Pastors In Pain
Patricia Jones, M.A.
www.pastorsinstitute.org - Check this site periodically for updates on programs and ministries that might be of interest to you.
www.pastors.com - Is a ministry of Saddleback Church with wonderful resources and ideas.
www.pastorcare.org- is a clearinghouse for clergy care givers. It is the official website for the National Clergy Support Network.
www.crosswalk.com- Christian materials for pastors and other church leaders.
www.sonscape.com - SonScape is a “small group” eight day spiritual retreat in the Rocky mountains of Colorado, for those in Church, Para-Church or Missions Ministry.
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Articles by Patricia Jones, M.A.
Inspirational Videos
I believe that today the Church is in trouble and so are her pastors. And it is hard these days to tell the Christian from the non-Christian. Because churches and church hierarchies, bishops and national church boards have allowed the people to water down the Bible, to disregard what God says in the Bible as being for today, and have allowed gays and lesbians to preach from the pulpit, despite what God says about homosexuality in the Bible. Today's church is about as unbelieving and liberal as it gets. We are the "lukewarm church" that Jesus was referring to in Revelations.
And because the Church has failed as an institution to demonstrate by example of what Christ called her to do, our nation as sunk to an all time low when it comes to morals and values. Just look at our current administration, government, Senate and Congress and you need go no further.
Along with this failure of the Churches to hold their congregations to a higher standard, pastors, the genuine, truly called ones that is, are under severe attack from their own congregations. There attacks are vicious, and usually entail the congregation or the "ruling clique" in the congregation to do "whatever it takes" to terminate his ministry at that church.
"Whatever it takes" can take the form of "secret meetings" held without his knowledge discussing how to get rid of him. It can entail starting vicious, untrue rumors and gossip about him or his family. It can include public meetings with the congregation where different church members stand up and tell him to his face every critical, unkind, unloving word they can think of to thoroughly humiliate and demoralize him and his family. "Whatever it takes" can take the form of calling the Bishop with untrue complaints about him, sending around letters to the congregation, and in one case I know of the pastor's family dog was poisoned.
And churches call themselves "Christian" when in reality they are in the business of destroying a pastor's soul. Some pastors leave and never do recover from the attacks. They are so demoralized that some of them leave their marriages, leave the ministry entirely, and some actually commit suicide. Can we say the devil is at work here?
Some of the pastors who have the misfortune of pastoring a toxic congregation are young and fresh out of seminary, full of enthusiasm to lead their flock and are appalled and mortified at what they find within the stained glassed windows of their first congregation.
To put it bluntly "Pastors are in PAIN" and if the churches continue to crucify their own ministers pretty soon there will be no ministers left to lead anyone to Christ.
Patricia Jones, M.A.
If you are one of these Pastors In Pain, and need someone to help and listen please do not hesitate to contact Patricia Jones,M.A. for hope and encouragement in these "Last Days." She is offering Discounted COUNSELING to Pastors, former pastors, and their wives, and former Pastors Wives. All counseling is completely confidential.
You may either email her with your concerns and questions, or telephone her for a discounted phone counseling session. She will reply to your e-mail within 24 hours.
Please pay first for either a phone counseling session or an e-mail question. After you have made payment you may call her at 1-800-899-7301 0r e-mail her your concerns by using the e-mail button below.
Phone Counseling
One Hour Telephone Counseling Session: $65.00
E-mail Counseling
Please pay for your email question first and then hit the Email button to write and send your question. Your question should contain background information and list any concerns or questions that you have about a particular issue or issues. It may be as long and as detailed as you wish. Patricia Jones, M.A. will reply back to you via e-mail with an extensive response within 24 to 48 hours or sooner.
(All counseling is completely confidential)
E-Mail Question: $45.00
THE HIGH CALLING from The Family of God by George H. Warnock
Let not the height of the Vision dismay you, or discourage you as you walk towards it. Remember this.., that the high calling is not too high for you, or God would not have called you to it. And take courage in the fact that the HIGH calling is really an UPWARD call, as the Greek word means, and as it is translated in some versions. It is an UPWARD call! This gives us hope and courage. If it were simply "high," I could very well look up and say, "It is just too high for me." I might gaze at the heights of the call, and flounder in discouragement. But it is an UPWARD call! God is saying to you and to me, "I am calling you UPWARD... I want you to go on... I want you to come higher... I do not want you to stay where you are, frustrated, perplexed and bewildered.
The reason you abide in those realms is because you do not see the Vision. And if you see it you think I have set before you a goal that you know you can never reach. You do not understand that I only ask you to take one step at a time, and I only ask you to climb the steps with Me, as you take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me... for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls."
And so we take but one step at a time, and God is pleased. But we must not lag behind or yield to the enticements that come our way from time to time to take a shortcut. For there are many that appear to be good. You can get gifts of the Spirit freely. You might even develop for yourself a ministry, that may satisfy your heart for a season, and from which you might find a certain fulfillment. And certainly you need His gifts!
But pray God that He will cause you to sit and learn from ministries that will lead you to His feet... ministries that will encourage you to take His yoke, and follow His ways. Gifts and ministries must not be considered to be in any sense ultimate... they are but means to the end... and the end pursuit of gift and ministry is to come to know Him, to be joined in like spirit unto others in the Family of God who are seeking to come to the "fullness" of Him... so that together you might be able to comprehend, to apprehend, to receive fully... the living Christ, in the full expression of His Being.
And let us not be dismayed when in spite of all our noble efforts to climb higher we feel... we just know... that we are getting lower and lower. For as we travel this way we are going to discover, as men and women of all ages have discovered... that...
The way UP is DOWN...
The way OVER is UNDER...
The way to SUCCESS is through FAILURE...
The way to true PROSPERITY is through spiritual BANKRUPTCY...
The way to the true RICHES, is through POVERTY...
The way to VICTORY, is through DEFEAT...
The way to LIFE, is through DEATH.
And therefore, for the people of the UPWARD WAY God has set before us a very clear pattern and example:
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God (Or, 'He did not consider that equality with God was something He should grasp after'): but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name" (Phil. 2:5-9).
Also, please check out the links below for websites and actual retreat centers around the country to help Pastors in Pain and those who need rest and recovery.
“For the Son of God, the Captain of our Salvation, the Author and the Finisher of our faith... for Him the UPWARD CALL was one that brought Him lower, and lower, and lower... even unto the death of the Cross.
And so it must be with you and me. God deliver us from all that striving we see today to excel... striving for highness, for exaltation, for greatness, for bigness... even among many who profess to know the "end-time" message, and who profess to be heirs of the "Kingdom." Let us make no mistake about it... the pathway of SONSHIP leads to none of these. It takes one lower, and lower, and still lower... in order that in the Spirit of Christ we might rise higher... and higher, and still higher...
George H. Warnock PO Box 652 Cranbrook BC Canada V1C 4J2
For more information about George Warnock and his teachings, visit his website at www.georgewarnock.com.
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