Pastors

FROM THE EDITORS

Developing spiritual fruit requires being around people–ordinary, ornery people.

What does spiritual strength look like? Over the past few months, I’ve come across many examples.

It looks like the preacher, diagnosed with an incurable cancer, who tells his congregation, “For the last twenty years, I’ve tried to show you how a Christian lives. For the next year, or however long God gives me, my ministry is to show you how a Christian dies.”

It looks like the ministry director who notices marital stresses affecting a leadership couple, and she bravely speaks to them directly about her observations and concern, and gently offers her help and her prayers.

It looks like the pastor who weighs an invitation to a “wider ministry” but decides to remain and give full attention to the church he has come to love.

Yet it also looks like the pastor who leaves his comfortable congregation in response to inner promptings from God to build a church in a largely unchurched area.

It looks like that pastor’s family, who agree to uproot and follow him across the country because they believe it truly is God’s calling.

* * *

Where does spiritual strength come from? Theologically, we know that it comes from the Spirit, that it’s not mere human effort. We’re incapable of spiritual strength by exertion alone.

Traits such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are called the fruit of the Spirit. These are not things we do but things we become by being rooted in Christ and living in the Spirit.

What’s the greatest obstacle to spiritual strength? According to our recent survey (see “How Pastors Practice the Presence”), church leaders cite environmental factors (busyness and interruptions) a bit higher than personal factors (sin, anger, lack of discipline).

Ask about a person’s spiritual growth, you’re likely to hear, “I’d do better if I could spend more time alone.” People, their demands, and the resulting busyness are seen as impediments to spiritual strength.

While solitude, prayer, and meditation are vital, I came across one individual who offers a refreshing reminder of the place of people and their ceaseless demands.

Pachomius was an Egyptian soldier won to Christ by the kindness of Christians in Thebes. After his release from the military around A.D. 315, he was baptized. Serious about his new faith and determined to grow, Pachomius became a disciple of Palamon, an ascetic who taught him the self-denial and solitary life of a religious hermit.

In early Christianity, the model of devotion was the recluse, dedicated to resisting the corruption of society. These hermits wandered the desert alone-fasting, praying, and having visions. Many went to extremes: eating nothing but grass, living in trees, or refusing to wash.

Such was the popular image of holiness: solitude, silence, and severity. And such was Pachomius’s early spiritual training. But he began to question the methods and lifestyle of his mentors.

How can you learn to love if no one else is around?

How can you learn humility living alone?

How can you learn kindness or gentleness or goodness in isolation?

How can you learn patience unless someone puts yours to the test?

In short, he concluded, developing spiritual fruit requires being around people-ordinary, ornery people. “To save souls,” he said, “you must bring them together.”

Spiritual muscle isn’t even learned among friends we have chosen. God’s kind of love is best learned where we can’t be selective about our associates. Perhaps this is why the two institutions established by God-the family and the church-are not joined by invitation only. We have no choice about who our parents or brothers or sisters will be; yet we are expected to love them. Neither can we choose who will or will not be in the family of God; any who confess Jesus as Lord must be welcomed. We learn agape love most effectively in our involuntary associations, away from the temptation of choosing to love only the attractive.

So Pachomius began an ascetic koinonia, where holiness was developed not in isolation but in community. Instead of each person seeking God in his own way, with the dangers of idleness and eccentricity, Pachomius established a common life based on worship, work, and discipline.

In community with flawed, demanding, sometimes disagreeable people, followers of Pachomius learned to take hurt rather than give it. They discovered that disagreements and opposition provide the opportunity to redeem life situations and experience God’s grace. Thus began genuine monastic life.

Pachomius, while largely forgotten in church history, points out to us that as attractive as solitary sanctification may seem, it is life amid people, busyness, and interruptions that develop many of the qualities God requires.

* * *

Oops. In our Spring issue, we published an article by Robert Woods, “Baptism in a Coffin.” The following credit line was inadvertently omitted: Copyright 1992, The Christian Century Foundation. Reprinted by permission from the October 21, 1992 issue of The Christian Century.

-Marshall Shelley is editor of LEADERSHIP

Copyright © 1993 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Also in this issue

The Leadership Journal archives contain over 35 years of issues. These archives contain a trove of pastoral wisdom, leadership skills, and encouragement for your calling.

WRAPPING UP A LONG PASTORATE

ANIMAL INSTINCTS

PEOPLE IN PRINT

ICONS EVERY PASTOR NEEDS

WHY WON’T I PRAY WITH MY WIFE?

