It was just another elders’ meeting, but it seemed overwhelming. We discussed members were struggling with crippling anxiety, members flirting with serious sin, and other thorny pastoral care issues. The needs felt immense, and none of them could be easily fixed. We could care, counsel, exhort, rebuke, and pray, but we still felt overwhelmed and maybe a bit hopeless. And that was just the first part of the meeting.
Later on the agenda, we faced a host of leadership issues that also required a lot of wisdom, but we had little time to deal with them. There was more on our plate than we had time, energy, or wisdom for.
Ministry’s like that. People are complicated, life is hard, and ministry is messy. It can feel overwhelming to care for even a small number of people. When that number becomes large, it’s easy to feel the weight of responsibility in caring for them. As Spurgeon said, “Who can bear the weight of souls without sometimes sinking to the dust?”
And then there’s just the weight of leadership. Dan Allender says, “A good leader will, in time, disappoint everyone.” How do you provide oversight to a local church? How do you not only deal with pastoral issues but also provide godly leadership in growing that church to health?
I’ve often puzzled over the end of Paul’s chapter on the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
Paul addresses a number of pastoral issues in 1 Corinthians. He deals with factions, blatant sin, abuses in the church, and confusion over theological issues. In 1 Corinthians 15, he clarifies the doctrine of the resurrection.
I can follow Paul’s logic in the chapter. What surprises me is his application in the end. I can think of many applications of the doctrine of the resurrection, but knowing that my labour isn’t in vain isn’t at the top of my list.
The more I think about it, the more I appreciate this application. In a church like Corinth, where problems outnumbered good things, it would have been easy to lose heart. Paul reminds them that the resurrection changes everything.
Those pastoral problems that can’t easily be solved? The resurrection can handle those. Every one of those problems will ultimately be solved not through mere human effort but through the resurrected power of Jesus Christ.
Those people who seem beyond hope? God’s resurrection power can handle them. That sermon that landed with a thud? Our confidence was never in the skill of the preacher, but in the power of Scripture and in the Holy Spirit. A church that seems overwhelmed and outnumbered in a hostile society? That society will crumble, but God will preserve his people into eternity. Despite appearances, the resurrection changes everything.
I need this in the thick of ministry where I feel overwhelmed. I need to keep looking to the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the power I need. I don’t have what it takes; my efforts won’t succeed. But God has a way of bringing life out of death. He did it with Jesus, and he’ll do it with us too. In fact, he’ll do it with the whole cosmos.
I don’t just need a theology of the resurrection; I need its application in my life and ministry. When I get that application, it gives me hope even in the most overwhelming circumstances.