Why Pastor's Need The Hide Of A Rhinoceros.

 A headline in a recent edition of the Baptist Standard caught my eye and got my attention. It read, Denominational leader, pastor Phil Lineberger dead at 69.  The reason it caught my eye was that I had met with Phil Lineberger over the years. Oh, we were not friends . . . . but we were colleagues and we are about the same age. 

At any rate it got me to thinking about pastor's and the "fish bowl" lives they live. The high expectations to which congregations and they themselves hold them. I remember many years ago reading the following description of the ideal pastor. It read:

The "Perfect Pastor the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the hide of a rhinoceros. He preaches exactly 10 minutes. He condemns sin roundly but never hurts anyone’s feelings. He works from 8am until midnight and is also the church janitor. The perfect pastor makes $40 a week, wears good clothes, drives a good car, buys good books, and donates $30 a week to the church. He is 29 years old and has 40 years’ experience.  Above all, he is handsome. The perfect pastor has a burning desire to work with teenagers, and he spends most of his time with the senior citizens. He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his church. He makes 15 home visits a day and is always in his office to be handy when needed. The perfect pastor always has time for church council and all of its committees.  He never misses the meeting of any church organization and is always busy evangelizing the unchurched. The perfect pastor is always in the church down the street!

I think what this humorous piece describes is a part of what drives a pastor, even a successful one like Phil Lineberger, into depression. Most of the time these amount to little more than mood swings. It has been said that every pastor resigns on Monday but come Tuesday he's is back in the saddle. 

However, what Phil suffered from was not just a case of pastoral blues it was trying to function in a very public forum at a high level of performance while personally living in a very dark place from which he could see no light or hope. A friend of mine spoke of it as being in this darkness that "you just feel that's it's swallowing you ! And this intense feeling of unbearable sadness. A pain of the soul! No wonder the early Fathers of the Church thought of it as demonic."

There is a sense in which it is better to have sinned than to become enveloped in such a darkness. At least with sin there is the hope of forgiveness and restoration but with this darkness of the soul one can see neither.

Perhaps some of this darkness is the result of the rate at which pastors are reducing the number of close friends that they have. There was a time when we ministers (Preachers/Pastors) had a handful of close friends with whom they regularly spoke or met and with whom they prayed. I know I have had a few along the way but unfortunately they have gone home to their eternal reward and they are not easily replaced at this late date in life's journey.

Unfortunately for younger ministers today's corporate model for doing church has robbed them of much of that kind of friendship in the ministry. Now we relate "professionally."  No pastor would in today's church environment bear his soul to a colleague  and especially if he were suffering from depression least it come back and hurt him as he climbs what one preacher referred to as "destiny's ladder. 

Another thing that has changed about church is the daily demands being placed on most pastor's in today's church. I have worked as a hourly laborer and as an executive in the corporate world and I I also spent 40 years as a Baptist pastor. From that experience I can honestly say I know of no other profession that places more demand on your time, requires constant functioning at the highest levels of one's cognitive skills, demands the highest of relationship skills and the constant public exposure of both public and private life. 

This is not to imply that pastors have never had these kinds of pressures or even that other don't have similar pressures. It is to suggest that these demands have cut into what I refer to has the pastor's "closet" time and personal spiritual development time.

I used to teach a workshop about how Satan is able to gain entrance into our lives and cause us to stumble. In that workshop I simply stated that one of the Devil's most powerful weapons was to do nothing at all. He just leaves us alone to our own devices. It is not long before we began to believe we are invincible and our prayer life and our personal spiritual development take a back seat to all the other things that we are doing to grow the kingdom. It is then, when we are spiritual anemic, that Satan attacks us at our most vulnerable spot.  I believe this is a major cause of so many (and there are far more than you may imagine) pastors struggle with depression. 

Pastors need to be made aware through their training that personal prayer and spiritual development are more important than theological education. We must first and foremost understand that we must as a pastor have a clear sense of calling from God.  If one does not have that assurance in his heart and mind he is set up to spiral into the darkness in a pit of depression. Having that call will not prevent depression  but it will help minimize the chances of depression.  It is imperative that every church explore this calling with any candidate for pastor in their church regardless of their age or years in the ministry. A specific calling from God is the essential foundation for one being a pastor.

As a pastor you need a friend. I realize and acknowledge that, "There is not a friend like the lowly Jesus, no not one" and that as pastor you need to "Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there." But, you also need a human friend with whom you can "Bear one another's burdens."  I was blessed that in most of the churches I pastored there was one layman in the church who was "my" friend. In a couple of cases they were deacons in in others laymen. They loved me, counseled me, knew my struggles and sustained me with the care, concern and compassion. Sometimes it was there quiet assurances of, "Pastor I am praying for you today."

You also need to keep your calling in the forefront of your thinking. You are called of God in a way that others are not;You are anointed of God in a way others are not; and you are given a grand assignment that others cannot fulfill. Focus on your own spiritual development; give careful attention to your family; and stay focused in ministry. All of this will help you maintain your spiritual balance. I would only add, take care of your health. Remember, God has everything under control.  

The pastor and the church need to understand that while all the programs, activities and services of the church in which the pastor is involved (that will just about everything for most churches and pastors) come after the pastor has blocks of time to devote to his own personal spiritual vitality.  This need was recognized from the earliest days of the church as evidenced by the Apostles instruction to the early church in Jerusalem, “So the twelve summoned the community of disciples and said, 'It is not desirable that we neglect the word of God to serve tables. So, brothers, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we will put in charge of this need. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.'" And the statement pleased the whole group, . . .  ." (Acts 6:2-5).