TIME TRACKING

REGARDING RESULTS

GOOD FENCES MAKE GOOD PASTORS

FROM THE EDITORS

KEEPING CONNECTED TO SPIRITUAL POWER

THE POWER OF COMMUNION

STORIES FOR THOSE WHO MOURN

10 Reasons Not to Resign

IDEAS THAT WORK

TESTS OF A LEADER’S CHARACTER

IDEAS THAT WORK

COMEBACK

THE LEGAL LANDSCAPE

A STRUCTURE RUNS THROUGH IT

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

MINISTERIAL BUNIONS

A GREAT PLAINS MINISTRY

CONTENDING FOR THE TRUTH...IN CHURCH PUBLICITY

FROM THE EDITORS

WHEN NOT TO CONFRONT

ZONED OUT

THE LANDMARK SERMON

WHEN TO SPEAK IN PUBLIC

The Unique Network of a Small Church

GOING TO YOUR LEFT

HOW PASTORS PRACTICE THE PRESENCE

CLOSE UP

TO VERIFY

A CLEARER CALL FOR COMMITMENT

ADDING BREADTH AND DEPTH

WHEN'S IT'S A SIN TO ASK FOR FORGIVENESS

SUCCEEDING A PATRIARCH

WEIGHING THOSE WEDDING INNOVATIONS

PASTORING STRONG-WILLED PEOPLE

Case Study: The Entrenched and Ineffective Worker

A WOUNDED PASTOR'S RESCUE

THE SLY SABOTEUR

TO VERIFY …

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW

CLASSIC CREATIVITY

THE TOP-10 “LAST WORDS IN YOUR CHURCH”

MAKING SENSE OF THE TRAUMA

Standing in the Crossfire

BENEFITS OF AN INTENTIONAL INTERIM

THE BACK PAGE

WARS YOU CAN'T WIN

UNLIKELY ALLIES

THE HIGH-TURNOVER SMALL CHURCH

Handing Your Baby to Barbarians

TO ILLUSTRATE…

PEOPLE IN PRINT

TO VERIFY…

ARE PASTORS ABUSED?

BUILDING YOUR ALL-VOLUNTEER ARMY

HEART TO HEART PREACHING

HIDDEN EFFICIENCIES OF PRAYER

IDEAS THAT WORK

WHEN YOU TAKE A PUBLIC STAND

REKINDLING VISION IN AN ESTABLISHED CHURCH

WAYS TO SHAKE OFF THE DUST

WHAT’S DRAMA DOING IN CHURCH?

THE DANGER OF DETAILS

THE BACK PAGE

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY

SQUEEZE PLAY AT HOME

A POWERFUL PRESENCE

PRACTICING THE ORIGINAL PASSION

MAKING PEACE IN A WAR ZONE

THE WELL-FED IMAGINATION

RAISING YOUR CREATIVITY QUOTIENT

LET THERE BE WIT & WISDOM, WEEKLY

TO ILLUSTRATE

THE PREVENT DEFENSE

FROM THE EDITORS

THE BACK PAGE

SAINTWATCHING

CAN YOU TEACH AN OLD CHURCH NEW TRICKS?

Spiritual Disciplines for the Undisciplined

BREAKING THE GRUMBLERS’ GRIP

WHEN YOUR CHILDREN PAY THE PRICE

THE CONCILIATION CAVALRY

DANCING WITH DEFEAT

IDEAS THAT WORK

THE TIGHTER ZONING DEFENSES

BUSTING OUT OF SERMON BLOCK

PEOPLE IN PRINT

How to Spend the Day in Prayer

REVERSING CHURCH DECLINE

THE JOY OF INEFFICIENT PRAYER

IF YOU HAVE A GRIPE, PRESS 2

CULTIVATING CLOSENESS

WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE A FOREIGNER

BAPTISM IN A COFFIN

SONGS THAT FIT THE FLOW

THE QUEST FOR CONTENTMENT

THE CUTTING-EDGE TRADITIONAL CHURCH

CAN SERVANTS SAY NO?

PEOPLE IN PRINT

THE BACK PAGE

CARING FOR THE CONFUSED

A MODEL WORSHIP SET

WIRING YOURSELF FOR LIGHTNING

A Pastor's Quarrel with God

DIAGNOSING YOUR HEART CONDITION

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