#17
I need love with skin on
“Mommy, I’m afraid! I’m afraid!” cried the little girl who was awakened in the middle of the night by the storm. The rain beating against the window frightened her; the lighting and thunder terrified her. “Mommy, where are you! Where are you!”
Her mother hurried into her room. She sat on the side of the bed and held her daughter tightly to comfort her. Wanting to take advantage of this teachable moment, she said, “Honey, when you are frightened like this you can know that God is with you and loves you.”
“Yes, Mommy, I know that,” she sobbed. “But I need love with skin on.”
WE ALL STRUGGLE: One of the struggles every pastor faces is how he can help his people personally and directly experience th love of God. We began to realize some years ago that there was no way we could build a staff large enough to put “love with skin on” for every one of our members if we continued to proceed in the traditional way.
As we studied the Scriptures, we discovered that there is a God-given method by which His love could be given concretely, specially and continually to all of our members. That method is through raising up a sizable team of lay people who can be called forth, trained, equipped and then commissioned to that task – to be pastors.
The seminary-trained pastors are to be identified as those in Ephesians 4:11, 12 whose call from God is to equip the saints for ministry. Equipping lay people for ministry is God’s plan for the pastoral care of His people.●
(Audio/Byeong) Yes, lay people can do, care for people, especially those who are given the caring gift, but they need to be premised: That’s to be 1) called forth, 2) trained, 3)equipped and then 4) commissioned to that task–to be pastors. That’s the biblical mandate of Ephesians 4:11–12, and also John Welsley used this method when he used lay pastors, lay preachers, lay care-givers, and so on.
COMMENTS
in relation to Can Lay People Really Pastor?
Mary Beth Ludt(USA) says:
At the heart of the Lay Pastors Ministry is a desire for churches to develop a culture of care. To equip the ordinary folks that are extraordinary to the Lord to be agents of grace and encouragement to the family of God.
God instructs us through the apostle Paul to “make the most of every opportunity …” Jesus taught us to love one another.
At the heart of Lay Pastors Ministry are relationships that grow our faith, give strength to the weary and spread the joy of the Lord. Yet today we live in a culture of broken relationships, fatigue and busyness. That has left us with pews of exhausted, discouraged, malnourished believers. Many are living in a constant state of defeat. So, to step out and serve as an agent of care and encouragement is beyond their thoughts of just getting through another week.
We are seeing more and more resistance to carrying the title of Lay Pastor because we are convinced we are simply unqualified to “pastor”. The biblical plan for “mutual care in the body of Christ” is still largely viewed as idealistic or simply for a select group of people who have caring and compassionate personalities. Who has authored those thoughts? The enemy. They are not in line with God’s plan and purpose for His family.
In God’s reality, we are all called to be agents of God’s love. We are called to care because God cares. We are called to serve one another as an overflow all that God is doing in our lives today and all He has already done through the generosity of grace.
With this “reality” of today’s church and the typical challenges that Lay Pastors Ministry at our church, Centenary United Methodist Church, and other churches face, we began to pray that God would show us how to face these obstacles so that the Lay Pastors Ministry would continue to empower and encourage members to be ministering to one another to enhance and build a culture of care. God led us to an equipping retreat called “I Care”. It combined equipping and spiritual enrichment to break through obstacles in our own spiritual journey that could be hindering our willingness to serve another person in this way.
It brought together the truth from God’s Word to help us identify areas where our overflow could be clogged. We allowed the truth to affirm our role as laity while distinguishing the difference between being a good friend or neighbor and being someone serving another on behalf of Christ. We learned more about paying attention to God’s voice and the reality of the enemy working against us and ways to be prepared for battle. Through this retreat we were challenged to go outside our comfort zone to experience further dependence on God to love others through us, giving Him the opportunity to change us along the way. Overall we saw the group respond to God in a willingness to be more intentional about availing themselves to the role God has identified for them within the Kingdom of God.■
Byeong, Melvin University, says:
Especially, Nagaland churches and people expressed this concept is very attractive and gratitude to Melvin who made it.
