One Pastor's Perspective

People are funny …  The smallest things drive us over the edge.  We place tremendous value on items that mean so little in God’s grand scheme.

I once heard a story about a very smart man.  He had heard all of his life (just as I have) the you cannot take your earthly riches with you to heaven.  Personally, I have never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer.  But, anyway …  This man somehow figured it out.  Just before his final step into eternity, he developed a special bag and filled it with gold bars.  He passed away and his family buried him with the bag.  When he opened his eyes for the first time after death, his bag was by his side!!  HE WAS THRILLED!!

As he walked with St Peter through the pearly gates, he found the bag was too heavy to lift.  He was dragging the bag along while he talked to St Peter.  Peter said nothing of the bag at first, but finally had to know.  The man described how he had figured this whole thing out.  Peter said “You, sir, are a brilliant man.  And I cannot wait to see what you brought over from the other side!”  The man opened the bag and Peter gazed in ..

“PAVEMENT???  YOU BROUGHT PAVEMENT????”  The bars of gold the man held so dear on earth were nothing more than pavement for the streets of heaven …

We miss the boat in so many ways when we choose to see life from our perspective instead of from God’s perspective.  We judge churches based on our preferences and what makes us feel good, and have forgotten that worship is all about God.  It is actually OUR response to Him.  It is for Him, meant to be burned as a fragrant offering to please Him.

We forget that a church, a local group of believers, have gathered to pursue all five functions of a New Testament church.  Worship is certainly the most important, but every local church should be engaged in EVANGELISM.  If we are not telling the lost about Jesus Christ, we are NOT functioning as a New Testament church  Every local church should be engaged in DISCIPLESHIP, teaching each other everything we have learned from our collective relationships with God.  Every local church should be engaged in MINISTRY, serving not only the needs within our church, but also the needs of our community and our world in EVERY WAY God has called us.  Every local church should be engaged in FELLOWSHIP.  We care about each other.  We are family.  We will hold each other to be accountable.

There are five functions of a New Testament church.  It really is about more than worship, and even when it comes to worship, it is all about HIM.  Not US.

IF Christ is your Savior, I pray for you today that you will live to fulfill these five functions.  Because, guess what?  The CHURCH is not an address or a set of buildings … The CHURCH is YOU.

Life can be a struggle sometimes …  Things don’t go exactly the way we planned.  Or desired.  Mother Nature deals us a blow that changes the paths of lives and completely rearranges what we thought to be true.  People … friends … disappoint you with their hypocrisy, with their talking a good game about being a friend, about being different, about rising above the standards of the world.  Then they go and say or do something that completely betrays their words and intentions.  A struggle, I tell you.  And the struggle is real.

Sometimes life disappoints.  People disappoint.  Situations disappoint.  And then I realize that, as perfect as I would like to believe I am, I AM NOT.  Period.  I disappoint others.  At times (and mostly unintentionally), I confound situations.  As much as I would like for life to go smoothly, I am the cause of some of the turbulence, too.

There has only been ONE who lived a perfect life.  And we crucified Him!!!  So, we move on.  We remember that love overlooks a multitude of sins.  Even if those around us refuse to love with Jesus’ kind of love and refuse to spur each other on towards good things in the Kingdom of God, we continue to do OUR BEST.  And leave the judging to God.

Praying for you today.  Pray for me too!!!

I love my family.  I’ve got cousins all over South Carolina, and across the nation.  We are a pretty close-knit group.  But they are not my only family.  Facebook has reconnected me to a bunch of my friends from high school, and they are my family, too.  I am a lucky man.

And there is another group … People with whom I’ve been connected in ministry over the years.  From places like Washington Avenue, Enoree, Fairview, Woodmere, and now Ebenezer.  And they are STRONG family.  They live across the nation.  While most of them I worked with in Youth Ministry, they now have families of their own.  Serve in churches and ministries.  Work as doctors, lawyers, ministers, and a variety of other occupations.  They chase their dreams and live their lives, and it blesses me to see it all unfold.  They are family.

It’s funny:  Yesterday, I was thinking about how close this family is and how (many years ago) Seth Buckley modeled this idea of FAMILY in ministry.  I was thinking about some of those people and how we all pull together in times like SC has been through in the last few weeks.  And about 30 minutes after all of that processed through my mind, my phone rang.  It was Chris Meaders … The Iceman himself.  Once upon a time, I was Chris’ 7th grade Sunday School teacher.  I was his JV basketball coach.  He has grown up a little since then, and is now the Missions and Discipleship Pastor at Mt Airy Baptist Church in Easley.

He wanted to check on us and said he had a burden … He and his pastor were looking for a church that would need help after all of this flooding and mess.  We discussed it and I tried to do my part to connect him with a target.  And God only knows what HE will do with the faithfulness of Chris, his pastor and his folks from Mt Airy.

