Category: Pastoral Ministry (Page 5 of 7)

What Have I Got to Show for All This?

March 19, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

The other day a man—a younger man—observed to me in conversation that I am now in my “legacy years.” Read that, if you will, as: “You’re in that stage of life where you’ve really achieved pretty much all you’re going to achieve and now it’s just about deciding how you want to exit the stage.”

Hmph. Well, thank you very much!

But there is some truth in what he says. In a mere fifteen years, should the Lord grant me that long, I’ll be 70 years old.

Not sure how that happened, but here I am. I feel great. I am in good health, thank the Lord. I dream dreams, have plans and have vision of what God will yet do. I’m not in the grave or the nursing home yet.

But still …

Earlier that same day in my personal devotions I happened to be studying Philippians 2:16: “… so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”

While studying I stumbled upon this statement by a commentator from the late 1800’s: “As the Apostle advanced in years the final result of his labours would have increasing prominence in his thoughts” (H.A.A. Kennedy).

Hmmm … even the great Apostle, the longer he lived, thought more and more about what his life and labors had amounted to. What would he have to show for it all at the throne?

That says several things to me as I think about this whole “legacy” thing.

First, I note that Paul wasn’t looking back as much as he was looking forward—to the great assize at God’s throne when each will give account for what has come of the grace of God extended into their lives. Legacy is not about nostalgia. It is about accounting for grace received. On that day, what will I have to show my Savior for all He has done for and given to me?

Second, “legacy” is not about what I’ve done (and certainly not about what I’ve accumulated), but about people, about lives changed by the grace of God that have flowed through my life. To whom will I be able to point on that Day?

Third, while it is a natural thing to think about “legacy” as we grow older, it is more than that. It is a supernatural thing. As a believer it is right for me to look for signs that God has produced something through my life.

Fourth, Paul’s words approve our desire to “see” at least some measure of the fruit God bears through our lives. I agree with whoever it was that said God lets you see just enough of what He is doing through you to give you hope to carry on, but not enough to make you think you could do it without Him. For His own sovereign purposes God may send seasons when He obscures almost totally what He is producing through us. But it is permissible, even appropriate to ask God to give you some glimpse that you are on the right track and bearing fruit for Him.

So I put that together and realize that what I want to be true on that great Day had better be true of this very day. What will matter in eternity had better become all important in the moments and minutes of my life here.

People matter, relationships must be a priority. Grace and truth must be the dominant quality of those relationships. The Holy Spirit at work through me and into the individual before me at any given moment is the big thing. And being able to at least “see” something of what He is doing—this gives me hope and sustains me as I anticipate that Day in which I will stand before God’s throne and review with Him what I’ve got to show for all His mercy to me.

God is not through with any one of us. No matter your chronological age these are still the days of “far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20-21). It is for that very reason that we ought regularly to sneak a peek at the approaching Day, look to the throne, and prayerfully consider what we’re going to have to show for all this.

Preaching Exahustively

November 26, 2014 / admin

“Walter Wilson, a medical doctor and pastor/teacher in Kansas City, worked hard and wrote much to help preachers on this subject. In a series of lectures that he delivered in Chicago many years ago, he astonished the group by stating that one hour of abandoned preaching was equal to eight hours at the executive desk and twelve to fourteen hours of manual labor. As a doctor he sustained these statistics with tests that he conducted on preachers of all ages and sizes. His text for that series of lectures was taken from those words in the Gospels, where Jesus declared, ‘I perceive that virtue has gone out of me‘ (Luke 8:46, KJV, emphasis ours).” (Stephen F. Olford, Anointed Expository Preaching, p.56)

It was Him I wanted!

February 17, 2014 / admin

“Now that my hindsight is 20/20 I can honestly admit that I was never a very good pastor. Perhaps I didn’t want to be one all that much. It was him I wanted, this exalted Christ, this perfect end of all my imperfections. This gentle Jesus was my quest.” –Calvin Miller (Life is Mostly Edges, p.228)

Grace and Pastoral Ministry

July 18, 2013 / admin

“I would not say I [as a pastor] know more of grace than other Christians, but I think it is safe to say that I know more of grace than I would have if I had not been a pastor.” (Lee Eclov, Pastoral Graces, p.161)

Ministry Despair

July 15, 2013 / admin

“Remember me, O my God, concerning this … Remember this also in my favor, O my God … Remember me, O my God, for good.” (Nehemiah 13:14, 22, 31)

God powerfully used Nehemiah to bring a revival of His purposes among the exiles who returned to Jerusalem (Neh. 1-11). As we come to the close of Nehemiah’s book and the report of his life and ministry he appears to be more and more concerned with how all of this will be regarded by God. Will he be found to have pleased God? What will be the divine verdict upon his life, labors and service? Clearly he had reason to be frustrated with the human outcome of it all — the people had lapsed badly back into sin during his return to Persia (Neh. 13:6). Spiritual lethargy and compromise filled the void. Disobedience flourished. Clearly Nehemiah’s responses were extreme and dramatic (13:8, 15, 17, 25). He seems to have truly been wrestling with the question: Was it all for naught?

We are all given to times of such doubt and wondering. We need to hear God’s word again: “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9)

To that end consider these quotes from godly leaders who understand the stresses of ministry and an approaching finish line.

“For a Christian worker there are few more fruitful causes of discouragement and loss of heart than the lack of visible evidence of success. We give ourselves to our task without stint or reservation. We pray and work and sometimes weep, and yet the harvest tarries, and we tend to collapse. Our wily adversary plays his cards shrewdly at such times, and often we fail to detect his strategy and we fall into his snare.” (J. Oswald Sanders, Enjoying Intimacy With God, p.135)

“. . . you can mark it down that if you are a preacher God will hide from you much of the fruit he causes in your ministry. You will see enough to be assured of his blessing, but not so much as to think you could live without it.” (John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching, p.19)

“Knowing how susceptible we are to success’s siren call, God does not allow us to see, and therefore glory in, what is done through us. The very nature of the obedience He demands is that it be given without regard to circumstances or results.” (Charles Colson, Loving God, p.33)

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” (Henry Brooks Adams)

“Abram never eventually knew the greatness of his name. . . . Abram never saw the extent of what God was about to do with the man who was prepared to go where God sent.” (Alistar Begg, radio broadcast)

Puritan pastor Richard Greenham, after 21 years of ministry in the community of Dry Drayton left in frustration, hoping for more fruitful ministry in London. He said to the man who would follow him, “God bless you, and send you more fruit on your labors then I have had, for I perceive no good wrought by [my] ministry on any but one family.” “Samuel Clarke reports that Greenham left because of ‘the untractableness and unteachableness of that people among whom he had taken such exceeding great pains.’ History has shown, however, that though Greenham was discouraged by the lack of fruit on his ministry in Dry Drayton and no doubt hoped that he would be more useful in London, his Dry Drayton ministry was far more successful than he made it out to be.” (Joel R. Beeke and Randall J. Pederson, Meet the Puritans, p.292)

Heavenly Father, you have called me to preach. Enable me to do so with all my heart. Give me grace to trust you to care for the magnitude of the impact and the breadth of the influence. My name does not matter, only yours does. You can glorify your Name without my ministry. But I delight that you have called me and given me the privilege of studying, obeying, and teaching your Word. I ask that you make the impact great and glorious to your renown. But I leave the knowing of any of that impact to you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.