The church needs to provide adequate financial support for the pastor and his family so that he does not have to be constantly trying to find sources of income to meet the cost of living for his family. Churches are doing better at this in our time than has been historically true.

One of the reasons I suggest this is of course to remind us that our pastor's need to be adequately paid. I also want to suggest to you that because most pastor's do not pastor in a mega-church they end their active ministry with very little retirement. I want to suggest you consider supporting Mission Dignity. This is a part of GuideStone Financial Services that provides stipends to retired pastors  the widows of pastors who have very minimal incomes. 

I cannot promise that doing any or all of these will prevent depression from developing in your life. But I can promise you that even when you find yourself in the wilderness that God has go you by the hand and is leading you to the promised land. And if you just can't see the light at the end of the darkness by all means ask for help. 

I have tried to share some of my thinking on depression among pastors. I do not mean to imply others do not suffer from depression as well. They do. All the things I suggested may also be helpful to anyone suffering with depression. Please, if you are struggling with depression or think you might be on the verge of drifting into that dark abyss we call depress call someone and get help.

Pray for your pastor but also Pray for his family.

I want to begin by reminding you of last week’s posting. In that posting I repeated a young woman’s experience as a pastor’s child. I did this using her very own words. The reason for that was that she articulated the experience of living in a pastor’s home as well as anyone I have ever read. And I would recommend that you take the time to go back and read that posting. Read it, not so much for what I said, but for what she shared of her own personal experience.

I close that blog entry out by saying that in my next posting I would talk something about pastors wives at the significant role they play in the life of the pastor of the church. I want to begin by telling the story the I first heard from my Australian friend Dan Kemp. It goes like this….

It seems that a young pastor and his wife had taken up ministry responsibilities in a local Baptist church somewhere in Australia. This young pastor was zealous in his ministry. Up every morning by 5:30 AM for prayer and meditation followed by very quick breakfast and off to his office. He spent the entire day in ministry activities and then well into the night as well. Clearly, any bystander watching would be able to tell that he was neglecting his family.

The young pastor’s wife feeling the stress of her husband’s heavy ministry schedule called the pastor relation minister that just happened to be my friend Dan Kemp. After speaking with his young pastor’s wife Dan decided that he needed to have a conversation with this young minister about his family responsibilities. So he telephoned the young minister and made an appointment.

Dan told me that on the day of the appointment he arrived in took the young minister to lunch and for an informal conversation about his domestic life. He told the young minister that is wife had called and that she was feeling neglected. The young man’s response was “I guess that I have just married the wrong woman as a minister.” To which Dan replied, “she might have been the wrong woman when you married her she’s the right woman now.” You’re simply going to have to reschedule your time and take care of the ministry you have two your wife.

I tell that story because number one I know it’s true and number two I think it’s more common than most people realize. I know for my own personal experience of a 40+ years of ministry that pastor spend a great deal of time away from their families. Much of this cannot be helped. But not all of that time is necessary. Pastors must schedule time for their families. This is especially true if they have children.

Now I know that the pastor feels a sense that he is been called of God and that if he does what God wants them to do in the way of ministry God will take care of his wife and his children and see to it that their needs are met. However he must also be aware of the fact that that same God that he serves has stated emphatically that any man who does not take care of his own family is essentially worse than an infidel. Pastor your first ministry field is your family. If you do not shepherd your family well you will not pastor your church well.

Now having stated that the pastor has a responsibility to his family to budget time so that he can have quality time as well as quantity time with his family and develop relationships with both his wife and his children I want to speak a word to his congregation. The congregation has a responsibility to the pastor as much as the pastor has a responsibility to the congregation. Now chief among those responsibilities is the responsibility to pray for your pastor.

I would suggest that you begin by praying that he can organize his time in such a way as to allow him to spend quality time with his family. I would go to even so far as to suggest that the church has a responsibility to see to it that he spends time with his family. Most Baptist pastors that I know are driven. They want to see the church grow; they want to see souls brought into the kingdom; they want to see members of the church mature in their Christian faith; and they want to prepare and preach the best sermons they are capable of producing. For that reason it is essential that his family not be forced out of his schedule by the demands of church programs.

In my case, I’m not sure that my ministry would’ve been possible were it not for the support of my wife. There might be at least 100 ways in which she was supportive but the two principal ways were keeping the home fires burning and being involved in by ministry activities. And in my case she also my three calendars.

Sunday, October 13, 2019 is the official “Pastor Appreciation Day.”  Pastor appreciation Sunday has always been one of the days that I look forward to when I was involved in active ministry. In the churches where I served as pastor I can always count on pastor appreciation day being a day of material blessing. Almost without fail I would receive some kind of monetary gift that Sunday morning. On many occasions in addition to the monetary offering I would also receive the gift of a complete new suit and everything that went with it. On one Sunday I even received a new car. And I have to tell you those monetary gifts and gifts of material things were always appreciated and needed. I want to take just a moment to thank the members of those churches and thank the Lord for putting it on their hearts to do so.

However, those days also included a spiritual gift. Church members would commit to pray for me and my ministry in the coming year. They would commit to be supportive of the programs of the church as I endeavored to leave them to accomplish what I believe to be God’s purpose for our lives in a given time. Occasionally not only would they make those commitments but they would initiate that year of prayer by the laying on of hands and prayer.

