"Humble" Cars

Just to start off, I am against the Catholic Church. I believe that it's doctrines are not founded on Scripture, I believe that they hold tradition above their respect for God's Word, I believe that the Catholic Church is evil. But I cannot say that there are some small things that I agree with Catholics about. For instance, the Catholic stance on abortion has always been very strong. This is an area where I agree with Catholics. The Catholics have a new pope, Pope Francis. I believe he is unsaved, I know he is the leader of the greatest false religion in the world, but I am very impressed by his sincerity. I truly wish that preachers in my circles had the same sincerity that Pope Francis has. Yesterday I saw an article that I would like to share with you: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/07/08/pope-francis-priests--nuns-should-drive-humble-cars_n_3560058.html?utm_hp_ref=uk
I applaud the Pope for saying this. I think so often those of us in the ministry lose our focus. We have all seen the preachers who drive a brand new Rolls Royce, wear the brand new, super expensive tux to church, and building themselves beautiful, ornate offices simply to stroke their ego's. These things ought not so to be. Ministry is all about people. My purpose in the ministry is to snatch as many people out of the fires of Hell as I possibly can. Unfortunately, when preachers lose their focus they isolate themselves from the people they are trying to reach. Here is a thought, a preacher's standard of living should never be much higher than the people in his congregation. He needs to be able to relate to his people in this way. I once heard of an evangelist who made fun of people who shop at Walmart; who doesn't shop at Walmart?!? This evangelist effectively isolated himself from his audience in one simple sentence that he probably said for a cheap laugh. On the flip side, I do not think a pastor's standard of living should be grossly lower than that of his congregation.
What does it all come down to? Humility. God has not called me into the ministry to lord it over my congregation. The ministry is not a "get rich quick" scheme. The ministry isn't about how many Bibles I can sign in my lifetime or how many people can say that I'm there favorite preacher. The ministry is first about JESUS and secondly about OTHERS. Let us not forget that.
If you are in the ministry, please take a second, right now, to evaluate why you do what you do. So many of us have become so irrelevant to our people, and it's not because God's Word is irrelevant; it is because we have made ourselves irrelevant by our lifestyle.