I love technology! The Past few years have brought such great resources into my life. My iBook, my iPod, they are great. Apple has done so much to advance the publication of media and the easy access to that media through iTunes. Anyone can download video, audio, pictures from around the world. Automatically!
This has been a huge blessing to me because I have been listening to Pastors all across the country, and I have been challenged by their messages and their heart.
Like this morning I listened to a great message by Pastor Rob Bell of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, MI. The message was titled, “What is it to you?” You can download it here.
This was a great message about doing what Jesus wants us to do and not what other people want us to do.
On the way home from work I’m going to be listening to Pastor Matt Chandler, from Village Church, in TX. They have been going through the book of Ecclesiastes, and I totally dig on Chandler’s brutal honesty about life, ministry, and the Bible. I found him through the Resurgence podcast which was at. Mars Hill Seattle (not affiliated with Mars in MI).
Mars Hill, was the church that first got me interested in listening to Sermon Downloads while I workd at Safeco. Mark Driscoll, like Chandler is brutally honest, crazy smart and treats the Bible like it’s one giant book instead of just a few key verses. Which is great for me because I’m a bible geek. Driscoll is hilarious to and he really doesn’t hold any punches.
I also have recently come across LifeChurch.tv and their podcast is great to.
But I wrote all that because our church has recently started podcasting and you can check out the Creekside Cast and tell all your friends. We have recently seen an surge in the number of downloads so that’s pretty cool but if you haven’t subscribed check it out.
You can also download our student ministry podcast here.
But i say all of that rambling linking to promote them becuase they have all blessed me, but also to share my heart a little bit.
One of the things that I think most pastors struggle with at some point in their ministry is feeling all alone. You may have a church of 200 or you may have a church of 2000, but you may feel alone in your ministry. That’s part of being the leader is that you are out in front, you are dealing with stuff before other people in your ministry have to go through it, you are wrestling with big questions, you are praying big prayers, and in the midst of it all you feel like no one really gets it.
It’s unnerving when you are going through this and you don’t really know where to turn. Now I have a great Lead Pastor, Don Ross, he’s a great support, he’s a great leader, and a great preacher. So I don’t feel alone right now. Believe me, I have been alone before, but here at Creekside, I now that I am not off in isolation somewhere.
But when I was alone I needed a pastor to preach to me. Me preaching was not enough. I read the Bible, I pray, but I think there is something incredibly powerful in the preaching of the Word. I realized that I love being preached to. I love hearing someone tell me what the Bible says and what I should do about it. It’s encouraging, it’s challenging, and it reminds me that I am not alone in building the kingdom.
The internet has made it so easy to connect to men preaching the word around the country, that I don’t know why more people aren’t doing it. If you don’t have itunes download it and fill it up with people who are preaching the word. You’ll see that you are not alone, that you have brothers and sisters around the world that are in the kingdom doing the work with you.
JasonDeuman.com 