Pitfall at caring: This is not the serious issue, but willing to deal with. Once we are trained with the PACE Manual. There is mentioning of a few cautious when we care for others. The one is money issue. We shouldn’t give and take money with our flock family that is what PACE manual teach us and also I trained people with this text many times at many occasions.
Of course we have to be careful to borrow from them those whom under our care. Personally I couldn’t remember I borrowed money from my flock members. It’s ok. But I am wondering here that giving money to them, help them with financially, lend money to them. This is a critical issue to me all the way. Yes, we have to be careful to borrow money from them, and also do we have to be very careful to give, to lend money to them?
Sometimes, we need to give them when it’s very serious to them, of course, this is significant issue between we and flock are, by the way I found that we are too careful to use, to give our money to them. So we tend to close our mind too early. I think sometimes we need to give money to the needy, especially in terms of ministry we have to donate some finance to the ministry. Of course I am not generous person, but we have to be careful to close down our mind too early as the instruction of PACE Manual tells us.
Of course we can’t help everyone, every ministry, and every organization but some organization where in the poor country really need our financial help, then we have to open our mind to them. Yes, we need to be cautious about giving as Melvin advised us, but if we are too strict to it all the time, there is no ministry to survive in the world and couldn’t expand the kingdom of God, as we know every ministries need finance to accomplish it, and God know what and how to complete it.■
ADDITIONAL COMMENT
by BYEONG
Planning and preparation: I was very interested in these two things when I set up a seminary in Nagaland, India. In other words, we made a plan and started preparing. These two words both are probably familiar, easy, but not taken seriously.
Usually, we decide to do a certain ministry or project, but now we plan. However, planning takes a lot of time and energy, but in reality, and often it is not possible to actually proceed with it. It’s a long way from trying to put the plan into practice. That’s why I am saying here, ‘Preparation’ is necessary before practice.
Preparation means that rather than preparing everything at once, as there is a saying that “when you light a candle at night, you can only see one to two meters ahead.”
When I tried to start school in Nagaland, I talked a lot with the Mr. A who was a student that came to Korea to study. We had known each other while LPM/PACE training together for two years in Korea.
We decided to set up a school, and we said “Let’s pray” to each other many times. While praying, I read one article in a summary of a book made by the Auxano Institute in the United States, which seems to have been the title “Preparation is More Important than Planning.” So after praying and planning, I said to Mr. A, “Let’s PREPARE for now,” and he understood what I meant and accelerated the preparation. The word ‘plan’ was no longer needed for us. The word and concept of preparation, and the [verb form] of “preparing” remained, and in fact, only that “preparing” was waiting for us. So as we continued to prepare, we were able to eventually hold the Opening Ceremony of the Seminary. It was the result of preparing steadily for almost a year. The plan alone does not produce results. It doesn’t happen if we just expect something to happen.
In fact, we have learned and done a lot of things ‘to make plans’. It’s not that we don’t have to plan, but the potential unconsciousness that planning itself is the end often binds us. In other words, it means that after planning, we need to focus more on preparation and put our energy into it.
Why is preparation important! Preparation is not a one-time slogan, it is not completed at once, and it is not a [static noun.] It is actually progressing by continuing to do something that has no end. Then one day, there will be a moment of ending that we have completed.
Anyway, once the preparations begin, we will get a lot of ideas, insights, and resources from both inside and outside. If we just ‘stand still’ to make plans, we can’t see and find the resources around us. When we prepare for a goal, we will find a way, and when we do, people will help us.
Robert Fritz emphasized in his book, “The Path of the Resistance,” that if we set one major goal and worked hard to achieve it, everything around us would help us. Because that’s how people and things line up. This is what he called “structural dynamics.”
Yes, God will be with us when we prepare for an important ministry. Planning alone is not enough. Many people make plans, but not many people execute them, and they no longer prepare in that direction, just standing still and waiting. Nothing happens, even you planed very well.
Personally, I found out that this was true because it came from my own experiences. We can’t complete it if we just plan and stop there. It’s a sad fact that many people stop before preparing. Because they make a plan, and then they stop as if they’ve done it. Then they are killing time looking forward to something happened, and ask “What’s going to happen!” but it doesn’t actually happen. After you have planned, you should move on to preparation.