Here is the transcript:
Hi everyone it’s Moses here from Christian Motivation, I hope you’re doing great, today I just want to share with you something.
I’ve just been talking to a friend of mine and during the course of our conversations something came up that we talked about. He had to go back to work so we didn’t finish that talk really well. After talking about whatever we were talking about, I decided I should record, and kind of get your view on one of the things we’ve been talking about.
So, okay, in our community, we have a community here in California, a Ugandan community and in the Ugandan community there are pastors and some people that feel they’ve been called to ministry, that have started different churches, but the way somehow some of these churches have begun is, there was a church that has been there I think, I don’t know, since when, but then it’s almost like somebody broke off from that church and then another church was started and then another church was started, so we have all these different churches that are all serving the same community – the Ugandan community.
Of course some of them I believe will say they’re serving everybody not just the Ugandan community. But really the way they started and for the most part really, are more geared towards the Ugandan community, right? So this friend of mine comes up with an idea one time and he decides to write a letter to all the pastors and it was an open letter not just to the pastors, also the community at large because he posted the letter on a website the community has access to.
It was an open letter and he had a suggestion that all of the pastors should come together and kind of maybe since they are all trying to serve the same community, we should come up with a committee where the committee decides on who the head pastor should be and maybe the assistant pastor and then we can all work together buy a building and what have you.
Now listening at the conversation, listening at what he was telling me about, and then what he wrote, and the idea he has, at the surface when you hear the idea it is a good idea, it looks to be a good idea because it’s talking about, you know, like all of us coming together and you know that divided we fall but united we stand, so it’s a good idea that coming together will really probably serve the community more.
But here is my challenge on the other side of it, because I was asking some of these questions, as I say, we didn’t finish with the conversation because he had to go back to work. Let me tell you, before I came to America, unless I don’t know if this happened in Uganda and I just wasn’t aware of it, but I didn’t know that pastors could be hired, it’s until I came to America that people God has called to become pastors and they look for a pastoral job and they are hired, pastors are hired and fired by people, by organizations, by denominations.
To me that was a shock because all along, I had known that pastors were called and you are called into the ministry and then when that call comes you separate yourself by searching the Scripture, by spending a lot of time with God and then when all is well and done at the right time then you start the ministry or you may be serving under somebody else but there may be a call on your life, but you wait for that timing.
I never had this concept where pastors are hired until I came here and then heard that you could go to school and become a pastor and get hired or get fired. And to me even after this time it is kind of a weird concept to me because that means the pastor is not looking to God is not… it’s up to the committee, it’s up to the denomination to hire or fire these people, so where is God in all that?
How do you know that the people who are hiring or firing you are doing it based on what God has told them to do? So I was asking my friend if there’s a committee, the challenge with that is, then the committee is going to appoint the head pastor, or the assistant pastor, youth pastor, whoever it is, based on whether they like, this person or not?
And so my challenge was, okay, then who picks the committee because what kind of standard do we hold this committee to because the whole point of him suggesting this, was that not only about serving the community but there should be a standard that people are held to. And to me, my view is that if a person is called into ministry, though the first thing is, somebody has to be called to the pastoral position and when they’re called to that position then they should be that God is the person they reference and they are submitting to.
Now I understand, I fully understand we are humans and people start out well and before you know it when they start to see some success they start doing things on their own efforts and they start misbehaving, those are some of the things that we really cannot necessarily have control over but I’m thinking that if somebody truly loves the Lord they should be able to sense that what I’ve done is wrong, maybe to step down, I don’t know because I’m not a pastor.
So what I’m saying is the whole concept of the committee thing and the denomination thing and all this thing of people going to school and looking at the pastoral position as a career where they go to school and then they are looking to be hired and then they can be fired and then there’s all these expectations on them just like a job, just doesn’t make sense to me.
So here’s what I want to do – I want to hear your opinion because I’d love to hear what you think about it. Does it make sense that there should be a committee that the pastor answers to or a committee who decides how long somebody serves as a pastor or when they’re hired or when they’re fired, who is the head pastor, who is the associate pastor, should there be a committee?
Because to me when I look at the Bible, the Bible is not like a democracy where we just raise our hands or take votes and choose the pastors, it’s not like a President – this is a calling.
But I want to hear your opinion, I want to know what you think about this concept, maybe it is something I don’t understand, maybe there is a Scripture backing you can help me find because I don’t see it in the Word of God.
You help me out, I want to know do you agree with this concept or do you disagree with it. And if you agree or if you disagree, give me your reasons, let’s have a conversation. Unfortunately I’m just recording it as a one-way, it’s not like a radio talk show where I can have you call in but I would want you to give me some feedback.
I just really want to know what you think about it. So I just wanted to do this quick audio just to let you know about that and I really would love to know what you think about it.
All right, until next time, Moses here at Christian Motivation saying stay blessed and keep the faith. Go out there in life and reign, because we are meant to reign.
God bless you!
