How to Dig a Well with a Folder

 

Currently, on my blog, I am working my way through a backlog of questions. Today’s post is an attempt to answer a question related to filing. Go ahead, yawn. I don’t mind. <grin> This one happens to be aimed at preachers anyway, and younger ones at that. So go have a cup of coffee, scroll mindlessly through Facebook, and check in again with me next week for more scintillating content. <still grinning>

Let me frame this as a series of questions.

“Pastor Brennan, do I really need a filing system in the age of AI and the internet?”

Yes. Filing content wisely is what seems like an extraneous bother at first, but when you do it consistently, you build a library of resources always at your fingertips. Fast forward a decade or two in ministry, and your filing system begins to save you hours of work while at the same time making the content you produce richer than ever. So, yeah, having a filing system that works for you is important. And since in the process of filing it you took mental ownership of the information, it carries much more weight than just asking an AI for a random answer.

“Do I have to use the filing system you are about to explain?”

No. But you have to use one. Consistently.

“Good. Because I probably won’t use yours. But just in case, what sorts of things do you file?”

Essentially, I file thought-provoking ideas/concepts I want to remember, as well as mental study/work I’ve done. For example, I read 50 books a year for a variety of reasons, but I want to cull the best of the content and retain it for future reference. So I make notations in the margin as I read. When I’m finished, I write an overall review of the book more for my own use in the future than anything. I post that online on Goodreads, so it is instantly available to me whenever I search for a particular book. Additionally, I work my way back through the book page by page, and select the best thoughts. These are the ones I use for my Quote List.

The Quote List is important to some of the people who receive it, but I’m really the one who gets the most out of it. After reading the book, annotating it, and selecting the best portions for quotes, I then type them out one at a time and send them daily to an email list of about 650 preachers. I then digitally archive that quote searchable primarily by subject, but also book and author. I have done this for, I don’t know, twenty-five years? A long time. My quote files – which are the curated best bits of every book I have read for several decades – currently contain thousands and thousands of quotes on just about every subject you can think of. If I need support for a point I am making, or I want to be reminded of things I have considered on the subject in the past, it is as easy as pulling up the file. Not to mention that every time I run that quote/thought across my mind, I deepen my mental grasp of it. I retain more each time I interact with it.

“Ok, but that’s not me. I don’t have a Quote List, or whatever you call it.”

Understood. You can still do the exact same thing, minus the email at the end. Make notes in all the books you read. Figure out a system to digitally archive those notes in a way that is searchable. In fact, anymore, you don’t even have to type them out as dinosaurs like me do. Ask an AI for a list of digital highlighters, and take your pick. They will do it for you.

“All right. That’s books sorted. What’s next?”

Your sermons. You should keep every single one you write, whether in outline or in manuscript form. Every single one. I am grateful that a pastor told me that when I was still a teenager. As of this writing, I have preached/taught almost 6,000 times. I still have practically every one of those outlines.

“What, throw them in a drawer or something?”

No. Archive them digitally so they are searchable.

Here is how I do it. I write every outline in Microsoft Word. I write it either as part of a larger document (for a series), or as a standalone document. I save it by date and service. For example, on Sunday morning, March 25, 2012, I preached a standalone message entitled, “How Long Halt Ye Between Two Opinions?” from I Kings 18.21. I wrote the outline and saved it as sam032512. That got put into a folder on Dropbox labeled, “SAM 2012.” That, in turn, was placed into a folder labeled “2012 Sermons”, and that within the folder “Archived Sermon Notes.” At the same time, I created a record of that sermon on an Excel spreadsheet. On that spreadsheet, titled “Sunday Morning Sermon Record”, I have a box for the number that sermon was, 3083, the date, 3/25/12, the title, the main idea condensed into a word, in this case, consecration, and the text.

Moving forward, let's say I am studying I Kings, and I come across this passage, and I say to myself, “Hmmm… I think I recall preaching a sermon on this passage.” I can pull up my Excel spreadsheet and search for the reference, or the main thought, or the title, and find exactly where/when I preached it. With that information, I can click through a few folders and, behold, there is my previous sermon from I Kings 18.21. I may be preaching a different thought now, but the work I did on understanding the context will still apply, and now I don’t have to do that work over again. Voila, I have just saved 30 minutes.

Being organized allows you to build knowledge momentum. Perhaps depth is a better word here. It allows you to bring to bear the best of decades' worth of study on any one particular message or lesson. In the process, it not only saves you time but it enriches your hearers in ways they instinctively feel, whether they understand how you did it or not. It’s not that you’re smarter than anyone else or that you studied more. No, you just determined to be organized, and the payoff from that, though long in arriving, comes through like exponentially increasing 401k returns.

In addition to deepening your own grasp of a subject, saving you time, and enriching your hearers, this also lets you help other preachers. If I had a dime for every time a preacher has asked me if I have any notes on fill-in-the-blank subject, I would be a millionaire. The answer is almost always, “Yes, I do. Let me track that down, and I’ll get it to you.” In fact, I did so much of that that I finally created a Dropbox folder specifically for it and shared it with all my Patreon supporters. I don’t have to answer those emails/texts as often, and my supporters have immediate, organized access to what is currently 1,460 messages extending over 78 different sermon series. That saves them time, makes their preaching richer, and edifies their people more. And all it took was a little consistent organization.

