Breaking a ‘Lone-Ranger’ Spirit in your Ministry
By Eddie Turner

Serving as Lead Pastor at Family Worship Center in Murfreesboro, TN since March of 2010, Pastor Eddie Turner brings a wealth of experience to the FWC Pastoral Team. A 1980 graduate of Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, Pastor Eddie has 30 plus years of ministry experience including Lead Pastor in Algood, Tennessee for twenty years and Overseer of 215 churches and 600 ministers for the Tennessee District Assemblies of God for five years. Pastor Eddie is known as a man of prayer and has a passion for Church Growth and Community Outreach. His love for the Word of God shows as he teaches the Word with clarity and knowledge. Pastor Eddie married his high school sweetheart, Amanda, in 1980 and they have two children, Tyler and Cayce.

When my wife Amanda and I accepted the assignment to pastor a handful of saints in a sleepy little town of 2,000 people, it never dawned on us that one day we would have more people in our church than residents in the community. But it happened. Over the years, the river flowed, the fire fell, the wind blew, and the results were remarkable.

I pastored the largest church in our county, and there was a time when I thought very highly of myself because of that fact. I had an excellent staff and a leadership team of motivated leaders, so over time it was easy to effectively insulate myself from the things I didn’t want to do. I was having fun pastoring and relishing the growth my church was experiencing. However, all of my attitudes about success in ministry changed one day when a Baptist pastor from across town showed up to see me.

This pastor and I had been casual friends, as well as peers in ministry. I would visit with him briefly at citywide ministerial functions, which I reluctantly attended because I was always busy and felt those events were a waste of time. This man’s son was the same age as my son, so we also crossed paths on the baseball diamond and the basketball court. My friend’s church was growing, but he still had less membership than I had – and I carried those comparative statistics as a badge of spiritually superiority.

As this Baptist pastor seated himself across from me at my desk and we exchanged greetings, God used the next few words this man spoke to change my entire perception of ministry in a local community.

“Pastor Eddie,” the man began, “I want to ask you and your congregation to join our church in conducting a citywide service.”

I knew I needed to appear interested, so I feigned patience as I listened to him explain his vision. However, in all honesty, I didn’t want to get involved with his project. Our schedule of speakers and programs was full. We didn’t need this type of “interruption” that I thought would only take time, energy, and resources from our agenda.

I politely responded, “Our church calendar is already full, but I’ll check it anyway. When were you thinking about having this service?”

He replied, “As I was praying, the Lord impressed me to do it during Easter.”

Immediately I thought I might actually be able to accommodate my minister friend. Our Easter musical was scheduled to take place a couple of weeks before Easter Sunday, and we traditionally canceled our Sunday evening service after that afternoon’s performance.

“Okay, what Sunday did you have in mind?” I questioned hopefully.

“Pastor Eddie, I believe the Lord wants us to do it on Easter Sunday morning.”

I sat in stunned silence, thinking, What has this guy been drinking?  Easter Sunday morning is a banner day in the Bible Belt. Easter Sunday’s service is our most attended service of the year. Saints, sinners, SMO’s (“Sunday Mornings Only”), the lukewarm, and even the heathen know you’re supposed to attend church on Easter!

Besides all that, I had recently read a vivid description of the Crucifixion by Max Lucado in his book Six Hours One Friday, and I was memorizing parts of it in order to wax eloquent in my pulpit on the big Sunday. I had it all planned out – it was going to be a homerun sermon, with the altars brimming over with people who had rushed forward to repent and return to the Lord.

I arrogantly said to my minister friend, “Pastors are not going to cancel their Easter Sunday morning service to hold a crusade! Why would you want to do this?”

What this precious pastor said next completely revolutionized my thinking, and my ministry. Very humbly, he answered me, “The Lord told me to give Him our best.”

Give Him our best. As I heard the words, I sat speechless – long enough to hear what sounded like an audible voice, yet I knew it was the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit. The Lord said to me, “You know how to be a leader; you need to learn how to be a follower.”

Hurriedly and under much conviction, I escorted that Baptist pastor out of my office!  I told him I would have to pray about what he had presented and that I would get back to him with my answer.

A Spiritual Journey – Go Higher by Going Lower

Over the next few days, the Lord began breaking down my prideful, arrogant, “lone – ranger” attitude. Although it was a brief spiritual journey, the work God did in my heart directed me toward a new season of ministry filled with excitement and fulfillment – a season I am still enjoying today.

The truths I learned, which I will share with you, are things you probably already know – things you are perhaps already practicing. However, I hope you will allow them to sink deeply into your heart. I had always known these truths in my head. But until my encounter with a fellow minister who truly wanted to give God his best, all that information was only mental assent, not revelation knowledge in my heart.

Truth #1
I am not the only God-called laborer in my harvest field.

It slips up on us so subtly. I’m talking about the attitude that we are more spiritual and creative than others and that God must go through us to reach our community. We wouldn’t admit it, yet our actions reveal when we have fallen prey to such deception. Even the prophet Elijah struggled with this temptation. He said, “I, even I only, am left” (1 Kings 19:10). Jesus’ disciples also succumbed to pride’s deceptive lure. They said to Jesus, “…Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us” (Mark 9:38 NKJV).

I had definitely been caught up in a web of spiritual pride that blinded me to God’s intention for ministry among fellow laborers. I’d cloaked my lack of participation in ministerial meetings behind the excuse of a busy schedule. I’d blamed my isolation from others on the anointing upon my life that I needed to protect. Yet in reality, I was a “lone ranger,” assuming I didn’t’ need anyone else in ministry.

Truth #2
The harvest is more important than “my” ministry

It’s not by accident or coincidence that the Church is often referred to in Scripture as a body with its various contributing parts. With his dissertation in the books of Romans and First Corinthians, the apostle Paul is empathic about our inabilities to function properly without one another. He goes on to say in Ephesians 4:16 that it is the Body joined together that causes the Body to increase.

Although I pastored the largest church in the county, there were countless numbers of people who didn’t know Christ or who weren’t connected to a local church – no, not even mine. When we were a small church, some people said we were too small, and when we became a large church, others said we were too large. Although I tried, I couldn’t be all things to all people.

I finally concluded that some people were simply not going to receive from my ministry, but God could reach them through someone else. I also learned that if I really loved the harvest and the people as the Lord did, I had to change my attitude. It could no longer be about my ministry, my church, and my anointing. I had to transition toward becoming Kingdom-minded.

Truth #3
When I embraced the harvest, my ministry expanded.

Following a few days of prayer and dying to self, I called my Baptist pastor friend and told him that our church would cancel our Easter Sunday services and join them for a citywide service.

We held the service together, and thousands attended. The impact reached beyond our county borders into other cities and counties. The Body of Christ in our community experienced a new sense of unity. New relationships and friendships were forged among the clergy, and walls of separation came down as insecurities and jealousies were laid at the foot of the Cross. From that joint service, monthly ministerial prayer meetings were birthed, and my personal ministry and influence expanded in the community.

In summary, now I am on a new journey – not to build my own ministry or kingdom but to see how many churches and ministers I can partner with and bless. I enjoyed my past successes, but this business of ministry had taken on a whole new level of fun and excitement for me. And it all began when ministry stopped being about me and my accomplishments and started being about Jesus and the harvest!