Doing Your Best Isn't Good Enough

That's why you need the grace that comes from God through Jesus. A great look at Martin Luther's 1518 Heidelberg Disputation dealing with human free will, its limits, and the comforts of God's grace. Interestingly, the author is not a Lutheran.

“The person who believes that he can obtain grace by doing what is in him adds sin to sin so that he becomes doubly guilty.” –Thesis 16, Martin Luther Heidelberg Disputation 

Still we strive for just a teeny-weenie bit of good deeds to gain God’s favor. This proclivity masks itself as piety, but it’s an affront to God’s perfect work of Christ, on the cross, for our sins. Christ’s death and resurrection is complete (it is finished), not a supplement to our shortcomings. 

Read the whole thing.

Unity for a Purpose

[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, during both worship services yesterday.]

John 17:20-26
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus prays, shortly before His arrest and execution, for unity between God and the people who have been won to faith in Christ and unity among those who confess that Jesus is “the way, and the truth, and the life.”

Beginning at verse 20, Jesus prays: “I do not pray for these alone [meaning the disciples who were with Him in first century Judea], but also for those who will believe in Me through their word [Jesus is praying for us here; we have come to believe in Him through the apostles’ word about Jesus.]; that they may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us...”

What is the unity among Christians for which Jesus prays?

Well, first of all, let's remember one thing it is not. It is not coerced uniformity. I knew a man who made this brag about his marriage: “One of the things I’m proudest of is that we’ve been married more than thirty years and we’ve never had one disagreement.” He really was proud of that. But I later learned that his wife had been taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications and seeing a counselor for years. He was happy; she was a wreck. That husband and wife didn’t seem to be “one” to me. Unity is not coerced uniformity.

Also, the unity for which Jesus prays for His Church does not mean that Christians will never disagree or get upset with one another. In fact, since the Church is Christ’s body in the world, the group of people given the most important mission in the world--making disciples of all nations--conflict is to be expected.

Jesus publicly disagreed with Pharisees and Saducees for valuing their religion over having a personal relationship with God.

He upbraided His fellow Jews for refusing to believe in Him, though He had come into the world because God loved the world and then died and rose so that all who turn from sin and believe in Him can have eternal life with God.

He called His own disciple, Peter, a Satan for trying to keep Jesus from following God’s plan for Jesus’ cross and resurrection.

Paul and Barnabas, as well as Paul and Peter, had raging arguments.

Sometimes, in the Church, as in our marriages and friendships, it’s only through the clash of ideas that the truth becomes clearer. But that need not threaten unity.

The unity for which Jesus prays is also not about denominational organizations or even our congregations.

As Lutherans, we believe that the earthly institutional Church is not to be confused with Christ’s Church, the body of Christ that exists in both heaven and earth.

In Luther’s Two Kingdoms understanding of how God rules--you remember, the kingdoms of the earth that are ruled through laws, rules, and coercion and the kingdom of God which is ruled by grace among those who believe in Jesus Christ--the institutional Church is not part of the kingdom of God. It’s one of the kingdoms of the earth.

The real Church, says Article 7 of The Augsburg Confession “is to remain forever.” Notice, it's not our buildings, candlesticks, robes, organs, hymnbooks, fellowship halls, office equipment, parsonages, parking lots, and so on that will remain forever. All of those things will one day be destroyed to make way for a new heaven and a new earth, but the Church will remain forever. Article 7 goes on to say that the Church “is the congregation of saints...in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered.” “For the true unity of the Church,” the Confession then says, “it is enough to agree about the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments.”

When agreement about the Gospel of new life through Jesus and agreement about the administration of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion exist, along with the commitment to sharing Christ with the world that flows from that agreement, then we begin to experience the unity for which Jesus prays.

I enjoy getting together with Christians of other denominations and heritage. That’s been part of my faith journey. I was baptized in an evangelical Friends Church and was confirmed in a Methodist Church. A Roman Catholic priest preached at my ordination service. He and a Nazarene pastor joined my own Lutheran pastor in laying on hands when I was ordained. I’ve participated in and led prayer and study groups with Methodists, Mennonites, Baptists, Episcopalians, and Pentecostals. I served on or chaired five committees for the Billy Graham Mission in Cincinnati back in 2002, working with folks from every Christian faith tradition. Since coming to Logan, I’ve participated in a number of multi-denominational prayer services, including one just a few weeks ago.

