THE CARE AND FEEDING OF HUBERT CUNNINGHAM
06-22-14 Sermon
B____________ I________________ B____________ L_____________ E_____________
Ephesians 4:11-13 (NIV)
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body
of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the
Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the
fullness of Christ.
Hugh Cunninham is a G__________________ from God to you.
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 (NIV)
12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.
1 Timothy 5:17-20 (NIV)
17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 18 For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,”[a] and “The worker deserves his wages.”[b] 19 Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. 20 But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning.
Hugh Cunningham is worthy of _________________________________________
· In____________________________
· In ____________________________
1 Corinthians 16:8-9 (NIV)
8 But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.
Numbers 16:11, 31-32, 35 (NIV)
11 It is against the Lord that you and all your followers have banded together.
31 As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions.
35 And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
To _________________________the pastor dishonors God.
1 John 4:19-21 (NIV)
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
Hugh Cunningham will need your
__________________________
Ephesians 6:17-20 (NIV)
17 Take the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God. 18 And pray
in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With
this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s
people. 19 Pray
also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will
fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an
ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I
should.
Colossians 4:3-4 (NIV)
3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
Exodus 17:4, 11-12 (NIV)
4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
The pastor not Prayed for is _________________________
Hugh Cunningham IS a gift, but he will not __________________________________
Hugh Cunningham will HAVE a ministry here, he will not ___________________________
Pastors are not just LEADERS in the body of Christ, they are also _____________________
Mark 1:35-38 (NIV)
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” 38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”
Acts 20:32 (MSG)
32 “Now I’m turning you over to God, our marvelous God whose gracious Word can make you into what he wants you to be and give you everything you could possibly need in this community of holy friends.
THE
CARE AND FEEDING OF HUBERT CUNNINGHAM
06-22-14 Sermon
When you go out and buy a pet you can also get an
instruction booklet on how to care for that pet. When you buy a potted plant it will often come with a care
tag attached. Living things need
more care and attention than, say a chair, or a TV or even a car, so
instructions are provided.
As Christians, our instruction book is the bible, God’s
Word. There are instructions in it
for all aspects of our personal life as well as our life together as Christians
in the church and in the world. Someone
has said that BIBLE stands for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. We should therefore not be surprised if
we find instructions on the care and feeding of a pastor among those
instructions. As the time for the
arrival of your new pastor fast approaches I want to highlight some of what God
tells us about the care and feeding of a pastor.
Let me ask you something. If you were to receive a personal gift from an important
person, like a king or the president, how would you treat that gift? Perhaps you have some special item in
your house that has been passed down in your family from some person who was
important to you. To others it may
not have much dollar value but to you it is priceless. How do you treat that item? With great care and honor. You value that gift or that important
heirloom. You go to great pains to
see that it is not hurt or damaged.
Now suppose you were to receive a gift from God himself,
how would you regard that gift?
If you value and honor and protect that family heirloom, how much more
would you value, honor and protect a gift from God?
Well, the Bible says that you are about to receive a gift
from God. In the New Testament
there are several lists of gifts given in the books of Romans, 1 Corinthians, 1
Peter, and Ephesians. In Romans,
and 1 Corinthians, and 1 Peter the lists are gifts given to individuals to be
used to build up the church and reach the world for Christ and advance the
kingdom of God. These lists are
lists of gifts given to individuals.
But in Ephesians 4, the list of gifts is a list of gifted
persons given to the church in order that the church might grow up to maturity
in Christ and move out in ministry for Christ. And among the gifted persons that Paul lists in Ephesians
are pastor-teachers. Hugh
Cunningham is a gift from God to you.
How should you treat a gift from God? With love, honor, value, respect and protection, just like
you would care for any other valuable gift, but especially because this gift is
coming from God.
Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 (NIV) 12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. Circle highest regard.
But in our scripture from 1 Timothy 5, Paul carries that
one step further. There Paul says
that the elders who direct the affairs of the church well, are worthy of double
honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. Circle double honor.
The word that Paul uses for honor there means something so valuable that it is held as
precious, prized, cherished, treasured, valuable, and very dear. So Paul is saying that you need to
value Pastor Hugh highly; hold him in honor; treasure him graciously; esteem
him; handle him respectfully; and treat him like a prized treasure that is very
precious to you.