“Bruh. I am a sophomore in college. I have three messages. This is overkill.”

No, it isn’t. It is applied wisdom. Start now. Indeed, there will never be a better or easier time for you to start. No, you do not have to do it as I do, but in some form, archive your messages digitally and organize them so they are searchable. Your future self will thank me a thousand times.

Elsa Lisle demonstrating the card 
catologue at Penn State University
library, c 1950

So that’s my system for filing information from books I read and sermon/lesson content I produce. You may think of additional ways you can apply this. Good. You may think of better ways to apply this. Also, good. Regardless of how you do it or what you use, develop a system that works for you. Ideas and concepts and thoughts and work should not be fleetingly applied to the moment; they should be curated for the benefit of people you will come across in the future.

You can give someone a drink at the moment, or you can dig a well that will continue to produce good water for those in need for a long time.

Which one will your ministry be?

 

 

How to Pray for An Hour

 

Currently, on my blog, I am answering a backlog of questions. Today’s question revolves around a statement I put on Twitter some time ago: “Grateful to my Dad this morning, who taught me how to pray for longer periods of time. What a balm it has been through these years. If you do not, it is one of the most worthwhile things you can learn. What, could ye not watch with me one hour? (Matthew 26.40)” To which statement I received the query, “Well, what did he teach you? I want to learn!”

A pic I snapped while praying with
my Dad before a church service
in Chicago. 

I surrendered to preach at fourteen. Immediately, I began to take my walk with God seriously. But although I knew I should read my Bible and pray, I had done very little praying up to that point. I prayed for meals and in Bible class, things like that, but I did not know what it was like to labour in prayer, let alone to do so for lengthy periods of time. As I began to fumble my way toward that, I stopped my Dad one day and at random asked him, “Dad, do you ever pray for an hour at a time?” He affirmed he did. When I asked him how, he told me to give him a few days. Some time later, we sat down, and he handed me a piece of paper with a few simple handwritten thoughts. I think I still have that piece of paper in my files somewhere. Regardless, I remember what he said. Further, I put it into practice almost immediately and have used it in one form or another hundreds of times since.

Basically, he told me to do three things. Confession. Praise. Prayer.

First, if we want to be in the Lord’s presence, we must make sure we have made right what had been wrong between us. The Holy Spirit is always at His quiet work in our hearts, convicting us both of what we need to stop and of what we should begin. As I write this sentence, I am conscious of some areas of my own life where this is the case. If I am telling God, “No,” in either of these areas, I cannot reasonably expect Him to welcome me into His presence or listen to me when I talk to Him. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. (Psalm 66.18) Nor can you. Thus it is, we need to take the time to ensure the accounts are clear as we enter into prayer.

In my case, I have found it helpful through these years to write these things down. When I began praying at length as a young man, it was in a room with a whiteboard. I would begin not with words, but in silence, by listing the things I knew I needed to confess to Him. Nor would I rush through this. While it is not good to linger in sin, it is good to take the time necessary to realize how badly we have wronged Him.

This part of confession should be painful. Do not race through it. Only then, after the silence had stretched long between the Lord and me, would I begin to speak. I would say those awful things out loud, one by one, to Him. I would not justify or excuse them. Context may make sin understandable, but it cannot make sin better. I would admit I was wrong, tell Him I was sorry, and ask Him to teach me to view sin as He did. At the end of this period, usually about ten minutes or so, I would slowly lift the eraser to the whiteboard, and with tears pouring down my cheeks, I would erase those ugly terms. The board would be white again, and so would my heart.

It was in this suitable frame of mind that I would turn my mind toward the second of my father’s instructions: praise. Dad told me praise involved two sides or aspects. The first involved thanking God for what He had done for me. The second was more direct. I was to praise the Lord for who He was, for His attributes. I found biblical support for this in Psalm 150.2. In a lengthy stretch of psalms calling on us to praise the Lord, we find this admonition: Praise him for his mighty acts: Praise him according to his excellent greatness.

Over time, I developed two primary praise lists as a teenager. The first was a list of things or people for which I was grateful. For example…

…salvation, Heaven, the Holy Spirit, my Bible, my call to the ministry, friends, godly influences like my Sunday School and Christian school teachers, the sorrows that drove me to prayer, parents, siblings, food, clothing, shelter, church, America, health, answers to specific prayers, books, provision, protection, education, a good mind, hope, opportunities to preach, the beauty of creation, etc.

The second was a list of God’s attributes that I saw displayed in the Word of God and demonstrated in my life. For example…

…power, wisdom, strength, holiness, knowledge, understanding, justice, grace, creativity, thoughtfulness, kindness, care, mercy, love, faithfulness, etc.

Taking each one of those mental lists one at a time, I would write them down on the whiteboard. I would then walk around the room, thanking the Lord for each particular thing/person/attribute in detail as I thought about how they had impacted my life. After I had thanked God for His mighty acts in my life, I praised Him according to His excellent greatness.

