It all started with my belief that the Bible was the inspired, inerrant Word of God. I considered the Bible the road map for navigating through a Satan dominated. sin plagued world.
The Bible taught me that every person is a sinner under the just condemnation of God and deserves to burn in hell for all eternity. The Bible also taught me that God graciously provides a way us to have our sins forgiven and avoid hell. God sent Jesus Christ, the son of God, to earth be the final atonement for our sin. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sin and three days later rose again from the dead, conquering death and the grave. Our salvation and eternal destiny rests squarely on the merit and work of Jesus. He is the way, truth, and life. Through the preaching of the Word and the work of the Holy Spirit, God calls out to us, saying repent and believe the gospel. Those who do are gloriously saved and made part of the family of God.
The Bible taught me that I, as a God called, God ordained minister of the gospel, had the solemn obligation to preach the gospel to everyone. Work for the night is coming. Leave everything for the sake of the gospel. Only one life twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ. These clichés were not mere words to me. They were a clarion call to forsake all and follow Jesus.
Every Church I attended, every youth group I was a part of, and every summer youth camp I went to, reinforced the truth that God wanted (demanded) 100% of me. All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give.
I went to college to train for the ministry. Every class, every professor, every chapel speaker shouted for all to hear:
Souls for Jesus is our battle cry.
Souls for Jesus is our battle cry.
We never will give in while souls are lost in sin
Souls for Jesus is our battle cry.
My wife went to college to marry a preacher, a God called, God ordained, preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She knew that she would have to make sacrifices for the sake of her husband’s call. She was taught that Jesus, the ministry, and the church came first. She was taught her husband was specially chosen by God to proclaim the good news of the gospel. She was encouraged to read biographies of great men and women of faith to learn how to deal with being married to a man of God. Polly and I entered marriage and the ministry knowing God had called us to a life of self-denial and devotion to the work of the ministry. Hand in hand, we embraced the work God had set before us.
I consider 1983-1994 to be the high point of my ministerial career. I pastored a growing, busy church. Sinners were being saved and baptized and joining the church. God was smiling on our work. Not only was this my observation, but it was the observation of my colleagues in the ministry. God was going something special at Somerset Baptist Church.
I did a lot of preaching. A typical week for me looked something like this:
- Jail ministry on Tuesday
- Nursing home ministry on Wednesday
- Midweek service on Thursday
- Street preaching 2-3 days a week
- Taught Sunday school class
- Preached twice on Sunday
We also had a tuition free Christian school, open only to the children of church members. In addition to my busy church preaching schedule, I held revival services and preached at bible conferences and pastor’s fellowships. I was motivated by what I believed the Bible taught me about the work of the ministry. I looked at the life of the apostles and thought that they were a pattern to follow. Run the race, Paul told me, so I ran. I was 100% committed to what I believed was God’s calling on my life.
Some Christians object and say “you are the one who worked yourself to death. Don’t blame the Church or God. OUR pastor doesn’t work this way. He takes time for his family. Blah. Blah Blah.” Even now, as an atheist, I find such objections lame. If the Bible is true, if what it says about God, sin, salvation, death, hell, and heaven is true, how dare any preacher, or ANY Christian for that matter, treat the gospel of Jesus Christ so carelessly. How dare any preacher not burn himself out for the sake of those in need of salvation. No time for pastor busy work. No time for golfing with your fellow preachers.
There are a lot of lazy hirelings in the ministry who do just enough to keep from getting fired. They pastor a church two or three years, wear out their welcome, and then move on down the road to another church. I have no respect for pastors who defend their laziness by stressing the importance of balance in their lives. Where do they find such a notion in the Bible they say they believe? Jesus doesn’t call them to balance. He calls them to forsake all and follow him.
One of the reasons I see Christianity as a bankrupt religion is the lackadaisical approach Christians and their spiritual leaders have towards matters that supposedly have eternal consequence. Most of what goes on in the average church is meaningless bullshit. Call a business meeting to decide on the color of the paint for the nursery walls and everyone shows up. Implore people to come out for church visitation and the same three or four people show up.
Why should I take the Bible, God, Jesus, salvation, heaven or hell seriously when most Christians and pastors treat these things as of no more importance than “what’s for dinner tonight.” It took leaving the Christian church and leaving the ministry for me to realize that most of what I was chasing after was nothing more than a fool’s errand. Many of the ex-ministers who read this blog know what I am talking about . So much of life wasted, and for what? Too bad I had to be fifty years old before I realized what life is all about. Too bad I sacrificed my health on the altar of the eternal before I realized that there is no eternity, just the here and now.
From a psychological standpoint, I understand that my type A, work-a-holic personality made it easy for me to be the preacher I was. Whether it was the ministry or managing restaurants, I worked day and night, rarely taking time for family or leisure. I still have the same tendencies. The difference now is that the list of things that matter to me is very small. Polly matters. Family matters. My neighbors matter. The future of humanity matters. But matters of eternity, heaven and hell? Nary a thought these days. If the Christian God exists then I am screwed. A lot of readers of this blog are going to be my roommates in hell. However, I don’t think the Christian version of God exists, so I am investing all my time, money, and talent on the only life I have. I will leave it up to the gods and my family to do what they will with me after I am dead. Of course, I could come back from the dead and write a book, “Heaven is Real and Boy are the Atheists In Trouble.”
The post What Motivated Me to Work so Hard for Jesus appeared first on The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser.