Fulfill your ministry. 2 Timothy 4.5
Last night my church celebrated 50 years of pastoral ministry. I’m not that old, but between David Richmon, Luke Morton, and myself we’ve logged over half of a century serving our congregation. This was written before the party, so we don’t know what they’ll do, other than have some fun pointing out our idiosyncrasies. We do know, however, that they chose the right theme. They’re throwing a party because we haven’t left. Obviously, if we were terrible at our jobs, this would be a congregational meeting, not a congregational party. But not leaving is a much bigger part of being a good minister than ministers want to admit.
We have professional dreams that we call core values and vision statements….What will impress them, however, is that you stick around regardless of your dreams…
We have professional dreams that we call core values and vision statements. They come from places we don’t understand, but that doesn’t mean they’re bad. It just means there’s more to them than our proof texts can support. In God’s providence some of those will come true. Most won’t, but even the dreams you realize won’t mean as much to your people as they do to you. They were in your church, not your head. What will impress them, however, is that you stick around regardless of your dreams because whatever we think our legacy should be, not leaving is the minister’s super-power.
