The Work of Our Pastors

The churches and I words, the churches, the service station, not the service, the service and outside the church. Send them into service. Send us pastors. When you send us, then things will happen, you know, and that's when the life becomes exciting for people. I mean, it really does. When you catch that vision. Welcome to the Ignite with Barry Maguire Podcast, where Barry's book and passion for spreading God's love are guaranteed to ignite your life. Now, listen in and prepare to have your life ignited. Pastors I want to know, I am in awe of what you do. I mean, I could never do what you do. You have an awesome job. You really do. And you're not always honored back properly. Your people are not always hanging on their European word. We hear about this apathy of the people of the pew that you preach your heart out and when the service is over, they're more interested in lunch and think to this world and hard to give me any feedback at all over a sermon that Jesus poured your heart out on. And so there is this apathy issue within the church today. That is significant. It really is significant. And I'd just like to share some thoughts with you for whatever they're worth. I'm a layman. I'm a professional layman. I was bored of the church. You know, I calculated a few months ago that I have heard over, I've sat under about, well, at least a minimum or conservative or 8,000 sermons in my life. You know, I go to retreats. I listen to sermons on the radio. I let Sunday morning, I get two or three sermons before I go to church in Sunday morning. So I mean, a lot of preaching coming my way. Been a number of different churches. I've been pretty faithful to my churches. So I know what it means to a pastor. I have a faithful layman that's there and loving on them and doing the work of the church. And you can't live without volunteers and a core of people that really love you. And I understand that whole dynamic. But on this issue of apathy, let me just give you a suggestion from my viewpoint if I could. I think people are apathetic because they're bored. They've been going through the motions of church so long that it gets wrote. I mean, it's very easy to do that. It doesn't happen to you. You're studying every week because you have to give. You know you have to give a sermon on Sunday morning, maybe on Sunday night or Wednesday night or whatever. And so you're continually digging and digging and digging and you're digging with purpose because it's a message that you're having to share. But for us laypeople, if we don't have to share, it's just being religious, if you will, or being disciplined, if you will, that we come, we sit through another sermon. And quite frankly, if you can get to the point where it's out, I know Jesus loves me and I know He's full of mercy and grace and what we're going to go to lunch. I mean, you can get down to that basic thing, unfortunately, no matter how hard it's not your fault. I mean, you're preaching out, but you get to kind of get where you've just done it so much. You know, and the shame of that is that your ministry has been wasted and it has to be so frustrating for you. When I started listening harder to what my pastor was saying and taking that and looking for ways to use it that next week, I started fighting, wow, how smart my pastor is. And how God was using him to give the right message to me at the right time to change lives that week. And I would just suggest, you know, when you're preaching, before you preach, I would just say, or maybe at the end of every sermon, say something like, you know, I have already sought God for this and this was God's message for you for this week, I know that. And I would encourage you to go out this week and find ways to use this message, you know, as often as possible throughout the week, understand your Christ and pastor, you're in full-time ministry. My job is to equip you for ministry and my job is to send you that out. You're all surrounded by people of the world, non-Christians, I'm not, I'm surrounded by Christians. That's my role. I'm here to equip you. The churches and I words, the churches, the service station, not the service, the services outside the church, send them into service, send us pastors. When you send us, then things will happen, you know, and that's when the life becomes exciting for lay people. I mean, it really does. When they catch that vision, you know what? And then what I would do, I've thought about this, if I was a pastor, it seems to me I'd like to bring up lay people on the platform and bear witness to the very things you're saying, you know, I think you, if the stories start coming back, imagine stories coming back to people using your sermon in different ways. When you call a guy, Dave, hey, come here, Finn, you just tell me a story before a service coming for you. Oh, pass it. It was just so amazing. Well, tell us the story. You know, pastor, I never shared my faith. I didn't think I was responsible. I didn't think I was supposed to do that. You know, 56% of all Christians have no thought that they have responsibility for the spiritual life for those around them. They have no thought they should be sharing their faith. So just the very fact that you send us makes a difference. A lot of people are doing it most or not, okay? And when you send us, you get these kinds of stories. Imagine Dave coming up just to layman, one of the group, he's haves one of us. And now he's up there saying, you know, pastor, I took your message to heart and I was looking for ways to share. And then it just happened. You know, this friend, this co-worker, this employee, this boss, somebody in the sacrifio came and they started sharing their problem. I was loving them and asking what was wrong with it and doing anything for them. They started sharing this problem. And you know, the very scripture you gave me on Sunday morning was the exact scripture. I needed for that person. And it just broke him. He broke into tears and we cried together. We hugged each other and I'm letting closer to Jesus Christ. It was the craziest thing. It was wise. I never thought I could be used by God in my life when that kind of testimony, that talk about reality TV and how about reality church, how about reality Christianity? People are friend of the myths coming up and sharing it. Think of the impact that can have. I mean, it was a layman that got me going sharing my faith. Your job is to equip us and teach us whatever, but it's something about having a layman to layman. You know, layman to layman and encourage us and saying, that's what I do. You should be doing it too. And we're kind of the third party endorser for what you're telling us, okay? And we can say it in a way that you can't say it. It has a sick of just a feeling of importance only because you're getting paid to do it. I'm not getting paid to do it because I love to do it. It changed my life. And when you get people, you're people sharing it with it, sharing and sharing. You know, everybody in that congregation, it seems to me, it would be taken back by the fact that one of their own got up there a week ago, I had no thought of sharing their faith. And this week is up on the platform talking about how they lit somebody to Jesus Christ. Wow. Just a thought. But the work is being done outside the walls of church. It's about being the church outside the walls of the church. It's about extending your ministry outside the walls of your church to your community. So pastors, if what I'm saying is ringing true to you, you know, and I hope it is, take them for a guy's minute, church, I was like, I have so much respect for you. And I just want to be encouraged here to you that many people are ready to go to work. You just need to be there. If you enjoyed today's episode, let us know. And don't forget to subscribe, rate and review to help us reach more listeners. Remember, sharing your faith, ignites your faith. See you next time on The Ignite with Barry McGuire Podcast.