Pastor's Circle - Sam Shaw

Sam Shaw is the lead pastor of The Orchard Fellowship, located in Memphis, TN. He joined the Pastor's Circle to discuss the book of Jonah. Here are the "CliffsNotes" of his segment.

In your study of this book, what did you find to be the main emphases?

I think I could sum up the entire thing. As I finished it and thought back, it's about how God saves the saved.

God's problem wasn't Nineveh, it was Jonah.

Why was Jonah reticent to go to Nineveh?

Jonah hated the Ninevites; they were corrupt; they were the enemies of his people.

Knowing God's nature, Jonah was afraid that God would hear their prayers and send him, and he absolutely did not want that to happen.

Why are we reticent to evangelize today?

I think today we're fearful. We're fearful of what people will think of us, we won't get it right.

We're afraid of stepping out of our comfort zone.

I think the basic word in the Christian life is not "stop." We hear that a lot. But the basic word in Christianity is "go."

It gives me a lot of hope; if God could use Jonah, he can use me.

God is always working behind the scenes to prepare people's hearts to hear the message.

When we get the nudge in our hearts to say something about the gospel, we can assume that God has been doing work behind the scenes.

What about the last chapter, where Jonah loses patience with God?

If nothing more, it's about the fact that God is patient when we are not.

God makes a plant to give Jonah comfort, but then He sends a worm to eat it down.

I think it shows that we are concerned about different things than God. At the end of the book, Jonah is concerned with his own comfort, but God is concerned about fifty thousand people.