{"id":27032,"date":"2023-04-25T10:29:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T10:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2023\/04\/25\/keep-on-speaking\/"},"modified":"2023-04-25T10:29:00","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T10:29:00","slug":"keep-on-speaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/keep-on-speaking\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Keep on Speaking&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My Dear Shepherds,<\/p>\n\n<p>At one time or another most pastors crumple, thinking, &ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t think I can do this anymore.&rdquo; Maybe it&rsquo;s the critics, the workload, or the nagging sense of inadequacy always nipping at our heels. Ministry might even be going well but we&rsquo;d just as soon follow in Elijah&rsquo;s footsteps out to some solitary brook and wait for ravens to bring us lunch.<\/p>\n\n<p>Even Paul, who seemed like a ministry version of Chuck Norris, struggled because Jesus paid him a visible visit to bolster him. It happened in Corinth where Paul faced abusive opposition yet &ldquo;many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.&rdquo; Heady stuff but even so, ministry had evidently taken a toll for this happened next:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: &ldquo;Do not be afraid; <strong>keep on speaking, do not be silent<\/strong>. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.&rdquo;<\/em> (Acts 18:9-10)<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>There are times when we wonder if we&rsquo;ve somehow lost our herald&rsquo;s credentials or if everyone would be better off if we moved on. Perhaps you&rsquo;ve been beaten or shipwrecked once too often. Some pastors lose their lifeline to Scripture and the Spirit till they sound like the unintelligible teacher in <em>A Charlie Brown Christmas<\/em>: &ldquo;Wa-wa-wawa-wa <em>.<\/em>&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>In God&rsquo;s good time and way, the Lord Jesus graciously helps us rediscover our voices and restores our confidence to speak. There are times for silence but usually he tells us, &ldquo;Keep on speaking.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>When I turned 40 I felt ministry laryngitis coming on. I&rsquo;d been the senior pastor of our church for seven years and the routine worried me. <em>From now on for the rest of my ministry days<\/em>, I thought, <em>I&rsquo;ll just keep doing the same stuff over and over, over and over<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n<p>Then I read Eugene Peterson&rsquo;s <em>Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration of Vocational Holiness.<\/em> There was no vision, but it was how the Lord told me to keep on speaking. My main takeaway was that, while I felt I was finished with my congregation, they and God weren&rsquo;t finished with me. Ministry, as it turns out, isn&rsquo;t a one-way street. I ended up staying there another seven non-monotonous years.<\/p>\n\n<p>One year in the weeks right after Easter I was just played out. You know what I mean. I was so tired of people, so weary of words, of conversations, meetings, and sermons. In prayer one morning I asked the Lord if he&rsquo;d kindly give me some peace and quiet and keep the people away for a while. Then, my case made, I waited. There was no vision this time either, but Jesus did whisper to me, &ldquo;Lee, would you do <em>anything <\/em>for me?&rdquo; he asked.<\/p>\n\n<p>&ldquo;Yes, Lord,&rdquo; I replied. &ldquo;You know I would. I&rsquo;d even shine shoes for you.&rdquo; (Where did that come from, you ask? I&rsquo;d tried shining shoes at the barbershop in my little town when I was about 12. It was kind of a cousin of foot washing, the lowliest job I could think of in the moment.) Anyway, I waited and Jesus gently replied, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want you to shine shoes for me, but I do want you to go out and love my people.&rdquo; And with that he restored my soul.<\/p>\n\n<p>Paul&rsquo;s vision reminds us that when we&rsquo;re frightened, fed up, or weary, Jesus is nearer than we realize and he has a word for us, too. We come from a long line of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.preachingtoday.com\/skills\/2020\/june\/wordworkers.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Wordworkers<\/a> who, by grace, will get up next Sunday, clear our throats, and speak again for Christ.<\/p>\n\n<p>Be ye glad!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My Dear Shepherds, At one time or another most pastors crumple, thinking, &ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t think I can do this anymore.&rdquo; Maybe it&rsquo;s the critics, the workload, or the nagging sense of inadequacy always nipping at our heels. Ministry might even be going well but we&rsquo;d just as soon follow in Elijah&rsquo;s footsteps out to <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/keep-on-speaking\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":27034,"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":[2277],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[5024],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-27032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-lee-eclov","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-soul-of-the-preacher"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Keep on Speaking&#039; - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta 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