Ministry – The Doug Ellingsworth Blog

Ministry

New Book!

by Doug Ellingsworth @https://twitter.com/DEllingsworth on July 22, 2024

I just finished writing another book. I haven’t had a chance to promote it yet, but since you all have been kind enough to follow my writing over the years, I thought I’d share the news here.

I’m not good at writing textbooks, but there are lessons I’ve learned and things I’ve observed that preachers, both old and young, need to consider. So, The Fourth Preacher is a story that results when an aspiring young preacher meets up with an experienced older one. Together, they grapple with some of the issues that today’s preachers wrestle with. The lessons are not taught by the narrative only, but the characters themselves project attitudes and passions that will guide a discerning learner.

I’ll have more to add later.

The book is available on Amazon in both ebook and paperback versions.

Thanks for reading my stuff!

Ministry

Did The Church Leave The Building, Or Did We Just Go Home?

by Doug Ellingsworth @https://twitter.com/DEllingsworth on May 5, 2020

For a while, it was the world’s favorite saying. Every time I scrolled through social media, it was plastered on about every third post. Even people that I knew hadn’t seen the inside of a church building in years were sharing it. I know you saw the grand announcement, too. “The Church,” it declared, “has left the building.”

Now, I get the point, but I’m not sure I embrace the unspoken insinuation.

The point is that the COVID-19 pandemic forced Americans into isolation, and we are temporarily unable to attend church. As a result, most churches are streaming their services, flooding social media with an unprecedented number of worship events. That’s the point.

The unspoken insinuation is that before China shipped us this scary sickness, the Church was a self-centered and ineffective civic club, knowing little and caring even less about the world beyond its closed doors.

Leadership/Ministry

Somebody’s Got To Have A Vision!

by Doug Ellingsworth @https://twitter.com/DEllingsworth on February 24, 2020

Leadership and personality styles are hot topics these days. Do a web search for either, and you’ll get a zillion sales pages and a dozen free invitations to discover your own style.

Groups and teams are a big deal, too. And they should be. Get a team motivated in the right direction and you can accomplish more than you’d imagined.

But groups and teams can never discover nor cast vision like an inspired individual can.

By nature, groups compromise until they reach a consensus. The group may like two ideas John has, three that Sherry presents, and one that Henry offers. String them all together and you’ve got a nice, warm package. But not a white-hot blaze that ignites anybody’s soul.

God gave Noah the vision for the ark, and Abraham the vision of a city. They both did pretty well. God gave Moses the vision to lead Israel into the Promise Land, and he got the idea to put together a committee of twelve to help him get there. Forty years later, two of the twelve finally made it in. The other ten, and most of their peers, died in the wilderness. The group smothered the vision.

Leadership/Ministry

Timothy A. Dugas (1949-2018)

by Doug Ellingsworth @https://twitter.com/DEllingsworth on September 11, 2018

I was born a dozen miles up the San Joaquin Valley from the Bible college where Tim Dugas’ dad, Paul, taught for several years, so the various names of the Dugas clan have been familiar for as long as I can remember. My father and grandfather both held the Dugas brothers, Paul and Phillip, in high regard, so I grew up with a generous dose of respect for the whole bunch. I guess that’s why I felt a little proud and important in July of 1980 when Tim Dugas spent a couple of hours on the sweltering Oklahoma District Campground telling me all the reasons why I needed to go to Christian Life College. He’d recently returned to Stockton himself, and, following in his father’s footsteps, was now part of the teaching and leadership team. A few weeks later, I loaded my clothes and my new stereo into my white diesel pickup, and headed west to claim all that Brother Dugas had promised was waiting for me.

He was working in the print shop when I arrived a week before classes were to start. He walked to the dorm with me and showed me all my options: lots of small, barren rooms with bunk beds crammed inside, and a common shower room conveniently located right in the middle – whose showers I would soon discover worked better than the drains. He didn’t tell me which room to choose, but he did lead me to a larger room at the very end of the hall and said, “If I was moving in, here’s where I’d stay.” I took his gentle “hint.” He walked back to the print shop, and I transferred all the boxes from the white pickup truck to that big room at the end of the hall.

