I have recognized some significant themes as I have been closing down my Google+ (G+) account.  So far, I have posted on Prayer and on Pastoring and Leadership.  This post recounts some of my time as a pastor.  I have served in pastoral ministry, mainly on staff, with a few years in a couple of lead roles.  Patheos is a good venue for some of these shepherding posts, memories made in community, now shared with a new audience.

on Shepherding at MtZ

2014

“Some suppose that just because we have life in the Spirit or are baptized in the Spirit, the fruit is sure to come. But all that grows automatically in most gardens are the weeds. If fruit is desired it must be cultivated.” – Stanley Horton [Sunday Mornings at Mt Zion] (G+ 11.28.19)

You can love others without loving God, but you cannot love God without loving others. Fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, Sunday Mornings at Mt Zion FWC (G+ 12.01.14)

“Joy is something the world knows nothing about. Many are in a mad pursuit of pleasure. Some have found a measure of happiness or satisfaction. But they cannot even imagine what it is like to have the deep, continuing joy that is the fruit of the Spirit.” – Stanley Horton Fruit of the Spirit, Sundays at Mt Zion (G+ 12.06.14)

2015

Thank you Up North Live for covering our Easter EGG-Stravaganza! (G+ 03.30.15)

“One way God keeps us from getting too attached to this life is by allowing us to experience an ordinary life so that we might hunger for something better” – Robert Jeffres.  The fact that we view life as ordinary proves there’s more to life (Glimpses of Jesus, Sundays 10:30 am, Mt. Zion FWC) (G+ 05.15.15)

“Discipline, spiritual or otherwise, is a good servant but a bad master. It is not the summum bonum – the supreme good. When it is valued in and of itself, the disciplined life easily leads to rigidity and pride.” – David G. Benner on spiritual disciplines. [spiritual formation at Mt Zion FWC, Midweek Gathering, 7 pm] (G+ 06.01.15)

“He that closely, humbly, steadily follows me, shall have the Divine light continually shining upon him, diffusing over his soul knowledge, holiness, joy, till he is guided by it to life everlasting.” – John Wesley on John 1.8 . . . “The Light Revealed,” 10:30 am, Mt Zion FWC (G+ 08.15.15)

“93% of Americans own a Bible and only 46% could name the four Gospels” – Impact PCG Student Ministries (Inspiration of Scripture, Midweek Gathering, tonight 7 pm, Mt Zion FWC) (G+ 10.07.15)

2016

John Wesley explains the Person of the Holy Spirit as seen on John 15.26: “When the Comforter is come, whom I will send from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me – The Spirit’s coming, and being sent by our Lord from the Father, to testify of him, are personal characters, and plainly distinguish him from the Father and the Son; and his title as the Spirit of truth, together with his proceeding from the Father, can agree to none but a Divine person.” (Mt Zion FWC in the morning, 10:30 am Sundays) (G+ 01.23.16)

“In a profound sense, Christianity without the resurrection is not simply Christianity without its final chapter. It is not Christianity at all.” – Gerald O’Collins (exploring the final chapters of John in our Worship Services, Sundays at 10:30 am, Mt Zion Family Worship Ctr) (G+ 01.29.16)

Here is someone who gets far too little press, but who steadily continues to influence prayerful worship. Her recently released hymns album is available to stream for free on Relevant Magazine. Nearly her whole music library is on Spotify. It’s never a waste of time listening to Audrey Assad. Crystal and I listen to her all the time. Her music has added value to our worship team: Audrey Assad Highlights the Simple Beauty of Hymns, Relevant Magazine (G+ 02.22.16)

“Thomas now not only acknowledges him to be the Lord, as he had done before, and to be risen, as his fellow disciples had affirmed, but also confesses his Godhead, and that more explicitly than any other had yet done.” – John Wesley (The Confession of Thomas, Mt Zion FWC, Sunday 10:30 am) (G+ 02.25.16)

Easter Events start Saturday (03.19.16) and run through Saturday (04.09.16)! Whether you choose to attend all, a couple, or even one event, we will be honored that you included MtZ in your Easter season celebration! (G+ 03.10.16)

Look who I found making Easter baskets after morning worship . . . I preached on community and then caught them red-handed building community. Everyone is welcome at our EGG-stravaganza this Saturday at 2 pm. Hop on by! (G+ 03.14.16)

We want to thank everyone involved in our Easter EGG-Stravaganza, Good Friday Communion, Sunrise Service and Breakfast, and our Worship Service. Thank you for partnering with us to celebrate Holy Week. And thank You God for speaking “Joy” to us clearly in three distinct ways! May Your Word to us be fulfilled! (1 Peter 1.8; Romans 14.17) (G+ 03.29.16)

Enjoyed Midweek Gathering last night: “The church’s mission is to show the world what it looks like when a community of people live under the reign of God. The true gospel is portrayed best by the community that believes it, embodies it, and testifies to it in the midst of any given culture in all places and at all times.” – Robert E. Webber (G+ 03.31.16)

