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RENDEZVOUS

Kingdom-minded Thinking Starts in the Heart

by Jim Parks, RMBM Associate director

Recently on a Saturday night at about 6:00 p.m. I received a phone call from one of our missionary pastors. He was on the wrong side of a pass about 200 miles from home experiencing car trouble. He had friends to help him with his car, but he wondered if I could find someone to fill his pulpit the next morning? He sounded relieved when I assured him that we had his pulpit covered.

Over the past five years or so it has been my privilege to organize pulpit supply for the Mission, so that on Sunday mornings if a pastor is sick, or on vacation, or if a church is in between pastors there is at least someone there to lead the worship service and preach a good biblical message.

In the urban setting a pulpit supply ministry is not as crucial. Most urban churches have a depth of preachers both on staff and in their congregations. In the rural church however, in a congregation of twenty to thirty, there likely is not another man to take the pulpit in the absence of the pastor. This is likely why over the years we have been asked to provide pulpit supply for quite a few non-Mission churches as well as our own.

To me, pulpit supply ministry is an example of how unique and many- faceted God's care is for His people. On the one hand you have rural churches whose pulpits would go empty occasionally for want of a preacher. On the other hand you have a group of willing servants who are not called or gifted to pastor yet they are gifted to preach. Through pulpit supply God allows these willing servants to exercise their gifts and at the same time God feeds His Church and further sustains her.

Presently there are fifteen to twenty men who make up the pulpit supply team. They come from both within the mission and from other like-minded churches outside the mission. They also come from a wide variety of experiential backgrounds, each with their own unique way of bringing forth truth from God's Word. There's a logger from Plains, a detective from Helena, a veterinarian from Missoula, an outfitter from Trout Creek, a farmer from Big Sandy, an electrician from Victor, and the list goes on with ever growing diversity. The common bond among these men is their desire to preach the Word and to see that no church in our area goes wanting on Sunday morning.

These are men of real commitment. First, there are the hours of sermon preparation, but second, there are the hours of road time which in the winter can be a challenge. It is not uncommon to spend the better part of a day driving in order to share thirty minutes from God's Word. I am reminded of one fellow who drove over four hundred miles round trip to preach to eight people! The eight people incidentally included himself, his son, and a hitch-hiker he picked up on the way!

The Mission's pulpit supply ministry is another example of the net- working of resources that helps to strengthen this organization. Sharing resources church to church both within the Mission and with other like-minded non-Mission churches serves to be an encouragement to all. In all things it is important to remember that we serve a great God and that He is about a great work; a work that is far greater than the boundaries of our individual churches and of our beloved Mission. It is up to us to share the resources God has given us in a Kingdom-minded way.