Family … Wow!!  I am blessed.

There is a trend.  It actually pre-dates the Great SC Flood of 2015.  In fact, you can identify this trend going back in the history of humanity for THOUSANDS of years.  The trend is this:  We are starting to believe that WE are greater than God.  And this, my friends, is a dangerous place in which to be.

The Children of Israel were constantly fighting this.  They were caught in a cycle:  They would realize their great need for God, TRUST HIM, and then they would see the prosperity and peace of trusting Him.  Then things would be good for a few years.  And those thoughts would creep in:  They would slowly begin to believe they were the masters of their own destinies, that THEY were the source of their prosperity and peace.  And the more they minimized God, the more danger they walked into.  Then God would leave them to the desires of their hearts, and they would find themselves broken, desperate, and realizing just how much they needed God.  They would trust Him, and the cycle would start all over again.

We are guilty of doing the same thing in 2015.  And the circumstances are ripe for the perfect storm:  We could easily FAIL to recognize that God is the Source of our strength, our provision, our protection, and every good thing that have and are.  The modern church is trending in some dangerous areas:  We do not GIVE our time to build His kingdom…  We fail to recognize and admit that God has called EACH OF US to fulfill a role.  Many times, this role will be found in a local church like Ebenezer.  We do not GIVE our money in obedience to Him.  Not only do we not TITHE, as we are Biblically instructed to do, but we don’t give to help the poor or give with the Holy Spirit prompts us to do so.

Now … After the flood, these temptations will be even greater because WE ARE AFRAID.  Because, deep down, we still believe we are the masters of our destinies. We forget or just fail to admit that God is still in control, and He has STILL called us to be obedient to HIM.

Yes, we are in a dangerous place.  But there is ONE THING you can do that will make all of the difference in the world:  And that is OBEY GOD.  And, that is my prayer for YOU today.  If I can help you with this, please contact me!!!  davidwike@ebcsc.com

This past Sunday evening I met with core leaders of Ebenezer Baptist Church.  It was not a top-secret, clandestine meeting of the Rothchild’s of EBC or anything like that.  It was our Sunday evening group.  Sunday evenings have modified at EBC and become more of a small group time where the committed of Ebenezer come out for one more time of study and reflection before we start the week.  And, I like it.

This past week I issued a challenge to them, and I think any serious follower of Christ should take this challenge.  The challenge is this:  WHO ARE YOU POURING INTO?  And WHO IS POURING INTO YOU?

The New Testament models of discipleship, of growing in our relationship with Christ, teach us that we need to surround ourselves with people who will help us grow, and we in turn might help them grow.  This leads us to be honest and open about life, about the issues (both those we have faced AND those we have in front of us), about our successes, about our failures.  Simply, I know there are mistakes I have made in my life.  Where I probably shouldn’t go to the highest mountain and shout them to the universe, if I have a friend who is facing some of the same tough situations, why not be honest about the mistakes I made and help him???

I have a handful of friends that I KNOW I can trust to give me good advice.  To give me perspectives that I might not be able to see as I face problems and issues.  I am thankful for them.  And, in return, sometimes I get to help them.  But they probably help me far more than I return the favor.

It is helpful to see what God is doing in the lives of others… How others deal with His word and how it applies to our lives.  Those different perspectives mean the world to me, and I believe the Holy Spirit works in all of these things to help us grow.  I need others who are in the Word and are willing to help ME in the Word.

SO … Have you found solid followers of Christ to help with this??  WHO ARE YOU POURING INTO??  WHO ARE YOU ALLOWING TO POUR INTO YOU??

In other words:  HOW TO MAKE A LASTING DIFFERENCE IN THIS WORLD …

Legacy.  A piece of our lives that lives on beyond us.  For some, the legacy left will be very good.  For others, not so much.  How is yours developing?

Today I drove to the SC Baptist Convention Building in Columbia for a meeting of the Baptist Foundation of South Carolina, for which I am an ambassador (albeit, not a very good one).  It was a chance to meet a couple of new friends and fellow pastors, to reconnect with some old ones, and to jump back into my role of support for this very vital ministry in our state.  Later today, Diana and I have a meeting here in Columbia with a local attorney who is handling our estate documents (but that is another story for another day).  We were connected with him through the Baptist Foundation and their partnership with Philanthrocorp.  Another neat story.

