Who is the pastor and what does he do? Those are questions I have had to ponder heavily the last few weeks and months. I think it’s a tendency for every young pastor (5 years out or less) to think to themselves that they are the messiah’s, that they are the ones who are supposed to save the church to which they are assigned.
I thought that at one time. It’s up to me to unify this congregation, it’s up to me to give this church energy, it’s up to me to make sure everybody is happy, it’s up to me to find ways to shore up our budget issues, it’s up to me to bring in new people, it’s up to me to ultimately give success to this ministry and to this church – ultimately it’s up to me to SAVE this church.
No, it’s not! All of the things that I used to think about myself, in sinful pride and arrogance, are only true of God’s means of grace. What unifies? What gives energy? What gladdens the heart? What motivates the Christian to proper stewardship in time, talent and treasure? What provides both inward and outward growth to the congregation, growth that we can measure with our eyes and growth that we will never be able to tangibly measure? Only the means…
I think it takes a young Seminary graduate a while to realize that they are not a replacement for the means of grace. The pastor is not a means of grace. His charisma, his passion, his intellect, his people skills, all the gifts the Father has bestowed on his servants are gifts, not means…they do not replace the means, they simply are the gifts through which the means are communicated to God’s people. Nor can any of those gifts add power or authority to God’s almighty and gracious Word.
I am but an instrument. In the words of Acts 9:15, a “chosen instrument,” not called by the Spirit to decide what tune to play, but simply to sound the melody of the gospel to the needy souls of this world. If my mind gets tied up in trying to be a “second messiah” or an alternate means, then I will most certainly fall into despair and fail. I am but an instrument, a trumpet…not the tune…a herald given a message to sound and that is all. The Church already has its means of grace, it already has its Messiah who was ordained from all eternity to bring salvation to the world…Lord let me be content to be an instrument.