Like I said, those are all good things and I believe every single church ought to dissipate in pastor appreciation in some kind of tangible and material way. However, more important was the spiritual gift of a commitment to uphold me in prayer. I believe prayer changes things. I believe it changes the person who is prayed for and I believe it changes the person doing the praying. When we pray for one another in the economy of God our bond in the Lord is strengthened.

Many years ago I remember hearing Dr. Ed Young of the second Baptist Church of Houston tell the story of a businessman and deacon in another very prominent church (I believe that prominent church was the first Baptist Church of Houston). It seems the man, a prominent business person, telephoned Dr. Young and asked for an appointment which Dr. Young granted. But the man arrived and after some formalities and introductions the man told Dr. Young that he was planning on joining the second Baptist Church. Ted asked him why he was doing his church.  The man replied that he was unhappy at his church…….He said that his pastor no longer preached relevant sermons. Furthermore the choir was not singing songs that test the heart and in fact the old music program was lackluster. He said not only that in the deacons just won’t do what they are supposed to do.

After hearing the man story Dr. Young said well he would be happy for him to join their church but before he did anyone needing to do something…….He wanted to go back to the church where he belong and begin praying for that pastor that the Lord would give them better sermons and that the Lord would give the music ministry better music and that the deacons would become more active in meeting real needs. The man agreed.

Time went by and after six or seven months and still have not heard from the man in so he picked up the telephone and he gave a call. He asked the man where he had been. “I thought you were going to join our church at the end of the six-month period.” The man replied Dr. Young that’s exactly what I had intended to do but so the strange thing happened. When I began to pray for our staff pastor the others it seems the pastor’s preaching like he never preached before and the music is so uplifting. I just can’t imagine going anywhere else. What was the difference that the pastor at the other Baptist Church — change probably not. But see significantly different probably not and did the deacons take on new responsibilities and began meeting the needs of the congregation more than in the past maybe. You see what changed was not so much those who were prayed for but those who did the praying.

I had a music director once more time whose favorite song entitled simply”Others.” Somehow when we pray for others and we minister to the needs of others we find that we ourselves become more like our Lord. But not only do we become more like our Lord those for whom we pray seem to become more like him as well.

Like I said, I always wanted the congregation to pray for me that I would compare better sermons preach better sermons and that our services will be more impactful and our community better served. But I would suggest that if you really want to bless the pastor; if you really want him to be a better preacher that you pray for his wife and his children. Don’t just commit to pray for your past . . . . . . Pray for his family

Pray for his wife. Most members of the congregation don’t realize that in addition to his regular pastoral duties church such as sermon preparations, program planning, committee meetings, community involvements, denominational responsibilities and a regular visitation of church member scheduled the pastor also spends countless hours comforting, counseling and encouraging members of the church privately. This often makes his work week 70 hours plus.

This means that his wife has in addition to her responsibilities at the church an inordinate percentage of the home fire responsibilities. She must assume and carry out many of the activities that a father would be doing. She very often is the epitome of the harried housewife. All of this she does while maintaining a sweet disposition and a cheerful persona. She often has to assume the role of counselor with many of the ladies and children in the church.  She does all of this often with no confidant with whom she can share her pains, her sorrows, and her concerns. Add to that she very often serves as the confidant for a pastor husband.

I can confirm that in our case when my wife told the church member that she didn’t know anything about something she was telling the truth. Because of my upbringing in church life I knew that many a church member especially women would pry her for information. This was probably never so true as it was when I was pastor at the Fairmont Central Baptist Church and a certain woman constantly try to manipulate her into divulging information that she was not entitled to have. You see I made it a practice that I’ve never shared information given to me in confidence with anyone without the consent of the people involved. That included not telling my wife. What is the upside of that was if she didn’t know she couldn’t tell and they might as well not try. But this lady tried everything to no avail.

Now I know that not every member of the church is interested in learning what takes place when the pastor counsels other members of the church but I also know that in every church there is at least one or two people who are. And it is those that you need to pray that both your pastor and your pastor’s wife are protected from. As a side note I would point out that for all my years of ministry I did keep a journal and much of those conversations were recorded in that journal. They were recorded for posterity they were recorded so that if I should need that information in the future I had it readily available.

Not only should you pray for your pastor and your pastor’s wife but you should also pray for your pastor’s children. As I shared in my previous posting pastor’s children often encounter all sorts of unique challenges. They get them in school in the form of ridicule and they get them a church in the form of unrealistic expectations. I would suggest that as you pray for your pastor’s children you include yourself in that prayer that you might allow his children to have a “normal” life.

So what is the conclusion of this matter? In my mind this is it. First, determine that you are going to be supportive of your pastor by seeing to it that he has an adequate income sufficient to meet the needs of the family at a level consistent with that of the church members. Second, pray for him to grow and mature spiritually as a pastor and a a parent. Thirdly, pray for his wife and children. I might even add a fourth and that is determine to be their friend.

I want to close with a true story from the first church were I served as a senior pastor.  I was invited by one of my deacons (Howard Zimmerman a man of integrity and one of 3 great Deacons in that church) to his home for coffee one morning. During that meeting he shared with me how that as a young deacon in Price, Texas (also called Carlisle) he had been convinced by two older deacons to lead a move to , in his words, "run the preacher off."  This the did. Years later he said that one of those men as he was dying in the hospital confessed that he and the other man had contrived the story that was used to get rid of the pastor.