At this point, my heart was well and truly warmed toward Him. I had cleared my soul of any accumulated refuse and spent time detailing His goodness in my life. In such a spirit, last, I turned to my requests. In such a frame of mind, I would not pray selfishly. I would not whine or complain. I would not bargain with God. I would not come to Him seeking the advancement of my kingdom. God, His aims in me, and His work through me would be uppermost in my mind. And the words of supplication which flowed from my tongue reflected that.

As the years of my life have become decades, my prayer requests have shifted. But the petitions I took to the Lord back in those days were sincere. I asked for help in difficult relationships, wisdom in responding to people and events around me, power and blessing on my preaching and my bus route, protection from temptation, for God to turn the hearts of those I loved who were doing wrong, for unsaved people to come to Christ, for missionaries and preachers I knew, for my father’s ministry and my mother’s sorrows, for my fellow students, and such like.

Sometimes I would list things on the whiteboard and pray through them. Other times, I would simply walk, and the jumbled fears and hopes of my heart would tumble out before Him. To this day, I still prefer to walk when I pray.

How long did each of these sections take to do? It varied, of course, with where I was spiritually and what was pressing in upon me on specific days and seasons of my life. Essentially, though, it worked out to be something in the neighborhood of this: 1) Confession, 10 minutes; 2) praise, each half about 10 or 15 minutes, and 3) prayer, about 20 minutes. Beloved, it is amazing how quickly an hour passes in such a delightful occupation.

There are, of course, many other approaches to prayer. As the years have turned to decades, my prayer and praise lists have multiplied. But the bones of what my Dad furnished me forty years ago became the skeleton of my prayer life ever since – confession, praise, and prayer.

If you have not yet prayed for an hour, let alone done so consistently, may I gently ask you to stop right here for a moment? Get down on the knees of your heart and ask the Lord to grow you deeper in prayer. Then set aside a time this week to begin. Then do it again next week and the week after that. Start at the beginning. You will find Him the most welcoming of hosts as you come to His throne.

I promise you this, if you will draw nigh to Him, He will draw nigh to you. He is there all the time. His heart is open toward you.

What, could ye not watch with Me one hour?

You can.

 

 

 

 

My Ten Commandments for Online Arguments

 

Some months ago, someone sent me a private message thanking me for my online demeanor, especially with people who disagreed with me. They followed up with a request for some of the principles guiding my overall online approach. While there are books, specifically Martin Wickens’ Heart and Scroll, that address such things well, I responded to the pm with a few thoughts of my own. Here is my answer to them:  

1. I believe in using my own name and doing so publicly. This constrains me from the evils in my nature that would be freed by being anonymous. And, especially as a pastor, it informs my online speech because I am always conscious that one of my church members might see this conversation, and it could be a stumbling block to them.

 

2. I believe in being fair to my opponent. I mean this in the sense of intellectual honesty. If I am going to attack their position, I need to do so having accurately understood and/or represented that position.

 

3. I believe in being charitable as much as lieth in me. Almost always, the individuals I disagree with online are also God's children. God wants His children to deal in loving respect with one another, even in disagreement. I try to remember that I don't know all the facts. I try to remember I am fallible. I try to remember I have changed/grown from one position to another in various ways over the years. I try to remember the other person is sincere and also loves the Lord. All that helps me to be charitable.

 

4. I believe in the necessity of having a clear conscience when I meet my opponent in Heaven. I don't want the first words out of my mouth to be a very long apology and request for forgiveness. Maybe I can't reconcile the relationship, and/or maybe we will stay on opposite sides of the issue, but I want to keep right toward that individual in my heart.

 

5. I believe in the necessity of God's people to speak up in the public arena. In New England, a few hundred years ago, that was the town hall. In our day, it is the community Facebook groups and comment pages. We need to stand for the truth and right graciously, kindly, yes, but firmly and without apology. If wrong is being promoted/celebrated in our community, God’s people ought to push back against it publicly and vocally.

 

6. I believe in trying to persuade the lurker more than trying to persuade my opponent. In other words, I try to present reasonable arguments to move people toward my position and away from my opponents, but I don't worry at all if I can't persuade my opponent. I aim, in my mind, for the reasonable yet unpersuaded individual who reads but never comments. Those are my converts.

7. I believe in letting someone else have the last word as much as possible. It restrains me from beating someone or some subject into the ground, and humbles me.

 

8. I believe in public apology as a necessary good when required.

 

9. I believe public attacks should almost always be in relation to position and not in relation to people/personalities, etc. Sometimes the two are intertwined, and I accept that, but my heart needs to be right in my own intent/approach.

 

10. I believe public sin/error on the part of a religious leader does not necessarily require a private approach from me first. Church discipline and online discussion are not necessarily the same thing. If someone seeks to be a public influence and I judge that influence to be dangerous to people or concepts I hold dear, I can speak out publicly against it without approaching them privately first.

