There was a moment in the service when Pastor’s Wendell and Gini presented Judah and Chelsea with a beautifully bound leather book. This book contained letters of wisdom, council and guidance written to them by minister’s of the gospel like Paul Yonggi Cho, Oral Roberts, Joyce Myers, Casey Treat, TD Jakes, and John Maxwell just to name a few. It was a great honor that a letter I had written was included in this book to Judah and Chelsea.
Judah and Chelsea,
I have traveled to hundreds of churches around the world working with lead pastors. I can honestly say that the majority of these ministers are wonderful people with a demonstrated call of God on their lives. Many of them are extremely gifted in their platform ministry yet find themselves struggling in other areas. In this letter I want to give you three thoughts that I would like you to consider as you open this new chapter of your life.
1) Why the Gift in you is not for you.
Judah there is no doubt a God given gift is in you. My father Edward Windsor said this to me when I started in ministry and now I pass it onto you. He said son if you will hold your gift with an open hand God will do great things through your life. But if you hold your gift too tightly or if you dictate to God what you will or will not do with your gift it will be useless. You are a steward of the gift but remember our God owns the gift in you. Many ministers have somehow gotten this backwards.
Remember this Judah, It is about the gift in you… but it is not about the gift in you for you… it is for the body of Christ. So keep this thought in the back of your mind.
2) Why your eyes lose focus
There is a pressure that comes along with being a pastor that moves stuff into your focus and drives people into your peripheral - that is backwards. Judah one of the greatest challenges I have faced is to not become focused of the peripheral. You know what I mean. We are in the people business and the people business is messy business. Everyday there will be a myriad of issues that try to force their way into your force.
An example would be your marriage. Chelsea must stay the center your focus and other women must be forced out, way out into your peripheral. We see what happens when a person gets this backwards – it’s a formula for disaster. The same is true in the church. There will be things that seem important, they will push hard trying to make their way into your focus. It takes prayer, biblical wisdom, relationships and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to get your focus right. Ephesians 1:19-23 The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which He speaks and acts, by which He fills everything with His presence. (The Message Bible)
As a pastor I have learned it is important that I keep the stuff in my peripheral. Your success has a lot to do with the focus you choose.
3) What to do when you become paralyzed
Judah everyday you will be bombarded by questions that need to be answered. A steady stream of thousands of questions of life and ministry opportunities and challenges will flood your mind. As a pastor you will have so many questions coming your way it’s paralyzing. This is the simple solution I use. Answer a dozen big questions then get ready to watch thousands of little nagging questions disappear automatically.
Let me give you an example, before you were married you had millions of options. Everywhere you looked you saw options but by saying “I do to Chelsea” you answered the number one big question. With one big question answered millions of smaller questions disappeared automatically. Now when you walk down the street and you see a beautiful woman you are not bombarded with questions like, “what would it be like to be with her or I wonder if she noticed me” once and for all you answered that one big question now millions of little questions are gone forever. The same is true in ministry.
One more thing, I learned this the hard way, often what seems like the little insignificant questions are really the big questions and the big things that are pressing you for answers are really the little questions. It’s easy to tell the difference between a little question and big question. After you answer a little question you will not notice much if any difference but after a big question is answered watch hundreds of other questions disappear.
Judah I want to say how proud I am to see the man of God you have become.
Your friend always,
Eddie Windsor
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