This text is a part of the Dear Pastor collection.
Two Methods to Examine
There are two sorts of comparisons.
One, you may say how good one thing is by saying how unhealthy one thing else is. I’ve no stake in any debates over sports activities or the groups that play them. So, relaxation assured, the next instance is only hypothetical. “Golf? That isn’t even a sport. You drive round in a cart for 4 hours, sometimes stepping out to whack a tiny ball. I might get extra train washing the dishes. Now basketball, there’s an actual sport.”
Two, you may say how good one thing is by saying how significantly better it’s than one thing else that’s already actually good. “Okay, think about the perfect dish you’ve ever eaten, then multiply that by twenty-five tiny programs, one after the opposite for 3 hours, every nearly as good because the final.”
I haven’t the house to say a lot concerning the glories of pastoral ministry. However boy is it wonderful. As so usually, Spurgeon mentioned it higher than I might hope to:
I’d sooner have my work to do than another underneath the solar. Preaching Jesus Christ is nice work, joyful work, Heavenly work. Whitefield used to name his pulpit his throne, and those that know the bliss of forgetting every thing beside the fantastic, all-absorbing matter of Christ crucified, will bear witness that the time period was aptly used. It’s a bathtub within the waters of Paradise to evangelise with the Holy Ghost despatched down from Heaven. Scarcely is it doable for a person, this aspect the grave, to be nearer Heaven than is a preacher when his Grasp’s presence bears him straight away from each care and thought, save the one enterprise in hand, and that the best that ever occupied a creature’s thoughts and coronary heart.1
Written from private expertise, The Path to Being a Pastor lays the groundwork for aspiring leaders to stroll by way of numerous levels of ministry preparation, trusting that the Lord will direct their steps on the trail to changing into a pastor.
Robert Murray M’Cheyne as soon as realized whereas preaching, “It got here throughout me within the pulpit, that if spared to be a minister, I’d get pleasure from candy flashes of communion with God in that state of affairs.”2 Have you ever tasted that bliss? Taken that bathtub? Loved these candy flashes of communion with God? In case you have, you already know that, along with laborious work and heartache, pastoral ministry serves up uncommon joys. The pleasures of pastoral ministry could be so wealthy that you’re tempted to need them an excessive amount of.
So right here is my phrase to you: cherish Christ. Pretty much as good as pastoral ministry is, Jesus is infinitely higher. The risen, exalted, soon-returning Christ proclaims to his ready, struggling, longing folks, “I’m the Alpha and the Omega, the primary and the final, the start and the top” (Rev. 22:13). Christ is the start and the top of pastoral ministry. He’s the start and finish of your relationship with God. He’s the start and finish of your life. He’s the start and finish of the universe. Cherish him greater than you cherish serving him. Cherish him greater than you cherish telling others about him. Cherish him greater than you cherish main his folks. Cherish Christ. “For to me to stay is Christ” (Phil. 1:21).
Pretty much as good as pastoral ministry is, Jesus is infinitely higher.
Few residing males whom I’ve met embody this higher than Ray Ortlund Jr., who lately retired from pastoring Immanuel Nashville. Ray is the son of a godly man and the daddy of godly males. He realized to cherish Christ from his father and has taught his kids to cherish Christ. These are the final phrases that Ray Ortlund Sr. had for his son:
Early on Sunday, July 22, 2007, my dad awoke in his hospital room in Newport Seashore. He knew it was lastly his day of launch from this life. He had the nurse name the household in. My spouse, Jani, and I have been distant in Eire for ministry that day. We didn’t know what was occurring again dwelling. However the household gathered at dad’s bedside. They learn Scripture. They sang hymns. Dad spoke a phrase of patriarchal blessing and admonition to every one, a message suited to encourage and information. He pronounced over all of them the blessing of Aaron: “The Lord bless you and hold you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord carry up his countenance upon you and provide you with peace” (Numbers 6:24–26).
After which, quietly, he fell asleep. Later I requested my sister about dad’s message to me. It was this:
“Inform Bud, ministry isn’t every thing. Jesus is.”3
Notes:
- C. H. Spurgeon, Autobiography: Quantity 1: The Early Years, 1834–1859; a revised version, initially compiled by Susannah Spurgeon and Joseph Harrald (Edinburgh: Banner of Fact, 1962), 403–4.
- Andrew A. Bonar, Memoir and Stays of Robert Murray M’Cheyne (Edinburgh: Banner of Fact, 1966), 33.
- Ray Ortlund, “10 Unforgettable Classes On Fatherhood,” Wanting God, Might 16, 2015, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/10-unforgettable-lessons-on-fatherhood.
This text is customized from The Path to Being a Pastor: A Guide for the Aspiring by Bobby Jamieson.
Common Articles in This Collection
Dear Pastor . . . Your Shepherd Doesn’t Care How Big Your Church Is
What the Lord requires of us is faithfulness. And whereas it’s completely regular for each pastor to need his church to develop, it’s additionally idolatrous to marry our validation and our justification to our attendance.
Dear Pastor . . . You’re a Shepherd, Not an Entrepreneur
If we plant church buildings as pastors, not entrepreneurs, whose goal is to like Christ and feed and have a tendency the sheep of Christ’s reward, then we will sleep nicely figuring out our work will endure.
Dear Pastor . . . You Need to Recognize Your Limits
Our limits and weaknesses should not in the way in which of what God can do by way of us, however our denial of limits and our delusions of unbiased energy are.
Dear Pastor . . . Let Christ Preach
If preaching isn’t merely transferring information or attempting to make folks really feel one thing by way of our charisma, what’s it?