Paul is saying that Hugh Cunningham is worthy of double
honor. That means certainly to
love him and respect him and to value him. But within this passage of scripture Paul mentions two areas
that would be included in this double honor. First of all, Paul mentions financial compensation. The old prayer of finance
committees: Lord, you keep him humble, we’ll keep him poor, is not
scriptural. To become an elder in
the UMC the pastor is required to spend a minimum of 4 years in college and
then a minimum of 3 years in seminary.
And it is estimated that it now costs a pastor around $100,000 to become
an elder in the UMC. According to Paul, part of your double honoring Pastor Hugh
should be seen in his financial compensation.
Forest Grove averages between 35 and 40 people at worship
on a Sunday morning. But Pastor
Cunningham will have pastoral oversight over 21 baptized children, with 2 more
on the way, 17 friends of the church who are not members, and around 85
members—that’s 125 people, not counting the new folks that God is going to be
sending to Forest Grove. 125+
potential counseling situations, 125+ potential prayer concerns, 125+potential
hospital calls.
Pastor Cunningham will be under full time appointment of
the bishop like I was. I was half
time here at Forest Grove and half time at Aldersgate Renewal Ministries. Pastor Cunningham will be half time
here and half time at the Cumberland District Office. But remember that a half time pastor still preaches all the
Sundays a full time pastor would preach, and leads all the communion services,
and does all the baptisms and weddings and funerals that a full time pastor
would do. Pastor Hugh will be
preaching on Christmas Eve and be involved in our community Ash Wednesday and
Thanksgiving services, like full time pastors would. It is a bigger responsibility than most people think. The half time shows up in the salary,
not the responsibility. Actually,
full time pastors in larger churches who have paid staff to work with have it
easier because other staff take some of the responsibilities off of the
pastor. The Forest Grove pastor is
a lone ranger!
In the passage from 1 Timothy Paul also mentions another
matter in the context of double honoring the pastor. He mentions that the pastor should be double honored in protecting
him. He should be protected from
malicious rumors and accusations.
Stories abound of leaders in the church whose ministries have been undercut
or destroyed by malicious rumors originated by a few. Terry Teykl in his book Preyed
on or Prayed For: Hedging in Your Pastor with Prayer has a chapter entitled
Sheep can bite!.
Peg and I have friends who kept sheep. And in their flock of sheep they had a
ram named Ramses. Did you know that there is a reason why
they call rams “rams”? They had to
keep Ramses penned up by himself because he was dangerous. If he was out of his pen, in the same
area that you were in, you had to keep your eye on him at all times because he
could hurt you severely!
Each year, the week after Easter, at the Aldersgate center
in Goodlettsville we have a minister’s retreat. And every year some of the pastors come there with scars and
teeth marks from irate sheep!
Across the USA 1600 pastors are either terminated or leave the ministry
every month—1600 every month!!
Sheep can bite and sometimes they can ram you!
The New Testament makes it clear that pastors are blessed
and battered. Hands are laid on
them both to ordain and to injure.
Paul writes to the Corinthians But
I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective
work has opened to me. And
then in the next breath he writes and
there are many who oppose me. Perhaps
one of the most literal weapons against a pastor today is accusations because
our world thrives on rumors and half truths.
Numbers 16 contains an interesting scene. Korah, Dathan and Abiram came as a
group to oppose Pastor Moses and Aaron.
Moses responded to their opposition by saying It is against the Lord that you and all your followers have banded
together. The end result was
that the earth opened up and swallowed those associated with Korah and the fire
of God consumed 250 others who opposed Pastor Moses!
Can you imagine the reaction of the onlookers when that
took place? Can you imagine how
the remaining people reacted the next time they were around someone who
grumbled against Moses? Can’t you
just see them stop the person in mid sentence and give them a wide berth to
avoid going down with them? That
is good advice for today!
When you hear a person spreading rumors or dishonoring the
pastor give them a wide berth, avoid them, correct them, so you won’t get drug
down with them. God took it
personally when the people spoke against Moses and Aaron. The pastor is in some sense a
representative of God in the local church. To accuse and dishonor the pastor dishonors God. The Lord is offended when his shepherds
are offended. And then the ground
opens up and swallows the church’s blessings, effectiveness, and authority in
the community.
To paraphrase 1 John—if
you cannot honor the pastor whom you can see, how can you honor God whom you
cannot see? The Bible and the church have
established means of dealing with problems and complaints. See that those means are used. Everyone should be welcome in the pews
of Forest Grove church, but no one is welcome to bring bad behavior into Forest
Grove church.
