Wherever You Are in Your Ministry, Be All There

Something I saw on a YouTube video prompted memories of me chatting, laughing, and praying with our choir and praise team before going into the sanctuary to begin the worship service. It brought tears to my eyes.

Now that I’m retired, looking back I’m not sure I embraced those moments as I should have, or other moments in the daily life of the church. Much of my focus was on how we could do things better and even bigger, how we could grow our church, and ways we could be more than we then were as a church, whatever that might mean.

Don’t get me wrong. These can all be good things to pursue, if done with the right motivations and in response to what is believed to be God’s call. But if I could give some words of advice and encouragement to those now in the trenches of pastoral ministry it would be to embrace the moment, enjoy the now, wherever you are as a church, be all there!

When it comes to discontent there’s both Godly discontent and ungodly discontent. Godly discontent for pastors would include wanting everyone to keep becoming more the person Christ would have them be and the church to keep becoming all that Christ would want it to be. We’re not to be satisfied with the status quo. On the other hand, it’s also good to recognize ungodly discontent, being dissatisfied with what God has given us in the present.

There’s plenty of literature for pastors on how important it is to cast vision, set the bar high, that kind of thing. I’m trying, in this short writing, to remind us of the importance of valuing what we now have. We can be so fixated on the horizon of our church’s future, looking to reach that glistening goal out there in the distance, that we walk right by the gems of the moment that sparkle at our feet.

So, relax a bit. Enjoy that impromptu conversation that’s not on your schedule. Relish the dessert with a few senior ladies. Get down on one knee and have a conversation with that child who just glanced up at you. Ask the custodian how his or her day is going. There’s an unimaginable number of opportunities to pause in the moment and to be all there!

 “Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy.He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today’” (Luke 19:1-5). [Emphasis mine]

Note: I may have written on this subject in a previous blog;

I don’t remember. If I did, well, I think it bears repeating.