Joe McKeever: Pastors Weblog

What Every Pastor Needs #6: Personal Purity

The people on the cruise still talk about the time a vacationing surgeon ended up doing an emergency appendectomy on the ship's steward on a table in the galley. The odd thing was he used the cutlery from the kitchen. Later, the doctor said, "A surgeon can use almost any kind of cutting implement to do surgery. However, it must be clean."

It must be clean. By "clean," the surgeon meant germ-free, purged from all kinds of impurities that may cause infection. If you've ever seen a doctor scrub up for surgery, you know what this means. After a long time of fiercely brushing the soap and water into his hands, he rinses and then encases those pristine hands in latex gloves. The poor bacteria don't stand a chance!

There is a wonderful line from Psalm 24 that fits here. Someone asked, "Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place?" The answer came back: "He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not set his mind on what is false, and has not sworn deceitfully."

I wonder sometimes if modern farm children know just what life was like in the old days, before mechanization and modernization took over. Take baling hay, for instance. Our baler was a long monster pulled behind the tractor. Once it was in place, you unhooked the tractor and turned it around, then connected the belt from the tractor to the baler. Now, using a pitchfork someone feeds hay into the baler from above. But you--being the kid and therefore inheriting the dirtiest jobs--crouch down below the action waiting for the time to "throw the block," which separates the bales. Then you push strands of wire through the holes in that block, and retrieve them when the person on the other side pushes them back. Now, pull them tight and twist into a knot tight enough to hold the bale together. All the time you were doing this, the noisy baling action went on over your head while the dust and grit of falling hay filtered down all over you. In five minutes of work, you are layered with tiny bits of hay and the dust and grime from the field. You are filthier than you have ever been in your life.

Or did you ever clean out a hog pen? That is positively the worst. The stench, the muck, the sheer filthy is beyond description.

When you finish, all you want is a bath. You've never ever wanted to take a bath like you do today. A long, hot, deep bath. You want to be clean again. In fact you feel a lot like King David.

What Every Pastor Needs #5: A Love For The Word

I still recall those foggy days of my early attempts at preaching. A new college graduate, I was working for two years in a cast iron pipe plant just outside Birmingham while trying to pastor tiny Unity Baptist Church up the highway at Kimberly before heading to seminary in New Orleans. Although a Baptist, I had attended college at a Methodist school, had majored in history and political science, and about the only thing I knew about the Bible were the smidgens of sermon-and-Sunday-School-lesson leftovers from growing up in church. On my lunch hour, I would open the Scriptures and read. Mainly, I was looking for a sermon for the following Sunday, and mostly, I found the Bible to be an intriguing mystery. Intriguing, because I was drawn to its wisdom and stories, and mysterious because I never could seem to crack its code. Since I did not have a clue as to what I was doing, my sermon-chasing consisted of searching for key verses or fascinating stories to jump off the page and grab my attention. My reading was more scanning than studying. Pity those thirty people who sat in my congregation on Sunday. I'm forever grateful to them for letting me learn on them.

What Every Pastor Needs #4: The Holy Spirit

You're Going To Be Needing The Holy Spirit More Than You Ever Imagined

The church I served for nearly 14 years and left last Easter is in the process of calling a new pastor. To the utter surprise and delight of almost everyone in the church, the committee has recommended a 27-year-old doctoral student at the local seminary who has incredible gifts in a hundred directions--but absolutely no pastoral experience. Sound scary to you? Does to me. For him more than for us.

I heard him preach Sunday night and could see why everyone who hears him comes away impressed by a depth of maturity far beyond his years. The pastor search committee did not play it safe, but--choose your metaphor here--was willing to think outside the box, color outside the lines, take some risks to do what they perceived the Lord commanded.

Broken Pastor, Broken Church

(originally published in Leadership Journal )

My calendar for the summer and beyond was blank. I usually planned my preaching schedule for a full year, but beyond the second Sunday in June -- nothing. I had no ideas. I sensed no leading from the Spirit. But it was only January, so I decided to try again in a couple of months. Again, nothing. By then, I suspected the Lord was up to something.

A member of my church had told me the year before, "Don't die in this town." I knew what she meant. She didn't envision Columbus as the peak of my ministry. Columbus was a county-seat town with three universities nearby, and, for Mississippi, cosmopolitan. I felt Columbus, First Baptist, and I were a good match. The church grew. We were comfortable together. My family was settled. Our sons and daughter had completed most of their schooling, and after twelve years, they called Columbus home. My wife, Margaret, and I had weathered a few squalls, but life was good -- a little quiet, perhaps even stagnant, but good.

And suddenly I could hear the clock ticking. Did God have something more for me?

What Pastors Need #2: You'll Be Needing A Good Wife. Here's How To Get One.

If you are already married, good. What is it the Bible says--He who finds a wife, finds a good thing. (Proverbs 18:22) I would suggest the following to you as a husband: (If you are unmarried, keep reading; the second part is for you.)

1. Accept that she is God's will for you, period. Maybe as a bride she knew what being a minister's wife meant and maybe not. In some cases, you were married before receiving the call and she came reluctantly into the ministry with you. Be patient with her, even as the Lord is with you. Do not play the game of saying, "I should have married someone else." There is no percentage in that. All it does is add to your frustration and lock her into your low expectations. Accept that this woman is God's plan for you. Take her as His gift to you and your ministry. Thank Him for her.

What Every Pastor Needs: A Good Buddy

I tell pastors, "You need a good friend in the ministry. Someone who is a lot like you. Someone who may be going through the same things you are."

You need a Jonathan for your David. One who has been where you are and knows what you are experiencing.

Oh, you say the Lord is that for you? That's good. He should be this and a lot more. But I'm talking about someone in the flesh. It is not unspiritual or disloyal to want another human being as our best friend.

After all, there must be a reason the Lord sent His disciples out two by two.

Paying My Vows

Some years ago, while I was enduring a trying time in my church, the Lord spoke to me out of Psalm 66. (Leadership Magazine's website has the full article I wrote on that subject, which ends with the story of how Psalm 66 ministered to me.) Sometime later, as I reflected on Psalm 66, I realized that the last part talks about "paying my vows" to the Lord. I had received God's blessings, but had not vowed anything in return. So, I began to reflect on exactly what promises I want to make to the Lord. Three seemed to stand out in my mind, and I made them at that time.