Imagine a pitcher of water slowly being poured out. Now imagine a glass held under the stream of water slowly being filled up. When the cup moves away from the stream the cup stops filling.
This is a great image of the way that God's blessings (the water) flow into our lives (the cup). We "catch" God's blessings when we position ourselves in the right relationship with God. If we move away from God, then His blessings stop filling us.
The problem with many of us is that when we get some of these blessings we rush out into the world and start pouring out the little we have into other people. In and of itself this isn't bad. After all, we're expected to be a blessing to others (Matthew 5:16). The problem is that we can only hold so much and as we pour out (minister) to others we eventually run dry.
With our cups empty we feel tired, overwhelmed, and spiritually dry. It is then that we run back to God and seek His blessings. We reposition ourselves under the stream by getting ourselves in the right relationship to God. Then, standing under the stream of God's blessings we get refreshed and filled up.
The way to maintain an enduring ministry is to take up a position under the stream of God's blessings and stay there! Eventually God’s blessings will fill us to the point of overflowing. Our ministry is accomplished from what overflows. In this way our ministry will last and last, because God's blessings will not stop flowing.
Jesus said, "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." (John 7:38)
Minister from the overflow.
Lon Alderman
@leaderlifter
www.AcornMinistries.com
The first time I saw this demonstration was by my friend Bill Allison (Cadre Ministries). Thanks for the great imagery, Bill!
Showing posts with label service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label service. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Now what?
Last month was Pastor Appreciation Month and people all over the country celebrated their pastors! It was an awesome month for me for two reasons. First, as a part-time pastor myself I felt a great surge of appreciation from the people I serve. Second, as a person devoted to encouraging and equipping pastors, it was great having other people joining me in this work for the whole month!
The cards have been read and the gifts have been received.
Now what?
I can't get this article out of my mind:
Suicide: When Pastor's Silent Suffering Turns Tragic
In my work I interact with many pastors that are suffering silently. The expectations placed upon their work are, in a word, unattainable! Few if any are fully equipped for the tremendous breadth of professional skills and spiritual gifts needed for the job! This reality is exacerbated by the fact that most hurting pastors feel they can't ask for help and resign themselves to keeping silent!
The result is beat up, stressed out, and frustrated pastors. Seems to be a far cry from this scriptural directive:
1Timothy 5:17
The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.
I love Pastor Appreciation Month, AND there must be more we can do! I'd love to hear your thoughts! And, I'll start rolling out some of my own as well.
What can we do to change the cultures, systems, and habits that produce these outcomes?
Now what?
Lon
The cards have been read and the gifts have been received.
Now what?
I can't get this article out of my mind:
Suicide: When Pastor's Silent Suffering Turns Tragic
In my work I interact with many pastors that are suffering silently. The expectations placed upon their work are, in a word, unattainable! Few if any are fully equipped for the tremendous breadth of professional skills and spiritual gifts needed for the job! This reality is exacerbated by the fact that most hurting pastors feel they can't ask for help and resign themselves to keeping silent!
The result is beat up, stressed out, and frustrated pastors. Seems to be a far cry from this scriptural directive:
1Timothy 5:17
The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.
I love Pastor Appreciation Month, AND there must be more we can do! I'd love to hear your thoughts! And, I'll start rolling out some of my own as well.
What can we do to change the cultures, systems, and habits that produce these outcomes?
Now what?
Lon
Friday, August 28, 2009
To Ask, Or Not
I have just completed a very challenging two-month journey. The quest of my journey was to answer this question:
Is it appropriate to ask people to support my family and me as I do God’s work as a missionary?
I have heard MANY opinions. The loudest, and frankly, the harshest, opinions came from people with this view: “If I’m doing God’s work, then God will provide the resources to get it done.”
To this point, I agree with them, but our thoughts quickly diverge on their next statement. They say, “It is wrong to ask people to support ministry, because it isn’t found anywhere in the New Testament.”
This makes sense at first blush. I can’t find a single place where someone raises funds for themselves. It just isn’t there! As someone that has been asking people to support his ministry for almost seven years, this fact really rattled my cage!
