That was the title of the message pastor Ken Rollans gave to a group of pastors and wives who attended the Central Valley Fellowship (CVF) Pastor Dinner last Friday night in Porterville. Pastor Ken’s speech was the highlight of an evening that included a delicious meal, worship, and an update for next year’s events.
Pastor Ken’s sermon was an important reminder for the pastors to ask themselves about their motives in ministry. Ken mentioned some poignant passages from Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. He quoted from 1 Corinthians 1:11 where Paul wrote, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” He also mentioned 2 Corinthians 3:5, which says, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves so as to consider anything as having come from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.”
Personally, I appreciated pastor Ken’s honesty because it is easy for spiritual leaders to be distracted by all the concerns of life. We must constantly ask ourselves “Who are you following?” We need to remember that our love for the Lord must come from the source of truth, which is God’s word. We must constantly set our gaze on Christ, as it says in Hebrews 12:2, “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (English Standard Version)
This year’s dinner was hosted at Living Word Fellowship in Porterville. It was the third time, in so many years, that the church has gone out of its way to encourage pastors and wives with this special event. The couples in attendance came from many different churches in the valley. The following cities were represented at the meeting: Porterville, Visalia, Kingsburg, Dinuba, Hanford and Lemoore. Next year’s dinner will be hosted in Kingsburg and the group anticipates having more pastors from the Fresno area in attendance.
Central Valley Fellowship is affiliated with The Master’s Fellowship, which is “an association of pastors and missionaries bound together by love for the Living Word, the Master, our Lord Jesus, the church for which He died, and the bold proclamation of the exposited written word. The Fellowship’s purpose is to support the mission and leadership of the local church by connecting and networking like-minded pastors and missionaries who share core biblical convictions of doctrine and praxis.” CVF organizes several local events throughout the year, culminating in the pastors dinner in October or November.
This next year, CVF will be hosting two all valley meetings in Visalia, along with several local events in Hanford, Visalia, and Porterville. There will be two conferences that the CVF Leadership team is encouraging people to attend. The first is the For the Valley conference, which will take place at Grace Church of the Valley on April 19-20th. The second is the Iron Sharpens Iron men’s conference, which will take place at Hickman Community Church on May 3-4th. Tickets are already available for purchase for the For the Valley conference (www.ftvbc.com)