 

 

 

Quarterly Schedule Availability, July through September, 2026

           With my recent transition from the pastorate to teaching, I anticipate being better able to fulfill requests to come and speak. To be clear, I am not asking anyone reading this blog to schedule me. I have repeatedly been asked, however, to let pastors know at what point in this transition I would be available, and I am trying to come up with an orderly way to accomplish that. I have decided to try to publicly do so through the occasional blog post. We'll see how it goes. Might be a terrible idea. <grin>

          This summer, I must focus on getting my feet under me as a teacher. Because of that, I am only accepting speaking invitiations for Sundays. As the school year gets underway, I will make myself as available as I can within the confines of my duties at Ambassador. Next summer, I anticipate being available practically full time. 

June 28-July 2, Capitol Baptist Church, Dover, Delaware, Jubilee

July 12 - available

July 26 - available

August 9 - available

August 23 - locally available

September 6 - available

September 20 - locally available

September 27 - Appalachian Baptist Church, Greeneville, Tennessee, Old Fashioned Sunday

Don't Get Stuck At College

 

From My Mailbag: Don’t Get Stuck at College

 

Currently, on my blog, I am working my way through a long list of unanswered correspondence. Today’s question involves young men entering the ministry:

“I’d love to hear your thoughts on how to create a more effective pathway from Bible college to ministry, particularly the pastorate. A common concern seems to be that students attend Bible college but remain in that college town rather than entering ministry.”

I absolutely agree that this is a problem. It was in my Dad’s day. He graduated from Tennessee Temple University in 1973. It was in my day. I graduated from Hyles-Anderson College in 1995. I have good friends on the faculty and administration of seven different Bible colleges, and they will readily admit it is still a problem. In fact, they contend that the problem is worse now than it was in my father’s generation or in mine. As a society, we are producing young men who are more immature than previous generations. (We could discuss the causes of that in other posts, perhaps.) Nevertheless, it is factual. I believe this significantly contributes to the finish-but-never-begin trap that so many young ministers fall into.

I do not know that I have the solution, but after kicking the question around with some preacher friends, I offer the following nine suggestions to help counter it. I am going to be blunt. If you do not like it, you can be blunt back. I can take it.

 

1) Attend a local church Bible institute or similar type of program.

 

I could name a dozen off the top of my head. There are probably several hundred of these types of ministries in local churches across the country. For most men, especially married men, this is an excellent way to prepare for the ministry.

The old knock on them was two-fold. First, you cannot get a good theological education in such institutes. I disagree. I personally know many men who came out of such local church institutes. They know as much theology as I do. The internet has leveled the playing field here. Second, you cannot catch a vision for what God can do in a big way if you attend a small church. Curiously enough, the Apostles managed to catch a large vision without being schooled in a large ministry, did they not? If you get around Jesus, He will be all the vision you need.

Not every pastor is willing to undertake the enormous work required to prepare other men to pastor, nor should every pastor. Frankly, not all pastors are capable of it, in my opinion. But hundreds and hundreds of them are. Find one that is willing to take you under his wing, do your homework to make sure he will train you well, and then soak it up.

 

2) Attend a college that allows students to choose local churches.

 

Every institutional design, like every person, has strengths and weaknesses. The old Bible Baptist College (Springfield) model excelled in this area specifically. Yes, it was an independent Baptist college. No, it was not based out of one particular local church. Instead, it was governed by a board composed of pastors from several local churches. Because of this, when the student enrolled in college, he had to choose an approved independent Baptist church within driving distance of the school to attend and serve in. There are several independent Baptist colleges currently that are structured this way, including the one I will join this summer. 

This method of operation serves up two advantages, one negative and the other positive.

Negatively speaking, the student does not become entangled in the mesh of a big/successful/attractive church. Such large churches are enormously sticky. They retain drop-out college students like the Shamwow retains water. Instead, he serves in a typically sized church. In fact, he can change churches from year to year if he so chooses. The available churches are usually similar to the one he attended back home. He does not see his college church as better, let alone as the gold standard. Consequently, he never comes to look down on the church he came from.

On the positive side, the student usually retains a closer relationship with his home church as a result. He is not pressured to remain at the big college church over the holidays or the summer to maintain his ministry. (I could tell you some stories there, but I digress.) If he does not finish college, or if he finishes and cannot find an immediate place of service, it is natural for him to go back home to discover what is next. The only thing holding him in place geographically was college. College is done. Now it is time to move on.

 

3) Attend a college that does not hire its own graduates immediately.

 

One of the benefits to the large local church that hosts a Bible college is the feeder churches – I do not like that term, but it fits in this context – send their best young people to it. The leadership of the college church gets to watch as these young people develop. Such churches are always hiring staff. They often literally choose the best of the best and immediately plug them into leadership positions within the college church’s ministries.

Elsewhere, I have argued that this is a highly damaging strategy in the long term. Young men should not be trained for ministry by men who have precious little real church experience. It took me years to overcome the weaknesses aggravated in me via such training. Young men should be trained by men of deep experience in the Lord’s work. But my point here is that the potential Bible college student can choose to avoid colleges that go the route of hiring their own graduates immediately. This prevents him from even having to deal with the temptation to stick around, hoping to land the big church or college staff job. His college does not function that way; he has to move on if he wants to enter ministry.

