{"id":630,"date":"2010-03-09T17:54:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T21:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=630"},"modified":"2013-06-19T11:42:19","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T15:42:19","slug":"%e2%80%9cstrive-to-be-ordinary%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=630","title":{"rendered":"“Strive to Be Ordinary”\u009d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my Pastoral Ministry class today B. J. Maxwell<\/a>, pastor of Unity Baptist in Millington, TN, gave a lecture titled, “Strive to Be Ordinary.”\u009d It was an excellent exhortation to pursue faithful ministry to people rather than the trappings of success. I attempted to record it but was unsuccessful. The manuscript should be available soon, and I will link to it.<\/p>\n

Maxwell began by rooting pastoral ministry in a proper understanding of the church. Is it a business to keep profitable? A team to be coached? A brand to be marketed? Or God’s redeemed and sojourning people who need shepherding on their journey home? Because the church is a unique entity, pastoral ministry is a one-of-a-kind service. It cannot be approached or defined by categories of this world.<\/p>\n

He described pastoral ministry as helping people to die well.<\/p>\n

The heart of the presentation was “five rungs for climbing down the ladder toward ordinariness.”<\/p>\n

1. Get acquainted with suffering<\/p>\n

2. Develop a theology or vocabulary of encouragement. Learn how to encourage God’s people with the gospel.<\/p>\n

3. Focus largely on micro-ministry before macro-ministry (i.e. needs of specific people before structural or programmatic issues)<\/p>\n

4. Think in terms of decades and generations rather than weeks and years.<\/p>\n

“Work today not with an eye to impressing the state paper, but with an eye to shaping your grandchildren.”\u009d<\/p>\n

5. Recover simple personal discipleship<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

UPDATE:<\/strong> The manuscript is now available here<\/a>. Highly recommended!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my Pastoral Ministry class today B. J. Maxwell, pastor of Unity Baptist in Millington, TN, gave a lecture titled, “Strive to Be Ordinary.”\u009d It was an excellent exhortation to pursue faithful ministry to people rather than the trappings of success. I attempted to record it but was unsuccessful. The manuscript should be available soon, …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘“Strive to Be Ordinary”\u009d’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,56,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2863,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions\/2863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}