Every September I feel the same temptation: to do something fast, fresh, and famous which would draw more people to our church. To impress upon those who are new that this is a place going somewhere, with a savvy pastor at its helm. After all, September is for finding a new church. And we want to put our best foot forward, don’t we?
Do you ever feel that temptation? It’s one I’ve certainly given into on a number of occasions. I feel it when I lose sleep in my attempt to craft the perfect two-week sermon series to grab people’s attention. Or when I frantically try to whip our volunteers into an unsustainable frenzy to ensure our Google reviews are five-star. If you’re like me – tempted by the fast, famous, and fresh – here are some things we need to be reminded of this September.
Slow, Not Fast
To the horror of millennials like me who have prized our age’s highest value, efficiency, discipleship is a slow and often frustrating process. If you don’t believe me, track the growth of Jesus’ disciples in any of the gospels. While these men have sat under the best preaching ever and experienced God’s power and presence in tremendous ways, they were still slow on the uptake. Take Mark 8, for example.
In Mark 8 you find the curious story of Jesus healing a blind man in stages. After applying a saliva-mud-mask, Jesus asks, “Do you see anything?” To which the man replies, “I see people but they look like trees, walking” (Mark 8:23-24). It will take Jesus laying his hands on the man’s eyes again before his eyesight is fully restored.
What is the point to all of this?
The point is this: the man’s gradual, and miraculous, return of sight is intended to mirror the gradual, but no less miraculous, faith of the disciples. For, immediately following this healing Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” To our horror, the disciples give an answer that sounds eerily similar to the one given by the wicked Herod only a few chapters earlier (Mark 6:14-15)!
A “slow, not fast” approach to ministry appreciates the complexity of people’s hearts and the various ways in which God’s Spirit transforms people.
Only one, Peter, gives the right answer. Even then, Peter’s doctrinal correctness will be exposed as superficial and incomplete mere moments later (Mark 8:33).
What should pastors make of Jesus’ patient example? Surely, at minimum, it reminds us of our need to exemplify the kind of pastoral patience that is required of all overseers (2 Tim. 2:24).
But, perhaps more deeply, it guards me from turning to superficial tips-and-tricks in my pastorate. From thinking that every marriage can be cured by a clever turn-of-phrase in a sermon. From accountability conversations turning either hostile or exasperating because the transformation in the other isn’t quick enough.
In short, a “slow, not fast” approach to ministry appreciates the complexity of people’s hearts and the various ways in which God’s Spirit transforms people. Some of which, by the way, may not be mediated by you.
Faithful, Not Fresh
This summer our preaching team has been listening, and gleaning, from sermons and preachers all over the world. A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to listen to a sermon from Ken Mbugua, serving in Nairobi. What struck us about the sermon was not it’s originality, but the conviction and the clarity in which Ken proclaimed the timeless truths of the gospel. Gospel truths that, to my shame, I’ve grown bored with or cold towards.
It’s worth noting that when the Apostle Paul is instructing Timothy about how to pastor, he doesn’t encourage Timothy to ‘see something in the text no one has said before’, but, “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). Timothy is to receive the Apostolic message and pass it on to others. That’s it.
So, while the old adage, “preach the timeless gospel in a timely way”, remains good and necessary advice. Let’s not forgot that the timeless-ness of the gospel precedes the timely-ness of the gospel.
I am much more hopeful for a pastor committed to the gospel who is struggling and faltering in their cultural exegesis, than I am for one committed to preaching a sermon designed for YouTube Shorts who has no, “love for the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).
In Vancouver, the city where I pastor, biblical illiteracy is rampant. Long gone are the days where Biblical knowledge can be assumed. Want to do something revolutionary? Preach through a book of the Bible and slowly unearth the treasure God’s people have enjoyed for centuries.
Hidden, Not Famous
Let’s face it, some of the most important work we can do this September (and every month) won’t be on a stage for people to see, but will be done in hidden places.
This September, let’s commit ourselves to hidden prayer. This hidden prayer happens as we pray for ourselves. Asking God to heal our sin and to lead us in righteousness. And it happens as we pray for others when we ask our willing and gracious Father to pour out his justice, “for his elect, who cry to him day and night” (Luke 18:6).
As Paul E. Miller writes, “(hidden pray-ers) are the nuclear power plant that fuels so many of the good things we can easily think happened because of good planning or talent.”[1]
It was, after all, the hidden prayers of so many through the ages that acted as the spark for the greatest movements of God. Pastor, what’s your plan for hidden prayer this year? Do you have times and days booked out to seek The Lord for your church?
This September, let us all commit ourselves to hidden service. In the West, especially amongst larger and more established churches, it can be easy to get caught up in the idea that certain jobs are “below us”.
I’m not suggesting that a Senior Pastor should spend their entire week cleaning toilets. The priorities of prayer, teaching, and pastoral care remain for the pastor. I am suggesting, however, that when I am regularly removed from the mundane and dirty jobs that are required for any community to flourish, I am prone to thinking of myself more highly than I ought.
Authority in the church, remember, is not demonstrated only in definitive doctrinal pronouncements, but also in our willingness to serve (Matthew 20:20-28). Stacking chairs on a Sunday is just as good for my soul as it is helpful for our gathering.
May we be wonderfully surprised this September. Surprised to learn that as we joyfully commit to the slow, faithful, and hidden work of the gospel that our Father loves to take what is meager, limited, and unassuming and multiply it a hundredfold for His glory.
[1] https://www.crossway.org/articles/the-hidden-prayers-and-pray-ers-behind-great-movements/