 

4)Attend a college that prioritizes pioneering a work.

 

I am a big believer in drinking from good wells dug in previous generations, but every generation of Christians needs to dig its own wells. Every generation needs to write hymns, plant churches, pen commentaries, and birth ministries. The colleges that train our young men need to embrace this. If all we do is furnish the equivalent of replacement troops, we will never advance the cause of Christ.

Inculcating a pioneering spirit helps to inoculate young men from sitting around waiting for someone to hand them a position. Young men have energy and enthusiasm. Throw a dart on the map and go plant a work there. Okay, not really, but you get my drift, I think.

 

5) Attend a college that embraces bivocational ministry.

 

I am mystified at this, utterly mystified. Bivocational, covocational, part-time – call them whatever you will, such pastors and staff men are not second-class citizens. Paul was a tentmaker, for crying out loud.

Saint Paul Working As A Tentmaker
by Pietro Santi Bertoli, c 1550

Bivocational ministry does not hold a man back from reaching his potential. I would argue it can develop him spiritually in necessary though unseen ways. Bivocational ministry cures you of big-shot-itis. It humbles you. It teaches you to learn to deal with people carefully because you cannot afford to lose them. It forces you to learn to build well rather than quickly. And it allows the growing/struggling church to use its money to purchase property and erect buildings faster than could be done otherwise.

In my first five years in the pastorate I was bivocational. I do not look down on such men. I respect them whole cloth. When we teach young men that, we signal that it is okay for them to take that route, too.

 

6) Attend a college that highlights faithful pastors.

 

I confess I can be a bit jaded at times. I am conscious of that, and conscious that I might become one of those old, cynical men if I am not careful. Having said that, the older I get, the less I care about a pastor’s accomplishments in ministry and the more I care about his life and how well he handles the Word of God.

That last sentence may be where I am at, but it certainly is not where most of the independent Baptist movement has been for most of my life. I well remember being 17 and hearing a well-known preacher say, “In fundamentealism, if you reach 500, you have a voice; if you reach 1000, you must be platformed; if you reach 2000, you cannot do any wrong.” In entirely too many places, that mindset still exists, even if it is not expressed so crassly anymore.

Find a college that believes in bringing in men as a result of their decades of faithful service rather than the number they are running in Sunday School. The latter is hollow over time, feeds the minister's vanity, and so often brings him to destruction. It also sets before the young minister a mostly unattainable and always unbiblical model of ministry to emulate.

Young men preparing for ministry need to hear regularly from and be around veterans of such service, regardless of whether they are well-known in their circle or not. This constant stream of men who are unknown yet well known in Heaven will set before their eyes both a realistic philosophy of ministry and a biblical goal of what they ought to strive to be.

 

7) Keep your home pastor deeply involved.

 

For myself and too many of my contemporaries, when we left for Bible college, we left our home church behind. We went back only rarely to visit. When we did, we found our church had moved on without us. At the same time, we were building our own life elsewhere. Also, at the same time, our home church pastor, having more than enough irons in the fire, often lost sight of us.

The pastor and the Bible college student need to each do their part in this relationship to ensure this does not happen. The pastor needs to regularly reach out to the Bible college student while he is away and continue to prioritize spending time with him when he is back home. The student needs to continue to view his home church pastor as his pastor and consequently involve him in every decision of consequence. This prevents the student from falling through the cracks when he is struggling. His pastor knows him and knows how and when to call him on it. In addition, the pastor is invested, literally, and he wants to see a return on his investment. It is also good for the home church to see as well.

I accept that there are cases, too many of them, where the home church pastor changes while the student is away at college. But even in those situations, the incoming pastor and student can work together to build a relationship to replace the one lost. My assistant pastor is the fruit of such intentional relationship building. I am glad I took the initiative and the time to build that relationship. I am glad he reciprocated. He and I and our church are all the stronger for it.

 

8) Take as many mission trips or internships as you can.

 

Bible college students are infamous for getting tunnel vision. They often can only see what is directly in front of them. Class, class, class, chapel, class, work, sleep, repeat. Finish the projects. Find a way to pay for it. Give your heart away in a ministry on the weekend. Find a life partner. Get a diploma, by hook or by crook.

Several problems result from such tunnel vision. For one, when a student experiences a serious setback or failure in this process, he often thinks of himself as a failure en toto. Ergo, the only reasonable choice is to quit. For another, his mind and heart can be so captured by the big church ministry he is in that he fails to structure his relationship with that church as temporary. It becomes semi-permanent. Then permanent. Then concrete.

When you tear yourself away from that life for a mission trip or a summer internship, you put your college career into the proper perspective. You see it for what it is: training. You remind yourself of what motivated you to surrender to the ministry in the first place, the need of the world for Christ, and of each neighborhood and town to have a good church. You insert yourself into some such mission field or church for a period, and you return to your college life inspired to finish so you can move on to the next step.