We can and should affirm that Christians of other traditions have Jesus and have eternal life. We can pray with them. We can praise God with them. We can join them in serving our community, as we do through the CHAP emergency food bank and will likely increasingly do through the Inspire shelter for the homeless.

We must avoid the sin of denominationalism, thinking that we have an exclusive claim to God’s truth.

But there is a place for our denominations. As Lutherans, we want the Church to be united. But we have disagreements on fundamental aspects of the Christian faith with our sisters and brothers in Christ in other traditions.

So, we continue to proclaim the good news of new life by God’s grace through faith in the crucified and risen Jesus as we understand it and pray for that day when unity goes beyond institutional affiliations or legalistic checklists of cooperative ventures.

We pray for that day when the whole Church on earth will be united in the pure Gospel and the right use of the Sacraments. And like Martin Luther before us, we will offer to gladly admit our errors and any straying from God's Word if it can be shown to us.

Of course, the unity of an individual congregation can sometimes seem to be threatened over disagreements, too. But we know from other relationships that disagreements aren’t unhealthy. Presbyterian pastor and writer Charlie Shedd once told about a fierce argument he had with his wife Martha one morning. He left home angry. He came back several hours later to an empty house and a note. “Dear Charlie,” it said, “I hate you. Love, Martha.”

Love allows for a little neurosis in those we love and in ourselves. As the sinless Savior Jesus loves and forgives us despite our faults, He makes it possible for us to love and forgive our sisters and brothers in Christ despite theirs.

Of course, Christ doesn’t want us to be united just so we can sit around being happy about our unity. Jesus has a particular purpose in praying for our unity.

Look at verse 23. There, Jesus prays, “...that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

The unity for which Jesus prays has one purpose then: to empower us and lend us the credibility with the world to tell others about Jesus Christ.

I’ve known many churches whose members were so content with each other that they never thought about welcoming others into their fellowship. Listen: A truly united church loves nothing more than making disciples. Members of united churches love telling the spiritually disconnected and lost about the new life that only comes from Jesus Christ, and calling all our fellow sinners to “come and see Jesus Christ.”

The Church is the fellowship of the saved, reaching out to those who are still lost. We reach out in the passionate hope that those not connected to Jesus will be reached by the amazing grace God extends when repentant sinners believe in Jesus Christ!

In John 20:30-31, John explains why he wrote his gospel: “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”

A truly united church, like John, wants to so present Jesus to others that they will come to believe in Him and so have eternal life with God.

A united church has the salvation of the lost as its animating passion and purpose, the very reason for its existence!

Jesus prays for our unity so that the world we touch and reach out to will come to believe in Jesus Christ, the only One Who can give human beings forgiveness of sin and the new life that He died and rose to give to those who believe in Him.

If Christians live in unity for any other purpose, they may be nice people; but they are not a church. 



One last thing to note about the unity of the Church is that true unity can’t be manufactured by us. We saints who are also sinners are incapable of making a resolution to be united.

Sometimes, I have our Catechism students scatter to different parts of a room and pretend that a Bible I place on a table is Jesus. Then I tell them to walk toward Jesus.

You know what happens? As they draw closer to Jesus, they also draw closer to one another.

As we draw closer to Jesus, we grow closer to our fellow Christians. We see them as imperfect AND loved people, just like us, all of us in need of daily repentance and of the grace of God given in Christ that can daily make us new again.

Jesus has to pray that His Church will be one with God and one another because Jesus knows we can’t manufacture or coerce our unity; unity is a byproduct of a people who turn their eyes on Jesus.

As we pray, read Scripture, receive the Sacraments, and serve others with a focus on Jesus, our hearts will be more dialed into others, not just ourselves. Words like, “I’m sorry. I was wrong,” will be spoken among us. And more people will understand that they too have been transformed by Jesus to be part of His priesthood of all believers, each with ministries to the Church and to the world.

All of which leads us to May 19.

I cannot tell you how to vote on the question of joining the North American Lutheran Church and leaving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America next Sunday.

You must decide for yourself as you pray and study God’s Word.

But I do know that a humanly-created unity based on never having differences of opinion is not the unity Jesus wants us to have.

Nor is Christian unity necessarily about affiliation with a particular humanly-created denominational structure (be it the NALC or the ELCA) or with a particular humanly-created congregational corporation.

