‍Opening Remarks

Agenda

We appreciated Brother Mark Staller’s session. A few years ago, he spoke trying to help us see where our weaknesses were in four areas: invention, arrangement, style and delivery. He described the attributes that would be symptoms of strength or weakness in each of those areas. The one that jumped out at me as a weakness was “invention.” I am not a guy who asks, “How can I get all of this in?” I am a guy who looks at what I have and says, “There is not much here.” I learned two things today. If I can ever solve the invention problem, I have a big arrangement problem. I appreciated that presentation very much. Today, ironically, I have more to say than what I can deliver in thirty minutes. Being an invention deficient person, I will continue today’s topic at camp meeting, if the Lord tarries and allows our plans to carry through.

Together

“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:1-6).

Introduction

We will discuss the idea of ministerial unity from Ephesians 4:1-6. This is not just for ministers; it is about unity in general and speaks to the congregation, to the church.

Unity is not based on our love one to another. The Bible does command us to love one another including our enemies and those who despitefully use us. However, loving those people does not put us in unity with them. The basis of our unity is our unity with God. In fact, our loyalty to one another stops when it interferes with our unity with the Lord. If we are all unified with God, we will all certainly be unified with one another. Unity is not to be taken for granted; it is not automatic. We know that Jesus prayed for the disciples to be sanctified that they might all be one as He and the Father were one, but being sanctified does not eliminate the need to endeavor to keep the unity and to forebear one another in love. We do not take our unity for granted, though we do appreciate it. We want to be unified in the Spirit, with God and with one another.

Our purpose today is not to provide a Bible study; it is to highlight a few points that will enhance our unity as ministers in the Apostolic Faith Church. God called us to be in this ministry. We are convinced of that. That was probably the question you were asked when you were asked to be a minister: “Do you feel that God has called you to preach the Gospel?” You answered in the affirmative, and therefore you began preaching, and have continued to this day.

Minister’s Manual

One thing that will help us to maintain our unity in the Apostolic Faith is to remember to refer to our Minister’s Manual—to be familiar with it, to read it, and to observe what is written therein. As you know, we have updated the manual. Some of you have contributed toward the editorial process. We have yet to finalize the response to the edits, but we will in the next month or two. The safety process interfered with our progress on the Minister’s Manual, but it did not stop our progress; it just slowed it down. Within another month or two, I hope before camp meeting, we should be able to post the edited and almost final draft of the manual online. I will begin emailing excerpts from it, no longer primarily motivated by obtaining editorial thoughts, but motivated by helping and encouraging us to read the content. When I was asked to preach and was given a Minister’s Manual, it was recommended to me that I read it through once a year. I did read it through once a year. In the years since then, I have referred to the manual often. That same content is still in the updated Minister’s Manual, but we have added more content, as you well know. We want to be reading it. It helps guide us. It helps keep us unified throughout the world. I will give aid to that end by sending material via email to pastors, and in Portland to the ministers. The pastors are asked to forward those e-mails to the ministers at their locations.

I have thought this through and decided that I don’t want to go over the head of branch church pastors by having a database of all the ministers and communicating directly with them. I think it is wiser to continue to communicate most directly with the pastors. But pastors are asked to please forward those e-mails to those at their locations. I did that this week with the itinerary for today. I gave the U.S. pastors the itinerary, and they were asked to please forward the information to their ministers, knowing that it would be webcast live. I hope all the pastors did that. If you did not, you will have ministers at your location who are watching this saying, “My pastor did not do that.” From now on, I will be more courageous and bold when I send e-mails to pastors. I will always attach a note at the end saying, “Please forward this to ministers at your location” or, “Please make your ministers at your location aware of this.”

If you want to take the e-mail that I send you and adapt it to make it from you, that is okay; I do not care who it comes from. I just want our ministers to have it for the sake of unity. So, we will do that with the excerpts from the Minister’s Manual. It will not be every week for fifty-two weeks. But it will be selected periods of time, once we get it going. For example, if we had it available by the middle of May, it would no doubt be done for a month or so, but probably not during the summer. It would resume in late August or September, and we would keep it going for a certain period of time and then have another break. I know we are creatures of habit, and if I were to send you something every week for the rest of your life, after a while you would stop reading it. So, we will try to send excerpts in a way that it will be interesting.