Zim, that's what we all called him, said to me that he spent several years trying to locate that pastor and ask for his forgiveness. He said, "I thought I was on the right trail when I located his daughter living in El Paso. However, when I spoke with her she told me, "I wish you could but daddy died a year ago."  Zim told me he was heartbroken . . . .now he could not have the man's forgiveness. He went on to say, "As I prayed about this the Lord clearly said to me, "You will from this day forward be a friend to your pastor whoever that man is and however good he is as a pastor and or preacher." I have tried to do that ever since. "Bro. David," he said, "Lord willing I will be your friend." He went on to say he would always be truthful with me, keep my confidences and pray with me. From that day until I left Kilgore, Texas for La Porte. Howard Zimmerman and I met once a week in his kitchen for prayer and sharing. My wife often met with us.  Oh, and when we needed to privately we'd take a trip to the rock grinding house.

May every pastor and every pastor's wife have a friend like Howard and Mary Zimmerman.

Pastor's Children Are People Too!

When I arrived on field at the very first church that I served as senior pastor one of the ladies in the church felt the need to inform me of all my predecessors. Among them was a man they said was named Monroe Dodd. When I first heard that name I immediately thought of the notable M.E. Dodd the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana. Nearly every preacher of my time and before knew Dr. Dodd. He was instrumental in the development of the Cooperative Program (The unified budget plan that has financed the Southern Baptist Convention for over 100 years. . In fact he was often referred to as the heart of the Cooperative Program.  He was the founder of the annual Pastor’s Conference that proceeded the annual meeting of the S.B.C. 

However she quickly pointed out that she was not talking about THE M.E. Dodd but rather his son. Her story was about Monroe E. Dodd, Jr. I make no claim as to the veracity of the story. In short, the story was that pastor Dodd, when announcing his resignation, stated that he only became a preacher because he believed that is what his father wanted and expected.

It was that story that got me to thinking in a serious way about the impact that being the child of a Baptist Minister can and often does have. It had been mentioned at seminary but never with any in-depth discussion. Consequently I recognized that preacher’s children often follow in their father’s footsteps, not because they are called of God but because they were training by their father’s expectations.  However, when this happens it is the exception not the rule.

All of my ministry and even into retirement I would be needled with the question, usually by a deacon, “Why are preacher’s kids so mean or mischievous?” I always thought there was an erroneous assumption underlying the question and that perhaps it was more of a statement rather than an inquiry or joke. Truth is, most minister kids turn out just fine and succeed at a better than average rate. Regardless of the motivation for that question my answer was always the same, “If the preacher’s children are mean and or mischievous it is because they play with the deacon’s kids.”

I remember an occasion when my son had gone to a place that I felt was not a wholesome place to be only to have him  in his youthful defense blurt out, "Well if it is such a bad place why were three of your deacons there?" He then proceeded to name names. My only response was, "That may be true but it is still not where I expect you to be."  Sometimes your children know your flock better than you.

After a few years serving a local church I began to understand that “preacher Kids” face a lot of challenges and are exposed to a lot of the stressful elements of church life. I saw it in my own children as they heard the unjust and unfair criticism of their father and his motives. They saw the inconsistencies in the lives of church leaders and those things no doubt affected their development. I have often wanted to say something about this but I really lacked perspective. 

Recently, I came across a posting on Facebook from a PK (preacher’s kid) that really rings true. This young woman said it better than I have ever heard it said and better than I can say it. I wish I could recall her name but I made it a point to preserve her comments.  Based on the hundreds of comments from other PK’s I think you can say she “hit the nail on the head.”

Consider her words . . . . . .

 I am a pastor’s daughter. I’ve seen first hand the beauty and pain wrapped up in a life called to ministry for almost thirty years.

 I remember the first time I heard someone say something bad about my dad. He and I were working, gathering music in his office one late afternoon, when I heard the harsh words of others.

 I looked back at him with tears in my eyes, anger and sorrow stinging my face. It was the first time I remember wondering why he even did it. I wanted him to say something, to call them out, to make them feel sorry for their words.

 Yet, there he sat. Calm. Compassionate. Merciful.

 He knew who was speaking those words, yet week after week, I watched him love and serve them, as though they had never been heard. And I did the same.

 As time went on, I began to notice more of the realities of ministry. I watched him pray over the vision God had given him. I witnessed him working hard to fulfill the vision. Then, I’d hear the disgruntled murmurs. I’d see people roll their eyes, and doubt his efforts.

 I watched him pour into people, as they turned their back to him the moment they didn’t like what he had to say. I saw him on his knees praying for so many he genuinely loved. I witnessed the tears of pain that fell from his eyes.

 Members would walk up right after service just to tell him how much they hated it. When I’d raise hell on a Saturday night, he would still get up with a heavy heart on Sunday to lead us in worship. Though there were times he didn’t understand God’s plan, he would still choose to trust Him, knowing His plan was good.

 Yet, even in the midst of God’s will, even with a family that loved Jesus, even with all the joys of serving.... ministry was HARD! Ministry hurt. Ministry has cost him... cost all of us... something. We have the scars to prove it.

 The news of a pastor taking his own life hits far too close to home.

 Though my daddy has never experienced depression or anxiety, he’s still felt the searing pain of following God’s will. He’s watched his family bear burdens of ministry. He’s soothed the cries of his daughters, hurt by the church. Yet, he has never wavered in his trust of God’s plan and the anointed calling on his life.

