The #1 Ministry Lesson I've Ever Learned
My lesson came at the ripe age of 19 years old -- from both a bombshell and a host of broken hearts. This how not to be a lesson to some other 19 year old minister in training.
A Christian faith built to last rests on the foundation or cornerstone of Jesus. Unfortunately, this isn’t how it plays out for many who consider themselves followers of Jesus.
My Early Life in Ministry.
I started my first ministry job at eighteen. I had just graduated from high school and stayed home to attend a local junior college. I planned to be an elementary school teacher, so I approached my church’s children’s pastor about volunteering in the kid’s ministry. I figured I should have some experience with kids if I would spend my life working with them.
In that meeting with Pastor Rod, he saw something I didn’t see in myself. I walked into the office to volunteer, but I walked out with a part-time job. I was the kid’s min intern, and the lessons I learned were invaluable.
Ministry Lessons at 18.
I learned that to work with kids effectively, you need to be prepared (which continues to be true - working with teens and adults, too). Another of my mentors, Pastor Tom, used to say, “Either you put on a show for them, or they’ll put on a show for you.” He would go on to tell a story about a little boy who stood on his chair and slowly, piece by piece, disrobed during a kids’s service.
Put on a show for them, or they’ll put on a show for you.
-Pastor Tom Blasco
I learned that physical humor and concrete visual lessons are most effective when teaching children. Again, these truths apply to teens and adults. You see it in the best teachers in and out of the church. (It’s why those “prank” shows have continued to be so popular over the years.)
I learned I am a good teacher and find pleasure in it. Most of my life has been spent ministering to children, but I now teach adults about Jesus, Scripture, and biblical truth. There are so many things I learned working with children that transfer to the adult world, too.
I learned that I enjoy graphic design. While I’m not proficient in many of today’s applications, I have a gift for it. I started 30 years ago with a program called CorelDraw—long before the advent of any Adobe products.
Yet, in that initial 12-18 months of ministry, none of those lessons learned was most important. The most important lesson I learned in those early months of ministry came in the spring of 1993. But before I go forward, let me back up with some history of my church.
Brother Ernie.
My church was named Full Faith Church of Love — the perfect, crazy hippie name for a church birthed in the late 60’s. However, the pastor was far from being a hippie. Ernie Gruen, who we knew as Brother Ernie, founded the church in the basement of his home with a handful of families. He had planned to be a Baptist missionary, but those goals ended after Brother Ernie was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues…a no-no in those days.
Soon, this little church began to gain traction with the ‘Jesus People’ - the young hippies of the 60s and 70s who found Jesus. They were looking for someone to teach them the Bible, and Brother Ernie was a gifted teacher. He looked nothing like them - crew-cut hair, thick-framed glasses, a serious demeanor. Yet, Brother Ernie connected with them, and in the 70s and 80s, the church exploded from a handful of families to hundreds and thousands of members. When I was on staff in the early 90s, we averaged nearly 4000 attendees a weekend and had 50-60 people on the church staff.
We were a mega-church before the days of the mega-church (though now mega-churches are 10, 20, or 30,000 members).
By the early 90s, Brother Ernie was almost a caricature of himself. He was larger than life in my (little) world. I was on staff for about a year and worked several afternoons a week in the office. I remember seeing him in the offices a handful of times, and I had conversations with him two or three times at most that year.
Talking to Brother Ernie was like talking to the Pope.
THE Ministry Lesson I Learned at 19.
This brings us to the spring of 1993 when I received a phone call at home one morning (before ordinary people had cell phones). I was given some information and told to attend an all-church meeting the next evening.
The night of the meeting, I showed up to a packed church. Our sanctuary sat about 2000 people, and it was standing room only. The building had a nervous energy as our pastors and elders sat on stage. I stood at the back of the church, the proverbial fly on the wall. A lot of things were said at that meeting, but it started with the lead elder (board member) standing and sharing this information:
“We received a fax this weekend (again before the days of email, cell phones, and messaging). Brother Ernie has left the city and the state. He is in Georgia. He has run off with his secretary.”
As you can imagine, it was as if the air had been sucked out of the room. The meeting went on, then concluded, and the fallout began.
Within a few months, the church went from 4,000 regular attendees to about 2,000. Within a few years, attendance dropped by another 1,000 members. I don’t blame anyone for leaving the church. Many people experienced deep trauma through the situation. It was very difficult.
