Audio Transcript

Pastor John, how can pastors think and live more evangelistically-minded lives?

There is probably no pastor who is satisfied with his own life of personal witness concerning Christ. We are public figures who preach sermons and lead meetings and do devotions and we are as slow as anybody, probably, to be out among unbelievers. Maybe even slower, because our job tends to surround us with believers.

At the recent conference for pastors, Darrin Patrick was urging pastors to seek to move beyond that private circle of believers. And he just gave one example. And there was nothing new about this, it wasn’t even original with him, he was quoting somebody else, but it was still refreshing to me again. It made a difference yesterday even as I walked into Precision Tune to get an oil change.

See What the Father is Doing

Darrin said, “When you walk from one room to another,” — it might be from the kitchen to the living room, it might be from the sidewalk into Starbucks, it might be from one aisle over to another aisle in Target — he said, “Ask the question: What is God doing here?” I mean there are a lot of ways to take that. I think it is based on John 5:19 where Jesus says, “The Son can only do what he sees the Father doing.” But what it says to me is I want to be a person who walks in the awareness of God’s activity.

“When you walk from one room to another, ask the question, ‘What is God doing here?’”

And, my goodness, even as a pastor I can slip out of that. I can enter my day and go get my oil changed or eat at McDonalds. And I wake up two hours later, and notice I have not had any consciousness of God or of God’s activity.

Well, if I am walking in obliviousness to God’s activity in the world, how am I going to interact with people at a God-level where he might be preparing them for some word from me or for some action from me. So I was so helped by just the simple statement. Be aware of God as you move from one part of your day to another. Ask God: What are you doing here? How might I join with you in your saving, helping purposes? And then just enjoy the ride as he leads us.