 Pastors and their families are not exempt from pain. They are not exempt from guilt or shame. They are not exempt from financial strain. They are not exempt from family dysfunction. They are not perfect. They still sin. They always need grace.

 As you walk into church next Sunday, look at your pastor, look over at his wife, watch his children. Look beyond the lead shepherd to the other shepherds and their families. 

 They are tired. They bear deep burdens. They wrestle with God. Yet, there they are - faithfully serving, unconditionally loving, forever trusting.

 As you look upon your pastors, pray for them. Pray for their wives and their children. Invest in them as friends, view them as humans, love them as brothers.

 And if you see one of them falling; if you feel a tug in your heart to call; if you notice their wife and children need love- minister to them as they have ministered to you.

 Ministry has revealed the true depravity of man. Ministry has etched scars upon my heart. Ministry has placed heavy burdens upon my shoulders.
 
 Yet, it was my Daddy, my pastor, who taught me how to love as Jesus, how to forgive as Jesus, how to serve as Jesus; how to live a life of worship before the throne, always trusting Jesus.

I can only join with her and encourage you to pray for your pastor but don’t forget to include their wives and children in your prayers.  I’ll say more about this in the next posting.

It Is Appointed Unto Man Once To Die . . . Then What?

I have chosen not to include any photos with this edition of my blog. I hope you will consider it anyway

Today I have been thinking of the passing of my cousin. Amy is the oldest child of my first cousin James & Marilyn Appleby.  As she grew, thank the Lord, she became the physical image of her mother.  .

As I shared her passing with a friend they remarked, “No one wants to outlive their children . . . . it just isn’t right.” I paused for a moment before answering them as my natural inclination was to agree. From the perspective of this life in this world it seems upside down. None of us really want to outlive our children . . . .  We want them to have a long, fulfilling and meaningful life. Somehow when they die young we think they were cheated of something. 

As I thought about Amy and this idea of dying too young I remembered a preacher talking about a man and he said “He lived to be 70 but he died at 35. The point being that longevity does not equal a well lived life. Longevity only means you got old. In Amy’s case her 50 years were packed with meaningful living.

Our families were close in those days. From early childhood right on through seminary James and I shared life. The first 26 years of our lives were like the strands of a rope woven together. We attended the same schools, felt the call of God to the preaching ministry, and in general shared life.  It was in the midst of these years that Amy was born.  Indeed, I recall the night Amy was born . . . . I remember the telephone call from James announcing her arrival . . . . I still treasure how Susan and I caught his excitement and it became ours.  It was not something we would feel until the next year our first child was born.

I’ll be honest I never expected to out live any of my children or those of my cousins. I suspect none of us do. Such is not the natural order of things. We expect to watch our children grow, marry, give us grandchildren and then repeat the process themselves. We wanted our children to grow up healthy, marry well, become the best they can be, honor God with their lives and live to watch their own families do the same.  There is something wrong with folks who don’t want that. After all, it is the natural order of things. And because it is the natural order of things we feel something is wrong when it doesn’t happen that way. It is just not right we say.

But our God is not bound by the natural order of things. Sometimes He chooses to shake up the natural order and do things differently. But He never does so without reason. That reason may be beyond our understanding but like the other side of the horizon it is there. I don’t know why Amy had to be taken from us so soon. And to be perfectly honest I am not even sure I like it. Was it the Lord releasing her from the agony of her disease (cancer); was it because she had finished the course He had given her to run; was it to teach us something about facing our own impending death with faith in God’s provision . . . . I don’t know.  But as my Indian friend, Sam Matthews, used to remind me frequently as he put his hands together palms up and looking skyward, “Brother David” he would say, “Our times are in His hands.”

I heard someone once say about death and our view of it that “Life is eternal, and love is immortal, and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight."  I have been blessed of God to travel much of the world and in every departure there was the sadness of a goodbye but no sooner had the doors to aircraft closed that we began to be excited about the people waiting on the other end of our flight to greet us.

Over the years I have learned from my family (The Appleby Clan) that death is not a time of sorrow.  For our family it has always been a time of celebration. General George S. Patton in speaking of the men in his 3rd Army who had died fighting the evils of Naziism expressed the same idea when he said, “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should  thank God that such men lived.”  That is what we do. 

We rejoice and celebrate that God put them in our life; that he blessed them as they lived; that they trusted and served their Lord; and that they have now gone to heaven where they shall enjoy he Lord forever. We mourn our loss but we celebrate the gift of life He gave them. We rejoiced, as I mentioned earlier, when we learned that God had breathed life into Amy and she became a living soul and again when through faith in Jesus she received eternal life.  Hence our sadness is turned into joy . . . . . the joy of the Lord and that is our strength.

The horizon my be the limit of our physical sight but because of our faith in Jesus it is not the limit of our view.  Through His word God has given us both the assurance that the horizon (death) is not the end of our life.  Further more, it has given us a peek beyond the horizon. That peek gives us an assurance that the horizon is not the limit to our lives. 

I remember when I was flying a vintage aircraft (a T-6 Texan) and coming out of a barrel roll my back seat driver reminded me that as we came out of the roll to not let up on the turn until the nose of the aircraft was above the horizon. Until the nose of the plane was above the horizon we were losing altitude. We must look above the horizon so we can see beyond the horizon.