True Christian unity is rooted in a common belief in Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life, in a common belief that it is only by grace through a faith in Christ that includes repentance and surrender to Jesus. True Christian unity is also rooted in a common belief that in Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, God acts (we don't act, God acts) in our lives to bring grace, forgiveness, and life. And true Christian unity is also rooted in a common commitment to sharing these things with fellow sinners who will be eternally separated from God unless Christians care enough to share the truth of both God’s law and of God’s promise of new life in Christ.

Let the unity that Jesus prays for guide you in your decision on how to vote. Put your decision in Christ’s hands and know that, whatever you decide, God loves you and that I too truly love every member of this congregation. Amen

Christians Simply Confront Reality

Every week, God's Word makes me miserable, as I wrestle with certain facts about myself.

But ultimately, God's Word gives me indescribable comfort and hope.

Read this piece by Pastor Eric Brown, Confessional Gadfly, that explains how this works. The only way to experience the comfort and hope of God's Word revealed in Jesus Christ is confront realities that otherwise will keep you from having the blessings Jesus came to give.

"We Are Amanda Berry"

Great thoughts from Rebecca Miller for anyone who has been saved by the great rescuer to consider!

So, People Don't Like Your Faith in Christ: Stick with Him Anyway!

"People may mock our message but they can’t stop our prayers." In the passage of Scripture on which today's installment of 'Our Daily Bread' is based, Jesus says that the moment we confess Him as God and Lord, division will be created.

For their faith in Christ, Christians experience mockery or worse even among the members of their own families. I see it happen every day.

There are sensitive ways to share our faith in Christ, of course. That's what the apostle Peter is getting at in 1 Peter 3:13-16, when he tells believers in Christ to always be ready to give an account of why they hope in Christ and to "do it with gentleness and reverence."

But, Christians: That won't keep some people, even those with whom you enjoy close relationships, from disdaining your faith as though you suffer from some brain deficiency. Or, more often maybe, they'll tell you that you "think too much." (That's nothing new. Once, when arrested, Festus, the Roman procurator of Rome at the time, told the apostle Paul, "You are out of your mind, Paul! Too mich learning is driving you insane!" [Acts 26:24])

Stick with Jesus! Here's the deal: No matter what the world says or does, He wins and so do all who trust in Him. That may not be apparent to a world that measures wins in piling up the cash, being the least objectionable to 'the neighbors,' or knocking others down with gossip and innuendo. These and other "wins" are the ways world bound for death and hell measure the value of a life. But that's selling out cheap! Only Jesus is eternal. Only Jesus heals our sin and sets on the road to being truly human. Only Jesus can offer forgiveness and new life to those with the guts to say, "I'm a sinner and I need forgiveness. I'm a dying human being and I need Your life in me. My cynicism may inform me on how to get by in this world, but it has nothing to teach me about how to get into the new world Christ has for those who turn from sin and believe in Christ."

People will view surrender to the God we know in Jesus Christ as weak. They'll say it's closed-minded. But then you hear Jesus say, referring to Himself as the narrow gate: "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction [that's the way of the world, every other way but following Jesus alone], and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who enter it" (Matthew 7:13-14). People tell Christians: "Calm down! Jesus is fine on Sunday, but you've got to live the other six days of the week. Are all those other people who believe in other religions wrong?"

Well, we're not in the judging business. The Bible teaches that God judges human beings and He does so based on the judgments they themselves make about Jesus Christ (John 3:18). But, once you've come to believe Jesus when He says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me," then your own path becomes clear. And you pay heed to Jesus' commission to make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). Like Peter and John, ordered by their own people not to speak of Jesus and His resurrection again, we must tell family and friends who tell us to cool our jets--precisely because we love God and we love all people: "Whether it is right in God's sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:19-20).

Stick with Jesus!

"Where God Placed You" by Flame

Great rap from Flame!

God Worship v. Me Worship

Pastor Rick Stuckwisch explains why it's best for God to tear us down for self-worship and is a gracious gift of life:

The real problem with being full of yourself, is not that it is tacky, rude, or boorish, but that it is deadly idolatry.  It is a kind of self-cannibalism, really, for your own insatiable appetite for yourself will simply consume you from the inside-out, piece by piece.  The god of yourself can never fill you up; you cannot add an inch or an hour to yourself or your life; you cannot bestow more than you already have, but, instead, you are emptied of everything you were given, by devouring yourself, one bite and one breath at a time.

