Leadership Journal

Several years ago I spent a couple of hours with a newly minted seminarian our church was thinking about hiring. We talked about why he wanted to do church ministry, about the dreams he cherished about how he might serve God. Toward the end of the conversation, he turned to me and said, "I just hope I'm able to last in the ministry as long as you have."

I was, at that time, in my mid-forties.

Sadly, we could not find a place on our staff for him.

But I have often returned to that conversation in my mind. In particular I ponder, What is it that enables a person to last (and even flourish) in church ministry?

It's not their giftedness, although effective ministry always requires alignment with spiritual gifts. It's not education, although theologically reflective leaders are sorely needed nowadays. It's not resources or connections or IQ or support systems, though all those are good things.

What makes an enduring and healthy ministry possible? It's hope.

It is an unforced, consistent conviction that somehow God is at work in the midst of our efforts, and that therefore they are not in vain. "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations" (Rom. 4:18).

We all want hope, but many of us merely wish. We are the creatures who cannot stop wishing.

My cousin Danny and I used to grab two ends of a bone in a turkey called a wishbone and break it in the belief that whoever got the longer piece would get their wish. Where that wishbone concept came from, I have no idea. The bone didn't do the turkey much good. That's not exactly hope.

Why is hope so central? Neil Clark Warren, founder of eHarmony, spent much of his earlier career counseling and studying married couples. He said once that his primary goal in counseling was to help even deeply troubled couples get as little as 10 percent improvement. Because, he said, once people see improvement, they gain hope. And hope is the indispensable fuel for all human action.

When hope dies, motivation dies. There is no longer any reason to try anything. But once hope enters a marriage—or a church—anything is possible.

As a pastor, I can delegate a lot of ministry tasks. Other people can monitor finances or help run programs far better than I can. But one item I cannot delegate is hope. People need to know if the leader possesses what Gordon MacDonald has called "vital optimism," which is not some "don't worry, be happy" attitude, but a deep sense that with God we will prevail. And that's something I cannot delegate.

I've had to learn how to monitor some hope indicators to give me a kind of early detection system so I know when hope begins to run low. One indicator is how I face the morning. Clinical researchers say that mornings are generally the times when anxiety and depression are most likely to run the strongest. There is a reason why the Scriptures say God's mercies are "new every morning." When I find myself waking up feeling overwhelmed by the tasks to be done during the day, I know hope is running low.

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