As I said, we are almost done with the editorial process, or we feel like we are near that end point. But I do not feel like we are totally done until you have had a chance to go through it again. If questions are raised or editorial comments are offered, we will look at those. I know that when we communicate, we can think that we are saying something very plainly, but when someone else reads it, it can be taken totally differently. It is important that we get this right. Please send a response to those excerpts if you have one.

By the way, the responses that come through that page of the website go to someone in the office. You might think they come directly to me. If you correspond directly to me, dlee@apostolicfaith.org, I am the one who sees that. Nobody opens my e-mails or my letters; I get all of those. Comments to that page of the website go to a general area, and then are directed to me. Typically, when you e-mail me, you will get a response from me. It has taken me a couple of years to get to this point of telling you that if you did not get a response from me directly about your edits to the Minister’s Manual, it was not because I did not eventually see them. I did not see them in real time. Don’t think, though, that your other correspondence that comes to me is perused by others; it is not. Utilizing the Minister’s Manual keeps us unified.

Communicate

Some are reluctant to communicate with me directly out of fear that I am too busy or that they are taking my time. Someone just told me that here lately. That is ironic. My lack of boldness or forcefulness on even these Minister’s Manual issues has been because I know you are very busy, and I do not want to take your time. It is very insightful and helpful for me to hear that you do not want to trouble me, when all of these years I have been operating under the premise that I do not want to trouble you. I am going to trouble you a bit today. I will do it by giving an example.

I used to keep Brother Loyce Carver, and then Brother Dwight Baltzell, informed with regular correspondence in regard to what was happening in Dallas, Oregon, and in Eureka, California, as I pastored. I have two letters in front of me. One was written to Brother Carver by me in Dallas on November 11, 1987. I will read a bit of it and give the idea of the kind of reporting that I was taught to do by my leaders.

Dear Brother Carver:

Enclosed, you will find the church Financial Statement for October.

We had another victory this past Sunday. Sheri Aguinaga was saved Sunday night. So there is rejoicing in that family, as well as in all of our hearts.

It was certainly good to hear about Carl Sandeen’s sister and her husband too.

Brother Jim Seely and his wife are in Dallas for a few days to help care for Ruby Jones. You probably know of her, but she is the sister-in-law of Retha Seely and Zelpha Jacobs. [Brother Carver had been in Dallas for a year or a year-and-a-half as pastor forty years earlier. He was also acquainted with the Jones family—Efton, Dwayne, Zelpha, and Retha Jones having pastored in Medford after that. He may or may not have known of Ruby who was married to a Jones]. She had open heart surgery about two weeks ago. She needs prayer for her body and soul. Woody Jones, their brother, also needs prayer. He has some kind of cancer and has even gone to Canada for medication that can’t be obtained here. But he doesn’t appear to be gaining ground, and of course needs to be saved.

Lord willing, Brother Seely will preach here Thursday night.

Our daughter, Alicia, is scheduled to have seven teeth pulled and her tonsils removed at Emanuel Hospital in Portland this coming Monday morning, assuming all goes according to plans. It hurts just to think about.

I’ll go for now. God bless you always.

Sincerely, Darrel Lee

Here are some excerpts to a letter written to Brother Dwight on September 21, 1995. The reason this came to my attention is because I was finally getting around to filing some files. It shows you how current I am. I stumbled onto these files of correspondence. This is from Eureka.

Dear Brother Dwight:

Although I just wrote, there were a couple more things to add. [Debbie had had emergency gall bladder surgery two weeks earlier so I must have written about that.] First, we are making plans to install new carpet throughout the church sanctuary. [I gave the details.]

