Two weeks down! Yeah! Ten days of reading God’s word and counting. I hope you are hanging in there with me and my church, as we persevere in reading through the whole New Testament in the first two months of 2015. It has been a great exercise of discipline and blessing. One of the things I have taken away from this endeavor is that we are too busy if we cannot set aside 20 minutes to read generally or read God’s word specifically. What a blast of fresh air it has been.
Today’s reading had us enter into the letters of Paul, specifically his two letters to the church of Thessalonica (which was in Macedonia, just north of Greece). I loved seeing the concern that Paul had for this burgeoning church. It reminded me of my role as a pastor in the context of my church.
Here is what I took away from my reading today.
Three weeks! Only three weeks. That is how long Paul was in Thessalonica preaching what he had come to know about Jesus and the plan of God for the whole world. And yet, in those three weeks Paul establishes such a relationship with those who came to know Jesus that one can clearly see the wonder, power and graciousness of the gospel.
I was struck by Paul’s endearing words to the believers in this church. There was such a tender and at the same time direct approach to them. Paul addresses them as beloved and fellows in the faith, as sisters and brothers, and also as his children (as if he was a parent to them). He tells them to keep on being what they were called to be as those who heard the word, tried to live their faith and even had suffered for it; he also tells them that they are his crown of glory and his joy.
He defends them before the King of glory in light of their persecution. He reminds them that this negative experience will come, but that our Lord knows. Jesus, His prophets and His followers, in acting faithfully, did and will experience persecution. But he also reminds them that God knows and His just and righteous arm will have a day of accounting toward those who have mistreated His chosen ones.
I wonder how many pastors in the world look upon their people with such tenderness, hope and personal glory and joy? For me, the concept of the church has always been about people rather than the organization. When I look at my people, I get a strange feeling (and I think this feeling is a deep expression of my call from God). It is a feeling of love that I cannot explain any other way, but the Spirit of the Lord. I am fallible (inherently, historically and consistently), but the love and joy that I feel when my church (the people) acts out as God calls all of us who know Him to act out is so overwhelming I feel like Paul. I am “encouraged” by them because of their “faith.”
I hear some pastors share about their people as if they were adversaries and malcontents, those who they have to put up with because “they don’t get it.” I am so glad that in the context of my church experience, the other pastors and I don’t feel that at all. That doesn’t mean that we cannot feel frustrated at times as if our work within the body called my church doesn’t feel like it is in vain. Even Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians expresses that sentiment. But we do have a sense of family type concern for everyone that enters the portals of the church building and joins with us in the name of Jesus. In fact, I know that is one of the signs of God’s calling in ministry for a pastor versus a hireling.
This principle is difficult to understand for one who is not called in this way. I see it in those who have the gift of service, who wonderfully engage their gift in helping others so seamlessly that they don’t even know they are doing it. Yet when they observe others, who may have other gifts, like teaching or administration, not doing things that they would do naturally with their gift of service, they complain about the others. “How come they aren’t doing what I see should be done?” It is the wonder of the body fitly joined together, with each part having its part, exercising their spiritual giftedness, but marvelously unified in their distinctiveness as individuals.
I hope my church knows that about its pastors and its individual part in the puzzle called the church. They are our joy. We love them profoundly and I hope they can receive that. I know that some really don’t understand that in us, at times. I think it is easy to boil down the church experience to a structure, a budget, a building or even personal perspective, but the power of a gifted heart employed in ministry without agenda one, cannot ultimately be denied. May God’s grace be upon my church and all congregations with that spirit that call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.
Week two is done. Have a nice break this weekend and may God bless you as you continue in the word.
Until Monday! Blessings.
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