I was starting a new church. My mind was full from the books I was reading. I had strong ideas about what the new church would be like, and about its mission, values, branding, and website.
Two conversations readjusted my focus.
The first conversation was with a church planter who’d started a growing church just a few years before me. We must have talked for over an hour. I took pages of notes on the things to do and the pitfalls to avoid.
Near the end of the call, he said, “Darryl, if you forget everything I tell you, remember one thing.” I waited, pen in hand, for what he was about to say.
“Your ministry is an overflow of your relationship with Jesus. Focus on that, and everything else will fall into place.”
The key to my ministry as a pastor and church planter was not so much about branding and websites as it was about staying close to Jesus, and doing the hard work of starting a new church out of a close walk with him.
A second conversation focused on one of the key tasks of ministry. I was reading books about entrepreneurship, leadership, and what makes for an effective church planter. One day I had lunch with someone who had himself planted a church, and he reminded me: “I think you already know this, but keep the preaching of God’s word at the centre of your ministry.”
His words reminded me of 2 Timothy 4:1-2: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” As John Stott said, “Nothing is more important for the life and health of the church than biblical preaching … Churches live, grow, and flourish by the Word of God.”
I wasn’t about to focus on sinful things. I was about to focus on secondary things. Both conversations centred my focus on the few things that matter: my life and doctrine (1 Timothy 4:16).
The same applies to all of us in almost every area of life.
A friend — a former paramedic — tells me that on the first day of training, instructors explained everything they needed to know if just a few minutes using the acronym ABC: airways, breathing, and circulation. The instructor told them he could teach a monkey how to be a paramedic in a week. Understandably, the students felt insulted. Surely there’s more to being a paramedic, they argued.
The instructor agreed, sort of. There was more to learn — not more topics, but more about each of the ABCs. “All it takes is the basic skills,” my friend says. “But, he said, it would take years for us to learn how to apply them.” We never get beyond the basics.
Read the marriage books. But, in the end, recognize that your primary calling in marriage is to walk with God closely and to love your spouse by following the commands given to you in passages like Ephesians 5:22-32.
Take that parenting class. But then realize that what your kids need most is a godly mother and father who loves them. Few things matter than most.
Excel in your career. But then remember what matters most is a growing love for the Lord that grows over a lifetime, and your faithfulness to the few people God has given you to love, and the few tasks God has given you to do.
Do more than that, of course. Build your skills and knowledge. Learn and apply wisdom wherever you can find it. Take risks, and work hard at important things. Just don’t think that any of this matters as much as the few things that matter most, the things that will matter not just now but for eternity.