After I wrote to you last time, I felt a little bad about referring to our music situation again. In my effort to keep you informed, I have probably magnified that situation more than intended. Yes, it is a need. [He would have known that; I followed Brother Dwight. When the Baltzell family left, they took a good part of the music because the Baltzell family was the music. After that, Efton and Katie Jones left. Also, Carrie and Dial Keju moved away, so when I showed up it was somewhat decimated. In fact, after Brother Carver had asked me to go there and I had gone to visit, I said that the people seemed to be a bit discouraged. That was an understatement. I remember him saying, “You cannot discourage someone who refuses to be discouraged.” He wasn’t saying that about them; he was directing that to me though it was somewhat veiled, but not very! I wasn’t discouraged; I really was not. Anyway, Brother Dwight would have known about that concern, and I would have expressed it to him along the way. Now I am following up on that.] But it certainly does not dominate my list of concerns in life. We have wonderful specials, and God continues to bless our meetings. If the Lord raised up someone to fill in the gap, you would hear an “Amen” from me, but if He is satisfied with how things are working, so am I.

We have started an outreach project to distribute our literature to the homes around the church.

A week ago, Betty Thompson’s son, Gary, was in morning meeting with his wife and son. [Brother Dwight knew Betty Thompson well—a minister there who had passed away.]

We are content and blessed to be here in Eureka. Alicia has settled in at her first year at the College of the Redwoods—they still call it U.C.C.R.0. [I think there is a back story that I have forgotten; I think it was teasing the University of the College of the Redwoods, but I am not quite sure.] She was startled to see some of her former high school classmates attending—the ones who had big plans to go to out of state universities. I guess they discovered it takes money. Welcome to C.R.!

Randy has started his sophomore year at EHS. He is not as content with the school part. How well I remember my dislike for high school. He excels in basketball but is a little short on patience when it comes to algebra. Anyway, he is hanging in there.

Debbie continues to pick up steam and feels well enough to go to Sacramento’s combined meeting tomorrow night.

You asked for dates on our trip up for the Wakefield wedding. Lord willing, we’ll be in Friday night meeting, and leave for home after Sunday morning meeting, since the kids must be home for school on Monday. No doubt, there will be plenty of preachers around. [I can be subtle, too!]

These are examples of communication that I made; I thought about them being too busy to receive my communications, but I had a responsibility to communicate. If they were too busy, and I think you get the sense as I say this, “That was their problem.” My problem was to communicate it. I did not expect a response. I always got one, but I never expected one. So, these were not aberrations. The files that I am trying to get through are thick files. It reminds me that I had someone who complained about a lack of communication on my part. I was happy to be able to say (I can use candor as well), “My file of communication to you is very thick. My file of your communication back to me is non-existent.”

If we want unity, and we do, it is really helpful for us to communicate. The burden of communication with me falls on you in terms of personal communication. You need to take the initiative if you need my attention, because there are more of you than there are of me. But I have time; I am not too busy. I really will pay attention, and if I overlook something or forget something, remind me. In the flurry of activity, it could be that I overlooked or simply did not notice; do not hesitate to check back with me.

With respect to communication, I felt that it would be helpful to my current leader to know what was going on in my location. The motive was also selfish; I felt it would be helpful to me for him to know what was going on at my location. I wanted him to know where my kids were in school, not to influence anything, but every year he knew what year of school my children were in. He knew what was going on; he knew if there was a hospital visit; he knew when I would be in Portland; he knew when I would be away from Dallas or Eureka. My leaders not only knew that, they knew why. If I was going on vacation, they knew. If I had been invited (I was never in high demand) to go somewhere for meetings, that was known. They were just aware of it. More than that, I let Brother Carver know when Brother Tim DeBusk was vacationing with Earl and Sylvia Phillips—not to disclose that he was vacationing, but so that Brother Carver would not wonder where he was on Friday night. I am not sure he would have wondered, but he may have because Brother Tim always came to Friday night Young People’s meetings. Those are the kinds of things that were simple information to be used or discarded or remembered or forgotten. It did not matter to me; my job was to communicate. There have been times that it would have been helpful, not just to me but to a pastor, had I been foretold of something that I learned later that was a bit awkward. You cannot over-communicate in that respect. With that in mind, I am mostly speaking to the pastors.

