{"id":19741,"date":"2004-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2004\/01\/01\/times-when-ministry-is-welcome\/"},"modified":"2004-01-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-01-01T00:00:00","slug":"times-when-ministry-is-welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/times-when-ministry-is-welcome\/","title":{"rendered":"Times When Ministry Is Welcome"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead1\">When People Are Grieving<\/h2>\n    <p>&#8220;How can we believe in God when a good man can be so cruelly snatched away?&#8221;  a young man asked after a memorial service. &#8220;How can we have faith in <em>a world like this?<\/em>&#8220;<\/p>\n    <p>Prior to my appointment as U.S. Senate Chaplain, I served 27 years as a military chaplain. Too often I had to tell family members of the death of a soldier.  At those moments, we must avoid glib, omniscient platitudes regarding complex issues of theology. Grieving people aren&#8217;t looking for comprehensive answers; they want a connection. They want someone who understands the pain, if not the reasons for it.<\/p>\n    <p>At a recent service commemorating the one-year anniversary of a senator&#8217;s death, I lingered afterwards. Hurting people often wait until after a service to approach, looking for the right moment to seek guidance. It was then the young man asked me his question about faith in a world like this.<\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; I answered. That response often diffuses the tension a deeply wounded person feels. Then, remembering 2 Corinthians 1:3-5, I sought to connect with the man&#8217;s sorrow. &#8220;I felt the same things when my mother was killed in 1987. I was ready to abandon the faith. But then I took all my angry conversations right to God.&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>It was better to try to guide him from opposing God to exploring God, rather than trying to convince him,  in a single stroke, to believe.<\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the most helpful thing I&#8217;ve heard in a long time,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n    <p class=\"is-style-article-bio\">Barry Black serves as Chaplain of the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead1\">The Move-In Special<\/h2>\n    <p>\n      \n       Our church uses retreats, rock climbs, and other group experiences to build discipling friendships. But some transformations are long in duration and require more one-on-one interaction. <\/p>\n    <p>Over the past 10 years, I have invited a few men to grow in their relationship with Christ by living in my home, sometimes for six months, sometimes for a year. It&#8217;s easy to feel awkward teaching someone how to grow spiritually, and this prolonged exposure allows us to develop natural rapport. When we&#8217;re together do life, teachable moments happen.<\/p>\n    <p>One man moved in after he was treated at a hospital for drug addiction. His family was in pain, and he wasn&#8217;t ready to go home. I invited him to see my home as a sort of half-way house.<\/p>\n    <p>Once, when we were playing one-on-one basketball, as we often did, he suddenly quit. He could have beaten me, but he quit. I challenged him not to give in and to learn to finish well. It proved a pivotal moment.<\/p>\n    <p>Three years later, he&#8217;s one of our pastors and heads &#8220;Mercy Walk,&#8221; a program for helping others with troubled pasts.<\/p>\n    <p class=\"is-style-article-bio\">Dave Gibbons pastors New Song Community Church in Irvine, California.<\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead1\">Keep Your Commitment to Love<\/h2>\n    <p>\n      \n       Roger and I kicked in the door at Glen&#8217;s house. Glen was suicidal after discovering his wife&#8217;s infidelity. But Roger, Glen, and I were in a small group together, where we had made a commitment to brace one another through hardship.<\/p>\n    <p>Four weeks later, it was Roger&#8217;s wife who was found unfaithful. His masculinity ripped to shreds, Roger shut himself in his house, wept, and-like Glen-wouldn&#8217;t open the door for anyone.<\/p>\n    <p>So I let myself in. Though Roger was embarrassed that I saw him with eyes swollen from crying, and though the awkward silence begged me to leave, I had made a commitment to support these men.<\/p>\n    <p>When a man hits rock bottom, he&#8217;s the most open to God. But preaching and theology go out the window. He doesn&#8217;t want to hear about grace and forgiveness when he&#8217;s been wronged.<\/p>\n    <p>I took Roger to the lake where he vented for two hours. When he said he wanted to kill his wife&#8217;s lover, I reminded him of his boys. I reminded him of how God used him to help Glen. And I made no promises save that God would somehow get him through.