MVM: Miami Valley Movement

ADVANCE! Praying for Your Pastor (and me!)

Randy Chestnut, MVBA Church Planting Strategist

One of the highlights of the year for the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio is our Annual Evangelism Conference at Cedarville University. This year, the conference was entitled "Momentum!" I just returned from the conference and it was excellent. I want to give my personal word of appreciation to all of the SCBO Resource Team Members for the great job.

This year's conference held several special blessings for me. One was to hear my friend, Rick Duncan preach. Rick is the Founding and Senior Pastor of Cuyahoga Valley Church (CVC) in Broadview Heights, OH, which is a suburb of Cleveland. Rick and his wife, Maryanne, started CVC with another couple in 1987. Today, CVC has five worship services every weekend with a combined attendance of 1,800. In addition to their congregation, CVC has sponsored several other church plants in the Greater Cleveland area, including the church Denise and I had a part in planting, Church of the Hills. Rick is an amazing communicator and faithful expositor of God's Word.

Rick's message was taken from Ephesians 6:19-20...

"...and (pray) also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak."

In Ephesians 6, Paul using the imagery of the Roman soldier's armor and the ancient battlefield to call us to preparation and action in Spiritual Warfare.

In the beginning of the message, Rick asked this very penetrating and convicting question, "It is possible for us, in Spiritual Warfare to be armed and NOT dangerous?" If we are going to be hell-emptying and Heaven-filling soldiers of Christ, we need to have a faithful group of folks praying for us. "Too many of us pastors, " said Rick, "have been neutralized and are no longer on the front lines in the Army of the Lord, advancing His Kingdom".

To storm the gates of Hell, and take ground back, pray that I...

... get God's Word, v.19a

... open my mouth, v.19a

... be more bold, v.19, 20

... spread the news, v.19b

... pay the price, v.20

As a soldiers of Christ, we want to be on the offensive, armed AND dangerous!

I would consider a great blessing if you would plead with the Father on my behalf, in asking Him to give me this holy boldness. Time is short. "The night is far gone and the day is at hand" (Romans 13:12).

Thanks, Pastor Rick!

And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 2 Timothy 2:2

As I think back, I don’t remember a chapel message dedicated solely to this topic. While I remember professors discussing it, I don’t recall an entire course on how to identify and train leaders. If you had someone who mentored and coached you in leadership, then, you are truly blessed. You are also in the minority. Most pastors would like to be involved in joining God in intentionally raising up the next generation of leaders, but they think they don’t have time. I submit that we would have the time if we didn’t allow our time to be eaten up doing things that someone else can and should do.

Think of it this way, the command to intentionally develop leaders is just as binding as the command to preach the word. We would never think of saying, come Sunday morning, “I am not going to preach today. It won’t matter if I do or don’t”.

So, what can we do about this? I am asking God to give me some “Timothys”, some young men I can invest in, who will in the future, invest in others. During this second-half of my ministry, I feel led to make Leadership Development a priority. I still want to preach and share my faith with passion, but, God has shown me I have an equally important responsibility to invest in the Next Generation leaders. What about you? Has God been saying something similar to you? If so, contact me. I’d enjoy some dialogue and brainstorming on the subject.