I’ve wanted to be involved in full-time ministry for as long as I can remember thinking about an occupation. Over the past year or so, this long-term desire has somehow transitioned into a reality – which is simultaneously super-exciting and massively humbling at the same time. As a result, I’ve had to spend a lot of time in thought and prayer about what form this ministry should take, and what I’ve kept coming back to is the desire to be doing preaching and teaching.
These desires have really matched up with what’s happening in Kurri. As we’ve spent the past two months talking with people and doing door-to-door evangelism, endeavouring to gauge where the community’s at, I’ve been consistently drawn to the massive need for a public proclamation of Christ, and education about who He is and what He’s done. And now that the far-off concept of one day becoming a pastor has all of a sudden become a very near reality, I’ve had to evaluate how the new church services that we’ll be running will look.
For all the vision plans, and event-planning, and strategies for getting people in and keeping them though, the only things that keep running through my mind are this call to proclaim the Bible, preaching and teaching. That’s how the apostles started their church – preaching the gospel, and then teaching the people who responded to that. That’s how Uncle John (Wesley) and George Whitefield did their ministry a few hundred years ago. That’s something that seems to have been lost in the past few decades.
The more I’ve thought and prayed through everything that running a church entails, the younger I feel. So a few weeks ago, I turned to 1 Timothy 4:12, a passage I’d read plenty of times (and heard used in pretty much every youth-group talk, EVER). It wasn’t the letting people despise me because I was young that was concerning me though, it was just the fact that I know that I’m young – and if we’re getting families and stuff into the church, how the heck am I as a young guy gonna minister to them?
So I kept reading the passage, and was blown away (as Scripture tends to do!). Paul continues – that Timothy is to be setting an example in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity – which is a massive call. But then he says to devote himself to three things – the public reading of Scripture, to preaching, and to teaching. He tells Timothy to practise them – to immerse himself in them – to keep a close watch on himself and his teaching – to persist in this.
Devote, immerse, practise, keep a close watch on, persist… Paul is so abundantly clear on this point that Timothy’s whole focus should be on those three things. The public reading of Scripture, to teaching, and to preaching. I’d never read it as clearly as that before – it finally made sense to me! And what are the results of that devotion and immersion in those things? Paul gives two primary reasons, both of which answered my exact dilemma.
The first reason is “so that all may see your progress”. This blew me away. So that people can see PROGRESS? That implies that Timothy doesn’t have it all together to begin with – that a pastor can be fallible? That a pastor might not have everything together – but by practising and immersing himself in those three things, people will see a progression? That’s pretty releasing – but also a reminder of the importance of that totality of being completely devoted to and immersing oneself in those things. People SHOULD see progress – if a pastor hasn’t advanced in his knowledge of and ability to read, preach and teach the gospel over his time of ministry, then he obviously needs to spend more time devoting himself to, immersing himself in, practising and persisting in reading, preaching and teaching the gospel!
The second reason? Because by persisting in these things, “you will save both yourself and your hearers”. This, also is freeing – because ultimately, it’s not me that saves people. Heck, it’s not me that saves myself! It’s all God – and as long as we’re being faithful to proclaiming and teaching His word, then it’s THAT that saves people.
After re-reading and re-praying this passage many, many times, I could understand the importance of what Paul was saying – but there was still the question of whether it works in the real world. It may have been good enough for Paul to write to Timothy, but can you really begin a new ministry with your only call being those three things? Every management book in the world would say that shouldn’t work.
Then on Sunday morning, as Mitch was giving the Bible reading (the book of Philemon) before I delivered my sermon to the fourteen people sitting in the church, two twelve-year-old boys randomly walked in and sat down. They listened to the Bible reading and then listened to the sermon – the most attentive I’ve ever seen twelve-year-olds, especially in church! And then after the service finished, they came back and asked if we had any other services on, because they’d love to listen to more – and what time would it be next week so that they wouldn’t get there late again – and was what they were wearing appropriate?
Needless to say, we were all stoked! These two kids had come in, heard the gospel, and wanted to hear more! It’s like God was saying to me, “Yes, if you devote yourself to these things, then it DOES work. I’m faithful to My word, so you can be too.”
And the irony? In my sermon, I’d issued a challenge to the church – how would we react when God started sending new Christians who are completely different to us into our church? Will we greet them as brothers and sisters in Christ, encouraging them and working together with them? Needless to say, God gave that particular message a bit more punch by urging the two boys to wander in to prove the point!
So keep on praying for what God’s doing in Kurri! Pray that we can be devoting ourselves to, practising, immersing ourselves in, keeping a close watch on and persisting in the public reading of Scripture, preaching and teaching. God is faithful to His word – so be praying that we can be too!
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