Tag Archives: spiritual battle

How Many Pastors Did and the Reasons they Did it.

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How Many Pastors Did and the Reasons they Did it.

Recently, Jo and I heard about a situation in a local evangelical church that reminded me of a blog post I wrote in 2013. I thought it might be fitting to republish the relevant parts of that nine-year-old blog post:

Replay of an Old Blog Post
I just now read the troubling statistics about North American evangelical church pastors in Lance Witt’s 2011 book Replenish: Leading from a Healthy Soul. (Available on Amazon)

  • 1,500 pastors leave the ministry permanently each month in North America.
  • 80% of pastors and 85% of their spouses feel discouraged in their roles.
  • Over 50% of pastors are so discouraged they would leave the ministry if they could but have no way of making a living.
  • Over 50% of pastors’ wives feel that their husbands entering the ministry was the most destructive thing ever to happen to their families.
  • 71% of pastors stated they were burned out, and they battle depression beyond fatigue on a weekly and even daily basis.
  • Only one out of every ten ministers will actually retire as a minister.

(Research compiled from The Barna Group, Focus on the Family, Fuller Seminary, and the Institute of Church Leadership.)

Prevention is the Best Cure
These sad statistics would be prevented if all Christians everywhere obeyed the instructions given by the apostle Paul 2,000 years ago.

“And now, friends, we ask you to honour those leaders who work so hard for you, who have been given the responsibility of urging and guiding you along in your obedience. Overwhelm them with appreciation and love!” 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 (MSG).

Okay, here’s where you stop reading and start praying for your pastors and plan to do something to honour them and show your appreciation. At least send them an encouraging email.

Really, take the next five minutes to do for your pastor what you are thinking about right now.
                                (End of the 2013 blog post.)

Why are Pastors Quitting or Thinking about it?
More recently, two to three years ago, Barna did another survey among pastors. They reported that 42% of pastors considered quitting the ministry. They then questioned the pastors about the reasons that drove them to consider quitting the ministry.

Over half of pastors who have considered quitting full-time ministry (56%) said, 1) “the immense stress of the job” has factored into their thoughts on leaving. Beyond these general stressors, two in five pastors (43%) said, 2) “I feel lonely and isolated.”

 Three more Reasons reported by Most pastors:
3) Political divisions in the church
4) Negative effects on the pastor’s family
5) The pastor’s vision for the church conflicts with the church’s direction.

 Five Reasons reported by Fewer pastors:
1 Pastor not optimistic about the future of the church
2 Pastor not satisfied with his job.
3 Pastor feels no respect from the congregants.
4 Pastor does not feel supported by the church staff.
5 Does not feel equipped to cope with ministry demands

Replay of the Prevention
The last three lines from the old blog post are worth republishing here:
Okay, here’s where you stop reading and start praying for your pastors and plan to do something to honour them and show your appreciation. At least send them an encouraging email.
Really, take the next five minutes to do for your pastor what you are thinking about right now.

Jungle Adventure? No, a Spiritual Battle!

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       At Last! The End of the Summer Blogging Break!

Jungle Adventure? No, a Spiritual Battle!

The Plan
“The SIL plane needs to fly to Brasilia for maintenance on Saturday.” The shortwave operator told us one morning. “It will stop in Barra do Corda to refuel and take on up to 400 kilos of cargo to drop off for you in the Canela village on the way.”
What an opportunity to bring in kerosene for lamps and bags of salt for the Canela, as well as fresh veggies, fruits, eggs, and meat for us.

Jo Teaching the Girls

On Tuesday I left Jo and our three small daughters in the village and rode the Tote Goat, an old motorcycle, seventy kilometres into Barra. There I bought trade goods and groceries and arranged to have them taken to the plane. But Wednesday morning the old motorcycle broke down and would not be repaired for several weeks. I had to wait until Saturday.

The Problem
There was neither phone nor short-wave radio in Barra at that time, I could not tell Belem centre so they could tell Jo of the delay. In the meantime, she was worried.

“Jack was supposed to be back on Wednesday,” Jo told the Belem radio operator. “Please pray that he is all right. I worry about him lying on the trail somewhere with a broken leg or worse.”

Satan’s Plan
Friends in Belem prayed that I would be okay. I was fine, but Jo was not. She was suffering with fever and severe pains in her belly. Our colleagues on the centre were alerted to pray for Jo as well.

