Page 11 - Preacher of Righteousness Magazine | Mark Barclay Ministries

Vickie and I decided many
years ago that no matter how
God chose to use us, we would just be
“us.”We made a commitment to each other that even if the Lord
gave us favor and we became famous and rich, we would not let
that change us.
It’s hard to believe that thirty-five years of full- time ministry have come and gone. I regret not a moment of it. Even in the toughest battles I was always grateful for the call. To preach this gospel is the greatest call of life. I have lived by my saying, “The worst day in the ministry is still better than the best day, out serving the world.”
I remember the day, working on the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base as a weapons instructor, when the Lord Jesus spoke to me,“If you will leave your position in the United States Marines, I will make you a general in My army.” I didn’t even hesitate. I never foresaw that I would have a global ministry. Though I was drawn to missions in the early years, I didn’t realize that I would set my feet on so many different countries or preach with translators for so many different languages.
When the Lord told me to go on television, I froze. I just couldn’t see myself doing that. Only God could take a boy from a small poverty-stricken village of the north and give him a national telecast and some of the finest equipment in the industry.
I still remember the first little book I wrote. It was called Go for It! It was a simple teaching about walking by faith. Next came my best-selling book, How to Relate to Your Pastor, and then Sheep, Goats, and Wolves. Since that time, as a prolific author and an expert on authority, church government, and
the ministry of helps, I established Mark Barclay Publications, producing the Preacher of Righteousness magazine, countless curricula, study guides, and DVD and CD series and out of which I have published the Mark T. Barclay Special Edition Bible and over 35 books.
One of the greatest things I have ever done for the body of Christ was to write the curriculum for SMTI. Supernatural Ministries Training Institute is a three- year video school. I am the only teacher. It is now known as the number one helps school in the nation—maybe in the world. It not only trains and equips helps people, but it prepares believers to become future preachers and teachers.
I have always felt led to go. I have been on the move all of my life. Now I travel extensively. I speak somewhere almost every night of the week. I never dreamed I would need an airplane, but since the first one in 1982 I have been wearing them out for Jesus. We are now so blessed to fly a fast-track jet, which enables us to reach up to three cities a day, strengthening pastors and building the churches.
I wasn’t totally sure about all the details when God told me to stand alongside pastors and stay in the churches. I didn’t realize I would actually pastor hundreds of pastors and become a spiritual father to thousands of them.
Just before the turn of the century, the Lord used the prophetic anointing on my life to stabilize a multitude of pastors and their people. I ended up starting a network for preachers called the Righteous Preachers’ Network. It has grown considerably every year, though we seldom advertise.
In my attempt to help preachers everywhere, I was led to start a program called Straight Talk. Straight Talk for Ministers is a two-part program—quarterly online audio messages, and Live Straight Talk for Ministers, where a few times a year I host small, intimate two-day meetings with ministers, during which Vickie and I answer questions and talk about ministry things together.
Straight Talk for Churches is a DVD program, providing an opportunity for pastors to show a short video to their church family, through which I can address them with some of the pertinent issues like church attendance, tithing, how to take care of their pastor, and how to help build the local church.
In the late 1980s, I was preaching in Paraguay when the Lord told me to go home to my own country because America was soon entering into the greatest attack she had known for many years. It would affect everything, the Lord said. I didn’t understand then what He meant, but now I have
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