But imagine my surprise when I realized the highlight of this meeting was the annual awarding of the Dr. Lonnie H. Shull, Jr, Legacy Award, given to a South Carolina Baptist who has exemplified generosity and service to our Lord and our state.  And I can think of NO ONE ELSE for whom this award should be named …

I first met Lonnie Shull soon after I surrendered to ministry, left my job in IT and moved to North Greenville College to finish my BA in preparation for seminary.  I was recommended to Fairview Baptist Church (in Greer) as a youth ministry intern, a job I accepted and fumbled through for 9 months.  Lonnie Shull was then the pastor of Fairview and a tremendous influence on my life.  There are so many stories I could tell … And I would probably goof the details.  When I was called to Fairview, a long-time youth pastor had just left and I was tasked with helping the staff hold the Youth Ministry together.  Honestly, if not for a really great team of adult youth workers and their minister of education, Tommy Comer, Fairview would’ve been in SO MUCH TROUBLE.  But God was at work and things worked out well …

Since I didn’t have a youth pastor with whom to work, Tommy and Lonnie took me under their wings.  They both taught me so much about ministry, about people, about serving on a church staff.  It was the kind of eduction you cannot buy, and it is priceless anyway …  Lonnie would take me to the hospital, on crisis calls.  I remember one time riding with him to the house of a member who had just died.  Seeing him in action was indeed priceless.

Lonnie stayed active in my academic plans and routed me down to New Orleans Seminary when NGU could only accept 22 of my 90 transferable hours from Greenville Tech.  (New Orleans took it all!!  So, in that, he helped me save 2 1/2 years of school time).

So, as you can see, I owe that man so much.  But that is NOT where his investment in my ministry ended.  Even though I only served Fairview for 9 months, Lonnie Shull made sure that I applied for their church vocation scholarship.  And, every semester, Fairview paid my tuition.  The folks at Fairview will never know the difference that made to me, to Diana, and to Krissy.  But the legacy didn’t stop there, either!!

Through the years, Lonnie kept up with me.  He encouraged me.  He would always tell me how proud he was of me.  He was a generous man … Yes, generous with money, but generous with so much more.  He continued to pour into me until he could do that no longer.  You see, several years ago, dementia began to take a toll on Lonnie.  The same kind of toll it took on my dad.  In a strange twist of fate, now dementia has taken not only my natural father, but is taking a man who was somewhat of a “father in ministry” to me.  Man, I HATE DEMENITIA.

Today, I got to see his lovely wife, Hazel.  Lonnie was not able to attend the meeting.  She is such a sweet lady and so strong.  My heart breaks for her.  But, I even tell you now like I told her that Lonnie’s legacy IS STILL ACTIVE AND ALIVE.

BECAUSE … I have made it one of my life’s goals to do what Lonnie did to the best of my ability.  I asked God for that a long time ago.  And He has provided.  He has provided men and women over the years who were growing in ministry and God has allowed me to pour in to them.  To stop and have a cup of coffee with them.  To give them chances to share in the pulpit.  To invest in them and their families just as Lonnie invested in me.  I cannot stop this terrible disease from doing what it does.  But I can carry the ball.  It is my turn.  I can live the legacy forward.

My friend Tom Capps (who was also at this meeting) said it best when he said “Lonnie Shull was one of the statesmen of the ministry in SC.  We just don’t have statesmen like him anymore.”  I will probably never live up to it, but I am going to do my best to make sure this legacy continues.

Legacy.  Something handed down from an ancestor to another.  It could be property.  It could be knowledge.  It could be the very thing I write about tonight.

Something happened to me today.  I want to write about it, NOT to toot my own horn, but to give thanks for my mother and father.  Because what happened today was a direct result of their LEGACY to me.  A legacy I have attempted to pass on to my children and hope they will pass on to theirs.

Don’t get your hopes up:  This is probably an insignificant event.  Barely worth reading.  You might want to Facebook and see what people are writing about the Confederate Flag or whatever the hot topic is now.

This afternoon I went to a grocery store after my workout.  There I stood in line with a handful of items.  There were many folks in front of me at the self-checkouts, so I stood.  And waited.  Knowing that I am much quicker than most of them at logging in, scanning my stuff, paying, and exchanging a pleasantry with the attending employee as I take my bags and venture back out into the intense heat.  There was an older lady in front of me and she was hurrying as best she could.  She lifted her debit card to swipe for payment and she dropped it.  And it found its way FAR, FAR to the back of the equipment on the floor.  She looked like she could’ve cried.

I knew what to do.  Why?  Because I was taught to be a gentleman.  A Southern gentleman.  Taught by both my mother and father, from a young age.  When someone needs help, you go out of your way to help.  PERIOD.  She looked at the card and looked back at me with a bewildered look.  I was already putting my stuff on the floor.  She started to bend down and I said “No, ma’am.”  I had to get on all fours and crawl up under the machine.  I grabbed the card with my left hand (you know, the one that will not straighten out yet God has seen fit to help me recover and be able to use it to do all sorts of good stuff).  I handed it to her and she thanked me. Her smile was all the payment I needed.

