A funny jab at pastors that has always been interesting to me is, “don’t you only work on Sundays?” I’ve always got a laugh out of this, but sadly, I think this idea came to be because many pastors don’t work very hard. When I first cut my teeth in ministry, one of the maintenance guys in our church told me, “remember this preacher-boy; the ministry can be the place where lazy men go to hide.” In over 30 years of ministry, I’ve found this to be true. By and large, pastors make their own schedules, don’t have a ton of eyeballs watching what they do, and Sundays are the only time of the week when people “see” them working. So, pastors must work hard during the week, and Sundays should be the fruit of some of that labor.
I say all of that because when I step out of the pulpit, like this past Sunday, it allows me to do other things than study for my Sunday sermon. It usually is not a week off from work. It’s a week off from “normal” work. Generally, a Sunday sermon will take me about 10-20 hours/week to study, write, and deliver. So, when I get a week, like this last one, I have time to work on other projects waiting for my “free” time. This past week, I continued re-writing our new members’ materials, studied different areas of theology, and had more meetings than a typical week. It was funny because I got to the end of last week very grateful that I wasn’t preaching Sunday.
Speaking of stepping out of the pulpit…one of the joys I have is listening to other men preach God’s word to our church and hearing the response from our people. Dave Ruble did an excellent job Sunday on a great text. As I’ve said before, that text “will preach.” But Dave preached it well. Dave is one of the men I look up to in the ministry. He’s a hard-working pastor. He loves his Savior, his family, and his church. I’ve been secretly recruiting him for about four years to come on staff as our Family Life Pastor, but finally, this past May, he joyfully relented:). Dave is the best pastor I know. He’s thoughtful, intentional, and deeply compassionate.
But Dave wasn’t the only one who taught our church these past couple of weeks. Robert Sidlo did a masterful job at our Men’s Breakfast on February 19th, teaching on the complicated topic of “Suffering and the Sovereignty of God.” It was thoughtful, deep, profoundly biblically, and challenging. I have long admired Robert’s passion to please God with his life. He is one of the men I know who will lay his life down for Christ. And it was a true joy hearing his passion deliver God’s word to us.
Now, I say all of this because of something that stirs my heart and makes me grateful…God has been kind to give us, at CLF, a deep bench of gifted, called, hard-working people (of which Dave and Robert are just examples) to teach God’s word and serve our church. The servants at CLF humble me. So many gifts on display…givers, gifts of hospitality, mercy, compassion, teaching, discernment…the list could go on and on. But what makes the gifts function so well at CLF right now is the posture people have toward Christ and one another. This is something never to take for granted and something that only the Lord has done. Praise God!
This coming Sunday:
This coming Sunday, we will continue our study through 1 Timothy by looking at 2:1-7. An excellent word for us today is to pray for our leaders. But what I love about this text is why we’re to pray for them—really looking forward to this.
From the Cheap Seats:
- The battle to stay out of the Relegation Zone is what makes the English tier system of soccer so fascinating. A soccer team could be in the Premier League (the highest tier) one season and in League One (3rd tier) after the following season. Teams can come in and out of different leagues each year based on wins/losses. It is a literal fight. In the Premier League, 14-20 are only separated by 8 points, with places 18-20 being relegated. Unreal.
- Tommy White…don’t know him? Well, a freshman for North Carolina State baseball. Seven home runs in 1st six games. Here’s a write-up: https://www.mlb.com/news/north-carolina-state-tommy-white-has-seven-homers-in-six-games. The dude hits mammoth jacks.
- I woke up this morning (February 28th), looked at my wife, and said, “I get to coach baseball today.” First words out of my mouth. About 5 minutes later, Nathan, our oldest son who’s a senior this year at UVC, walked in, and the first words out his mouth were, “it’s baseball season!” It is genuinely…the most wonderful time of the year.
God is on His throne today…no need to worry and ample reason to rejoice. Enjoy your week!
In Christ,
Dave York