Communication Protocol

For the sake of unity, protocol for a branch church minister or a branch church congregation member in communicating with me needs to be followed. There are two steps to follow. If someone wants to talk to me about what they deem as a problem at their location, my immediate response is, “Have you communicated that to your pastor?” Do not go around your pastor to come to me, even if you think the pastor is the problem. It is not helpful to come to me and say, “My pastor has a problem.” We all have problems. What’s new? You need to articulate that to your pastor in a respectful manner; you need to say that something is frustrating you, or you are troubled by something, or he or she does not communicate so well.

First, communicate that frustration directly to your pastor. Oftentimes I don’t hear again about the matter, which is fine. It is fine if I hear again about it; that is part of the package. Second, if you still want to come to me, you communicate to your pastor that you would like to run all this past me so that when you do come and talk to me, it is not behind the pastor’s back. If he knows that you are coming; it is okay. There is no problem with your coming to me, but you should tell him or her that is what you are doing. When you speak to your pastor, it needs to be done in a respectful manner. You do not go to him and say, “You know, I do not even like you.” You say, “I am frustrated about something.” That is helpful; it is helpful in two ways. One, you let it be known that you are frustrated. Two, you let it be known to him or her that you are frustrated. Perhaps that open communication can help the matter be resolved. Most of the time, it is. No personal attacks! That is just so counterproductive; it is destructive. How do you repair that?  It can be repaired, but it takes time. It is better to just communicate in a constructive manner in the first place rather than doing it otherwise.

The Value of Communicating

The value of communicating as it relates to unity cannot be overstated. The number one complaint that comes to me about any pastor or others is that he or she does not communicate. My number one response to that complaint is, “Have you communicated that to him?” In other words, do not complain about no communication or poor communication; communicate! It rings hollow to say, “He does not communicate,” and for me to ask, “Have you communicated that?” Who is not communicating here? The pastor is not the one frustrated. Communicate it; it is helpful. Pastors cannot read minds. We need to be told. Everyone is quite busy, and it is helpful to hear it and to hear it from someone you know and someone you love and someone you know loves you. I will illustrate this.

Recently, I tried to preach on the Macedonian Call, particularly as it related to Brother George Hughes going to Nigeria—since I was to go to Nigeria shortly. I was trying to convey locally that I did not need to go out of the country or elsewhere to be inspired. I am inspired right here. I tried to communicate to our saints that there are people outside of our sphere here who are worshiping today who are calling and crying out, “Come help us.” That was the Macedonian Call. Paul wanted to go one way, but he heard a call from another way. I immediately, within an hour or two, received an e-mail from a sender who disguised him or herself. It was a reprimand to me. Ordinarily I will not even read stuff that comes my way where the identity is concealed. It is of no value. We are not like a restaurant that has a suggestion box for people to say the burgers are bad. We need to know who the complaint is coming from. Normally, I would not have read it, but this was very short to their credit. Before I could see that it was not identified, I saw that I was being reprimanded. Had I responded, I would have said, “I know that.” Moreover, that person was crying out saying, “Come help me.” The irony was not lost on me. You are crying out saying, “Help me,” but you are not telling me who you are. Furthermore, I was being asked to betray the text (I am not trying to defend myself by any means). I wished I could have helped that person.

Another example involved a complaint about someone else. It came in the mail, and it was anonymous. Again, it was short. I caught myself and stopped reading, but I could tell it was a complaint about me, the pastor. The envelope had some strange markings, and the next week another envelope came with the same markings, so I could tell it was from the same location. I had to open it in case they were repenting and apologizing. It was not signed; I did not read it. I have not heard any more from that person. Maybe they have repented and solved their own problem. The point is that we must communicate, and we cannot be afraid to identify ourselves, because it is helpful for the sake of unity.

Here is another example. A branch church congregation member came to me. They had followed the two-step process—or they said they had. They came to me, and afterward I said to go back to the pastor and tell him that we had met and covered the situation. I eventually talked to the pastor, and the pastor had been informed by the one who came to me, so there was no problem in terms of what was communicated. Protocol was followed, we talked, they talked, and we have victory. I think wounds probably continue to exist in such cases, but those heal over time, and they will.

