Sermons

These are the slides for the message I delivered on 2 October 2022 at the Oamaru Baptist Church.

We are running a series on Nehemiah, which I titled “Renewal and Resolution”. In the previous sermon, I talked about Nehemiah’s T.A.O. strategy.

Today, I am preaching the first of the four parts on the sub-topic, “A Ministry Strategy for OBC”, based on Nehemiah 2:11-20.

Awakened excitingly!

When driving alone on a not-so-busy highway, you cannot help but be sleepy. And if you haven’t had a good sleep the previous night, you might be struggling to be awake behind the wheel.

That happened to me one Wednesday morning while driving to Oamaru. I struggled to keep myself awake as I passed the Fonterra Dairy Factory at Studholme.

So, I prayed to the Lord to keep me awake until I reached the nearest driver-reviver spot. I thought of ordering a long black coffee, sitting down and relaxing.

Suddenly, I recalled the pot of soup I put on the stove to be heated. I planned to have a bowl before leaving home but abandoned the idea because it was already past mid-morning.

So I went off the highway, stopped, parked safely on the road shoulder, and called my wife, who is in town working at the office.

As I waited for her to pick up my call, my adrenalin was rushing, my hand started to shake, and that sudden sickening feeling in your stomach that you get for thinking about the possibility of our house burning.

I asked her to please go home and check our house. I told her the reason. After about eight minutes, my wife called and told me our house wasn’t on fire, and nothing was burning on the stove. She said I had the pot on the stove but hadn’t turned it on.

I thank the Lord that nothing serious happened. The blessing was the event caused me to be fully awake and alert all day until I reached home. Yes, the Lord God awakened uniquely! 🙂

Reviewing Nehemiah’s T.A.O. Strategy

Let us refresh ourselves with what Nehemiah did in realising the vision that God gave him.

To be at it

This idiom means “to be involved in doing something.”

• Nehemiah went to Jerusalem and stayed for three days. (v. 11)
• As the body without the spirit is dead, faith without deeds is dead. (James 2:26)

Assess objectively

• Nehemiah rode through the area at night. (Vv. 12 to 15)
• He went around secretly. (v. 16)

Operate smartly

• Identify the problem and share it with those who would be doing the work. (v. 17)
• Acknowledge the gracious hand of God in everything (v. 18)
• Anticipate opposition (v. 19)
• Focus on God of heaven, who will give us success (v. 20)

My “To be at it” version

The slide above shows a sample of my work diary. I developed the practice when I started working as a process documentation researcher and was assigned to remote areas. We had to maintain a work diary so that our field supervisor could check our work and data output.

When my wife and I started working online in 2009 and were paid hourly, our online platform had a work diary that our clients could see and provided the bases for actual work done and work to be paid.

My conviction is that by keeping a work diary, I can show accountability to my ministry supporters and leaders that I am doing work. So, my version of “to be at it” is illustrated by the pastoral work diary I maintain every week, showing where the weekly 30 hours go. I wonder how many pastors are keeping a work diary nowadays.

I believe that while the ministry worker deserves his or her wages (Luke 10:7), the wage provider is also worthy of his/her investment.

I also believe that the pastor is not over and above the other workers or labourers. Therefore, I am always aware that if the church people work eight hours a day to earn and give their offerings to God through the church, there is no reason that, as a pastor, I will not be committed keenly to doing the same.

In other words, the salary that I receive comes from the offerings that were gathered from the church members who earn their wages by the “sweat of their brows”, and so, as a good steward, I need to account for the work that I am doing.

The article I wrote on my ministry blog, “Why Pastoral Care Ministry is Given and Not Optional for a Pastor,” explains my understanding and commitment to pastoral ministry.

Using the M.A.P. Toolkit for Assessment and Operation

I caught the ministry toolkit vision in 1992. I worked as a process documentation researcher assigned to Antique, Philippines. I was part of the team developing tools for productivity, appraisal, and planning for farmer-beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program in the Philippines.

As we were working on these productivity tools, using the principles behind these tools for church growth struck my mind. I was able to apply some of the tools in my church assignments, but I never had the chance to sit down and organise them into a toolkit.

When we migrated to New Zealand in 2011, I shelved the idea of creating a toolkit that pastors and ministry leaders could use in their ministries.

As I got involved in the ministry of New Zealand Baptist churches, the vision of a ministry toolkit kept flashing in my mind through all these years.

In 2017, I started writing the ministry management toolkit titled “Ministry Appreciation and Participation Toolkit” or “MAP Toolkit” for Pastors and Ministry Leaders.

I dream that pastors and ministry leaders in New Zealand will be able to benefit from the toolkit I’m creating. I dream that they will use the MAP Toolkit to enrich the multicultural ministry of the church.

Furthermore, I dreamed of seeing every pastor and ministry leader worldwide using the MAP Toolkit and confidently leading and empowering every believer.

The need for a toolkit

If the doctor uses standard instruments in his practice (e.g. a stethoscope), what are the pastor’s common tools to use in ministry?

Or, if the auto mechanic has some practical tools for checking the car engine, what does the pastor have?

The usual ready answer is the Bible, commentaries, dictionaries, and other reference materials.

Let me ask, “Have you ever seen a doctor using his medical book to examine a patient, or have you seen an auto mechanic holding his “How to repair” book to check your car?

I observed that the doctor and the auto mechanic have their toolkits with them when they do their job.

Have you encountered a ministry toolkit that functions like the diagnostic tools that a general physician or a mechanic uses?

Regardless of age, young or old, the doctor uses the same tools, and so does the mechanic. Well, he might have some specific tools for a particular car model, but the essential tools that mechanic uses are similar for every car.

The Ministry Appreciation and Participation Toolkit are created for a pastor or a ministry leader to use on his ministry assignment, just like the image above.

Why M.A.P.?

The acronym MAP for Ministry Appreciation and Participation is intentional because the general, essential underlying tool here is the “map.”

We are now in the information, multimedia, and social media age. We appreciate and engage more when we see and can touch things, even if we are handling or swiping our smartphones or computers.

So, the MAP toolkit is a set of tools that will enable us to map and create a picture of our ministry areas so that our community will be motivated to appreciate and participate.

What can the MAP Toolkit do?

You might probably be asking what it can do to your church or a specific ministry.

Like any tool, the MAP Toolkit’s overall purpose is to be an instrument to accomplish a task and, in our context, church ministry management.

One of the tasks of the pastor or ministry leader is what Paul reminded Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:6, to “fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.”

The MAP Toolkit has tools that will help keep the passion for ministry burning in the church and the community.

I have identified four things that the toolkit can do. I believe that we will discover more tools in the process of using this toolkit.

I will preach about these goals in the next two to three Sundays.

Conclusion

In closing, I have a confession regarding the false fire alarm story I shared at the beginning of this message.

Let me confess to you that when I arrived home that day, I went to our stove to check and found out that there was no way the soup would boil and overheat and would cause a fire because it is the type of pot that doesn’t work on an induction stove.

Looking back, I believe that God used my thinking of me forgetting to turn off the stove as a way to wake me up from a sleepy situation.

Remember in the previous sermon, we learned that “tao” means in Maori “to cook” (verb) or “cooking” (noun)?

For us to achieve “cooking” (operating and growing) an excellent “soup” (church) and to avoid any false fire or burning alarm (closing the church), we need to be “fanning the flame”, appreciating, and participating closely in God’s work.

Amen!