However, this is the lesson I learned:
People would rather put their faith in anyone but Jesus.
This was true of Full Faith Church of Love and Brother Ernie, and it’s been true of churches and leaders for centuries. It’s easier to put faith in a human being than in Jesus. The problem is deadly to faith. It destroys the very thing we, as ministers of the gospel, are attempting to build—faith in individual followers of Jesus.
People didn’t just leave a church. They left their faith.
Building a Faith that Lasts.
A faith built to last begins with Jesus.
I love the Gospel of John, and he starts by retelling the creation story:
“In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.”
-John 1:1-4 NLT
Let me simplify this to one sentence: Everything begins with Jesus. Jesus created the earth, breathed life into man and woman, and is the reason for your faith.
Whatever faith you have right now - no matter how big or insignificant—begins with Jesus. Even if you have more questions than answers, the faith to wrestle with your doubt comes from Jesus. Jesus is the foundation of your faith.
You could also say Jesus is the cornerstone of your faith.
Jesus: Cornerstone of Faith.
Isaiah had a horrible job. He was a Jewish prophet who lived hundreds of years before Jesus, so his calling was to stand in front of the people of God and tell them of the destruction coming because of their sin. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, Isaiah delivered bad news.
However, there was a silver lining within this call of Isaiah. Isaiah’s prophecies of doom were woven with a thread of hope — the coming Savior or Messiah. It is in one of these threads of hope that Isaiah uses the term “cornerstone” to describe Jesus:
“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken. I will test you with the measuring line of justice and the plumb line of righteousness. Since your refuge is made of lies, a hailstorm will knock it down. Since it is made of deception, a flood will sweep it away.” -Isaiah 28:16-17 NLT
Jesus is the precious cornerstone for safely building our lives and faith. If we build our faith (or our lives) on anyone or anything besides Jesus, it is in danger of being swept away.
Cornerstone in both the Old and New Testaments.
The Apostle Paul picks up on this idea a few decades after Jesus died, resurrected, and ascended into heaven:
'Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.' -Ephesians 2:19-22 NLT
Paul refers to us as the church under construction—each coming together as different materials to build the church. But it is the same at the core—we are to be built on and around the cornerstone of Jesus.
What are you building your life around? Who are you building your life on?
Are the walls of your life straight?
I’m not much of a handyman. The other day, I was talking with a friend who casually mentioned he had spent the previous months remodeling his kitchen. I asked, and he had done ALL the work himself. This is not me. I’m very thankful for the YouTube videos that guide me through the basic repairs and fixes I’ve done recently around my home.
I’m not a handyman or carpenter, but I have been to Mexico four or five times over the last ten years to build a home for the homeless. To be fair, these homes are closer to a shed than what we consider a home in America. There is no electricity or running water. The structure is small (12x20), with a simple loft on one side.
I have learned one thing in my travels to build these homes — the first corner of the home is vital. Thankfully, a concrete foundation is already laid before we arrive, so our job begins by building and joining two walls together on that foundation. When we join those walls, we must ensure everything is level and square. The whole house will be off if the corner is even slightly out. Walls won’t line up, the roof won’t join, and gaps will leave openings for water and dirt.
When Jesus is the cornerstone of your faith, the walls of your life are straight. The roof of your life joins. The gaps that allow for corrosion and destruction are closed. It’s exactly what Jesus warned us about.
Jesus tells us he is the cornerstone.
Jesus himself clearly states that he is the cornerstone of our faith. He uses a different term but has the same intention: He calls it the bedrock.
““Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.””
-Matthew 7:24-27 NLT
Did you catch the end of the word picture Jesus painted? He talks about the results of a life built on sand—the rain, floods, and wind destroying the house of those who ignore his teaching. It’s the exact same imagery Isaiah used for those who build on lies and deception.
Anything but the bedrock of Jesus and his word is a lie. It all ends in collapse.
What are you building your life around? Who are you building your life on?
Your Story isn’t Over: Build on Jesus
Now, let me encourage you. Your story isn’t over. You can change your foundation even if you’ve been building your life on the hope of a person, organization, or philosophy other than Jesus. That’s the story of so many people from my church—those who chose to stay and those who moved on.
A pastor leaving, a church split, and a scandal are all wake-up calls to those of us who consider ourselves followers of Jesus. It’s not too late to make Jesus the cornerstone of your life.
What are you building your life around? Who are you building your life on?
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