However, today I received a great word of encouragement from God through a colleague I’ve met through twitter:
Pastor Martha Spigener (@butterflybeacon) wrote:
Our culture here in America is not the culture of the Bible…the culture of the Bible was one in which it was expected, let me say that again, expected, that the people would pay to support their priests and Rabbis. Just look at the sacrificial laws and what was for the priest and what was actually burned. It isn’t written in the New Testament because it was an expected norm. Our society does not exist with those expectations.
In other words, we don’t hear Jesus asking people to support Him because it was unnecessary to do so. People were already expected to support people in ministry (see Luke 8:1-3). People during Christ’s ministry understood that it was their responsibility to support people in ministry. Jesus didn’t have to ask!
Yes, God will provide what is needed for His work. The culture in which we live does not understand its responsibility to care for those in ministry. Therefore, we must ask people to support us as we devote our lives to the ministry God has called us to.
In my case, I encourage and equip church leaders. My services are desperately needed, but church leaders don’t have resources to “pay” for my services. Only through God’s sustaining blessings will I be able to continue to “build up the body of Christ, the Church, one leader at a time”. And the way God provides is through donations from God’s people. And for those donations to happen in this culture I will have to ask!
In Christ,
Lon
If you would like to support Acorn Ministries, please send your tax deductible donations to:
Acorn Ministries/H2H
101 West 2nd Street
PO Box 237
Flanagan, IL 61740
OR, you can use your credit card or paypal account by clicking the following link: Donate
Is it appropriate to ask people to support my family and me as I do God’s work as a missionary?
I have heard MANY opinions. The loudest, and frankly, the harshest, opinions came from people with this view: “If I’m doing God’s work, then God will provide the resources to get it done.”
To this point, I agree with them, but our thoughts quickly diverge on their next statement. They say, “It is wrong to ask people to support ministry, because it isn’t found anywhere in the New Testament.”
This makes sense at first blush. I can’t find a single place where someone raises funds for themselves. It just isn’t there! As someone that has been asking people to support his ministry for almost seven years, this fact really rattled my cage!
However, today I received a great word of encouragement from God through a colleague I’ve met through twitter:
Pastor Martha Spigener (@butterflybeacon) wrote:
Our culture here in America is not the culture of the Bible…the culture of the Bible was one in which it was expected, let me say that again, expected, that the people would pay to support their priests and Rabbis. Just look at the sacrificial laws and what was for the priest and what was actually burned. It isn’t written in the New Testament because it was an expected norm. Our society does not exist with those expectations.
In other words, we don’t hear Jesus asking people to support Him because it was unnecessary to do so. People were already expected to support people in ministry (see Luke 8:1-3). People during Christ’s ministry understood that it was their responsibility to support people in ministry. Jesus didn’t have to ask!
Yes, God will provide what is needed for His work. The culture in which we live does not understand its responsibility to care for those in ministry. Therefore, we must ask people to support us as we devote our lives to the ministry God has called us to.
In my case, I encourage and equip church leaders. My services are desperately needed, but church leaders don’t have resources to “pay” for my services. Only through God’s sustaining blessings will I be able to continue to “build up the body of Christ, the Church, one leader at a time”. And the way God provides is through donations from God’s people. And for those donations to happen in this culture I will have to ask!
In Christ,
Lon
If you would like to support Acorn Ministries, please send your tax deductible donations to:
Acorn Ministries/H2H
101 West 2nd Street
PO Box 237
Flanagan, IL 61740
OR, you can use your credit card or paypal account by clicking the following link: Donate
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Myth of Impact
This post is ripe for push back; however, if my premise is sound, then I don't expect any!
I struggle (regularly) with the tension between following Jesus and the felt need to measure the impact of my ministry. As a missionary, this "need" rises from the desire to encourage my supporters with inspiring demonstrations of impact. People want to know that their "investment" in my work is "profitable".
Frankly, I am making all the impact I am capable of. God uses me at His discretion. Some followers of Jesus are used for making an impact on a large amount of people. Others are used to make a large impact on just a few people. Honestly, I think the latter is more scriptural; however, the world leans toward the former. Our culture values the broader, arguably less deep, impact on more people, because, frankly, it is more financially profitable!
Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Oswald Chambers writes...
We consider what we do in the way of Christian work as service, yet Jesus Christ calls service to be what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based solely on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on following after a particular belief or doctrine. "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate . . . , he cannot be My disciple" ( Luke 14:26 ). In this verse, there is no argument and no pressure from Jesus to follow Him; He is simply saying, in effect, "If you want to be My disciple, you must be devoted solely to Me...