The key is that we do have a burden to communicate whatever our feelings are. We can use candor; we must use candor. But make sure if you are going to express your frustration, that you are also one who can receive it in return. That is productive. It is destructive to withhold. You find that in married life, to not deal with a problem, is not conflict resolution; that is conflict procrastination. It exacerbates the problem and makes it worse and worse. You have to deal with it. It can be dealt with, and that is where the “endeavoring to keep the unity” comes in. That is where “forbearing one another in love” comes in. The take-away today is to not complain about a lack of communication. Instead, communicate! That applies to me and to all of us. If I am frustrated that someone does not communicate (and I am not), then I will communicate that.

Generally, I want to let it be known that I am happy to receive communication and to receive updates as to what goes on. But I still will not impose that. People are very, very busy. Nor will I think less of you if it is fairly sporadic. Some are not writers; I understand that. We talk from time to time. But, if you need help or need me to know, then I want to know. I do want to know some things that you may not care if I know. It is helpful for me to know. I can think of a few instances where decisions were made that never would have been made had I been made aware ahead of time what the scope of the situation was. The decision was made in ignorance and did not need to be.

The burden of communication falls on the one who claims no communication or poor communication. I have seen in other circumstances where the problem really was not the lack of or that it was poor. It was that what was being clearly communicated was not what the party wanted to hear. It is really not always a lack of or poor communication. Sometimes the complaint is cover-up for not appreciating or not valuing or not agreeing with the communication that is being clearly expressed. We must remember that our perspective is only one of many. The pastor has some accountability. Where there is a lot coming his way, he may not be accountable to go back and explain. I used to communicate to Brother Dwight, when I sat in the office next to his, offering perspectives. He knew, and would tell you today, because sometimes I closed with this that my attitude was, “You can take this and read it and then throw it away; I am okay with that.” My job was to communicate what I was seeing.  He could do with it what he wanted. I knew full well that others saw the same things and would likely have a different perspective. I was okay with that. I had solved my problem; now it was his problem. Throw it away; don’t take my recommendation; I did not care; it was not my problem anymore. We want to be faithful to communicate. The burden falls on the one who feels the burden for it.

I am sympathetic with the anonymous one, and I do not feel bad toward that one if I ever did find out who it was. I want to defend the one who comes with, for lack of a better word, a contrary perspective. They came frustrated and expressed their concern. We might not have found it pleasing to hear, but I give them credit for having communicated it. Though I or others may feel totally different about the situation, I am not going to hold that against them. I am going to give them credit for having the courage. It takes courage to approach a pastor; it takes courage to approach a leader, whoever it is. I recognize that right away. It is fear and trepidation; there is anxiety before one ever would come and express a frustration or a complaint. So, we do not hold it against them; we give credit and appreciate the fact that they had the boldness and the integrity and the courage to do it. Make no mistake about that. We do not hold it against them. We appreciate a variety of perspectives; it is good for us. It is good for us to be aware that someone sees something totally different than we do. We should learn from it and step back and say, “I did not consider that.” Maybe we did consider it but did not pursue it. Maybe we felt differently about it or thought we did, but now we take a second look. Our second look may be the same response as the first look, but at least we learned from it. We learned that people think differently.

The violin, the flute, and the trumpet all make different sounds, but they can produce beautiful harmony. That is where we are as a body of believers. That is where we will stop today. We know that there is a purpose. I won’t quite stop. This is like the preacher saying, “And finally,” and then saying it again ten minutes later! I started with the Bible, and I want to end with the Bible. In Ephesians 4:11 we read, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; [A variety of gifts and a variety of callings—why?] For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith.” So, it does not trouble me that we are different; it does not even trouble me that we see things differently. It does not even trouble me that you see it one way, and I see it another way. It is a blessing to be a part of and to be unified with a body of not just believers but of ministers. You have a perspective and that perspective counts.

Closing Remarks

Thanks so much for coming today. I did not thank you at the beginning but will do so now for not just expending the energy and for the time invested, but for the financial investment to forebear a day or two or three of work and to bear the expense of coming here. This is going to be a very good lunch—an expensive lunch for some of you in that regard. But you are going to enjoy it very much. So, thanks so much for coming. We will be dismissed in prayer.

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