I really thought nothing of that entire incident until about five hours later.  Then I hit me:  I am that Southern gentleman because I had a mother and father who cared enough about who I would become to teach me to do things like that.  To hold a door for a stranger.  To help someone who needed it without having to be asked.  To do the right thing.  Regardless of race, social status, or any other factor that our world would say separates us.  I am a product of two parents from the South who made sure I obeyed the Golden Rule:  To do unto others as I would like for them to do unto me.  To treat others better than I treat myself.  To love with God’s kind of love.  With the kind of love Jesus showed us when He stretched out His arms and allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross.

So, as you can see, I am not bragging on myself.  I merely did the right thing.  The very thing I was taught to do by Don and Janet Wike.  If I am bragging on anyone, it is them.  And they wouldn’t like it one bit!

I love my state.  South Carolina is a large part of my life.  Sure, I would venture over in to northern Georgia or North Carolina at times when I was young, and even made an obligatory trip to Florida a time or two, but South Carolina always had my heart.  There is just something about this state.  Something about that field of blue of a crescent moon and palmetto tree.  I love it.

I didn’t realize how much I loved it until I moved to New Orleans, Louisiana.  Don’t get me wrong:  I love New Orleans, too.  Love the people.  Love the church I served.  LOVE the seminary I attended.  But there was always something about this state.  Living away for three years helped me know even more how much I love this place.

Fast-forward 20 years later.  One of the most heartbreaking tragedies to ever happen in an American church happens in Charleston.  Nine people … Nine CHRISTIANS.  Nine worshippers were gunned down.  The intent of the shooter?  To start a race war.  But, to quote a long time friend of mine who is now a Charleston resident, “He failed.”

What we see now is a revival, of sorts (to quote another good friend who is a Charleston resident).  We see people bonding together.  White, black, purple, green, EVERY COLOR.  LOVING.  We see the families of those who were brutally murdered FORGIVING the murderer.  (I think because they know it will do no good to hold a grudge.)  We see a city … in SC, it is known as the “Holy City” … Instead of falling into anarchy, this great city has pulled together with love, grace, and mercy.  I believe God is glorified in this.  I believe the devil is mad, because his little plan just failed.

Foiled by Charleston.  Foiled by South Carolina.

And, today, I am prouder than ever before to be a son of South Carolina.  Sure, we have our faults.  We are not perfect.  But we are South Carolina.  And that is pretty great in itself.

What makes a church jump from GOOD to GREAT???  Is it the awesome and dynamic pastor???  Not even close.  Is it the superior production value of the music and drama???  Nope.  The wonderful facility???  Nah.  All of these things are good, mind you, but none of these take a church from GOOD to GREAT.

This morning I will cut to the chase.  I am tired.  It is VBS week.  I am WAYYYY over-committed today.  So here it is:  It is a combination of OBEDIENCE TO GOD and the spirit of the PEOPLE.

The people can make or break a church.  The people are what draw others in.  When visitors find a strong sense of family and community, they want to be part.  And (here I am, sliding the REAL TRUTH in) this only works when GOD IS AT THE CENTER.  When HE IS LEADING THE PACK.  When the people are FOLLOWING HIM, HAVING FAITH IN HIM, TRUSTING HIM, TAKING GIANT STEPS AS HE DIRECTS.

The “church” that DOES NOT DO THESE THINGS is nothing more than a club.

The church that DOES these things IS GREAT.  ONLY BECAUSE OUR GOD IS GREAT.

Think about that as you have your next cup of coffee ….

(Drops mic.  Walks into copy room to get yet ANOTHER cup of coffee)

REALLY LIVE IT!!  SERIOUSLY!!

I really do enjoy social media.  It allows me to stay somewhat plugged-in to the lives of so many friends from years gone by AND friends today.  As a pastor, it allows me to celebrate victories and minister in crises that I might not ever know if not for social media.  And, with all of that said …

LIVE YOUR LIFE!!  One of the dangers of social media is it provides a vessel through which we can crawl in and live this false life … We are on dangerous ground when we live more through the persona we’ve created on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram than we do in actual life.  Shades of the Matrix????

In other words, why not try BEING the person you are on social media?  Yes, DO post about how great your moms and dads are and how much you love them, BUT ALSO TRY TELLING THEM FACE TO FACE!!!  One of the rules I have always tried to hold myself to is this:  I won’t post anything about someone I love that I haven’t told them with my own voice! I think it is encouraging to post how much you love your spouse or significant other for all the world to see … Just be sure you are TELLING them these things as well.

Don’t read this and think I am shouting down social media, because again, I really love it.  But PLEASE, PLEASE do not allow it to become a substitute for REALLY LIVING YOUR LIFE.  If you do, you will regret it in the end.