Pastoring & The Mission of God
FELIPE A. CHAMY
President of Neopolis Network
It was a moment of frustration as a young, proud senior pastor. I had grand visions for the church: church planting, leadership training, faith and work resourcing and discipleship—all the hallmarks of congregational vibrancy and health. However, not long after stepping into the role, I found my time and energy being consumed by issues of infidelity, teen conflict, illness, and death, not to mention the opposition of long-standing members voicing their complaints and pining for the old ways of doing things. How could I possibly move past these distractions?
Then my wife, in her usual wisdom, said: “Felipe, those issues are also the mission of God.” She was right.
If the gospel is to be proclaimed faithfully, the gospel must speak into and transform every area of the church’s life. Every healthy church must commit to sound pastoring as much as to sound preaching and church planting. Put negatively, any church disregarding the spiritual health of its members will lack an essential component to thrive.
You’ve probably heard the criticism, either from an unbeliever or some other Christian circle: How effective is this “gospel-thing” anyway if your church lives just as “the world,” if you don’t love and care for one another? The critics are right. As pastors and leaders, we should endeavor to see our churches shaped by the gospel from the inside out.
The Apostle Paul knew this well. He, of course, was fully committed to the proclamation of Christ, especially where Christ has not been named yet (Rom 15:20). However, Paul did not do so at the expense of the church he dearly loved. Indeed, for Paul, he identified the proclamation of the gospel as the primary motivation for healthy pastoring.
Sound pastoring is not a distraction from gospel mission; sound pastoring is gospel mission.
A few lessons from Paul’s ministry experience lead us in this direction. Pay close attention to 1 Thess 2:1–12, especially verse 4. Being approved by God and entrusted with the gospel is the main reason Paul and his companions desired to please God. Likewise, we should strive to please God in our pastoring for gospel mission in at least four ways—through boldness, gentleness, hard work, and integrity.
Boldness
Gospel mission requires nerve. Note Paul’s attitude during his stay in Thessalonica: “We had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict” (1 Thess 2:2). Opposition might seem like a distraction to the kingdom’s advancement. However, conflict and persecution are accelerators for gospel movements in the city and beyond. In Thessalonica, persecution resulted in a fruitful ministry; Paul’s coming was not in vain (v. 1).
Boldness means lifting Jesus up as we recess into the background. Boldness means putting our reputation at risk for the sake of the gospel. Boldness means putting our lives at risk for the sake of the gospel. Pastors are to exercise and model boldness in the church.
Gentleness
Boldness, though, is not aggressiveness. We dare to boldly face opposition with prayer and humility. We boldly decline to defend our reputation or personal ministry because—again!—we aim to glorify God and proclaim Jesus. Gentleness, then, is evidence of grace-saturated leadership.
Gentleness is a prominent description of God’s shepherding of our souls. Think of Psalm 23 or Ezekiel 34, “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.” (Eze 34:11–12; cf. Jer 23:1–6).
Besides the image of the shepherd, Paul applies the notion of motherhood to his ministry among the Thessalonians: “we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves” (1 Thess 2:7–8). Paul’s gentle ministry is set against flattery, greed, and self-glorifying leadership (vv. 5–6).
Here it is; gospel mission is led through gentle shepherding.
We are not to lord over the church but to sacrifice our lives for them. There’s also a fundamental reason for this. Just as gentle shepherding is grace-motivated, it is also driven by love. That's how verse 8 ends, “so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much” (v. 8, NIV).
Luther summarizes it well, “Unless your heart toward the sheep is like that of a mother toward her children—a mother who walks through fire to save her children—you will not be fit to be a preacher. Labor, work, unthankfulness, hatred, envy, and all kinds of suffering will meet you in this office. If then, the mother heart, the great love, is not there to drive the preachers, the sheep will be poorly served.”
Everyone has a backstory. Everyone needs to be shepherded by and through grace, but it takes time and resources. In our daily ministry, whether from within or outside of our congregations, we deal with people who need grace as much as we do.
Do you desire to pastor in gentleness, boldness, and health? Do you have an imagination for opening your home, welcoming the weak, and rebuking the idle with compassion? Do you daily acknowledge the grace you yourself have received? We look to the Good Shepherd to guide us into gentleness in our leadership.
Hard Work
Pastoring in this way, with boldness and gentleness, demands industrious leaders. The goal of such labor is to proclaim the gospel and not burden the church. Look at 1 Thess 2:9: “For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.” I mean, we don’t expect the church to shepherd itself, do we?
Many of us are tempted to fall into the law of minimal effort. Social media and technology heavily influence millennials and Gen Z. Consequently, many overvalue immediacy and faster results against deep theological reflection and strenuous pastoral efforts. However, the care of souls and the gospel's advancement needs sacrificial work from the church and its leaders.
To quote Calvin, “we do not regard our office as bound within so narrow limits that when the sermon is delivered we may rest as if our task is done. They whose blood will be required of us if lost through our slothfulness, are to be cared for much more closely and vigilantly.” This much should be clear from the prince of pastors. Our Lord suffered to the point of death to save his people: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Pet 2:24).
Again, note Paul’s expression, “we worked night and day” (1 Thess 2:9). They incessantly worked to proclaim the gospel. Literally, they announced the gospel as they worked, or even by working night and day not to be a burden.
Sermon preparation takes time and loving creative labor. But sermon preparation is not an excuse to disregard other matters facing the church. Likewise, leading a church takes time, but not at the expense of your wife and children. We must ensure we are using our time well and rested enough to spend quality time with our family. It’s hard work; I get it. But it is gospel work, so it’s worth it.
Integrity
Lastly, pastoring for the mission of God takes integrity. Look at 1 Thess 2:10: “You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.”
It has always impressed me how Paul can be so confident about his conduct before others. Paul even calls God as a witness to his behavior! That’s what integrity is all about. To live in such a way that no accusation can be made against us, to treat everyone as bearers of the image of God, to make no distinctions of race, to not be abusive, or to excuse abuse against the vulnerable. Nothing is hidden before God. No matter how much we may appear godly, God knows our hearts.
And we also recognize that holiness manifests itself in relationships. We cannot and will not fool our wives and children—they sniff hypocrisy from miles away. We should relate with sisters and brothers in the church as just that, sisters and brothers. The words we use, the looks we make, and the thoughts we have toward our sisters and brothers should reflect the indwelling of Jesus in our hearts.
Lastly, unbelievers must recognize that we have spent time with Jesus. Interestingly, it was through the apostles’ boldness that others recognized that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). So courage follows devotion and devotion involves hard work. Integrity is what we are when we strive to be alone with Jesus; our thoughts and disposition towards him are manifested towards others, and unbelievers notice it.
Integrity is a gospel-transformed heart in every relationship and area of our lives. Especially if we are to “encourage and charge everyone to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thess 2:12). Whether in the presence of others or not, we must do the hard work of pleasing God in holiness.
The mission of God demands sound pastoring as much as sound preaching and intentional church planting. Like Paul, we’ve been entrusted with this precious gospel. We’ve received this ministry by the mercy of God (2 Cor 4:1). We desire to please him and lovingly shepherd the church he bought with his own blood (Acts 20:28). We strive to live worthy of the calling we have received—with boldness, gentleness, hard work, and integrity—by the grace of God.