When the Lord demolishes the idol of yourself, He does so not to shame, embarrass, or humiliate you, but rather to be your God and give you life.  He tears down, in order to build up.  He wounds, in order to heal.  He kills, in order to make alive.  His goal is not to get even or get revenge, nor to teach you a lesson, nor to punish you, but to save you from yourself, for life with Himself.  He is not jealous of you, but for you.

So He does not simply crush your ego, but He recreates you in His Image.  And when He knocks you off your pedestal, He does so in order to bring you into His Kingdom.  For He would not have you make a name for yourself, which could not last, but He names you with His own Name.  He makes you His own child, and gives you what is His.  Thus, He restores you, He makes you brand new, and He brings you to perfection.

The Lord does not "put you in your place," as you deserve for your hubris, but He has taken your place in humility, and emptied Himself, and made Himself nothing, in order to raise you up, to fill you with Himself and His good Spirit, and to give you His own glorious place with the Father.

Do Lutherans Celebrate the Mass? Yes! (Part 16, The Augsburg Confession)

We’ve been looking at what it means to be Lutheran Christians by considering the Biblical underpinnings for one of the Lutheran movement’s basic confessional documents, The Augsburg Confession. Since all Lutheran bodies claim to accept the Confession’s understanding of Christian faith, it’s a good place to go to for guidance. Today, we come to Article 24 of the Confession, titled The Mass.

For some of you, hearing a Lutheran worship service called the Mass may seem strange. But that’s what we celebrate together when we receive Christ’s body and blood in Holy Communion. The word mass comes from a Latin word for dismissal which appeared at the end of an ancient Roman Catholic liturgy for Holy Communion. “Ite missa est,” the presiding minister would say: “Go, it is the dismissal.”

We often have something similar in our own Lutheran Communion liturgy when we sing a musical setting of the words of Simeon after he had seen the eight-day-old Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem. We call it the Nunc Dimittis, another Latin phrase that means, “Now dismiss,” as in: “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace...”

In the Mass, God gathers us together to literally taste and see the goodness of the Lord in Holy Communion, as well as to hear His Word receptively, allowing the gift of faith to take root and grow within us, then God sends us into the world to make disciples. Fortified by Christ’s body and blood and the forgiveness He brings to us through Holy Communion, God dismisses us to tell our neighbors that they too can have eternal life through repentance and belief in Jesus Christ.

So, yes, we Lutherans celebrate the Mass. But someone else might ask, “Didn’t we already talk about Holy Communion in this series?”

Yes, we did, back on March 3, when we looked Article 10, The Lord’s Supper. But The Augsburg Confession is divided into two sections. The first twenty-one articles deal with subjects that Philipp Melanchthon, the colleague and friend of Martin Luther who wrote the Confession, felt for certain that none of the Roman Catholic theologians he was to dialog and debate with at Augsburg, Germany in 1530, could possibly disagree with. (That turned out not to be true.)

The last seven articles dealt with subjects over which Melanchthon expected to receive more pushback. So, in Article 24, which you can find starting on page 25 in the buff and brown editions of The Augsburg Confession, Melanchthon deals with Lutheran understandings of the Mass he knew would be controversial.

They still are. But like Martin Luther, we insist that unless we can be shown by Scripture and plain reason based on Scripture where we have erred, we must stand with Christ and with His Word as we understand them.

Article 24 is long. So, I want to hone in on four main points it makes.

The first is this: Anyone who receives the Sacrament should do so with the deepest reverence, love, awe, respect, and fear of God.

Starting in the second sentence of the article, we read that: “The Mass is held among us and celebrated with the highest reverence.”

I don’t need to belabor this point. Lutherans take Jesus literally when He says, “This is my body” and “This is my blood.”

We may not be feeling it on the days His body and blood are offered to us.

We may not be able to understand His promise to be present “in, with, and under” the bread and the wine in the Sacrament.

It doesn’t matter!

Jesus, the One Who died for us and then rose for us, can be counted on to keep His promises.

If Jesus says that His body and blood are in the bread and the wine, you can bank on it.

This means that every time you receive the Sacrament, even on the days my sermons are off, even when the kids are restless, even when the choir or Cyndy hit a rare sour note, even if you’re tired, whatever your circumstance, you’re coming to the altar to meet the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the God of the universe. He deserves our reverence.