Finally, on Saturday, the SIL plane overflew the school campus where I was staying to let them know to bring aviation gas to the airport. The pilot saw me standing out in the open, waving. Immediately he radioed Belem and Jo. “I see Jack; he’s okay.”

After refuelling and loading most of the cargo, we landed safely at the village. Jo and I hugged each other, right in front of the watching Canelas; she was so relieved after all those days of anxiety. Unloading quickly Paul continued on course to Brasilia.

“Besides my concerns about you,” Jo told me, “I had strong pains just to the right of my navel, had a fever and felt nauseous. So, I took massive doses of ampicillin antibiotic, and I am already feeling okay.”

The Rest of the Story
A year and a half later, just before Leanne’s birthday, we were in Belem, and Jo was preparing to bake a cake when she said,

“Jack, I am having those same pains again that I had that time in the village.” She went back to bed while I ran to get a colleague who was a nurse. She checked Jo thoroughly, turned to me, and ordered, “Get her to a hospital right now; she has appendicitis!”

“No, I can’t go to the hospital,” Jo argued, “I need to make a cake for Leanne’s birthday party tomorrow.”

We ignored her pleas and loaded her into the VW van. I sped to a small hospital about twenty-five minutes away. Within thirty minutes of our arrival, Jo was on the operating table, and the surgeons did an appendectomy.

“We found a lot of scar tissue when we took out her appendix,” the doctor told me after it was all over. “She must have had an attack earlier.”

“Yes, she did,” I said, “Nearly two years ago, she had these same symptoms when she was alone in an Indian village out in the jungle. She treated herself with massive doses of ampicillin antibiotics.”

“Good thing she did,” the doctor said, “your wife would surely have died in much pain without that treatment.”

God’s Plans
“Thank you, Loving Father in heaven,” I prayed as I walked back to the van, “for looking after my wife and the mother of our three little daughters back then. We so often ran out of antibiotics in those early years. But this time you guided Jo to take the right medication. No wonder I love you!”

It was also more evidence that we were involved in a spiritual battle. Satan tried to kill Jo, which would have stopped the Canela translation program. But God had other plans!

The above post is an excerpt from our next Memoir: From Adventure to Spiritual Warfare. (The Canela Decades)

The Day Satan Shot Himself In The Foot

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For generations the Gideons in Canada have presented each student in grade seven with a New Testament including pages of helpful notes. Thousands of anecdotes and stories attest to how God has used this portion of the Bible to bring young people to Himself. Recently, however, many school boards have forbidden the Gideons from distributing these New Testaments to schoolchildren.

Satan, mankind’s greatest enemy, hates God and His Word, actively fighting every attempt to distribute Bibles. I can personally attest Satan tries everything in his power to keep the Bible from being translated into the remaining 1,800 languages that still do not have any part of God’s Word translated into them.

No doubt he laughed a long, loud infernal laugh when the school boards slammed the doors shut in the Gideons’ faces. He didn’t know it, but he laughed too soon. In motivating those boards to stop young people from receiving the New Testament, Satan shot himself in the foot.

Here’s how.

The Gideons International in Canada developed a smart phone app with an up-to-date New Living Translation of, not just the New Testament, but the full Bible. This app called NewLife not only has the Bible and the original helps that came with the Gideon New Testament, but with a greatly expanded set of hyperlinked helps, explanations, introductions and readings.

Gideons1With this easy-to-use app readers of any age can start at SQUARE ONE and explore topics like “God’s existence,” “the purpose of life,” “what’s truth,” “morality,” “the Bible,” and “Christianity.” Or they can go straight to the TELL ME MORE section where they’ll explore topics like Jesus Christ, faith, sin, prayer, church and so on.

Throughout the app they’ll find suggested readings for when they want to dig deeper on a particular topic. Clicking on each book title will take them to a quick synopsis of the book.

Also featured in NewLife is a BIBLE HELPS topical index section with common things people want to find in the Bible. For example, you can find Bible verses for when you’re afraid, or considering marriage, needing peace, or feeling victimized. You can also find important passages like the Christmas and Easter stories, some of the miracles of Jesus, or a selection of the most popular Psalms. Wondering what the foundational Christian virtues are? Scan the list and read the Bible verses that apply, on their own or in context.

What's Easier than Flipping Pages? Touching A Screen.

What’s Easier than Flipping Pages? Touching A Screen.