What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived – these are the things God has prepared for those who love him – and these things lie just beyond the horizon. We see them in part but once we get beyond the horizon we behold them as they are. “We are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”  In the opening paragraph I mentioned that my cousin grew to be the physical image of her mom. Now I am pleased to announce she has taken on the spiritual image of her Lord . . . our Lord.

Bev Shea used to sing a wonderful Christian Song entitled If We Could See Beyond Today that speaks of the difference between our perspective on life.

If we could see beyond today
As God can see,
If all the clouds should roll away,
The shadows flee;
O'er present griefs we would not fret
Each sorrow we would soon forget,
For many joys are waiting yet,
For you and me.

If we could know beyond today
As God doth know,
Why dearest treasures pass away,
And tears must flow;
And why the darkness leads to light
Why dreary days will soon grow bright,
Some day life's wrong will be made right,
Faith tells us so.

If we could see, if we could know,
We often say.
But God in love a veil doth throw
Across our way.
We cannot see what lies before,
And so we cling to Him the more
He leads us till this life is o'er,
Trust and obey.

In a temporal sense we cannot see beyond today. We anticipate what God has prepared for us but we cannot know the fulness of what He has prepared. By faith we see the unseen and we know the unknown.  What’s more we know that those of us who have owned Jesus Christ as our Lord will be reunited with our loved ones who have already journeyed beyond the horizon.

We are firmly committed to the promise of Jesus who said of those who placed their faith in Him as their Lord and Savior, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.”

Folks we are not going to have eternal life after we die . . . . we have it right now. Death is not the end of life. Death is merely the door through which we will pass from the temporal realm to the heavenly realm. It is that moment of transition where we shed our mortal body and take on our spiritual body. Until then we will work and we will rejoice not knowing when the hour of our own departure shall be but confident of this one thing that the same Jesus in whom we have believed will in that day receive us unto himself.

People who know me know that I am a major proponent of hymns and I have a lot of reasons for that. One is how they express the truths of God’s promises to us. My favorite hymn reminds me of the assurance I have in Jesus The first verse says,

Blessed assurance Jesus is mine,
Oh what a foretaste of glory Divine,
Heir of salvation, purchase of God
born of his Spirit, washed in His blood.
This is my story this is my song,
praising my savior all the day long.

So that, Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul

I'm Proud to be a Sharecropper's Son!

I recently watched a documentary from a friend that described  "Sharecropping" as the "not so distant cousin of slavery." Truth be told in a way it was. The documentary was focused on the post Civil War era and its impact on the freed slaves. However, it did not present itself as that. Instead, it had an underlying theme that Sharecropping was limited to the decedents of slaves in the South. I suspect that was intentional and inadequate and not true

Sharecropping was not exclusively an African American experience. Sharecropping and its first cousin "Tenant Farming" were not exclusively a racial institution. More accurately it was a poor man's means of farming and a hard way to survive. Tenant farmers were usually a little better off than the sharecropper. They actually owned their mules and tools whereas the Sharecropper did not so they had an opportunity to advance. 

It is true that many "blacks" were sharecroppers but it is also true that many "whites" were too. It is also true that this system of farming petty much perpetuated the cycle of poverty for both groups.  For whites it began pretty much during the antebellum period in the South and became a way of life for former slaves after the Civil War. In each case, Sharecropper or Tenant farmer, the land holder usually provided the land and capital for the crop planting, tools and stock needed to put in a crop. The "Sharecropper" and his family provided the labor and they shared the profit based on a very one-sided agreement. 

When the crop came in the land owner paid to have the cotton ginned (usually on the half for the seed that went into the next year's crop), any advances made to the sharecropper and sent to market. What was left was then divided between the land owner and the sharecropper based on an agreed upon formula. In Mississippi this was typically 5/6 of the cotton crop to the land owner and 1/6 the sharecropper and if he grew corn he kept 5/6 and the land owner got 1/6. It also meant that come "settle-up day" the Sharecropper hand little if any cash. On average probably something like $100 to $200 for the year. 

How do I know this you might ask. Well, I know this because my family was all three at one time or another. In fact this cycle was not broken until WWII. I have a lot of good evidence to say that my family came to the North American Continent prior to 1749. I mention that to note that we have been a part of, as President Trump might say, "making America Great since before there was a United States of America. 

The first Appleby farm was purchased in 1749 in Orange County, Virginia and was

expanded to include land in Cumberland County. From Virginia. as our family grew, it became a part of the westward migration receiving land grants in Kentucky (in that day it was a part of Virginia) and later Missouri. It was there that my fourth great grandfather in 1815 married Polly Flowers in Creelsboro, Kentucky and shortly thereafter they made their way to Missouri. My fourth great grandfather, Robert Appleby arrived in what would later become the Poplar Bluff Missouri area prior to 1819. He and his wife Polly settled along Cane Creek and several other families (Kittrell, Eudaley, Scott and the Epps). Over time Robert and his son Charles (born abt. 1819-20) managed to gain title to a large section of land between Cane and Black Creeks. 

Charles, who became a land surveyor added a great deal of acreage by surveying on the halves. Charles became a prominent figure in what became Butler County serving in a number of public roles. In short, he was a land owner of considerable means. Note: He was a slave holder but seeing the handwriting on the wall he sold all his slaves in the 1850's and instead of slaves he hired Indians to work his fields. The local Indians worked hard and provided their own housing and food. It was in 1852 that my Great Grandfather Robert was born. Unfortunately, Charles' wife, Rebecca, died giving birth to Robert. Charles blamed Robert for Rebecca's death. So as a lad he left home with an uncles to settle in Texas. 