A second and related point the Confession makes is this: Holy Communion should only be shared after we have made confession of our sins.

Slide down to the last half-sentence at the bottom of page 25. It says: “No one is admitted to the Sacrament without first being examined...”

This is stated well in Paul’s words about Holy Communion, 1 Corinthians 11:27-29:

Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this wine in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the LORD. But let a man examine himself [or a woman examine herself], and so let [them] eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 

This is why our liturgy offers us the opportunity to confess our sins every time we receive the Sacrament.

Confessing our sins lets us, like King David in Psalm 139, pray to God:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. 

When God shows us our sins, we can confess them and lay them at the foot of Jesus’ cross, confident that they are lost forever in what some call God’s “sea of forgetfulness” and we can welcome the body and blood of Jesus as a sign and seal of God’s gracious forgiveness of our sin!

A third point the article makes is this: Everyone who is able to receive Holy Communion in public worship should do so.

Except in the cases of shut-ins, the ill, their families, or others in emergency circumstances, the term private communion should be an oxymoron. Holy Communion is meant to be a community meal partaken by all who have repented for sin, who believe that Christ is truly coming to them in the Sacrament, and trust Jesus’ promise that this Sacrament is “for you.”

There was a practice in the Church back in the days when the Confession was written of paying priests, often handsomely, to celebrate private masses. Melanchthon cites 1 Timothy 3:3 as condemning any practice designed to make money from the ministry of Word and Sacrament. There we’re told that anyone who wants to be an overseer of this ministry should not be “greedy for money.”

But greed for money on the part of clergy isn't the only wrong motive for the celebration of private Communions. I once heard of a man who wanted a pastor he liked to bring Holy Communion to him because he didn’t like the pastor of his congregation. But the pastor he contacted explained to him that as flattered as he was by the man’s admiration, the effectiveness of the Sacrament didn’t depend on which called pastor handed him the bread or the wine, but on the Word and promise of God meeting the bread and the wine. He explained: “In a way, for me to bring private Communion to you would be showing contempt for Christ and the Sacrament.” That pastor was right. But after that, the man disliked two pastors. 

The fourth and most important point the Confession makes here is this: Jesus is not sacrificed again every time we celebrate Holy Communion.

The theology of the majority Church of the sixteenth century held that Jesus’ death on the cross only covered up humanity’s original sin and that in order to cover the sins people commit each day, Jesus had to be sacrificed over and over again.

That, it was held--and is still held by Roman Catholic theology today--was what Holy Communion--the Mass--was: in essence, putting Jesus back on the cross and crucifying Him again every time the Sacrament is offered.

For Lutherans, this teaching doesn’t ring true for two reasons.

First: It drains Jesus’ crucifixion of its power, making it seem like a half-measure. Please turn to Hebrews 10:11-12. Contrasting the sacrifices the Jewish priests made constantly for people’s sins to Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself on the cross, Hebrews says:

...every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man [Jesus, God and human, Priest and sacrifice] after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God... 

Slip down to verse 14:

For by one offering [Jesus] has perfected forever those who are being sanctified [that is, being made holy, set apart for God]. 

1 Peter 3:18 affirms this same truth:

For Christ also suffered once for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God...

Second: To see Holy Communion as a sacrifice makes something less than a sacrament of it. Splitting hairs? I don’t think so.

A sacrifice, one scholar has written, “is a ceremony or act which we render to God to honor him.” But “a sacrament is a ceremony or act in which God offers us...the promise joined to the ceremony.” In sacrifices, human beings are the actors. In sacraments, God acts and we are called to receive in faith what God promises.

For example, Jesus says this about Holy Baptism in Mark 16:16: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe is condemned.” We can’t understand how Holy Communion (or Holy Baptism, for that matter) may work. We know only that we can receive it in faith, trusting Jesus at His Word to be present in the Sacrament and to give us life and forgiveness through it. He’s already done all the work to set us free from sin, death, and the devil. He’s already done all the work to set us free from the sins we confess, known and unknown to us, that we bring to Him. He’s already died on a cross as the atoning sacrifice for all our sins. He’s already risen from death to give new lives to us. We simply receive His body and blood with a desire to be clean and a desire to trust in Him. Jesus will do the rest!

The Mass in which God calls His people in Christ together to receive His body and blood is a great gift.