How else can you honor Pastor Cunningham? Well, each year the month of October is
Pastor Appreciation Month. The PPR
Committee or Administrative Council could plan to do something special for him
during that month.
And it so happens that June of 2015 will be the 15th
anniversary of Pastor Cunningham’s ordination as an elder. You could plan to do something special
to celebrate that event. Think of
other ways to honor your pastor throughout the year.
As we read through the book of Acts and look at the life of
Paul we find that he had a tremendous ministry. He performed many miracles. He faced many challenges. And thousands of people responded to his preaching and
teaching and gave their lives to Christ.
Churches were planted wherever he went. Of course, part of his secret of success was his personal
devotion to God. But I also
believe he enlisted a lot of prayer support. Hugh Cunningham will need your prayers.
In our scripture from Ephesians 6 Paul urges his readers to
be pray-ers on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. And then he says: Pray
also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be give me so that I will
fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in
chains. Pray that I may declare it
fearlessly, as I should.
Paul says something similar in Colossians 4:3-4-- 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
Isn’t that a great prayer to be praying for your new pastor—that whenever he opens his mouth, words may be given him so that he will fearlessly and clearly make known the mystery of the gospel? Paul had to face some tough times. He was writing this very passage as an ambassador in chains. He was writing from prison in Rome. He knew he needed prayer support. Pastor Hugh will need your regular prayer support just as I did.
In Exodus 17 Pastor Moses is having a hard time. The first scene is at Rephidim. The people are short on water. The people are mad at God, but they
blame the pastor! That’s
typical. The people called
together the B.T.E. committee, the Back to Egypt committee and they grumbled
against Moses. Pastor Moses is
frustrated and he says to the Lord, What
am I going to do with these people?
They are almost ready to stone me!
The Lord comes to his rescue, water is provided, and the B.T.E.
committee adjourns for a while.
But Pastor Moses’ troubles are not over. Just as everyone settles down the
Amalekites attack. Pastor Moses
orders Joshua to the battle.
Moses, Aaron and Hur go to the top of the hill to pray. And we read that as long as Moses held
up his hands the Israelites were winning.
But whenever Moses lowered his hands the Amalekites began to win. When Moses’ arms got tired Aaron and
Hur told Moses to sit on a rock and they stood on either side of him holding up
his arms. The end result was a
great victory for the people of Israel.
Who will be holding up Pastor Hugh’s arms when he gets
tired and weary of the strains, and the hurts and the pressures of the
ministry? The enemy will be out to
destroy Pastor Hugh and his family.
We are in a spiritual battle and the pastor not prayed for is preyed on by
a whole host of destructive forces.
A prayed for pastor is blessed and protected. Pray for Pastor Hugh and his family on a regular basis that
they will become everything that God wants them to become.
Pastor Hugh will be a lot like you and I. He will have some rough edges that will
have to be smoothed out, like we do.
At times he will sin and fail and fall short of expectations, and forget
things, just like you and I do.
Instead of criticizing, pray about how you and others can help.
As I said before, Pastor Hugh is a gift to this church from
God. Pastor Hugh IS a gift but he will not HAVE all the gifts. He will be strong in some areas and
weak in others. Pastor Hugh will
HAVE a ministry here, he will not BE the ministry here. The entire body of Christ at Forest
Grove provides the ministry of the church. Hugh Cunningham will just be the pastor, you are all the
ministers of the church.
There is another thing you need to keep in mind. Pastors are
not just leaders in the body of Christ, they are also PART of the body
of Christ. Look again at
our first scripture from Ephesians 4.
Paul said that Jesus gives gifted people like pastors to the church,
why??-- 12 to equip his
people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and
in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the
whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Now notice what Paul says there. These gifted people are given to the church to build up the
body. And the body includes the
pastor! Paul says that the goal is
that we all reach unity in the faith, and we all grow in the knowledge of the
Son of God, and we all become
mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
You see, Frank Billman didn’t come here to Forest Grove
church 9 years ago just to lead.
He also came to grow here.
To grow, to mature, to grow toward Christlikeness. And I did grow here. I grew a lot. And I expect to grow more as I move to the next place that
God sends me. To stop growing
would do myself and the church a great disservice.
My point is that Pastor Hugh is coming here not just to
lead, but to grow. Just like I
did. When I came here I was not a
finished work, just a work in progress.
I continue to be a work in progress. Pastor Hugh will come here the same way.
