In conjunction with our most recent print issue of Leadership Journal, an exploration of the State of the Pastorate, we asked a series of pastors a simple question: what is the current state of your pastorate? The full collection of essays will be updated throughout the week.
What’s the state of your pastorate? Let us know online through tweets, blogs, drawings, or smoke signals. Include the hashtag #mypastorate, and we’ll feature our favorites in a post next week.
The church I serve as lead pastor is the church I helped to found in 2007 with a core group of committed Christian families. Eight years later, I could reflect on achievements, mistakes, growth, challenges, joys, or disappointments. But most of the time this is what’s on my heart: the weight of ministry and the wait of ministry.
The weight of ministry
In all my time in the pastorate, the weight of pastoral ministry never lightens. I’ve trained up leaders and learned to delegate responsibilities. But the high stakes and sober responsibility of ministry are a constant pressure that leaves me in need of God’s grace.
Though I have been preaching for over 20 years and have grown in my love of and ability to preach, it remains one of the most sobering tasks God has given me.
Though I have been preaching for over 20 years and have grown in my love of and ability to preach, it remains one of the most sobering tasks God has given me. Public speaking can be scary, but preaching the Word of God is a stewardship of divine truth. It demands that the preacher to be careful and precise, while also being creative and passionate. There is always a risk of minimizing or marring the truth through my misplaced enthusiasm, agenda, or ignorance.
Because we are handling both the word of God and the people of God, James reminds us that “we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1). The responsibility is to rightly interpret and apply every passage so that those who hear are exhorted to believe who the Lord is and to heed his words. While the real work of heart change and transformation belongs to the Holy Spirit, the communication of the word is ours. It is a weight I cannot bear in my own strength, but one I must bear with the strength provided by God (Col. 1:28, 29).
And on top of that, I’m called to shepherd people. My job is not just to make decisions for the church, but to lead, serve, and disciple those under my care. I share this responsibility with our elders, since it requires that we know the people, remain accessible to them, and actively pursue their spiritual good.
It’s easy to overextend ourselves in service or neglect those in need by busying ourselves in other areas. The real weight of this is not so much the threat of busyness, but the welfare of people’s souls.
The wait of ministry
At every point along the way, I thought I’d be farther along: that more would be converted, that God would have done more. But I am called to wait.
For me, waiting is hard, especially when eternity hangs in the balance. Finances and conflict may overwhelm me, but waiting for God to act and for things to “happen” can be maddening. But waiting is necessary.
God doesn’t operate on our timeline or schedule his work according to our calendar. People take time to change. Growth of individuals and churches is generally slow. Church leaders with large platforms may tell inspiring stories of rapid growth and mass conversions, but they are the outliers. Their talks should come with a disclaimer: “Results not typical. Results may vary.”
A lesson hard learned
The weight of ministry is easily recognized, but the wait of ministry is a lesson hard learned. I can dream big, drawing up five-year plans, and still find my ministry way behind schedule—my schedule in particular.
I take great pains to teach our church planters the importance of patience in ministry. We can dream, plan, strategize, pray, labor, but we simply do not have the power to make things happen.
I am still learning. Waiting is a major aspect of my pastorate. We need more laborers and a new worship space. We preach the gospel and invest in people. We plant and water, but it is God who gives the growth.
My pastorate is characterized by joy, hard work, and a lot of fun, and the supernatural work of God. But it’s the weight and wait of ministry that I am compelled to share in the hope of encouraging others who, like me, find themselves with a calling that demands more of me than I am capable of in myself. The ministry is all I want to do, and my courage to continue is found in the God who not only calls, but also empowers, and more importantly also accomplishes what only he can do.
Joe Thorn is lead pastor of Redeemer Fellowship in St. Charles, Illinois.
