Minister's poll

[mfblume]

Here is a poll similar to the one on the general board posting section.

But it does not circle around church attendance, and that woudl not apply to ministers. :) This one circles around what is our priority of concern as to who we should deal with first and foremost.

[jbenjesus]

I was about to vote, but then I realized I can't fully say one or the other.

I do lean to God, then immediate family, wife and kids.

I am first a man of God - so God is first.

When I do that He places the responsibility of my immediate family first. No one else has been placed with that responsibility. The man of the house must first care for his own. I believe that firmly.

Then ministry branches out from my family to whoevers in need. Not just church. Not just congregation.

I have "church family" that are not part of my church congregation, yet they are of great importance to me. As I think about it, equal importance.

But those that are not a part of the church are very important to me, especially if their have been relationships established for the ministry of evangelism. If fruit bears out in them, then they also become are part of the great family of the body of Christ.

I think I would lean more toward the second choice.

I'll vote that.

Yes, I let my vote be known, with my explanation.

[mfblume]

Amen, brother. Its an issue that I noticed was certainly based at the first choice with many or most of the older ministers. And sadly many of them have told me they wished they had it to do over again, to not prioritize the church over their immediate family, because some of the children are lost today as a direct result.

One older minister told me that they promised their kids one afternoon to spend the saturday with them. And then after a phone call from a congregant, they were off again, leaving the kids alone. And the children to this day regret those times. And most are not saved.

[ddc101]

That is so sad Bro.Blume.I have watched this happen over and over again in ministers families.People do not realize how much is actually involved pastoring.They call the pastor for every little thing even if they can do it themselves.Some think they are on call 24 hours because they are the pastor.That is ridiculous.Sure emergencies do come up but not every day.I think it can become an addiction to work just like any othere compulsive addiction.We need balance.lv sis.c

[Sandy]

I believe what is needed is for the pastors to begin to train up people to do the works of the ministry themselves, thus freeing them up from being in the kind of predicament Sister DDC is describing. Because that was Gods intentions from the very beginning IMHO, which is what it says is the jobs of these people walking in these ministry gifts to begin with in Ephesians. Unfortunately, traditions and doctrines of man have somehow changed this around to being the job of the pastors only.

Perhaps if you are overtaken in this area, it would be good to pick some of those in your congregations that are ready to do these thing, and anoint them by praying over them, sending them out to do so. Then when someone calls you about a situation, tell them you are going to send someone, and call one of them and do so.

This would certainly take care of the problem, would it not? Thjat way the persons situation would begin to be attended to, and your family would be happy with you as well.

I have to tell you the church basically has definitely changed the natural use of the body of Christ regarding these issues.

[mfblume]

Amen DDC and Sandy,

The BODY should be ministering. Whatever happened to calling for the elders (plural) to lay hands and anoint with oil?

Jesus says laying on of hands is a thing for all believers. This one-man-show deal has to go.

[Adoniyah]

God first.

Family up and above all else.

God instituted the family before the church. Man is given the responsibility to his family as priest in his own home, responsible for seeing that his family is taught, raised and led into the fear and love to the Lord.

If a man looses his family for the sake of the church, his whole world is inverted as far as proper priorities are concerned.

This has been my attituded for many years, though I had been mistaken in my early family life. I made corrections for which the LOrd has greatly blessed me. All six of our children have the Holy Ghost and are living for God. I believe it is because of my attitude adjustment many years ago.

Church can often place heavy demands on men calling them away from their families. This is especially true when smaller churches are involved. This can be detrimental to families and the church as well.

[ddc101]

My little girl received the Holy Ghost in revival this weekend.lv sis,c

[drummerboy_dave]

Are you polling the entire cafe, Bro Blume?

Praise The Lord, Ddc!!

[stmatthew]

YES, Praise the Lord Sis Cooper.

I also agree with all the above. If you can't be the minister of your home, you don't need to be the minister of a church.

[mfblume]

Hi Drummer..

The poll was on the ministers section since it deals with a ministerial issue. I was interested in hearing what ministers would say about this. I do know that the trend in times gone by was for theminister to put the congregation before his own family. Maybe not in such a widespread manner, but it was there.

[LadyRev]

Great poll Bro. Blume! I could share so many sad stories of family members lost because they were last.

[drummerboy_dave]

Then, I will not vote, so as not to corrupt your results. But I do wonder, doesn't the bible say that in order for a man to rule the house of God well, he should first be successful ruling his own home? Please forgive my paraphrasing, and if I have it wrong, I'm sure you will put me in my place. :)

[BroDane]

CHOICE THREE:

God in all things

[Hnovilla]

His Name is Jesus!

Each one should follow the Lord "...according to the faith he has received..." I do not believe we all fit in the same mold, except as it pertains to the Gospel.

Brother Villa

[Thelordisone]

Your personal relationship with Jesus comes first, then your family then Church.

If you dont have the first 2? How will you have the last? Impossible!!

[Hnovilla]

His Name is Jesus!

