May 27, 2026 | Be Connected
Keep Watch
Scripture: Acts 20:25-31(NIV)
25 “Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. 27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
Devotional
In a matter of weeks, I will finish my fortieth year of ministry, and my sixth year as pastor of Fishers UMC. Sometimes I wonder where all the years have gone. As I reflect on four decades of ministry, I am grateful for all the people I have had the privilege of encouraging in ministry and leadership.
More than initiatives and projects, new ministries and new churches, capital campaigns and spiritual campaigns, I am most thankful for the people I have discipled and mentored along the way.
Some were teens who became church leaders, pastors and missionaries.
Some were pastors who desired to grow in their leadership and ministry.
Some were church members, who longed to learn how to disciple others.
Some are still in development today and into the future.
I hear this sentiment in Paul’s farewell address to the Ephesian elders. He was grateful that he had the opportunity to mentor them to go home and lead when there are challenges outside and inside the church. He reminded them that they are called to faithful obedience, even when people walked away from the church.
I must admit that not everybody I have spent time with in the past forty years became a success story.
Some were teens who abandoned the faith as a young adult.
Some were pastors who walked away from the pulpit when times got tough.
Some were church members who became leaders and later stopped going to church altogether.
In our lives as servants of Christ, we are called to this life of faithful obedience. This is true whether the results are what we had hoped for or not. Praise God for the blessings of doing what He called me to do!