If you find areas where Pastor Hugh needs to grow, then
help him to grow there, like you did me.
And I can tell you one thing.
People grow better from encouragement and a positive, loving attitude
than they do from criticism and negativity.
If you see that Pastor Hugh is weak in some area, that
should not be a source of criticism or gossip. It is something to be prayed about. In that situation you should ask God to
fill in that gap in the body of Christ here at Forest Grove church. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the
pastor will fill in that gap. It
could mean that God is calling one or more church members to fill in that
gap. In fact, you should ask God
if he was bringing that weakness to YOUR attention so YOU can do something
about it.
For Pastor Hugh to grow he will need personal time with
God, and time away from the church for spiritual renewal and growth, and time
away for continuing education.
That means he won’t be able to be available 24/7. Did you know that Jesus wasn’t available
24/7 either, when he walked this earth?
Jesus had been ministering in the town of Capernaum. He taught in the synagogue. He cast a demon out of a man in the
synagogue—right in the church of that day! He healed Simon’s mother-in-law who was sick with a
fever. By evening it says that the
whole town gathered at the door of Simon’s mother-in-law’s house and Jesus
healed many who had various diseases and drove out many demons. Then it says this:
Mark 1:35-38 (NIV)
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” 38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”
Jesus saw the need to make time to be alone with God, so
you can expect your pastor to sense that same need. But note in this passage that the disciples come looking for
Jesus and they tell him Everyone is
looking for you! The crowds are waiting Jesus! There are still more people here that
need to be prayed for. There are
more people here who need to be healed.
There are more people here who need to have demons cast out of them. There are more people here who need to
be taught.
But Jesus had been spending time with God, and in his
prayer time God told him that in spite of the many needs of the people in
Capernaum, he wanted Jesus to spend time with some new folks in another
town. So Jesus was not going to be
available to the people in Capernaum in spite of their pressing needs. Jesus heard God telling him to in a
different direction than what the majority wanted. That may happen with your pastor as well.
I am asking you to do something more than to give Pastor
Hugh a chance among you. I am
asking you to give GOD a chance to fulfill his will for Forest Grove church
through Pastor Hugh. GOD is the
one who is moving me to another area of service. GOD does not want Frank Billman here any longer. And GOD does not want a Frank Billman
clone here either. GOD is sending
Pastor Hugh here. God is
intentionally sending someone to Forest Grove with different gifts than those Frank
Billman has.
I hope you all will rejoice at the new things that God is
going to do through Forest Grove church and Pastor Cunningham. I hope you all will rejoice at the new
people that God is going to reach through Forest Grove church and Hugh
Cunningham. But if those new
things are going to happen you are going to have to care for Pastor Hugh and
his family according to the instruction manual, God’s word.
In 1990, Peg and I became foster parents for the first
time. And over the years of being
foster parents we had several children come into our lives. Being a foster parent means that
children are loaned to you for a time for you to love them, care for them,
teach them, and help them to grow.
The children do not belong to you, they are just loaned to you. And there came a day when our time to
care for those children came to an end and we had to give back each of those
children.
In 1979, years before we became foster parents, I became a
foster pastor. If you think about
it, that’s what United Methodist pastors are—foster pastors. Over the last 35 years, I was given
congregations of people by a bishop and during my time with these congregations
I was to love them, to care for them, to teach them, and to help them to grow
toward being more like Jesus. The
congregations didn’t belong to me, they were just loaned to me for a time. And, as with foster parents, there came
a time when I had to give those congregations back. That is what I am doing today.
I would like to close with the words of Paul that he gave
as he left the believers in Ephesus--Acts 20:32 The Message
(MSG)
32 “Now I’m turning you over
to God, our marvelous God whose gracious Word can make you into what he wants
you to be and give you everything you could possibly need in this community of
holy friends.
Prayer for Forest Grove congregation—Father, I thank you
that you allowed me to be the foster pastor for this Forest Grove congregation
for 9 years. I thank you for the
love that they showed Peg and I. I
thank you for the growth that I have been able to see here. I thank you for the demonstrations of
your supernatural power that I have seen here. I thank you that you are sending Hugh Cunningham to lead
them still further along the path that you are setting before them.
So, now I am turning them back over to you, praying that
you will make them into all that you want them to be and that you will give
them everything they could possibly need to accomplish everything that you want
them to do. Amen
Closing hymn--Invitation to lay hands on and pray for
Pastor and Peg.
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