Though his father was a wealthy land owner in Missouri when Robert left home he did so with only the clothes on his back. In Texas Robert became a poor sharecrop cotton farmer. He was so poor that when he and Martha McGehee married in 1877 they lived in a one room cabin with a dirt floor and had a quilt over hay as a bed. They were what you would call "dirt poor." 

The land they worked ranged from hard-scrabble ground to rich North East Texas soil. The work was hard, the days were long and the rewards were few. But it generally served to bind families together

I am not trying to give a detailed summary of my family history. That will come in a book I am writing for my children. Here I just wanted to take issue with the perception that only African Americans were sharecroppers. An awful lot of non-blacks were share cropping prior to the Civil war and my family was one of them.

Sharecrop Farmers have my respect because they were generally hard working people who had a deep and abiding faith in God and were honest in their dealings with other. These same qualities earned them the respect of their neighbors. I am proud to be a Sharecrop farmer's son, grandson, great-grandson and I proudly stand on their shoulder. 

I give this summary to say that I am proud of my heritage. My immediate forefathers were poor by any standard used to measure poverty. But they worked hard, were committed Christians, known for their integrity, were fiercely loyal and generous in every place where they lived. More importantly they passed it down to their children. I am proud that I stand on the shoulders of these people who laid it all on the line for their families and though I haven't mentioned it for their country as well. (Our family has fought in every major war beginning with service in the Continental Army in Virginia. This is followed by service in the French and Indian War, the Civil War, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq.)

Our Churches Must Become Christocentric

I remember the day I knelt in the altar of the Highland Park Baptist Church of Kilgore, Texas and a group of ordained men, both preachers and deacons (see photo at left), ordained my by the laying on of hands to the Gospel Ministry.  Prior to that moment which was the climax of the experience, I sat through a friendly but serious and rigorous questioning period by these same men. I was asked about my salvation and my call to preach. I was asked about my view of the church and other doctrines.

Dr. Edwin Mays, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Kilgore, served as the chairman of the ordination council that did this candidate evaluation. I got a lot of tough questions and a few softballs as well. Advice and admonitions were freely and lovingly given. It was an exhilarating time.

As Ed brought the council’s examination to a close having given each man opportunity to speak and ask whatever questions they desired he closed out by saying to me that I should adopt the Apostle Paul’s attitude toward sharing the Gospel and then quoted First Corinthians 2:1-5: “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I decided to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith would not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”

That was probably the most important piece of advice ever given to me by another preacher. My job as God’s preacher is not to be the congregations therapist, economic advisor, political activist. My job is to make Jesus known to all people through the proclamation of the Gospel.  In short he was telling me to make all my preaching Christocentric. I have endeavored to do just that. Now that was not the first time I had heard this advice.  My home church pastor told me the same thing when I “surrenderd” to preach. More importantly may pastors over the years practiced Christocentric preaching and as a result I witnessed the power of such preaching to meet the spiritual needs in people’s lives.  In fact, to this day there are others who would attest to these life changing experiences of which I speak.

Unfortunately we live in a day when this kind of focused preaching is an anomaly.  Now as I travel about and visit churches or listen to services broadcast on television I have to search hard to find the Christ anywhere in the message of the day. I usually learn a lot of psych-theology about raising my children; having a good relationship with my wife; about how to build a relationship with my neighbors and get along with society in general. If I do all that I can do that is what I get but if I let the Holy Spirit do all He can do I get what God can do. I think I prefer God's working rather than mine. Before we started stumbling all over ourselves to demonstrate to a secular world that we were legitimate and had a message that addressed their perceived needs we relied on the Holy Spirit to change lives.

Changed lives bring changed communities and changed communities produce a changed society and a changed society brings a changed world. But here is the catch only the life that is changed by the Holy Spirit of God can set in motion such a series of changes. I believe the church needs a  fresh touch by the Lord. We must never forget as we endeavor to reach the world for Christ that it is never about our effort but buy how God uses our witness.

We need to abandon this fruitless and powerless psycho-theology that is nothing but a pseudo

Christian 12 step plan. These may very well explain the process of change but they do not have the power to change. I watch a lot of “Christian” people jumping up and down singing and shouting but I see no miraculous changes. Those who witnessed the miraculous changes in peoples lives know of what I speak. Alcoholics (we called them drunkards) were saved and sobered in an instant; Abusive men were turned to kindness in a momentary experience during some service; . . . .  We saw lives changed as people in repentance and by faith were confronted with Jesus Christ and said in some fashion “Jesus is Lord.”  By the way, in nearly every instance the first thing the wanted to do was go to their family and/or friends at tell them what they had experienced.

Most “Christians” are not telling the Gospel story because they have not actually experienced the Gospel. I believe that if preachers were to return to Christocentric preaching they’d see half of their members come to true faith. The kind of faith that can stand when the praise band is entertaining them; the kind of faith that can look Isis in the eye and say, “Jesus is Lord.”

The truth is that this testimony is linchpin on which true faith and feigned faith hang. In the first century not one single “Christian” would have died if they had been willing to reject Christ by simply declaring “Ο Καίσαρας είναι Κύριος” (Caesar is Lord). Instead they said, “ο Ιησούς είναι Κύριος” (Jesus is Lord) and went to their death.  They were willing to give up what they could not keep to gain that which they could not loose . . . . eternal life. If one really want to feel the impact of Christocentric preaching one merely needs to view the motion picture Paul: Apostle of Christ.

