Charles Stanley died today. He had been pastoring for over 50 years and had an amazing ministry. He spent most of his ministry years at 1st Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. He had a huge impact on my life and is a key reason why I am still in ministry. The first thirteen years I pastored at Jefferson Baptist Church were very hard years in that I kept doing and saying dumb things resulting in conflict and disunity in the church. Somewhere in the early 80’s things were at their worst. The annual State meetings for our denomination were scheduled to be held at 1st Baptist Church in Salem, Oregon and Dr. Charles Stanley was the featured speaker for the meetings. I don’t remember what he spoke on the first night but I do remember that I was in a major emotional turmoil when he finished. Not positive emotions, I was super convicted about my pastoring methods, attitude, and motives by what he preached. The next day he spoke several more times and again I felt like I was the only person in the room. It was our annual meetings and much of the audience were pastors so he was preaching right to us, and he wasn’t trying to win any popularity awards with his audience. I had never felt so beat up by a speaker in my life. One of his messages was entitled “Don’t Bad Mouth the Sheep.” That isn’t the exact title but that was the message and it came through to my heart like a jackhammer. One of the lines I wrote down during one of his sermons was, “It is easy to blame all the problems in your church on the people you are pastoring. Only weak, irresponsible leaders do that. It makes you feel better but nothing will change in your church if you insist on ducking leadership responsibility by continuing that chicken-hearted way of leading. You are the shepherd, every problem is your problem, own it and God will change you and use you to do great things for Him.” I wrote a personal commitment on a 3×5 card from that sermon and I read it every day for over a year. “I am the pastor of JBC and every problem that pops up in the church is my problem, no one else’s, I will own it and I will fix it, and I am trusting the Lord to give me the strength, the humility, and the wisdom to do just that.”