People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today, to those who only want Him to be their Friend, and who are unwilling to accept Him in any other way. Our Lord’s primary obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of people— the saving of people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble. But if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity, even though people may treat me like a "doormat." The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness. Yet it is like a grain of wheat that "falls into the ground and dies"— it will spring up and change the entire landscape ( John 12:24 ).
Want impact? Devote yourself to Jesus!
Lon Alderman
www.AcornMinistries.com
@leaderlifter (twitter)
I struggle (regularly) with the tension between following Jesus and the felt need to measure the impact of my ministry. As a missionary, this "need" rises from the desire to encourage my supporters with inspiring demonstrations of impact. People want to know that their "investment" in my work is "profitable".
Frankly, I am making all the impact I am capable of. God uses me at His discretion. Some followers of Jesus are used for making an impact on a large amount of people. Others are used to make a large impact on just a few people. Honestly, I think the latter is more scriptural; however, the world leans toward the former. Our culture values the broader, arguably less deep, impact on more people, because, frankly, it is more financially profitable!
Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Oswald Chambers writes...
We consider what we do in the way of Christian work as service, yet Jesus Christ calls service to be what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based solely on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on following after a particular belief or doctrine. "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate . . . , he cannot be My disciple" ( Luke 14:26 ). In this verse, there is no argument and no pressure from Jesus to follow Him; He is simply saying, in effect, "If you want to be My disciple, you must be devoted solely to Me...
People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today, to those who only want Him to be their Friend, and who are unwilling to accept Him in any other way. Our Lord’s primary obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of people— the saving of people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble. But if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity, even though people may treat me like a "doormat." The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness. Yet it is like a grain of wheat that "falls into the ground and dies"— it will spring up and change the entire landscape ( John 12:24 ).
Want impact? Devote yourself to Jesus!
Lon Alderman
www.AcornMinistries.com
@leaderlifter (twitter)
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Audience, by Lon Alderman
I'm having a ball playing in the pit orchestra for "Singin' in the Rain" with the Vermilion Players! I was reminded of this post (June 18, 2007) and think it's time to post it again.
Galatians 1:10
Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
I've just finished a very busy season of musical theatre. I played trumpet in the pit band for "West Side Story" in our local community theatre. Because of this experience the concept of "audience" is fresh in my head. Every ounce of effort that went into this production was for the purpose of pleasing the audience.
In this passage, Paul calls our attention to the most important audience of all. To whom are we performing? Singer and songwriter Sara Groves put it wonderfully in her song "This Journey is My Own". Here are some selected lyrics:
When I stand before the Lord,
I’ll be standing alone.
This journey is my own.
Still I want man’s advice,
and I need man’s approval,
but this journey is my own.
So much of what I do is to make a good impression.
This journey is my own.
So much of what I say is to make myself look better.
This journey is my own.
I have never felt relief like I feel it right now.
This journey is my own.
‘Cause trying to please the world
it was breaking me down...
Now I live and I breathe for an audience of one...
‘Cause I know this journey is my own
You can live for someone else
And it will only bring your pain
I can’t even judge myself
Only the Lord can say, “Well done.”
Galatians 1:10
Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
I've just finished a very busy season of musical theatre. I played trumpet in the pit band for "West Side Story" in our local community theatre. Because of this experience the concept of "audience" is fresh in my head. Every ounce of effort that went into this production was for the purpose of pleasing the audience.
In this passage, Paul calls our attention to the most important audience of all. To whom are we performing? Singer and songwriter Sara Groves put it wonderfully in her song "This Journey is My Own". Here are some selected lyrics:
When I stand before the Lord,
I’ll be standing alone.
This journey is my own.
Still I want man’s advice,
and I need man’s approval,
but this journey is my own.
So much of what I do is to make a good impression.
This journey is my own.
So much of what I say is to make myself look better.
This journey is my own.
I have never felt relief like I feel it right now.
This journey is my own.
‘Cause trying to please the world
it was breaking me down...
Now I live and I breathe for an audience of one...
‘Cause I know this journey is my own
You can live for someone else
And it will only bring your pain
I can’t even judge myself
Only the Lord can say, “Well done.”
