Tag Archives: god

Who Am I to Speak into Someone’s Life?

How many times do we think to ourselves, “I should probably give direction based on God’s Word about what this person should do with their life?”  There are probably some of us who can’t help ourselves, some of us who think those things internally but never say anything, and there are also some of us who think, “Why would someone listen to what we have to say?”

Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.”

But God’s Word actually invites us to speak into the lives of other people and below are just a few responses we might give to that invitation:

  • Nobody would care what we have to say.
  • I am not qualified to speak into someone’s life.
  • I need to get my life in order before I talk to someone else.
  • I’ve made too many mistakes.

As a result, we tend to see people in our life put themselves in a harmful place and we never say anything.  Even worse, we wait till that horrible thing happens in their life and then we say under our breath, “I saw that coming a mile away!”  But let’s look at Exodus 3:

10 Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” 

11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” 

12 And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”

13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” 

Moses has all the typical excuses that we give today.  Who am I?  What will I say?  Why should they listen?  If we looked at the next chapter we would see, “What if they don’t listen? I am not good at this? You should send someone else.”

What is God’s response to all those objections?  Look at Exodus 3:

14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 

15 God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations. 

16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt. 

We tend to give excuses by focusing on ourselves, our resources, our abilities, our wisdom, our gifts but God’s response is to look at His calling, His power, His resources, His wisdom and invites us to trust in Him.  

This doesn’t mean we need to walk up to strangers and tell them what to do but God has called us to speak into the lives of others who are in Christ.  We are called by God to prayerfully consider, “Who needs to be encouraged, who needs to be challenged, who needs to be acknowledged, who needs to be served, who needs to be prayed for” and we get this opportunity every time we come together on Sunday morning for worship.  

What Do Pastors Do All Week?

Sometimes people will ask me, “What do pastors do all week?”  Afterall most people only see pastors on a Sunday morning but what about the rest of the week?  Surely pastors can’t work on sermons all week, right?  I have found this proverb to be helpful:

Proverbs 17:24, “Wisdom is in the presence of the one who has understanding, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.”

The easiest thing to do as a pastor is chase after the “squeaky wheel.”  There’s always a fire to put out.  There’s always something that is broken that needs to be fixed.  Sometimes a pastor could spend their whole week being really busy and being busy.  Here are some areas I have found helpful to focus on:

  • Sermon Preparation:  I spend about 10 hours a week on a sermon (2 hours a day.)  I have never preached a sermon and thought, “There is nothing else to study about this passage.”  I could easily spend 40 hours a week on a sermon.  It’s fun studying God’s Word and crafting God’s Word into a sermon but early on I prayed, “Father, help me to trust you to show up through my 10 hours of preparation.”
  • Leadership Development:  I spend about 10 hours a week on leadership development.  This includes meeting with new people, elders, volunteers, staff and setting aside time to think about where those people are and how to help them grow in Christ.
  • Vision:  I spend about 2 hours a week working on our vision as a church family and how our church is moving toward our vision.  
  • Meeting with People:  I spend about 10 hours a week meeting with people.
  • Reading:  I try to read a book a week.  A number of years ago I read a book called, “How To Read A Book.”  Isn’t that a funny title?  The author gave the encouragement that not every book is worth reading word for word, so most of the time I try to read books as fast as I can, so I can come across the books that are worth reading word for word.  
  • Prayer:  I do my own devotional time before I come to work.  Some pastors make their sermon prep their devotional time and sermon prep is personal for me but it’s always been important for me to keep these two separate so that I don’t blurr my relationship with God and my vocation as a pastor.  I typically spend about 2 hours a week in prayer.  
  • Administrative:  There are a lot of administrative tasks.  It might be sending emails, texts, blogs, phone calls, or organizing information.  I set aside 4 hours a week for administrative tasks.  Our new admin role at NVC has greatly reduced those hours, which I am very thankful for.
  • Ministry:  Most people work 40 hours at work and then volunteer additional hours for ministry, so in the same way, I try to work a 40 hour work week as a pastor and then the time I spend with neighbors, outreach, community group, or in the community are considered ministry hours.  This changes every semester but typically takes 8-12 hours in the week. 

Each semester I create a weekly schedule and plug in when and where I will work on those areas listed above.  It’s something I have done early on in ministry and found it to be really helpful. 

As a pastor, most of the work is spiritual or abstract in nature.  It isn’t often that I have the satisfaction of creating a “product” and seeing if that product was “successful” or not.  Therefore, having the structure of a schedule to know where I want to work, how I want to work and when I want to work provides the freedom to know when I can stop working.  

It doesn’t mean I will stop working as a pastor for the day but it means I will stop working on North Village Church things for the day.  I will meet with friends.  I will find a way to rest and relax.  I will spend time with my family.  And I will trust the Lord to do His work in me and through me for another day.