Such things are not as easy as they sound. The student’s checking account may make this seem utterly impossible. The church’s previous experience with interns who made some serious mistakes may make them gunshy. But like the rest of the Bible college student’s preparation, though it is difficult, ‘tis eminently worthwhile.

If I had interned in a normal church post-college or even during college, it would have helped me immensely. It would have spared me some of the struggle, failure, and frustration of my early years in the pastorate. I encourage every young person preparing for ministry to do it, or something similar.

 

9) Remain nimble.

 

I could not think of a better, more succinct phrase. What I mean here is that the Bible college student’s life is usually relatively simple when he begins his preparation. He or she is single. They have no debt. They are in good health. They have support from the home front. They are set up for success. Fast forward a few years, and what do we often find? Premature serious romantic relationships that complicate everything, especially if they get married too soon. Debt from “necessary” car repairs and school bills. A stressed and insolvent emotional bank. A support system that has largely forgotten the student just when he needs them the most.

The Calling of Samuel
by Joshua Reynolds, c 1776

Every spiritual casualty is unique, but many share common traits. The largest of those similarities falls along these lines. The student struggled financially. The student married too soon. No one back home notices the impending crisis. He drops out, or “takes a year or two to get things settled”, a year or two that becomes decades.

Structure life in such a way that if God called you to the ends of the Earth, you could go almost immediately. Keep it that way.

 

In closing, I want to add that I expect your list of suggestions, if you made one, would look somewhat different than mine. I welcome hearing your thoughts on the subject, whether on the blog site, via email, or on a social media post. The conversation is bigger than me, and worth having. So speak up if you have something worthwhile to say. It will help 

Launching a Writing Ministry

 

I’m seeking your advice on starting a Substack/blog. While I’m not a great writer and don’t have much to share yet, I see value in starting now to grow. Could you share any tips or resources that helped you as you began?

 _______________________________________________________________

 

At the moment, I am working my way through some items from my mailbag on this blog. Today’s question is an interesting one. Essentially, it involves knowing whether and how to begin a writing ministry. I have previously written about whether and how to write a book, but this is a different question. The answer lies within reach of more people. I do not consider myself an expert by any means, but I will give you my thoughts on the matter.

Six thoughts. Here goes.

1) The only way to be a writer is to start writing.

Writers write – that statement got me off the bench and into the game.

As a wide-ranging, long-standing reader, the idea of writing something myself naturally presented itself from time to time. Before social media, internet forums were a thing. I joined one, and often participated. From time to time, the conversations morphed into long-form discussions, and I felt that suited my desire to communicate context and depth. Occasionally, I even wrote stand-alone articles here and there. But in the main, all I did was growl that I could write a better post or book than the one I happened to be reading.

It dawned on me one day that I was no better than the members of my church who wanted to become soul winners but never did anything about it. They just postponed it with a vague, “Someday, I’ll get around to it.” Soul winners do not talk about witnessing, watch other people witness, or read about witnessing. They tell other people about Jesus. So it is with writers. They determine writing is worth doing, and set aside a regular time to do it, regardless of whether they think the result will be widely read or not.

You will never become a writer by contemplating it. Write something.

 

2) The only way to improve as a writer is to continue writing.

It is possible to do something regularly and never improve. It is not possible, however, to do something only occasionally and improve. Consistent, regular, scheduled activity is necessary for excellence in any endeavor. Paired with the analysis available by today’s online editing tools, and honed by friendly criticism now and again, there is no reason the typical thoughtful individual cannot become a decent writer. But you must commit yourself to putting in consistent effort and producing constant content.

 

3) The only way to have content worth reading is to study.

When I was younger, I thought my insights were brilliant. Little did I know… Over time, God, in His grace, brought me to see that the world does not need my insight; it needs His. The better I know His Word and understand His thoughts, the more benefits and blessings come to those within my influence. So I must study His Word.

I did not do this to become a writer. Writing was not on my radar at the time. I did it because I wanted to rightly understand the Bible, push back against those who would weaken the truth, and help His people. So I made a list of biblical concepts I did not understand very well, and set out to study up on them. I compiled stacks of books, took classes, watched videos, and built up my knowledge base. I then turned those into tools I used regularly or series I preached/taught to others. Music. Eschatology. Hermeneutics. Teaching. Jesus. Fundamentalism. Assimilation. Counseling. Systematic Theology. Old Testament types. Cults. Sanctification. Evangelism. Grace. Ecclesiology. Prayer. Faith. Heaven. Leadership. Marriage. Suffering. Money. Blessing. Worship. Standards. Wisdom. Faith. Character. Prayer. The King James issue. Alcohol. Love.Etc. And hundreds of detailed expositional sermons, working my way through an extended passage or book of the Bible.

Please do not misunderstand me. I am NOT saying you have to do this. God leads us along individual paths as we follow Him. What I am saying is that honing the ability to write without, at the same time, gathering things worth hearing is an exercise in vanity and a waste of time.

 

4) Because these two things need to mature – your writing ability and your depth of content – you should begin writing first for the immediate circle in which you minister now.

