An old poem that I heard years ago says…

“The saddest words of tongue or men

are the words ‘what might have been.'”

-unknown

My regret…

I have been in ministry for 26 years. As an itinerant minister, I have had the privilege of being in dozens of different denominations in many nations. My tribe gave me a title of an “evangelist” because I was not led to be a senior pastor. I never really wanted that title. For all of these years, I have only responded to the doors that God opens in front of me. I still don’t even have business cards. My modus operandi is to wait on the Lord for those who would wish for me to come and speak because I believed that the “gift would make room,” as Scripture proclaims.

Ministering to grow the local church has always been my passion. I really do love people, and only in the last decade or so have I begun to find my voice and life-message. I believe that I am the most blessed human being to be called by God. The things that I have seen the Lord do in some moments have shaped me and others for life. Thousands and thousands have made professions of faith, and altars have been filled for hours in churches that never even use them! It’s been my passion to keep people pointed to God, for His touch is the only life-changing encounter that is lasting and matters. The numbers of converts that I have been able to keep up with over the years have been almost impossible, but the ones that have I have been able to keep up with are amazing because their fruit remains and they continue to multiply.

As I enter what I hope and pray is a more fruitful second half of ministry, I tend to reflect on where I am currently and where many of my contemporaries are at nowadays. From my calling’s point of view, it is almost seen as a dinosaur-calling. All of those who started out when I did  either transferred it into the pastorate or another career altogether. What used to be numbered in the hundreds and thousands are now in the mere few. No, I don’t have a huge congregation, worship team, tech people. I am rarely, if ever, invited to the newest church-launch network meetings or associations of those who would be on the cutting-edge. And yet, I have served as an associate pastor, a second-in-charge in a local church, for the bulk of my ministry. Believing in the authority of the local church is something I was taught to be under the umbrella of, or God would not bless my endeavors. Once you stay in this type of a ministry, after so many have quit or transitioned, you would assume that what you have to offer will become rare. Sort of? The church scandals of the late 80’s and early 90’s (as well as some new ones!) squashed the “evangelist”, especially in America. In other parts of the world, they see many converts, but many are at the sacrificial altar of the prosperity Gospel message. The preachers are rich, the laymen are dead broke.

In a day where church rarely recognizes “revival”, and as I look backward and forward, I wonder if I missed something along the way? MY REGRET is this: with all of these new converts and revived Christians I have seen in scores, I wonder if I should not have done like the old revivalists of the past 400 years?  Wesley did it. Finney did it. The Apostle Paul did it. Our heroes did it. What did they do, you ask? They started churches with the new converts that they reaped from their ministries. The conversation in my soul as of late starts with, “but I’m certainly not them, and this is not then!” I would have lost every pastor’s respect that had me in their church if I told them I was taking the converts from the event (or the stadium or restaurant) that I saw God save and would be forming a new church down the street! It sounds crazy. Churches need each other, without fighting over which stall we shove the sheep!  Today, we have demeaned the gift and calling of an “evangelist” to those in the church and leadership. But, most churches in the USA, especially in the bible belt, are led by people that are so jaded and afraid to lose any momentum that the thought of any more competition in the area would cause them to overdose on their anti-depressants. We love to see churches launch with new converts on another continent, just not down the street.

I am not giving a theological treatise, but a simple gushing from my heart speaking as one who tried to please many church leaders, many of which would never be in my path again. (I know my ministry is not everyone’s cup! I serve the broken) I long to see new churches, fresh Kingdom movements, artistic and creative clusters, to begin all over the place. Yes, even down the street from your church. There are a few here and there that are truly making a difference, but even they can become jaded, also. Church work in America is geared toward survival and retention, not continual planting, launching, dreaming, and doing. For those who are doing Kingdom work of starting the new, God bless you. My overlooked dinosaur “calling” that I still feel empowered to live out, applauds you! For those who think I am over the top; you ain’t see nothing yet. He is just starting this “launching and planting” in my life. It’s about souls, and it’s about making disciples. That is why He came to die.

It’s always about Jesus, and may I never veer from that.