When you’re READY TO CHANGE, the app will walk you through the steps you’ll need to take to start a new life based on the teachings of Christ. By the way, the app was put on the Gideons in Canada website just before Christmas without any fanfare, promotion or advertising. Within days, positive comments came from all over the English speaking world including two people in the UK who indicated they had repented and accepted Christ’s forgiveness for the first time in their lives when they followed the steps in this section of the app!

Currently NewLife is available for use only on iPhones, iPods and iPads. When an Android version of the app is developed, the users of half a billion Android phones and other devices will be able to download the NewLife app too. By then, a new feature will help users find churches nearby.

When Satan closes one door, God opens another. And what a door!

Doesn’t this situation remind you of that text in 1 Corinthians 2:8? “The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn’t have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross” (MSG).

In the same way, if Satan had known God’s plan to mightily expand the availability of His Word to school children and millions of others, he wouldn’t have pushed those school boards to forbid the distribution of New Testaments in schools.

Yes, this time Satan shot himself in the foot. No doubt he’s enraged at the way God turned his evil plans into a good outcome. Can you imagine Satan hopping mad on only one foot?

Those of you who use Apple mobile devices, go to www.gideons.ca and click on the iPhone App tab which will take you to the iTunes store to download NewLife for free.

With this app any Christian, even a grade seven student, can sit down with a friend and answer his questions, even lead him to faith in Christ. It’s all there, so easy to follow, so easy to share.

Doesn’t this make you want to break out and sing Our God Reigns!?

Why Should Christians Need Encouragement?

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“Working vacation” and “original copy” are oxymorons:  the words cancel each other out. “Discouraged Christian” should be an oxymoron, but it isn’t. Why?
Before Joshua started his invasion of Canaan, God told him, “Be strong and courageous.” These words were passed on seven times to Joshua, to Moses, to the leaders, and to the people. David repeated the theme in the Psalms, saying, “Be of good courage.” Jesus, after telling his followers they would have lots of trouble in this world encouraged them by saying, “But cheer up, I have overcome the world.” The apostle Paul constantly urges his readers to encourage each other.
Why do you think the encouragement theme is so pervasive throughout the thousands of years of human history as recorded in the Bible? Could it be because we human beings are very often dejected and discouraged, disappointed and depressed, dispirited, downcast, disheartened and in the dark?
But why should Christians need encouragement? It is easy to understand discouragement in selfish people who constantly want more and can’t get it. But discouragement and depression don’t just happen to them, people who live serving God also suffer every form of discouragement. We are not exempt. Why not?
Here we are, children of a loving Father-God. We know He is Love, He is Light, He is just and all-knowing, all-powerful, all-wise, and present everywhere. The more these truths about God soak into our minds, the more we set ourselves to live right, love others, speak kindly, and think pure, uplifting thoughts.
And what is the result? We, His children, the ones He says He loves suffer the same sudden disasters that fall on those who live selfishly without any thought of God. We also experience deep disappointments, car accidents, killer cancers, botched surgeries, and financial failures.
What should be our attitude when these bad things happen to us? Here are a few things to consider:
1) It may be too soon to judge if something that happened is good or bad. We may only be halfway into the story.
2) Even if the story ends badly in this life, God is no one’s debtor. He is just, and will reward suffering in this life with glory in the next.
3) We can turn stressful situations into an opportunity for personal growth.
4) God wants each of us to live bringing glory to Him. Some will do this by being highly successful in public ministry, others by suffering in private under multiple physical and emotional stresses.
5) We are all involved in a spiritual battle and some of us will be wounded.
6) God has given every person on earth the ability to make choices. Every choice, good or bad, has far-reaching consequences which affect other people, even Christians.
7) When we receive comfort and encouragement in hard times, we are better able to sympathize with others and to comfort and encourage them.
8) A well-known poem tells us God answers our prayers, although not always in the way we expect:
I asked for strength and God gave me difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for wisdom and God gave me problems to solve.
I asked for patience and God placed me in situations where I was forced to wait.
I asked for courage and God gave me dangers to overcome.
I asked for love and God gave me troubled people to help.

We can’t help but get discouraged at times, but we don’t have to stay discouraged. We can be like David after raiders had kidnapped his family and those of his followers and his own friends wanted to kill him. David “encouraged himself in the Lord” and went on to win a great victory with God’s help. (1 Sam. 30:6)