For many pastors, the road to longevity in ministry is often the “road less traveled,” as many are unable to endure the test of time or withstand struggles along the way.
Mike Ward understands firsthand. That’s why with 36 years’ experience in church engagement, and having served as a pastor in five churches in three states, he has started on a new journey focusing on “an intentional ministry of hope to every pastor, preacher and man.”
Ward started Hope Road Ministry as a way to encourage pastors to stay the course and to build them up.
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“I’ve been victorious on the mountaintop and also been spiritually exhausted in the valley,” Ward acknowledged. “I’ve walked through failures and victories. I’ve experienced the work of repentance as well as the work of restoration. God has called me to encourage the man of God.”
Ward, a member of West Point Baptist Church Cullman, said Hope Road’s goal is two-fold.
“First, to encourage the pastor or preacher to stay the course and help build them up,” Ward explained, “and secondly, for those who have made a wrong turn in their Christian life or ministry, to let them know that we are here to help them get back on the right road, the road filled with hope to witness victory and restoration in Jesus.”
‘Here I am, send me’
Ward grew up in a Christ-centered home in Cullman, where his father was a deacon and his mother was a leader at White Grove Baptist Church.
“I came to saving faith when I was 18 years old,” Ward recalled. “God dealt with me late one night. He convicted me of my sin and lostness. God allowed me to see that if He were to come back for His church, as He has promised, then being lost, I wouldn’t be one of those that would be called away in the rapture.”
After making a profession of faith, Ward said he wrestled with a call to preach.
“I had an Isaiah 6, ‘Here am I, send me,’ desire toward God, but I sure wasn’t asking to preach behind a pulpit.
“A few months later in a Sunday morning service, I couldn’t run any longer from His call. … My pastor turned me around to the congregation and to my amazement said, ‘Brother Mike has accepted the call to preach the gospel, and he will be preaching his first sermon next Sunday.’”
Ward said he was shocked as he accepted the invitation to preach his first sermon; but he was even more surprised by what followed.
“I preached that following Sunday and a young lady was saved, people came to Jesus and the altars were full,” Ward remembered. “I knew God was allowing me to know that He would use me if I would let Him. I stayed busy preaching every Sunday somewhere, as well as preaching in several revivals. When I was 22 years old, I began to pastor.”
Over the next 16 years he served churches in Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama.
“I went through a struggle in my last pastorate,” Ward acknowledged. “God had blessed our church … but I was spiritually spent.”
He and his wife had a new baby, and he began to dabble in the business world to help financially. He also preached 15–20 revivals a year, but “learned the hard way that just because you’re busy, doesn’t mean you’re in the center of God’s will. … I found myself, as too many preachers do, studying my Bible for ‘something to preach to my congregation’ instead of studying my Bible so that Jesus and the Holy Spirit could preach to me, and that is dangerous.”
Admitting mistakes
Ward admitted his mistakes in his desire to prevent other pastors from making the same ones.
“You cannot live a spiritual life without spiritual disciplines — never,” Ward declared. “Much prayer, fasting and time in the Word is the source of every preacher’s anointing. Trying to do spiritual things in the flesh will never work.
“I had made a promise that I would never become a reproach to a church or a community, so instead of staying where I was and with the people I loved at my church, and fighting the battle against temptation, I just quit. I left my church and lost my marriage.
“The Bible says in Matthew 16:26 that when a man will try to gain the world, he will lose his soul, and it is so true. I never lost my soul, but I lost everything else. I would still attend churches, but I was not doing what God had called me to do, which was preach the gospel.”
He noted, “Guilt and shame that’s not dealt with will wreck a man’s life and the lives of those around him. I thought God could never use me again.”
Wade said he experienced hardship, “but God would never leave me alone, and my mother kept on praying.”
Changed path and perspective
Then God changed his path and perspective.
“I remember the night God got my attention like it was yesterday,” Ward said. “[I was] so broken. I got down on my knees … and I said, ‘God, I’m tired of running, tired of living life this way. I need a word from you, and I don’t know where to start.’”
In that desperate moment, Ward said he voiced a prayer of hope and restoration not only for his own life, but for the lives of other men in pastoral ministry.