Thus far, it may seem I have given you two contrary pieces of advice. Start writing
immediately. Study or experience until you have something to say worth hearing. But the truth is, you can begin now, whatever age you are. Assuming you are currently serving the Lord, start by considering how you can use writing in the arena in which you currently serve. Do you run a bus route? Perhaps you could write a monthly newsletter for everyone who is in any way associated with that route. Do you teach a teen Sunday School class? Perhaps you could write a handout to go with each lesson, or summarize the lesson in written form and send it home with them. Do you work with seniors? Perhaps you could write occasional articles for them on things that matter to seniors – health, grandchildren, finances, scams, feeling useful, travel, etc.

You do not need to wait until your beard has gone gray and your reputation for wisdom has increased. Write right now and gear it toward the orbit you are currently in.

 

5) As these two things mature, widen your reach.

I am not even sure I should mention this one. This is more of a God thing than a man thing. Many years ago, an older preacher told me, “When you deepen your message, God widens your ministry.” The Scriptural equivalent is 1 Timothy 4.15. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. As you develop your capacity and ability to edify God’s people, He gives you more opportunities to do so. Your path will not look like mine. Neither will it look like what you currently expect. But the Lord will do it, and it will be remarkable to see in hindsight.

Again, do not misunderstand me. I am not asking you to crawl into a hole and close it off behind you. It is good and right to seek to advance your knowledge base, skill set, and opportunities to minister. But you will find that the doors the Lord opens for you along the way are better than the ones you lever a crowbar into and force.

Grow in Him, in your likeness to Him, in your knowledge of Him, and in your usefulness to Him. He will use it, rest assured.

 

6) Do not expect either monetary compensation or a wide and interested readership; expect to minister to those who will let you.

When I was a young man, I dreamed of the glorious future that awaited, the opportunities that would throw themselves at my feet once they noticed me. I have written elsewhere of how God beat that out of me. I am most grateful that He did. If I had had in those days the opportunities to minister that I have now, I would have accomplished little for Him while my pride marched me swiftly to destruction. But by the grace of God, my perspective has changed over the years. As Jack Hyles wrote in his poem, “Just Let Me Be Your Servant”: (Let Me Be Your Servant, n.d.)

 

I used to sit in college class

And ask the sluggish year to pass;

I had a goal to reach.

My mind would soar above the clouds

And dream when overflowing crowds

Would come to hear me preach.

 

And now I stand before the crowds,

With mind descending 'neath the clouds;

My goals are rearranged.

I simply want to fill your need;

So lovingly I gently plead,

“My dreams have all been changed;

Just let me be your servant.”

 

When you first offer yourself via the written word, it will probably be mostly ignored and rapidly forgotten. That is fine. The same thing happens with all ministry. You build a writing ministry the same way you build any other ministry – consistent effort regardless of apparent result. And as with all ministry, it is not going to make you money; it is going to cost you money. And time. And sweat. And tears. All of which your Saviour understands.

Thousands of years ago, God reached down to an old man and asked him to serve. In his prime, he had been arrogant. He had thought he was God’s gift to his people. Four decades later, when God finally deemed him ready, he was the opposite of proud – he was uncertain, unworthy, and filled with excuses. With deft care, God asked him not to do great things, but simply to yield to Him that which was in his hand: And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. (Exodus 4.1-3)

Do not insist, even in your mind, that God use you greatly. Simply offer Him what you have in your hand – the energy and optimism of youth, a godly life, a desire to serve Him and help people, and your pen – and let Him make of it what He wills.

 

Six Helps to Grow a Soul-Winning Church

 

Note: My life at the moment is in a bit of an uproar, which is not exactly conducive to good writing. I have decided to set my current book project aside for a bit. I have a number of questions that have worked their way into my mailbag and have been patiently waiting for some time. So for the next few weeks, I am going to try to answer some of those.

 

Today’s question comes from a young pastor. He has recently taken his first church. As with many such churches, it is struggling mightily. There are crises at every turn. But he does not simply want to respond to emergencies; he wants to build a healthy church for the long term. He knows, amongst other things, that this involves building a soul-winning church. I have had some success in that area, so he came to me for a few ideas, and it turned into a rather lengthy phone conversation. Here are the six suggestions I offered him in that discussion.

First, have a regularly scheduled soul-winning time.

I am aware of the argument that says Christians should always be soul-conscious, and that if we emphasize a regular soul-winning time, we risk developing Christians who witness only on Saturday mornings. I think it is a specious argument. For two reasons. In the first place, there are numerous things that a Christian is called to be and do constantly, and yet we embrace the wisdom of setting aside a specific time to do so. Prayer, for example. We are to pray without ceasing, but we still schedule prayer meetings. Such prayer meetings do not take away from praying without ceasing; indeed, I would argue they strengthen it. Which leads directly to my second reason I reject such counsel – I have never seen a Christian develop a soul-conscious heart without first disciplining themselves to attend a regularly scheduled soul-winning time. Perhaps you have, but I have not. I am convinced that regularly exercising the spiritual graces is the only way to develop them.

