Skip to main content

A Letter Of Encouragement To My Fellow Pastors

Image
By
The following is a meditation from Pastor Kevin that he sent to the other Elders of Glory of Christ. We thought it was so insightful and encouraging that we wanted to post it here. May the Lord bless you as you carefully consider his words. 


Let me encourage you this morning as I have spent some time praying for you and our church. I want to connect two points that God has impressed upon me within the last 18 hours. One insight from Tim Keller and one from 1 Peter 5:1-4.

Tim Keller was talking on the gospel and idolatry. In a nutshell, he claimed most people are not successful (achieving what we think would make them happy and give them a sense of justification) and they live under the illusion that someday they might achieve it. This gives a shred of hope to keep on going but ultimately, success eludes almost everyone.

This morning I was meditating on 1 Peter 5:1-4. "So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory."

To make a long story short, I gave some time to meditating on the reality that the chief Shepherd will be appearing and how this provides the true motivation for joyful and faithful pastoring. It also protects pastors (and all Christians) from the perceived failure of not succeeding. Brothers, when our Savior returns let it not be lost on us that he will be returning as a pastor...the chief Shepherd! What struck me was the fact that we will share this in common with Jesus, both an amazing privilege and weighty responsibility. 

This insight today stands out as wonderfully freeing. When I am driven by the notion of "success" I quickly get discouraged, weary, hopeless, and angry, to name a few. I too often see the setbacks of pastoral ministry as an obstacle that annoyingly impedes my fulfillment of success. 

On the other hand, when I come to grips with the common ground that I share with my Savior and that I somehow share in his shepherding identity, the way I perceive my role as a pastor and the nature of church ministry drastically changes. Suddenly, the setbacks and difficulties are not so personal and the world's definition of success weighs very lightly. I am convicted by the reality of Christ's appearing and compelled to define my role and fulfillment of it on his terms. 


Brothers, why does it weigh so lightly on me (on us) that we are seeking to be Christ-like Shepherds? Scripture gives us no instruction on how many people we should be shepherding...it does say a lot on how Christ-like character must define our role and form the only credible grid for self-assessment. With this we are free. Come what may, let it be said that we were driven by the appearing of the chief Shepherd and not some concoction of "success." If this be the case, then we have full license to continue on in faithfulness, being fully confident that no matter what lies in store for us in the future, we will look back with no regrets.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Secret of all Failure is our Failure in Secret Prayer

By
“We may be assured of this—the secret of all failure is our failure in secret prayer” (12). So writes the anonymous author of the classic little book on prayer entitled, The Kneeling Christian (Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids: 1971). He means that the reason we so often fall into sin or live in discouragement or fail to bear fruit is because we do not cling to God in Christ above all things. We do not diligently seek him or lean on him or plead with him or draw on his strength. We give ourselves to busyness over communion with God and in this way we seek to accomplish in our flesh what can only be accomplished in the power of the Spirit.  Giving first place to what our dear author calls “secret prayer” is indeed a key to the Spirit-filled life but let’s be clear: prayer is not magic, rather, it’s a relationship. It’s not as if we simply have to file requests with God, being careful to use just the right words so that we can get him to respond as we wish. God is not a vending m
Post a Comment
Read more

Deacons - How They Serve and Strengthen the Church (Part 1)

By
  One of the next important priorities for GCF is to establish deacons in the life of the church. On March 14, 2021 we were able to establish an elder team. Currently, we have a team of four elders overseeing the congregation of GCF.  However, there is more work to be done. I have come to see that establishing an elder team was the bare minimum that needed to happen for GCF to survive. I believe GCF now needs to turn our attention to raising up a team of qualified and willing deacons to serve the congregation so that it will not only survive but thrive.   I would like to begin a series of blogs on deacons to help us understand who they are and what they do in the life of the church.  In this blog let me provide three reasons why I think deacons should be near our top priority.  Number 1: It is Biblical. Paul instructs Timothy to install elders who will help him pastor the church. For whatever reason, it seems the churches in our circles treat the installment of elders as non-negotiable
Post a Comment
Read more

Does the Doctrine Divide? by Patience Griswold

By Anonymous
“Oh, I try not to talk about doctrine. It’s so divisive.” This is a sentiment that I’ve heard expressed, as well as implied, on many occasions, and one that raises the question, does doctrine divide? In answering this question, we must keep in mind a very important truth and that is that everyone holds to some sort of doctrine . “Doctrine” is defined as “a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church, political party, or other group.” Regardless of whether or not someone publicly holds to a statement of beliefs from a particular church, every Christian, by definition, holds to a particular set of beliefs. As Carl Trueman observes in his book The Creedal Imperative ,       [W]hile Christianity cannot be reduced to doctrine, to mere teaching, it cannot be meaningfully separated from it, either. Even the most basic claims, such as “Jesus is Lord,” carry clear doctrinal content that needs to be explicated in a world where, as we have noted before, every heretic has his text and n
Post a Comment
Read more