Growing in Christ
Covenant Fellowship Church
A Life Towards Pastoral Ministry, Part 3
21 month ago
This is Part 3 in a series of three posts I’m doing consisting of a paper I was recently assigned to write on the prompt: “Write a letter giving counsel to young men on how to prepare for pastoral ministry and steward their sense of call.” I used Psalm 23 as a motif of how to think through a life aimed at pursuing a call to pastoral ministry. You can read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here. The full paper will be available for download as a PDF on Friday.
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And finally, verses 5 and 6:
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
The greatest enemy of mankind is death, and the greatest feast any man or woman can enjoy is to delight in the victory of Christ over sin and death[1]. It is in this victory over death that the soul learns unending joy. It is in the ministry of the Gospel that we enjoy his victory over death in the life of the Spirit.
Consider that all Christians are heading towards their true home, the heavenly house of God in the New Heavens and the New Earth, and that the Lord has instituted pastors as his workmen in helping his children sojourn home. The Spirit of God is building the house of God, made of living stones – people with lives and stories like you and me – to mirror the glory of Jesus Christ[2]. If you desire to be a workman of God, then you must study the only infallible tool of the Spirit[3], his Word[4]. It is the Lord’s Word that is more precious than gold and sweet as honey to the soul; perfect for reviving the soul; sure for making the simple wise; right for rejoicing the heart; pure for enlightening the eyes; clean and enduring forever; true and righteous altogether[5]. Learn to apply the Word to your own soul with Biblical, pastoral precision, finding encouragement when fainthearted, help in weakness, admonishment in idleness[6]. As you learn to do this with your own soul and those around you, the evidence of pastoral ministry will begin to show. As you learn the Word of God, a primary test for pastoral calling is how effectively you can communicate and teach the Scriptures[7]. A pastoral calling is not simply character, but public gifting to edify and strengthen the church. If we are a spiritual house (and we are) and the Spirit is the builder of the house (and he is) then the tool the Spirit uses is the Bible, perfect for all our needs.
Here we join our themes: As a man of the Word, you learn to guard yourself and will of the Shepherd as a humble lamb of Christ in service to the flock of God, which He obtained for life by his death, over whom the Spirit may make you an overseer[8]. A life towards pastoral ministry is one with this single eyed vision in mind: Serving the flock of God whom Christ procured at the cost of his own blood.
I will leave you with this: May the God of all peace tenderly carry you like a lamb, lead you in all your desires for ministry that you might have wisdom, and satisfy you with his unending river of joy through his Son Jesus Christ. To his name alone be glory and praise in the church, from his people and elders, forever and ever. Amen.
Yours in Christ,
Jacob Young
[1] On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 25:6-8; conf. 1 Corinthians 15:54-55)
[2] As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5)
[3] All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16)
[4] Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)
[5] Psalm 19:7-11
[6] And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. (1 Thessalonians 5:14)
[7] “an overseer must be…able to teach” (1 Timothy 3:2)
[8] Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)
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Recommended Recources:
A Life Towards Pastoral Ministry, Part 2
31 month ago
This is Part 2 in a series of three posts I’m doing consisting of a paper I was recently assigned to write on the prompt: “Write a letter giving counsel to young men on how to prepare for pastoral ministry and steward their sense of call.” I used Psalm 23 as a motif of how to think through a life aimed at pursuing a call to pastoral ministry. You can read Part 1 here, and Part 3 here. The full paper will be available for download as a PDF on Friday.
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Now let’s look at verse 4:
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
The Christian life is at its core a brutal thing. There is a mean streak in authentic Christianity[1] that looks sin square in the face, and wishes death upon it. But the source of that death is not the knife, or execution block, but the cross of Christ. It is the death of Christ that puts the sting of evil to death. I have found this reality to occur in two ways in my life:
First, In the sanctifying work of the Spirit. Though David is likely speaking about physical and spiritual peril in general, there is a legitimate application of this metaphor to the experience of sin in the soul, certainly a manifestation of death’s shadow. I have increasingly grown to know my own heart’s corruptions, and the inky shadow of sin therein most intensely around the question of calling. I used to think that fear of man was something that other people struggled with. How foolish! The more I think about the nature of pastoral ministry and think through the question of pastoral calling, increasingly I see how my heart uses it as a pretext to comparisons, presumptions, judgmental indictments, panderings for approval and acceptance. This is where my heart goes: I do not long for the Lord to bring about his perfect timing and plan for pastoral ministry, I must take charge, and when I take charge that which rules my heart rules my understanding. I long for the approval and respect due to a pastor. So I use words and deeds to manipulate people into giving me what my idols demand. In effect, I’ve stopped treating them like the Lord is their shepherd. Rather, my sinful heart proclaims: Jacob is their shepherd, and they shall serve me in perpetual want to see me satisfied! Thereby, in my sin I treat them not like people, but idolatry pawns. Oh the fiery sanctifying work of seeing this dark reality in my soul.
