've faced that personal adversity in my health, uh I I I've just tried to remain true to what God has called me to do and and do it with more sense than I've used, I used to do it, of course, you know, in terms of my health and my ongoing well-being, you know, but uh even even and I know I know many pastors struggle with health concerns and and their spouse has has health concerns, and it's very discouraging. It's very, very debilitating. We we've got a young uh a pastor family right here in the state of West Virginia that we've been ministering to who recently had triple bypass, and her husband has been given a catastrophic diagnosis, a cancer diagnosis. It all happens simultaneously. It's like, how could this happen to this ministry family? But she remains faithful, man. She she remains true to what God called her to do. So so thankful for that.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

If we could, as we kind of wrap this up, give, can you give some things that uh and you have already, but maybe give us some more things that pastors can do right now that are listening to this? They're they're in the they're in the sea of doubt when it comes to their call, they're frustrated, they they do know God's called them, but there's doubt, there's frustration, there's conflict, there's tragedy they're walking through. What are some things they could do right now to shure up their confidence in the call that God has placed on their life?

SPEAKER_00 32:36

Well, then without a doubt, the first thing that comes to my mind is devotional intimacy. I just gotta tell you. If you think you can do this ministry without being intimate with Jesus, you're out of your mind. It will not happen. You can go for a while, but you will burn. You will burn, you will collapse, you you you will you will be the tragedy. And we don't want that for any of us or any of you. So devotional intimacy, when you're not sure about congregational life, when you're not sure about the measure of success, when you're not even sure about where your family is, you got to get to Jesus. You gotta get to Jesus. Now, that that should be a given. We should we should all know that in ministry. But but please understand, ministry is like any other profession. The work of ministry will distract you. The work of ministry will take you out to places and will distract you and divert your attention away from devotional intimacy. So the first thing I would tell you, if you're discouraged, if you're defeated or you're feeling pressed by the issues and circumstances, and the circumstances of your life are pressing in on you, get to Jesus. Find real peace. Find a place where you can commune consistently with Jesus. And get back in touch if you please. Not that you've lost him, but get back in touch with the intimacy you have with the Father. That's the first thing. The second thing is stay, and when I talk about getting back in touch with the Father, I'm talking about personal prayer, personal contemplation, personal meditation, and then get into scripture, get back into scripture. And look, I know this happens all the time. Preachers look at scripture every week. They have to because they got to perform on the weekend. They've got to preach on the weekend. But when it's a performance and when it's another presentation, it's not feeding your soul. It's just not. It may be feeding somebody else, but it's not feeding you. So I urge you to have devotional intimacy and contemplation, meditation with Jesus and get in God's word. Get back into the scripture, get into the book of Psalms. If you're discouraged, get into the book of Psalms and listen to David's lament and watch David's victory and listen to how God deals with David. He will deal with you the same way. He will love you like he loved David because you're a person after God's own heart. So, devotional intimacy, scriptural word. And then a trusted friend. Yeah. A trusted friend. And and I and by God's grace, I have trusted friends that I have leaned on in the in the heaviest days of my life and the darkest days of my ministry. And they've been so faithful. And I have tried, by God's grace, been to be that for people, you know, because particularly when you've gone through a lot of seasons of life like I have in 50 years, uh, you you have a lot of experience that that uh a lot of young guys like you have not yet encountered. Right. And so we we talk quite often, and and you run things by me. So so uh that that's what it means, I think, to be in relationship with colleagues, be in relationship with brothers and sisters in the Lord. So when you're leaning, they're there. When they're leaning, you're there. And so so those those three pieces uh are pivotal. And and I I want to also say be be mindful that you don't have to answer every question, and you don't have to be at every meeting, and you don't have to be at at every function, particularly when you're discouraged, when you're hurting. Pace yourself and and monitor your time and and and be sure and manage your life uh and not be uh helter skelter and not be uh really loose in in your schedule. So so be be committed to the to a real rest and a real schedule. And and I know we're gonna talk about sabbatical later on in another episode, but but that that's what I'm talking about is Sabbath day to day, sabbath weekly, you know, not just a sabbatical, but a sabbath experience day to day.

unknown 36:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

I think uh uh another piece too is I don't I don't know how you um preach uh what style as far as what style uh but if you are an expositor um and you're you are you're frustrated, you're doubting your call, you're dealing with conflict of some sort or some type of tragedy, just preach the next verse. If you're in a chapter or you're in a book, preach the next verse. Yeah. That's that's the focus. Don't don't let all the other stuff take you take your take your focus away. Preach the next verse. And um or if you're in a series, preach the next sermon. God's already put the sermon on your heart. Maybe you've already written the outline, preach the next sermon. Um be faithful, every area you can be faithful. Uh well, I think this conversation has been a blessing, and uh I think uh many uh as they listen and watch uh will be encouraged and strengthened to stay faithful to the call. Um and I would I would also encourage you to do one last thing. If you have not, write out your calling. Write down the story of your calling. Yeah. And uh and maybe you need to uh pull that out occasionally. I we had to do that when I was going through uh the ordination process. We had to write it out, and uh they said file that away um because you might need to get it out and look at it to remind yourself. So uh that's a practical thing that you uh that you could do. Well, I want to thank you for joining us today. I especially want to thank Pastor Mitch for being with us. My pleasure. And um, we are we are Pastor on Point, where real pastors talk about real ministry.