You never know what God will use out of our meeger resources to build up 
saints, do you?
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2007 9:53 PM
Subject: Reflection


>I was asked to speak, many years ago, in a friends church.  The town of
> Meeker, Colorado, high in the western Rocky Mountains, had a population of
> about 1500 people.  The pastor, a good friend of mine, and once upon a 
> time
> was my pastor, too, had moved to this town by the leading of the Holy 
> Spirit
> to begin a new work.  He started with one family he knew there. 
> Eventually,
> within a few short years, there were 150 members and the building was so
> crowded, they were considering double morning services to fit everybody 
> in.
> The pastor had personally led nearly every member to Christ; he was just
> that sort of a guy.
>
> As I said, I was asked to be one of the guest speakers, the keynote 
> speaker,
> if you can believe that, in this man's church during the two day 
> conference
> he scheduled.  Several other preachers in the area were invited to speak 
> as
> well.
>
> After the first day of services, we had a lunch set up downtown in a 
> rented
> building in order to house everybody who came.  Across from me sat a man 
> who
> didn't like me all that much.  He had asked me to preach five days on the
> book of Revelation in his church years earlier, which I did for him, and
> frankly, I liked him personally and believed him to be a great man of God,
> who loved lost souls, and was a good Bible preacher and teacher.  The week 
> I
> spent with him years earlier were fun and I felt a closeness to him at 
> that
> time.  However, since I was a youth pastor in those days at another church
> about 50 miles from his church, we often invited other churches to our
> church in order to get more young people involved.  He brought a few of 
> his
> young people once and I preached that night, after a whole day of youth
> activities which had been planned, and I had preached on the involvement 
> of
> Satanism in some rock groups and the worship of Satan in known occults of
> that day.  This was in the late 1970s and quite frankly, few people had
> heard any such type of preaching on that topic.  I had done a lot of
> research and offered some quite graphical descriptions of Satanic worship
> services and the involved of famous people in the occult at the time.
> Later, this pastor, trying to make a joke about my preaching, said, 
> "Brother
> Scovell, I almost got so I hated you."  I asked why, and he said, "Well,
> after the hell fire and brimstone sermon you preached to the youth that 
> one
> night, all my kids talked about all the way home was how wonderful you 
> were
> and that you were the greatest preacher they ever heard."  He was joking
> but, as I said, he only tried making it sound that way when he told me the
> story about their 50 mile trip back home that night.
>
> Now, fast-forward to the two day Minnie Bible conference.  During Lunch, 
> as
> I began to say, this man sat across from me and we had a good time of
> visiting as we ate.  Then he told me something quite unusual.  This 
> brother
> was quite the cookie cutter pastor.  By that I mean, he and, my pastor, 
> had
> been friends in the same Bible college.  This pastor I was seated across
> from, was the standard salvation preaching pastor who rarely preached on 
> any
> other topic.  This particular day, he admitted to this very fact.  He told
> me that his most faithful church member asked him if they could have a
> personal meeting one day.  They made the appointment and upon meeting, the
> member told the pastor he was thinking of leaving the church.  My friend
> asked why and was quite astonished at the reason.  The church member said,
> "Well, pastor, it is because I am dying on the vine.  I have been a
> Christian for 25 years.  I know how to get saved and I have led people to
> Christ myself.  Yet, on every Sunday, all you seem to preach about is how 
> to
> get saved.  I'm surely not against that but everybody in our church is
> already saved.  It's almost like you don't know nothing else, brother, and 
> I
> know that ain't true."  I figured, knowing my pastor friend as well as I
> did, the he was going to tell me that he attacked the man and pounded him,
> Biblically, into the ground in defense of his ministry.  In stead, my 
> friend
> said, "Brother, you know something?  You are 100 percent right and I'm
> sorry.  I have never pastored a church before.  I came here fresh out of
> Bible college and I just figured this was supposed to be what a pastor did
> but now that you mentioned it, I understand what you mean.  Listen," he
> said, "if you'll stay for a few weeks and give me a chance, I promise that 
> I
> will begin including sermons that will build up the saints and not just
> preach to the sinners.  They shook on it and my brother did as he promised
> and the church member was happy and stayed and was his most faithful 
> member.
> That night in church, this pastor friend preached in the conference and 
> his
> preaching was the best out of everybody in the little conference and that
> includes me.  His preaching had a heart for the people and it showed.
>
> Phil.
>
>
>
>
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