I attended the Whiteboard Sessions 2010 conference in VA Beach on Friday, May 21. These are my notes from the various speakers.
James MacDonald is founding pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in northwest Chicago
Big Idea: No More Bait & Switch – Ministry is Hard, But Worth It In The End.
2 Timothy 4:9-17 – Paul was lonely and felt abandoned by others. He was cold and in discomfort. He experienced relational conflict with those he worked with. Rejection was familiar to him as well. If Paul felt this way, should we expect less?
But God strengthened him that He maybe glorified.
If we had an accurate understanding of how great Heaven is going to be we’d be trying to get there right now. That may even be why the Bible doesn’t tell us specifics about it. This is why we suffer and why we don’t give up.
A lady who was upset with him and criticized him up one side and down the other and concluded by calling him a “big donkey” really bothered him until a friend reminded him that even the donkey knew that all of the palm branches and the shouts of praise were not for him, but for the person on his back.
To be successful in ministry you must be a professional forgiver. If a relationship is going to be a long-lasting one, there must be ongoing forgiveness in that relationship. His position is that successful relationships will encounter many smaller things that require forgiveness and several major things which do. Learn to be a forgiver.