Friday, October 17, 2008
Distracted-Again, by Lon Alderman
Luke 10:41-42
But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
My thought has been that if I get this page up and running then more people will hear about and come to understand my ministry. In the process, I got distracted from the ministry of encouraging people through the Build UP!
This happens spiritually, too! We get all balled up in serving God and forget to relate to Him. We get entangled in the issues within the church and forget to be the church. We get distracted with trying to preserve the church and forget the God it serves.
Stay focused!
Lon
By the way, you can check out my work on facebook by clicking on this link: Acorn on facebook
But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
As I'm sure you've noticed I have not been posting to this blog much. I've been distracted with a project that has exacted a great deal of time. I'm in the process of developing a "page" on facebook where I can post information about Acorn Ministries.My thought has been that if I get this page up and running then more people will hear about and come to understand my ministry. In the process, I got distracted from the ministry of encouraging people through the Build UP!
This happens spiritually, too! We get all balled up in serving God and forget to relate to Him. We get entangled in the issues within the church and forget to be the church. We get distracted with trying to preserve the church and forget the God it serves.
Stay focused!
Lon
By the way, you can check out my work on facebook by clicking on this link: Acorn on facebook
Saturday, July 26, 2008
A Few Things, by Lon Alderman
Matthew 25:21
His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
My mom tried for years to teach me a truth found in this passage. The subject always surfaced when I was dissatisfied with my job. She would say, "Do the best you can with the job you have and things will work out."
I tend to grow frustrated when things don't go my way. If my frustration gets too overwhelming, then you will find me "looking", again! I think that there must be something better for me out there...I just have to find it.
What I forget is that God has placed me where I am, even if I don't think it's the perfect job for me. And, God has a plan for me to grow in the place He's placed me. He's given me a little bit to handle now, in hopes that I'll handle it and be prepared to handle more later.
Let's be faithful with our few things!
Lon
His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
My mom tried for years to teach me a truth found in this passage. The subject always surfaced when I was dissatisfied with my job. She would say, "Do the best you can with the job you have and things will work out."
I tend to grow frustrated when things don't go my way. If my frustration gets too overwhelming, then you will find me "looking", again! I think that there must be something better for me out there...I just have to find it.
What I forget is that God has placed me where I am, even if I don't think it's the perfect job for me. And, God has a plan for me to grow in the place He's placed me. He's given me a little bit to handle now, in hopes that I'll handle it and be prepared to handle more later.
Let's be faithful with our few things!
Lon
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Build UP: Serve
Matthew 23:11
The greatest among you will be your servant.
One of the most difficult principles to understand is Jesus' teachings about service. Jesus not only taught it, He lived it out. Jesus could have chosen to reign as a king. Instead, Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, healed people, and, in the end, died for us.
This is a difficult teaching to emulate. It's unnatural for us to look to the needs of others when our needs seem so glaring. We put so much effort in meeting our needs and preparing for our futures. It's very tough to set that all aside for someone else.
Today, let's take 30 minutes to concentrate on serving the needs of others.
Humble yourself. (Matthew 23:12)
Lon
Monday, September 03, 2007
Acorn Build Up: Serve the Lord
Serve the Lord
Colossians 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all you heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Labor Day is drawing to a close. I don't want this day to escape without remembering for Whom we labor. No matter what work we do, let us remember that it is for Jesus that we labor. We bring Him glory when we excel in our work. We bring Him glory when we persevere through the difficulties of our work.
We bring Him glory when we perform our duties differently than our peers. We bring glory to Jesus when we avoid gossip, solve conflict in a loving way, and speak the truth in love. We bring glory to God when we approach challenges with the peace that comes from knowing Christ.
In today's labor let us bring glory to God!
Lon
Colossians 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all you heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Labor Day is drawing to a close. I don't want this day to escape without remembering for Whom we labor. No matter what work we do, let us remember that it is for Jesus that we labor. We bring Him glory when we excel in our work. We bring Him glory when we persevere through the difficulties of our work.
We bring Him glory when we perform our duties differently than our peers. We bring glory to Jesus when we avoid gossip, solve conflict in a loving way, and speak the truth in love. We bring glory to God when we approach challenges with the peace that comes from knowing Christ.
In today's labor let us bring glory to God!
Lon
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