I got the following in a e-mail the other day and just had to share it.
In ministry there is the pressure at times to be"original" and to do EVERYTHING ourselves. Thesewords from Rick Warren at Saddleback Church willbe an encouragement to you in the area ofplanning your bible lessons...-----------God never blesses us just for our own sake. Itjust doesn't happen. God always blesses us sothat we can, in turn, bless others. Every time Ithink of that principle, one face is burned intomy mind - the face of a young African pastor Imet a couple of years ago.I was teaching the Purpose Driven Church seminarin Johannesburg, South Africa. After it was over,I said, "Take me out to a village. Take me outsomewhere so I can just see some churches." Theytook me out to a township. We met two or threelittle churches. One of the churches we went towas a little tent church of 75.This young pastor had no idea I was coming, butas I began to walk up the pathway to this littlechurch, he walks out, looks at me, and says, "Iknow who you are! You're Pastor Rick!"I asked, "How do you know who I am?"He said, "I get your sermons every week.""How do you get my sermons? You don't have wateror electricity in this town where you are. How doyou get my sermons?"He said, "They're putting the Internet in everypost office in South Africa. So once a week, Iwalk about an hour and a half down to the nearestpost office, I download your sermons, and Icome back and I teach it."Pastor Rick, you are the only training I've everhad."My heart of love went out to that guy. I willgive the rest of my life for guys like that.Soldiers of the cross who are serving God with solittle when God has given me so much. I willserve those people, and I will lay down myidentity, my influence, and my income to helpguys like that.A long time ago, I decided we weren't going toput the sermons on television at Saddleback.Instead, we put them on the Internet to helpother pastors, particularly bi-vocationalpastors, who are trying to work all week in aregular job and then put food on the table forthe church. They don't have 20 hours to studylike I do.------------When Al and I got started in ministry we boughtall the books and "borrowed" all the lessons wecould to fed our progress, ease our preparationand bless the ministry. In fact, it doesn't end.Even Rick Warren says, "I still use otherpastors' sermons in my preparation time."That's really why we create The Zone. We wantedyouth workers to have access to a steady streamof bible lessons, training, and encouragement for their ministry. Your most important use of timeis reaching teens and spending time with them. If we can shortcut your prep and administration timeso you can be available for teens, well that'sour goal.Nobody is original; we all just learn from eachother, whether you get it out of a book of the internet or whatever. We all stand on theshoulders of each other. We're all on the same team.