“‘Why has God placed us as a community, at this time, in this neighborhood, in this city, in this country, in this world?’ . . . Many times in history, churches that were great and powerful disappeared because they lost the sense of mission. They became so identified with their culture that they lost any sense of mission to it, any ability to be prophetic in the name of Jesus.” – Samuel Escobar (spiritual authority for the mission yesterday at MtZ) (G+ 04.11.16)

“While the global South continues its burning romance with the Bible as traditionally understood, the growing distance of the biblical worldview from the social and economic realities of the North drives Americans and Europeans to more esoteric types of religion ever further removed from traditional Christianity.” – Philip Jenkins (Have we secularized and philosophized Christianity to the point that we’ve driven our children to the cults?) 7 pm Midweek MtZ (G+ 04.20.16)

We want to thank our Midweek Gathering for sponsoring orphans in India, and for giving a substantial offering to the missionary Samuel K. Thomas. (G+ 05.05.16)

“A remarkable thing happened when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples at Pentecost. During Jesus’ earthly ministry, they had been divided, confused, fearful, jealous of one another, and filled with boastful pride. Then, in obedience to their risen Lord – who told them not to leave Jerusalem until they received the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-8) – they joined in prayer and waited together for his promise to be fulfilled. When the Holy Spirit came, there was an explosion of loving fellowship that would be seen and heard around the world.” Siang-Yang Tan & Douglas Gregg (MtZ, Midweek Gathering in 3.5 hours, 7 pm) (G+ 05.11.16)

“According to current projections, the number of Pentecostal believers should cross the one billion mark before 2050” – Phillip Jenkins. That’s 1 in 7 people in the world. It’s time for harvest. MtZ Midweek Gathering tonight at 7 (G+ 05.25.16)

“If you just took the first part of that verse and meditated on that thought, contemplated that each and every day, it would radically change your life . . . You see it’s not only the Fatherhood of God, it’s the childhood of the saint. We’re His children.” – Rev. Vernell Ingle on 1 John 3.1, identifying as a child of God, Father’s Day Word (Tonight we’ll have a Q&A with him, 7 pm, Mt Zion FWC) (G+ 06.22.16)

“The apostles can proclaim the gospel to any who will listen, but it is through observing the life of the Christian community that many people are convinced of its truth.” Bartholomew & Goheen on the common life (MtZ Worship Service, tomorrow 10:30 am) (G+ 07.09.16)

“In the world the Christians are a colony of the true home.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer (MtZ Midweek Gathering, Wednesdays, 7 pm) (G+ 07.12.16)

We had an excellent service at MT ZION yesterday. There’s a lady from a liturgical congregation who regularly visits us after her early morning service. Today she told me that she just likes to be here to feel The Presence . . . God must be moving here! (G+ 07.25.16)

“Worship as an art form signifies the reality of otherness, the purpose and meaning of human history, and God’s saving involvement within history. It evokes mystery and brings us into wonder and awe.” – Robert E. Webber (Worship Blesses and Frees Us, Midweek Gathering, 7 pm) (G+ 07.27.16)

“Pentecostal worship means more than reveling in the joyful experience of God’s power. It is full of awe and wonder as it contemplates the majesty of God.” – Byron Klaus (MtZ, Sunday 10:30 am, “Mystery and Wonder Displayed”) (G+ 08.04.16)

We had amazing worship yesterday and altar ministry. We completed the 3rd sermon on “mystery and wonder.” We need a sense of the “otherness” of God in our services. Ravi Zacharias says: “The truth is that when we lose mystery, our worship becomes merely a grocery list of actions and pronouncements.” (G+ 08.22.16)

God’s will includes an emotional component, God’s desires. Ephesians 1.5: “the good pleasure of His will,” and 1.9: “mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure.” God is not just playing some cosmic game of chess with our lives. God is emotionally involved. We often want to seek God’s will, but He wants us to seek His heart! (Ephesians, MtZ Midweek Gathering, Wednesday 7 pm) (G+ 09.27.16)

We’ve all heard statements like, “Truth is relative. There are no absolutes.” But aren’t these absolute statements? Aren’t they a little self-defeating? Paul, Jesus, and other NT writers make it clear that there is real truth to be found, and Jesus embodies that truth (Ephesians 1.13; John 14.6). Join our dialogue on Ephesians, MtZ Midweek Gathering, 7 pm tonight. (G+ 10.05.16)

I’m still in awe of what God did in service Sunday! I can’t wait to see what He’ll do as we gather to praise and pray in a couple hours! Let it rain down Lord! (G+ 10.12.16)

“When the New Testament wishes to emphasize the fullness of God’s love for us, it points to Christ’s death (e.g. Rom. 5:8). But when it wishes to demonstrate the reality of God’s power, it points to Christ’s resurrection.” – Wesley Adams on the power of the Resurrection in Ephesians 1.19-20 (MtZ Midweek Gathering, tomorrow 7 pm) (G+ 10.18.16)

Copied to G+ 12.01.16 from Facebook.  Rev. Dan Coleman was our District Bishop at the time, and later became our General Secretary for the P.C.G.