The View Of The Ministry Series

“HOW TO VIEW THE MINISTRY”

8-29-2010 New Liberty Christian Church, Veedersburg, IN with Pastor Rich McQuinn

TEXT: JOHN 1:40-46

INTRODUCTION: His name was Kenny Benskin. I was really stuck in the mud when I first met him at 10:00 p.m. I was 19, the minister of a lovely small church in Southern Illinois. I was barely old enough to brush my teeth let alone be preaching two sermons on Sunday and a Sunday School class besides. My first year in Lincoln Christian College in Lincoln, Illinois taught me to study and look out for the unexpected guidance of the Holy Spirit.

I did not have enough money to pay for books, rent, food and a car. I had no money for my first cars license plates. In a month I could afford it. So my dear friend Larry Busby lent me his front license plate to put on the back of my car. I know, I know!

They were first building the Interstate around Springfield, Illinois. It was pouring down rain. I was traveling illegally coming back from my church, 100 miles from college on a Sunday night. I made a wrong turn and what looked like a new paved road turned out to be graded mud. I sunk up to my wheels. I was in my suit, good shoes, school tomorrow and I was in a fix. One car stopped in the rain, the driver got out and yelled at me to come sit in his car. All kinds of ideas swarmed in my head then. Was God sending me a message or was satan trying to get me in a peck of trouble?

As it turned out Kenny Benskin said to me “I think God led me here to help you and for you to help me”. As it was he helped me get out of that mud with a chain and his powerful car. We sat in the car for over 3 hours. He asked me what I did and I told him up front that I was a minister of a small congregation and going to a Christian College in Lincoln.

I took him through the book of John and the book of Acts. At the end, I asked him if he wanted Jesus as his personal Saviour? He said YES! Besides my family, that was my first person to witness to and help lead to Christ. I asked him for his confession of belief in Christ. He showed up at my church on the next Sunday morning and during the invitation hymn he walked forward before the congregation and told his story. I was able to baptize him later on that day. That’s one experience I will never forget!

I felt the call of the Lord for the Ministry when I was 15. It was as clear as day. God was calling me to preach HIS word and to win the lost to Him.

We only have one nose, one mouth, one tongue, etc. There are lots of things we have two of, but we only have one Soul. That is all that is given to us. The most important item we have in the world is a soul. Therefore winning souls must be a grand and glorious adventure in life. It really is!

Matthew 16:26 What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

How do you view the ministry? How do you view your minister/pastor? Do you know what the vocation needs in a man? Almost 50 years I have been serving the church. I have yet to be given a clear clean cut definition of what the job of the minister really is. I know what it takes to do the job, but most average congregation do not know.

I believe in the ministry of Jesus Christ. The ministry of evangelism, the ministry of saving souls, and the ministry to comfort when death or despair happens. The ministry of tears, joy, hugs, encouragement, teaching, preparing lessons, the ministry of grooming a church board to maturity, the ministry of sacrifice, the ministry of giving, the ministry of planning and following through, the ministry of budgets, the ministry of a building program, the ministry of funerals, weddings, baptisms, special prayer sessions and on and on.

Oh, I know what you may think at times. You may think that all it takes is to prepare a nice talk, and not to upset anyone. Have the talk last 15 minutes with some jokes and feel-good sayings. You know that the preacher only works 2 hours on Sunday mornings and that he waves at you at the grocery store. He works two hours a week for the church.

You have no idea about the 3 am death calls, emergency calls in the middle of the night, or the countless hours of well digging for the next week’s sermon. Every minute you spend in the pulpit you need to spend one hour in research and reading. You can not short cut that responsibility. You have no idea of the broken home counseling, or the divorced, the hurt, the poor or the living in a glass house. It takes a special person to constantly be in the public’s eye all the time 24x7x365. There is very little private time.