“Even though Job and I had lived two different ways through our temptation and trial, God still used that word to speak to me,” Ward recalled. “I sensed the Holy Spirit speak to me: ‘If you will say yes, then I will bless the latter end of your life more than I ever did your beginning.’
“Even though there were still some ups and downs, God began allowing me to realize that He wanted to use me as an evangelist and share a message of prayer, hope and restoration. …God then placed a deeper desire inside of me to intentionally minister to pastors and men.
“I want to be able to say, ‘Don’t go this way, the bridge is out at the bottom of the road you are on. Be careful with what you are dealing with.’ I have a compelling desire to encourage the man of God, so he doesn’t have to experience life on the broken road I traveled.”
Calling & closing
Ward referred to Southern Baptists’ emphasis on “calling out the called,” but added “we need to close the back door as well and keep the preachers that are already called. The statistics tell us that only 50% of those who are called to preach will still be preaching after five years.
“An alarming number is that 86% of pastors’ wives say the ministry has had a negative effect on their family. We have to help.”
From those troubling statistics and his own experiences, Ward knows the importance of intervention and prevention.
“The pastor has so many hats to wear and so many different prayers to pray that he’s stretched thin,” Ward explained. “Without oil a car engine will die. Without the oil of the Spirit, the spiritual engine can only go so far as well. I believe the ‘check engine light’ on the dash is on in the life of many pastors, and I want to help.
“A year and a half ago God made it clear that I was supposed to walk away from the business world … and totally commit my life 24 hours a day, seven days a week to this ministry of encouragement to pastors and churches.”
For Ward, the response has been an answer to prayer.
“When I walked away from my job I had no bookings on my calendar to preach, speak or present the ministry,” he said. “But the call was too strong to stay where I was. All I knew to do was trust the Lord and that He would provide.”
He found a senior living facility in Decatur that allowed him to preach. “Over the next five months God would fill my calendar with over 34 preaching engagements and revival services in churches throughout Alabama and Mississippi,” he noted.
“I would head out in the morning and drive around from church to church, knocking on doors and walking through the ones that were open.”
One week Ward stopped by 34 churches, inviting pastors to an “encouragement and appreciation dinner.”
Ward said his favorite part of Hope Road Ministries is spending time fellowshipping with and encouraging men of God.
“Sharing the gift of encouragement is the most amazing blessing — hearing the success stories and God stories of what He did through the ministry events and moments,” Ward said. “In a close second would be preaching the glorious Gospel of Christ and offering a message of hope and encouragement from a pulpit. I want pastors to have the opportunity to feel like and know they are personally and genuinely cared for.”
For the pastor
Hope Road Ministries offers a variety of resources and programs.
“However, there is no manual on this ministry of encouragement to pastors; it is ever-evolving as the Holy Spirit leads,” Ward acknowledged.
Every Monday at 7 a.m. he sends out an email with a note of encouragement to hundreds of pastors across the United States, Guatemala, the Philippines and Africa. New pastors are added to the list on a weekly basis.
“There is an old saying that almost every pastor either quits or considers resigning on Monday morning, because of something that went wrong or didn’t go right on Sunday,” Ward said. “Many pastors will respond back to me throughout the day on Monday about how the message helped them.”
Ward hosts an encouragement and appreciation dinner for pastors, in addition to one for pastors and their wives.
“The entire event is bathed in prayer weeks ahead of time,” he said. “Every message preached is about encouragement, and at the end, we will all come together with our arms around each other and pray that God would answer a prayer that would change their ministry, marriage and family for the glory of God, as well as continue to strengthen each pastor and his wife.”
Through Hope Road, Ward also hosts a pastor breakfast similar to the encouragement dinner, and is available for one-on-one meetings.
“I have seen pastors encouraged over a cup of coffee and a prayer,” he said. “I’ve also seen fallen pastors escape thoughts of suicide. Most don’t know that the statistic show that 40% struggle with low self-esteem, and one out of 10 pastors have had thoughts of suicide.”
Ward looks forward to providing a Weekend Encouragement Retreat in March.
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