Living/Ministry

To Harness The Wind

by Doug Ellingsworth @https://twitter.com/DEllingsworth on September 22, 2016

You can’t outsmart the wind.

A surgeon can take your heart out of your chest, tinker with it a while, stick it back in, staple you up, and in a couple of days you’re back in your living room showing pictures to your friends on Facebook.

But no one can outsmart the wind.

We’ve sent men to the moon, we’ve grown corn in the desert, and we can turn our porch light on and off while cruising in the Caribbean.

But we can’t outsmart the wind.

Leadership/Ministry

Things I Didn’t Know I Needed (part one)

by Doug Ellingsworth @https://twitter.com/DEllingsworth on July 15, 2016

shoes-1238960-639x866 I didn’t know I needed a pastor to serve. I knew that I needed a pastor to serve me, and I was quite content to let that happen in as many ways as possible. But I didn’t realize that I needed a pastor to serve.

In the Old Testament, during every festival they celebrated, Israel was admonished to include the Levites who ministered to their families. When a family parceled out the food they set back to help the poor, God told them to include the Levite who ministered to their family. Even though they had already paid a tithe to support the Levites, they were still required to include them in all the celebrations that God included in Moses’ Law.

Today, we don’t have all those celebrations, but we are still encouraged to take care of our ministers (I Timothy 5:17). Hebrews 13 indicates that our preachers are essential to our eternal success, and I Corinthians 1:21 flat-out says that believers are saved by preaching. If for no other reason than to express our gratitude, we need to take good care of our preachers.

Ministry

When You Don’t Meet The Expectations Of Others

by Doug Ellingsworth @https://twitter.com/DEllingsworth on February 4, 2016

prozac-nation-1317104 Forty million Americans suffer from anxiety disorder, our country’s most common mental illness.

I wonder how many of those conditions are tied to a sense of worthlessness caused by failing to live up to what others expect of them?

We’ve raised a couple of generations of self-absorbed offspring who are grossly offended by any act or expression that even suggests they could be wrong. I’m not talking about this kind. But knowing that you have disappointed someone you care deeply about hurts. Especially when you realize that you don’t have the ability to be or do what they demand.

So, what do you do when you can’t meet the expectations others set for you?

Ministry

Why I Do What I Do

by Doug Ellingsworth @https://twitter.com/DEllingsworth on January 22, 2016

Chaplain_E_book_

To borrow from Mr. Dickens – It was the best of times, it was the worst of times in West Tennessee this past week.

The worst? The Chamberlains suffered a family’s worst nightmare when their two-year-old son ran from his grandmother who was taking him and his older sister for a walk in the woods. In moments, the rambunctious boy was out of sight, lost among the trees and ravines and creek beds.

The best? Hundreds of volunteers came from all over the region to help search for the lost toddler. Enduring freezing temperatures and icy rain, they searched the rough and wooded Chester county hill country grid-by-grid for seven days and nights. Strangers became comrades at prayer vigils, interceding for a family most had never met. Searchers waited at the staging area for hours on end just in case they were needed. Human compassion and selflessness at their highest levels were on display for world to see.

Living/Ministry

Owning Your Cross

by Doug Ellingsworth @https://twitter.com/DEllingsworth on December 10, 2015

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24).

Where is your cross?

That may be goofy question, but the discussion has to start somewhere. And, really, it is no more goofy than Jesus telling us that we have to pick ours up. How can you pick it up if you don’t know where it is?

So, what about your cross?

Family/Living/Ministry

Life’s Songs

by Doug Ellingsworth @https://twitter.com/DEllingsworth on November 17, 2015

944975_10206248340431877_3767890158821332714_n I’m sorry, but when I am pondering the wonder of God’s love for me, hurricanes, trees, and sloppy wet kisses do not come to mind. Not even a little bit.

That’s not a criticism, it’s a confession.

Talking bad about someone’s worship music is a quick way to start a fuss. I remember well the old preacher who told us that the music we sang and played back in the ’70’s “didn’t have no handles.” We couldn’t figure out what that meant, and he couldn’t explain it, so we just stared at each other across the Great Divide. At church, we’d sing some of ours and he’d find some “with handles” that he could lead, and we fashioned an understanding of sorts.

Category: Ministry