A lot of polls are coming in! I do not believe polls help, neither in the natural realm or the spiritual one. There is only ONE poll I am really interested in, and then I will search the scriptures to see if my spirit can agree with the results. Otherwise, I would rather remain silent and not share/contaminate my ignorance with anyone else. The 'poll' I'm interested in? It is: "...thus saith the Lord..."

Brother Villa

[mfblume]

Thelord,

Great point. Paul even said that you cannot expect to take care of the house of the Lord if you cannot take care of your own home first!

[Pastor D]

Clearly, God is pro-family. Marriage/family is God's first institution of organized society. In our zeal as believers, we have neglected and in many cases abused our families in our quest to build our ministries. A pastor who is a family man has a real understanding of day to day life that if properly managed adds a dimension to his ministry. Consequently, as I have grown as a husband and father, I have grown as a pastor. The church should create an environment where marriages and families are strengthened prayer, biblical preaching and teaching and the example of the pastor. As we grow, we have to real enough with our congregations that we have faced and managed all the marital and family stresses our people face and through the word we have grown and overcome.

The church should never be seen as competition to the family. As pastors, we should develop service schedules or at least be flexible to allow our parishioners time to help our children in school, plan family activities and spend time with our spouses. If families are strong and godly, the church will be also. The two feed into each other.

God bless.

[Joan]

Sandy, great post. I like what you said. I didn't vote because I'm not a minister, I'm just a saint. The only license in my wallet is for driving my car. :-)

[servant]

Delegation is the key. When the number of disciples increased in the early church, the apostles delegated responsibility to faithful men so they could dedicate themselves to prayer and study of the Word and teaching.
No where in the Word does it say that a pastor or elder or whatever you want to call him is supposed to be a 24/7 "fix it" man. Nowadays, though, the pastor is called upon all the time to fix marraiges, fix families, fix the plumbing at the church, fix this, fix that. It's true, some become addicted to this. They love to be in control and needed. Every little decision has to be run past them first. Little do they even realized, it's not supposed to be like that. Their lives would be so much simpler if they would delegate. Some pastors try to be the five-fold ministry in and of themselves. It can't happen.

Serv :)

[Joan]

Servant, I like what you just said too. Praise God.

[Janice Alvear]

May I say our families are our FIRST responsibility for how can one preach if his family is not in order? How can we love the world if we do not love our family? We have a very close example of this in our family. One of my husbands brothers really took no time out for his kids and all but one of them are in the world or in false doctrine. We were laughed at by some but we always did our best to include our kids and today they are all in church and several are preachers, minister of music, co-pasor, and others just good christians. I say it is important to have our family right after God. So many people not only loose their children but husbands loose their wife's and vice versa. There must be family time.
Well, so much for my "out of date" opinions. But God still ordered the home and roles in the home. That WORKS when nothing else does.

[servant]

Sis Alvear,
The Word says that if a man can't even order his own house, how can he oversee the flock of God? The pastors, elders, overseers or whatever you want to call them are to be examples to the flock. It's such a tragedy to see a minister with tons of zeal and charisma pour his heart and soul into his ministry, at the expense of his own family. God called us to be husbands, wives, fathers and mothers before he called us to be anything else. God bless you, Sister!

Serv :)

[Joan]

Oh boy, I know a lady who's a pastor's kid. She's backslidden, and lives with her parents still and is close to 30 years old. She doesn't normally go to church but last Sunday went and was requested to sing by someone. Her dad, the pastor, allowed it but was uncomfortable from what I understand. Anyway, this lady testified that all the people in the church should love her dad so much because as she was growing up he gave all his love to the people of the church more than his own family.

Yikes. Kids perpective? Maybe. Not sure if she is correct (it's not my church). However, a grown child with bitterness that her dad loved the people of the church and showed greater dedication to them/it than his own offspring. For the sake of argument, let's say it's true, eesh.

Perhaps the apostolic movement needs a greater understanding of the five-fold ministry and biblical church government.

No as in anybody's bad but as in let's put our minds and prayers together to seek the Lord heartily so that the Lord can get more glory and families saved.

[mefoster]

I agree with Sis. Alvear and Joan. I have seen both sides. Personally, I am a preacher's kid who respected the dedication my parents had to God and His service. The love that was in our family was not only genuine but it was Christ-centered. This instilled in me a Love for God and a desire to do all I could in the church.

[Felicity]

I think that it should be......God, family, church. In that order. But to be honest, in our ministry it's probably been more like God, church, family. :)

Thankfully, our children never resented our involvement in ministry. They never resented going to church or church-related events. We did lots of fun things together as a family and have had a very interesting life. Our kids have benefited from that and even now that they're grown up and gone from home, I've never heard them say that they felt we didn't give them enough time or attention.

My husband and I have been sold out to ministry all our married lives. This is our life. I don't know any other. :) But I think we did a pretty good job of balancing everything and our kids would agree. I know because we've talked with them about it and I know that our kids love and respect and look up to their dad very highly.

But yes definitely, preachers need to take time with their families and I think most preachers do. Wives can be a great help in the "reminding" dept.