We are living in a day like no other and yet is increasingly beginning to reflect the first century. Preachers should preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We should spend more time preaching against Sin and less time pointing out people’s sins. We need be declaring the universal truth that all of us are sinners and that all of us are repeatedly coming short of God’s expectations and what is more there I nothing that we can do other than to acknowledge our sin and receive God’s forgiveness by receiving Jesus Christ as Lord. We need to get back to basics . . . our world needs us to get back to basics so that those who do come to faith will be able to say “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness, so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

My concern is that we are so busy building religious kingdoms that we have forgotten the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.”  History tells us one thing for certain and that is everything done by man will return to the earth from which it came only that which is done for Christ will last. And just what do we do for Christ. Well, as one who has done so, I can tell you it is not beautiful houses of worship. It is living and telling what the Lord has done for you.

That’s why I stress the importance of Christocentric preaching. People need to know the Lord in a life changing way. If the core and focus of your life has not been changed then you need Jesus. Everyone who trust Jesus Christ as Lord is changed fundamentally. They become a new creature. Paul is so right when he says in Ephesians that he takes both the pagan and the Jew and makes of both of them a new kind of man (ἵνα τοὺς δύο κτίσῃ ἐν αὑτ  εἰς ἕνα καινὸν ἄνθρωπον ποιων εἰρήνην,). The kind of man who will knowingly stand and facing certain death declare “Jesus is Lord.” 

Another aspect of this is that he will not deny Jesus by his manner of living. You see, as much faith as it takes to not deny Jesus in the face of physical death it requires and equal faith to not deny him in our daily living. Our prayer should be “Lord help me to live in such a self forgetful way that others they face may see.”

As a Christian you have two ways of sharing the gospel. First, by telling what the Lord has done for you. Share your experience with the Lord.  Like the blind man you simply tell what you do know. “ I can’t answer all my own questions let alone yours but this one thing I do know, once I was blind but now I can see.”  Remember, your story is authentic. It is what you experienced.  As you make your way through life the Holy Spirit will open ways for you to share His story by sharing your story. Jesus told the healed demoniac to "’Return home and tell how much God has done for you.’ So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.” 

I can guarantee you that when you become a Christian and your life starts reflecting that fact people will take notice and you will have ample opportunity to tell them what the Lord has done for you and share the truth that He can do it for them as well.

The second is the manner of life you live.  Our lives are to reflect the life of Jesus. We used to sing, “Things are different now something happened to me when I gave my life to Jesus.”  Trust me, when Jesus saves you you’ll know it. The external signs may be minimal or they may be dramatic but the internal changes are always dramatic. “I once was lost but now I’m found was blind but now I see.” When we receive Christ as Lord He becomes our Savior by not just forgiving our sin but creating of us a καινὸν ἄνθρωπον (new kind of man) called Christian.

This is the creative work of the Holy Spirit and it enables the Christian to life on a higher plane morally and ethically. We express this theologically as “Christ in us the hope of glory.”  This also explains the miraculous stories in the Bible and in my home church. I want us to once again experience in our churches the powerful life changing work of the Holy Spirit.

There is a little chorus called “Let Others See Jesus In You” that sums this up pretty well . . . . . “While passing thro' this world of sin, and others your life shall view, Be clean and pure without, within; Let others see Jesus in you. Your life's a book before their eyes, They're reading it thro' and thro' Say, does it point them to the skis, Do others see Jesus in you? Then live for Christ both day and night, Be faithful, be brave and true, and lead the lost to life and Christ. Let others see Jesus in you.”

Paul’s name is one that is remembered from those early days of the Faith but there were hundreds of thousands of others whose names are lost to history who faithfully lived their lives day by day expressing the gifts of the Spirit to their community. It was this that drew their neighbors to faith. They may have seen and heard Paul preach once or twice but their neighbors they saw each day. The love and compassion they shared and the strength of their faith in the face of ridicule, persecution and death cause people to stand up and take notice and they soon discovered for themselves that what He did for other He also will do for them.

Hebrews 12 introduces us to what I call God’s Hall of Fame by pointing out that all the believers before us are as it were a great cloud of witnesses encouraging us to complete our race. In light of what many of those between the day that these words were penned and our day many have actually died for the faith and have been added to this collection of faithful saints whose names have been entered into God’s Hall of Fame.  “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

I learned the following poem from my Grandmother and it has been important to my Christian life since then. It helps me keep things in perspective. Maybe, it will speak to your heart as well.

Your name may not appear down here
In this world’s Hall of Fame.
In fact, you may be so unknown
That no one knows your name;
The headlines here may pass you by,
The neon lights of blue,
But if you love and serve the Lord,
Then I have news for you.

This Hall of Fame is only good
As long as time shall be;
But keep in mind, God’s Hall of Fame
Is for eternity.
This crowd on earth they soon forget
The heroes of the past.
They cheer like mad until you fail
and that’s how long you last.
But in God’s Hall of Fame
By just believing on His Son
Inscribed you’ll find your name.

I tell you, friend, I wouldn’t trade
My name, however small,
That’s written there beyond the stars
In that Celestial Hall,
For any famous name on earth,
Or glory that it shares;
I’d rather be an unknown here
And have my name up there.