This regularly scheduled soul-winning time should be on the schedule weekly. Doing it monthly seems like an easier sell when it comes to participation, but such is fool’s gold. Nobody establishes commitment by choosing the easy route. In addition, this soul-winning time should be canceled only rarely, if at all. As a pastor, you must fight the urge to cancel important things. In fact, your refusal to cancel is a vital part of communicating to your people how important your soul-winning time is. For example, I do not cancel Operation Go (our name for it) due to the cold. If it gets down close to zero degrees, I either send people out on specific visits, have a prayer meeting, do a soul-winning training session, or take all my soul winners to breakfast. But what I do not do is cancel.

In addition, I think it is important that the pastor himself lead this soul-winning meeting. You cannot lead from behind. Be present. Be organized. Be brief. Be positive. Be consistent. Do not ask your people for a four hour commitment. Ask them to give you the equivalent of a regular church service – about an hour or so total, meeting included. Keep it on the schedule even if no one shows up. Announce it weekly. Be patient as the Lord convicts your people in this area. But by all means, provide them a regular opportunity to obey the Lord in this area.

Second, routinely preach about the necessity of Christians being a witness to the lost.

I track my preaching, every sermon, for a variety of reasons. This is one of them. I can tell you how often I have preached on soul winning in whichever service is in question, what the main idea of the sermon was, and what the text was. Every so often, I check. If it has been a few months since I last preached about witnessing, I put it on the docket.

Many years ago, I heard Clarence Sexton say, “We reap a harvest where we place an emphasis.” This is a key principle in the evolution of a soul-winning church. I am constantly looking for additional ways to emphasize personal evangelism. A standalone sermon is one way to do it, but a better approach is a sermon series. You could preach an entire series on the soul-winning conversations in the Bible, another on great soul-winning passages, another on the philosophy of personal evangelism, another on how the devil attacks soul-winning in a church, etc. A sermon series increases the impact of an idea. Instead of one tap with a hammer, a series of blows is landed until the point is driven well home. I long ago lost count of how many times a church member approached me privately and told me they had been under conviction for quite some time about becoming a witness. Preaching on it gives the Spirit ammunition for such quiet, deep work.

Third, personally train your soul winners.

While I am not opposed to bringing in a special speaker for a soul-winning training seminar, I think the best soul-winning trainer in your church should be the pastor. Many years ago, I wrote a soul-winning training manual and recruited a young man as my first victim. He had dyslexia and was painfully shy, which made the process both difficult and rewarding. I will never forget sitting alongside him on a living room couch in someone’s home as he walked them through the Gospel and they trusted Christ. I made a big deal about it at church, naturally. A few months later, someone approached me and murmured something about wanting to be trained to witness. I did, and upon completion, awarded them a personally engraved soul winner’s New Testament in the Sunday morning service. Now then, I suppose my wife and I have trained between 75 and 100 soul winners over these years.

Our process involves our own curriculum, eight one-on-one sessions about an hour long, some memorization, a lot of home practice, and a lot of role play. The majority of our trainees have gone on to become consistent soul winners. You may choose a different approach, but by all means, do something. Equipping them well removes their fear and builds their confidence in sharing the gospel. And it increases the number of soul winners in your church.

Fourth, require your staff and your deacons to be soul winners. This is not optional with me; it is too important. If you want to be in a position of leadership in our church, you must regularly be after people with the gospel.

Fifth, place the emphasis not on the number of people you see making professions, but on consistent effort. Our part in the Great Commission is obedience; the Lord’s part is the conviction that brings results. Let us major on our part.

For example, some years ago, I had a very nice church jacket designed. It had an engraved logo on an expensive Land’s End coat. I did not make them available for purchase, nor did I give them away. The only way you could get one was to attend Operation Go for eight consecutive weeks. I ended up purchasing dozens of those jackets, and it cost me thousands of dollars. It was money absolutely well spent. Our attendance at Operation Go not only increased, but it also increased permanently.

Sixth, pray for laborers.

Jesus spoke often of prayer and modeled it as much as He preached about it. But He only gave one prayer request. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. (Matthew 9.38) We ought to take this seriously. Go to the Lord and teach your people to go to the Lord in prayer about your church’s need for workers. Be specific. If you need an instrumentalist, pray that way. If you lack youth workers, take it to Him. But always be asking Him to send you people that you can develop into soul winners. This is the Lord’s will, and He will answer prayer given according to His will. (I John 5.14-15) The Lord sent us so many precious people over the years, men and women who developed into true co-laborers as we went after souls together.

If you will do these six things, prayerfully, consistently, patiently, for a few years, something magical will happen. You will look up one day and realize the Lord has given you the priceless gift of being part of a soul-winning church. Missions giving will increase. New ministries will be launched. Bus routes will be strengthened. The poor and the addicted and the imprisoned will have the gospel preached unto them. Your church will develop a culture, a spirit, of being after people with the gospel. It will be happier. It will be easier to pastor. And new people getting plugged in will catch the vision almost immediately.

It can be done, beloved. Your church can become a soul-winning church. I know it currently seems impossible. Ignore that. Put your head down and go to work. Pray. Lead. Motivate. Preach. Encourage. Commend.

It can be done. It needs to be done. And you can do it.