One great thing about being in ministry full-time is that your hours are more flexible than working a "normal" 40 hour week. When our kids were younger and there was a day that was fairly open - nothing too much on the agenda - then we'd just spontaneously pack the kids in the car and go for a day trip or do something together. I have so many wonderful memories of our family times together and “church times” are included in those great memories.

[Cherokee]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
All to often Pastors find themselves taking the full load when they did not have to.
In the very early stages of Church growth it may be necessary to focus so intently but God sends new converts and even other ministers in to help and yet they sit on pews unused when they could have been given duties to lighten the load and would have felt that they were a vital part of God's work.

Another thing I have seen is the wives (and children) of the Pastor work and sacrifice with the care of the Church. Peanut Brittle, pies, dinner, flower funds, Ladies aux. etc. and the list goes on and on. So much work that family devotional time is lost.

Sometimes delegation to trusted others have been overlooked.

Every Shepherd desires Church and Spiritual Growth but if his own family is being neglected and their spiritual, physical, and mental wellbeing is negelcted then the body of Christ suffers.

I know if all the Pastors would confess they know there have been times they took the whole load that could have been shared.

I do not believe God intended for the care and maintainance of His House to supercede the care and maintainance of the natural and physical man and family.

The temple is in the man not the man in the temple.

We forget that God is a family man.

The Church body is just an extention of the family.

The Word also says that a man that does not provide for his family is worse than an infidel. Do you think God was talking about the natural only?

Sometimes our great cathedrals have become as an albatross about our necks when they sap the very strength from any of us.

Pastors should be trained to delagate responsibility and then trust God to take care of it so they can take time for family.

For once yesterday is gone, you can't call it back.

Yes, hind sight is 20-20 so they say. Most of life is learned by experience and it would be so nice if we ourselves could learn from mistakes others have made but most of the time we have to make them ourselves before we learn.

So maybe this very conversation came up that we could correct the direction someone else is heading.

The Word of God addresses all these issues. Man makes them hard.

Anyway that is my thoughts on the matter. Some I've learned by living and experience and some by watching others.

Have I always batted a 100? No but we all are trying!!! Love Ya' in Jesus!!! Cherokee

[ddc101]

I want to share that in prioritizing things.If you put God first and train your children to put God then working for God will be enjoyable for them.I would rather my children develop a love for the things of God than the things of this world.I would that they would rather feel the awesome earth moving power of the Holy Ghost than desire movies,videos,nintendo.I would that they would rather work the altar and teach a bible study than go roller skating.I would that they would grow up to be awesome and full of Holy Ghost power.I don't understand what some folks are getting at when all they desire is social activities.And we do somethings socially with our children but that should not be the focus and priority in family life.We are to train them in the way they should go.We are to help them to learn to deny the flesh and develop convictions and a knowledge of the word of God and a relationship with Jesus Christ.You all would sit with open mouths if you could hear my thirteen year old give advice to the church ladies using scripture.Or my six year old witness to friends in the neighborhood and bring them to sunday school at no prompting of mine.The thing is to live the life before them.Go out and teach all nations.Be completely dedicated and let them experience some Holy Ghost overflow.Let them taste and see that the Lord is good.No what we have too much of is men and women who pamper their flesh and love entertainment more than the things of God and are teaching their children to love Baal more than God.This is what is happening to the children.lv sis.c
todays Soap box......lol....

[foxfamily238]

His Name is Jesus!
Each one should follow the Lord "...according to the faith he has received..." I do not believe we all fit in the same mold, except as it pertains to the Gospel.
Brother Villa
Hola, hermano Villa. Good to see you on here as well as preachers only..

I must say, I pray for every preacher to stand firmly on family OVER any and all activities that either...

Conflicts with the needs of the spouse & family
Takes away the God ordained relationship between husband and wife (What God has put together, let not man [includes church] put asunder
Or embarrasses the spouse or family.'
If there's one thing the enemy is TRULY busy with, it's tearing up families. If you lose your family, but keep your ministry, you've lost it all, and you missed the point of living for Him. Your FIRST WORK of ministry, is your home and marraige. It's in the first book, and the last! Genesis: God ordained marraige. Revelation: The Marraige Supper of the Lamb. Let's keep the right balance in our lives as ministers, in Jesus name!

:D

[ufmek]

Hola, hermano Villa. Good to see you on here as well as preachers only..

I must say, I pray for every preacher to stand firmly on family OVER any and all activities that either...

Conflicts with the needs of the spouse & family
Takes away the God ordained relationship between husband and wife (What God has put together, let not man [includes church] put asunder
Or embarrasses the spouse or family.'
If there's one thing the enemy is TRULY busy with, it's tearing up families. If you lose your family, but keep your ministry, you've lost it all, and you missed the point of living for Him. Your FIRST WORK of ministry, is your home and marraige. It's in the first book, and the last! Genesis: God ordained marraige. Revelation: The Marraige Supper of the Lamb. Let's keep the right balance in our lives as ministers, in Jesus name!

:D
AMEN, AMEN, and AMEN!!:yeah:

[ddc101]

Amen Brother Mike,
There are so many out there who just love to preach but everything else is out of whack.lv sis.c