<\/p>\n    <p>Six months later, though Roger&#8217;s marriage was over, he was restored. He admitted, &#8220;I didn&#8217;t really want you to leave that day. I was embarrassed, and inside, I was testing your commitment, testing your love.&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>After that, there&#8217;s no way I&#8217;m backing out when I have a commitment to love someone.<\/p>\n    <p class=\"is-style-article-bio\">Bryan Anderson pastors Cornerstone Fellowship in Greenfield, Iowa.<\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead1\">Dinner and a Personal Story<\/h2>\n    <p>\n      \n       My wife, Judy, worked at the library. A co-worker heard Judy speak freely of her faith and observed Judy&#8217;s moral lifestyle. The two of them began a friendship. Then Judy invited her coworker to visit our church on Friendship Sunday and to dinner at our home afterward.<\/p>\n    <p>In our home, I was able share the gospel with this woman and invite her to a class our church was offering. In time, she gave up a bad relationship, uncovered a childhood faith that had been lost for years, and today she is a pastor&#8217;s wife and Christian author.<\/p>\n    <p>Church members befriend unchurched people that we as pastors would never meet. If we provide special opportunity to bring those people to church, we may find that &#8220;pastorable moments&#8221; come to us.<\/p>\n    <p class=\"is-style-article-bio\">Larry Zahn pastors Messiah Lutheran Church in Alpharetta, Georgia.<\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead1\">When They&#8217;re Angry<\/h2>\n    <p>\n      \n       A group of elderly ladies were decorating our church for Christmas when a man walked into the lobby. Dripping wet, he demanded to see the pastor, and refused to leave until his demands were met.<\/p>\n    <p>With our pastor unavailable, the ladies called me (an elder at the time) and considered calling the police. But before turning to the authorities, I asked the ladies to let me talk to him.<\/p>\n    <p>He stared blankly ahead as he answered my questions. He was desperate, his children hadn&#8217;t eaten meat in a month, and he had walked 10 miles in the rain to get help from a pastor he had once known.<\/p>\n    <p>The Spirit prompted me into action. I went to the store and bought groceries (especially meat) for his family, and called a taxi to carry the man and food back to his home. He walked out with me to wait for the taxi, and his face changed from steeled determination to a frightened childlikeness. &#8220;Did I do something wrong?&#8221; he asked.<\/p>\n    <p>&#8220;Of course not,&#8221; I answered. &#8220;You needed help, and you came to a church. I helped you because God wants me to show you that he loves you.&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>He cried. We prayed. And I will never forget the look of gratitude on the face in the window as the taxi pulled away.<\/p>\n    <p class=\"is-style-article-bio\">Linda Wurzbacher pastors Blessed Hope Community Church in Rochester, New York.<\/p>\n    <p class=\"is-style-article-copyright\">Copyright \u00c2&copy; 2004 by the author or Christianity Today\/<em>Leadership<\/em> Journal.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/le\/help\/permissionsprivacy\/permissions.html#answer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"copyright\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here<\/a> for reprint information on<em>Leadership<\/em> Journal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When People Are Grieving &#8220;How can we believe in God when a good man can be so cruelly snatched away?&#8221; a young man asked after a memorial service. &#8220;How can we have faith in a world like this?&#8220; Prior to my appointment as U.S. Senate Chaplain, I served 27 years as a military chaplain. Too <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/times-when-ministry-is-welcome\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[876,1026,1269,2259,2310],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[688,156,692],"tax_ctp_tags":[4101,4608,4792,5046,5103],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-19741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-barry-black","tax_ctp_authors-bryan-anderson","tax_ctp_authors-dave-gibbons","tax_ctp_authors-larry-zahn","tax_ctp_authors-linda-wurzbacher","tax_publications-2004-leadership-journal","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_publications-winter_2004-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-grief","tax_ctp_tags-pastoral-care","tax_ctp_tags-relationship","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-formation","tax_ctp_tags-suffering"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- 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