It’s a gift to be received with reverence.

It assures the repentant that Christ Who died and rose for them gives them forgiveness of sin.

It’s a gift Christians should be eager to receive as often as it’s offered.

And, it’s something God does for us, not something we do for God.

There’s nothing we have to do to be worthy of this gift but to turn from sin, to turn to Christ, and trust Him when He says, “This is My body; This is My blood.” Amen

'Wait and See' by Brandon Heath

Christians aren't perfect, just graced with forgiveness and hope through faith in Jesus Christ!

Brandon Heath's song encourages all believers to know that God isn't finished with them yet.

'Indwelling Sin' by Lecrae

I love rapper and hip hop artist, Lecrae. This is a fantastic track, featuring a dialog between a believer in Christ and sin.

We all face temptations every single day. But Jesus, Who died and rose to set us free from sin, death, and the devil, can help us walk away from them!

Powerful song!

The 4 Hardest Jobs in the US

Most people have probably heard of or read work by Peter Drucker. Drucker, who died in 2005, was the most respected student and philosopher of leadership in his time. His book, Executive Leadership, was, for many years, the book that every leader in business, academia, social services, and the church had at least heard of, if not pored over.

That's why this citation of Drucker appearing at the beginning of an article on the secret pain of pastors struck me:

Peter Drucker, the late leadership guru, said that the four hardest jobs in America (and not necessarily in order, he added) are:

• The President of the United States

• A university president

• A CEO of a hospital and

• A pastor

Wow! Most pastors I know would neither complain nor brag about their work. It is, after all, a privilege to be called by God and the Church to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, to engage in the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and to be a servant/leader of some of God's people.

But no pastor will be surprised by Drucker's list either.

It doesn't surprise me not only because I am a pastor, but also because I've studied US presidents and the presidency my whole life. I've read biographies of most of the presidents, even of Chester Alan Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Warren G. Harding. What's amazing is how often I've been able to draw lessons on how to pastor (and how not to pastor) from reading and pondering these biographies. I believe that the arts and skills that make for being an effective president are exactly what is required of someone who would be an effective and faithful pastor.

The two big differences between pastors and presidents is that presidents have more worldly tools at their disposal and that the stakes for which pastors play are much greater than those for which presidents play. The worst a president can do is initiate a nuclear Armageddon resulting in the physical deaths of billions of people. Small potatoes! A pastor prays, works, visits, preaches, and teaches each day to so present the good news of Jesus Christ, introduce the possibility of faith in Christ to others, and so prevent an eternal Armageddon in the life of every person they meet. Pastors play for far higher, more enduring stakes than any president ever has or will.

But like presidents, pastors cannot (and should not) coerce people into supporting their initiatives. In the end, no one who truly leads can coerce engagement in the common mission of the entities they lead. Nor should they! All you have to do is look at North Korea, whose people live in constant terror for their lives, and see that dictatorship is not the same as leadership. For leaders of any kind, persuasion is the coin of the realm.

A few years ago, I was talking with General Mike Scaparrotti, a son of the congregation I serve. We were talking about leadership. He pointed out to me that even in the military, ordering people to do things will only go so far. In the end, even a general must help those he or she leads to understand the advantages of the directions in which they lead and the common and fulfilling roles each person can play in pursuing them. As Pastor John Maxwell rightly says, "First, people must buy into the leader. Then, they'll buy into where the leader wants to go."

Two of our greatest political and military leaders, Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower, hated giving direct orders. This wasn't for lack of confidence. They weren't fearful for their positions. Nor did they doubt that they had the authority to give direct orders, which, of course, they occasionally did. But they preferred persuading and arguing logically to telling people what to do. People who are persuaded of the wisdom of a course of action don't need anyone telling them what to do! They'll follow that course because they themselves believe it's the right one.

The leadership of a pastor, of course, is almost entirely persuasive. We can't coerce people to believe in Jesus Christ as their God and Savior, attend worship, pray, share their faith, serve their neighbor in the Name of Christ, or accept the authority of God's Word over their lives. That's why pastors cheat: We pray.

Although I love it and count it a privilege, the job of pastor can be hard. (Although I have to say that working in a factory and some of the other jobs I've held were harder for me.) But, whatever its challenges, being a pastor is made significantly less difficult when pastors (and the congregations they serve) "take it to the Lord in prayer."