10 Lessons from 10 Years of Ministry

This fall will mark the beginning of my 11th year in full time ministry. I served 5 years as a youth pastor at New Era Reformed Church, and now 5 years as a DMM trainer with Biglife/. I also had a 2 year stint as a spiritual life director at Western Michigan Christian during my time with Biglife/. In these 10 years, I’ve had the joy of learning from selfless mentors, co-laboring with fiery Kingdom-minded friends, and pouring deeply into many young people. I’ve made 1000s of mistakes, got a few things right, and had a blast while doing it. The following are 10 things I’ve learned during these last 10 years.

1. Christ himself will oppose you, if you make yourself the head of HIS church.
   • James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5
2. Modeling is 100x more effective than telling someone what to do.
   • 1 Corinthians 4:15, 2 Timothy 3:10
3. You will face 1000s of rejections. It’s okay. But the hardest is when someone you’ve poured your heart into, knowing the downpayment of the Holy Spirit, who slowly walks away from pursuit of Christ to pursue the world. They take their hand off the plow and are slowly led away to destruction.
   • Philippians 3:18-19, Matthew 25:31-33
4. True Christian leaders first ask “What does the LORD desire to do in this situation?” and not “What do the people want in this situation?”
   • John 5:19, 2 Timothy 2:4-5
5. Teach the Fear of the LORD, it’s the beginning of wisdom. Don’t fall into the Grace without putting to death the love of the World trap.
   • Titus 3:11-15, Isaiah 11:3
6. Having just one fellow co-laborer or “Timothy” changed everything. Your number may have only doubled, but your effectiveness, joy and stamina grows exponentially.
   • Matthew 28:18-20, Romans 16:21
7. If you’ve been “discipled” by someone for a while now, and haven’t learned about Righteousness through Christ alone… it’s time to ask questions or get out! If you are unskilled in the Word of Righteousness, Hebrews says you are an infant Christian.
   • Hebrews 5:11-14 & 6:1-3, 2 Corinthians 5:21
8. More people need to measure their walk with Christ, based on the Word of God. It’s not about how close or far we feel from God, we measure our relationship based on his Word. If you aren’t in his Word, and don’t know Scripture, don’t pretend to know God.
   • John 1:1, John 12:48
9. (This one is a hard pill to swallow) The prevailing/Current Church model of Sunday Morning Service is one of (not the only one of course) root causes of the epidemic of fatherlessness. We’ve modeled and weekly remind people that Fathering is a distant man, on a stage, not walking through the ups and downs of life. We’ve made it disgustingly worse, as some now even refer to watching a sermon online as “Church.” Now dad’s can just zoom their 1000 kids just once a week and call it family and discipleship. We are to be devoted to one another, as Christ devoted himself to the Church.
   • 1 Thessalonians 2:11, Acts 2:42-47, 1 John 3:16
10. “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:24

When I encountered and submitted my life to the LORD at 17, I wrote a mission statement for life:

‘I commit to helping others grow: Spiritually, Mentally, Emotionally, and Physically.”

After almost 15 years, my mission remains the same.. with a new addendum.

‘I commit to helping others grow: Spiritually, Mentally, Emotionally, and Physically… laying down my life, that Christ may be glorified.’

As always, if you’re ready to move beyond Comfortable Christianity (The Lukewarm Church that Jesus will spit out of his mouth) I’d love to pray for you, spur you on, and meet up to talk through more of that!

Maranatha!