Allen, it's a great privilege to speak at your ordination and installation today.  What a fine man you've grown to be!  One day, God willing, you will discover the joy a pastor has when someone he's taught decides to become a pastor.  In my 29 years I have served five congregations and from each has come at least one man who decided to be a pastor.  Thanks be to God!

          Dear members and friends of St. Paul's, I rejoice with you that God has sent you a pastor.  Let's also rejoice that before you sits a young man who sat through my Confirmation classes and came out all right!  Treat him with respect, for he must be one of those mentioned in Revelation 7 where it reads, "These in white robes--who are they, and where did they come from?"  And they answered, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation...."  White robes - great tribulation?  That certainly must mean Lutheran Confirmation!  So respect him as one sent by God to preach and teach the Gospel to you.  Please remember God has called him to be faithful, not successful.  Any success a church or pastor has belongs to God!

          Twenty-eight years ago I was installed at Allen's church, St. John's, McClusky, ND, an excited and frightened young man.  It didn't take me long to discover there was a whole lot more to being a pastor than what I had learned at seminary.  My first church taught me to be a friend to my members, a confessor to the troubled, a teacher of adults who were like children, and a teacher of children who asked deeper questions than I ever heard at seminary.  I discovered how very important it is to love people and let them love me.  I have discovered that conveying the love of Jesus Christ was more important than writing a perfect communion policy.

          I discovered that creating a good worship means using the hymnal and many other resources.  I made my share of mistakes there, but I also learned the grace of God through the people I served.  Allen, the first time you have to stand up and say, "I'm sorry, folks, but I really messed that up,"  I pray your people will love and forgive you as Christ has loved and forgiven them.

          My first sermon to all my congregations has been based on this text from St. Paul who said:  "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."

          I have used this passage again and again, not because I'm fond of recycling, but because I needed to hear God speaking these words again and again.  A pastor's words must always be based on God's power, not on his own cleverness.  I enjoy a good sermon and I love teaching a good class.  But every day God reminds me that everything comes from Him.  Human wisdom and eloquence are gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Not one precious soul has come to the Lord through human cleverness;  they all come to Him by the Holy Spirit.  Remember that.  We plant the Word, but He gives growth.

          We live at time when the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod is at a crossroads.  As a church body we're unsure of our identity.  We want to spread the Gospel and save souls, but we're not sure how.

          We're suspicious of contemporary worship, yet don't really like our hymnals.  We know we must loosen up our relations with other Christians, but don't know how far.  Our young don't identify well with our worship, but we don't want them to change our traditions.  We're at a crossroads, and the decisions we make today will affect our church in the future.

          This much I know for sure:  strong leadership is needed today among both the clergy and the laity.  Edward M. Bounds, Christian author and evangelist, pinpointed our need for strong leadership in these troubled times when, years ago, he said, "The church is looking for better methods, but God is looking for better people.  What the church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new organization or more novel methods, but people the Holy Spirit can use mightily in prayer."  Mr. Bounds went on to outline the church's needs.  He said....

          "We need men and women in the pew, those...Who will face up to life's priorities with courage.Who will support an ordinary pastor and church leadership with extraordinary loyalty.Who will gladly change their man-made methods to get some God-given results.Who will produce a pure and holy witness that will have its impact on their community."

          "We need pastors and church leaders, those...Who will assume responsibility for an aggressive leadership...Who know where they are going and how to get there...Who know where people ought to be going and how to get them going there...Who believe the gospel is worth promoting and who get busy at doing it."

          I would add one more:  We need church leaders who fear less what people may think of them than what God thinks of them.  Lately I've become weary of the fear individuals or groups are injecting into the church.  If we don't teach it right or commune them right, they condemn us.  If pastors or churches don't follow convention resolutions right, they are threatened.  I say to you all, don't be afraid of the fear-mongers.  Do what God calls you to do.  Loving one another as Christ has loved you is infinitely more important than studying a theological paper.  We need more encouragement and less meddling.  We need more repentant publicans and fewer Lutheran pharisees.

          For the most part, the churches of our world today are doing God's work the best way they can.  But far too many churches are treating pastors like hired hands.  And, frankly, far too many pastors are lording it over their flocks like tyrants.  We must seek to love as we have been loved.  Do this, Allen and people of St. Paul's, and God will bless you with growth and outreach.

          I believe every pastor has to live by faith.  That doesn't mean members should treat their pastor like a pauper.  But now and then we need to take a courageous step of faith.  We Lutherans talk too much about living by faith, but then live our cautious and calculated lives.  We say God is leading us, but we still hire our consultants.  We talk a good talk, but rarely walk the walk.

          Last fall I announced to my congregation of ten years that I was leaving.  There was nothing wrong, and my ministry was not in trouble.  But I'd been praying for new direction and was led by the Lord to leave.  I gave them nearly three months to prepare and had my farewell on January 3, not at all knowing what January 4 would bring.  The next day a pastor friend said, "Why don't you start a new mission in Castle Rock?"  That's a rapidly growing area south of Denver.

          It was like the call from Macedonia of Acts 16.  I contacted people who contacted others and we held our first service March 7.  A local church extended me a call to develop the mission, and in four months of services, the Lord now brings us 65-70 people a Sunday.  For every problem, God has provided a solution.  For every objection, He's opened us a door of opportunity.  It was a step of faith that showed God's grace.  Don't be afraid to step out in faith.  He has wonderful plans if you'll let Him show you.

          God gives us wonderful tools to use in ministry.  The Sacraments convey His grace.  The Holy Gospel is the power for salvation.  The Bible ought never be worshipped in itself, but honored as the vehicle which reveals the Gospel.  God gives us talents for relating His love to people.  An important tool for a pastor today is humor.  We Lutherans don't laugh at ourselves enough.  And we have so many reasons to laugh, not at who we are, but in how we do our work.  I leave you with this:

          An elderly man wanted to join a Nebraska Lutheran Church, but found this church interviewed all its new members.  During his interview, someone asked him what his favorite book of the Bible was.  Being a bit flustered, he said, "The Book of the Parables."  And the interviewer said, "Oh?  And what is your favorite parable?"  So the old man gathered up all his biblical knowledge and made his reply:  "A man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, and thorns grew up and choked the man, leaving him half dead.  As he lay there, a priest came by and said, 'Come to the banquet.'  But he said, 'I cannot come for I have married a wife and bought me a cow.'  But he compelled him to come, and so he came, riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  And as he rode, his hair got caught in some tree branches, and he hung there 40 days and 40 nights.  And ravens brought him food to eat and water to drink.

          "And one night his wife Delilah came by and cut off his long hair, and he fell onto stony ground.  And being in fear of the Jews he ran and hid in a cave until a still, small voice said, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father and inherit the kingdom.'  So he set his face toward Jerusalem.  As he approached the holy city, he saw Queen Jezebel high and sitting upon a throne, and she was laughing.  And he said, 'Throw her down,' and they threw her down.  And he said, 'Throw her down again.'  And they threw her down, not once, not twice, but seventy times seven times.  And of the fragments they picked up 12 baskets full.  Now tell me, sir, in the Kingdom, whose wife will she be?"  The interviewers were so impressed, they asked him to teach a Bible Sunday Class.

          Keep laughing, friends.  And rest your ministry on His power.  Amen!

Copyright © 1999 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.