You will face this too. Your sin patterns may not be the same as mine, but you will see those deep-seated, dark areas that the Lord Jesus died to cleanse. So here remember this great reality: Fear not, for the power of sin is defeated in Christ, and even though he leads you to see the shadow of death in your heart, do not fear it, for the love of Christ conquers it by the power of the Spirit[2]. Slay those sinful roots by repenting at the foot of the cross of your Savior. Behold him and adore him. A mere repentance by staring sin in the face won’t do anything. Behold the face of your Savior dying for your sin, and meditate upon his glories. Think on his love for you to take you place under the wrath of the father. Think upon his generous, gregarious grace that welcomes you with constant mercy and love. In meditating upon him, the Spirit gives grace for more strength and obedience[3].
Second, In the sweet and bitter providence of suffering. It is not for nothing that Christians have throughout the ages attested to the lessons they learn in suffering that no book can fully teach. If you live long enough, you will suffer. And the Lord will still be good. It is in these moments that you will need the grace of Christ to turn to God and pray, Your rod and your staff comfort me – For you are with me. However, consider that not only is your life as a Christian a call to suffering, but so too is the call to pastoral ministry[4]. You are called to suffer[5], like our Savior, the pain of sin and death so that the life, grace, and love of Christ might be manifested in the lives of his people. Are you willing to be the man who marches into the valley of the shadow of death, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to minister to Christ’s people? Sin and suffering are messy. Ask yourself if you’re willing to be used by God in the mess. If you are, to prepare for the messiness of ministry, learn to listen and be with those in suffering. Do not be quick to tell people what to do with their suffering[6]. In your youth, listen. Pay attention to where God is working in their souls through those times, have eyes looking for Christ’s footprints, and seek to speak to them the comforts of a suffering king who walks with them through pain and sorrow[7]. As you see the grace of God in your life learn to lean on Jesus Christ. Lean heavily on the God of all comforts[8] so that you will know how to comfort others. If you learn these lessons, you will learn how to pastorally apply Paul’s simple command: Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep[9].
[1] Ed Welch, Additions: A Banquet in the Grave: “There is a mean streak to authentic self-control… Self-control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we nurture an exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for sin.. The only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of all-out war… There is something about war that sharpens the senses… You hear a twig snap or the rustling of leaves and you are in attack mode. Someone coughs and you are ready to pull the trigger. Even after days of little of no sleep, war keeps us vigilant.” (p. 225) – quoted in How to Kill Sin, Part 2 by John Piper, preached February 17, 2002.
[2] If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)
[3] And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
[4] But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:7-12 ESV)
[5] Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 2:3)
[6] Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; (James 1:19)
[7] He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. (Isaiah 53:3)
[8] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
A Life Towards Pastoral Ministry, Part 1
62 months ago
When I was in high school, I had a sense that maybe the Lord was drawing me into pastoral ministry. That was 10 years ago, and the Lord has done a lot in my life since then. Along the way I’ve had major and minor theological shifts, and my understanding of what pastoral ministry is has matured. Even through all of these changes, I still think I think I might be called to pastoral ministry.
But that’s not really the most important thing here. In a man’s life there is the category of being a Christian, and the category of being a pastor (which not all men are called to), but the area in between is a bit nebulous. What does it look like to pursue pastoral ministry? A man is supposed to be humble, but how does he remain humble and pursue something so… forward and public? This is a category that seems under-served in my estimation in the available literature.
What follows is a paper I was recently assigned to write with the prompt: “Write a letter giving counsel to young men on how to prepare for pastoral ministry and steward their sense of call.” In thinking through the major lessons I’ve learned over the years in wrestling with the question “Am I called?” I settled on Psalm 23 as my motif. One of the pastors at our church, Jim Donohue, has had a massive impact on my life in caring for me and helping me think through this question. Years of investing and discipleship. I mention him because he’s not footnoted, but he’s on virtually every page. I putting this paper up with the hope that it serves other men thinking through the questions of pastoral ministry. Over the years I’ve found the question “Am I called?” to be a richer question than I’d expected, and not nearly demanding the sort of frantic answering and panicked solutions that so often plague my mind. If you’re called, you’re called – trust the Lord. If you’re not called to pastoral ministry, trust the Lord. This is his Church after all. Along these lines, books that have been helpful to me in thinking through this question are resourced bellow.
The original paper I wrote will be in three parts, with a final post available at the end of the week with the full paper downloadable by .pdf for those interested.
Without further ado:
The Lord is my Shepherd
A life towards pastoral calling
By Jacob Young
To my brothers,
I pray for you regularly and hope that you are doing well. As our time together changes into a new season, I wanted to take a few moments to share some thoughts with you about the pursuit of pastoral calling – something I know is a desire of both of your hearts. What I want to do here is simply walk you through the 23rd Psalm and apply it to a life thinking about pastoral ministry. I have, of course, not arrived, nor seen if in fact the Lord is calling me into pastoral ministry. But this I have known: The Lord is the ruler of my heart, and the Shepherd of my desires to serve him. The joys I have learned through my own process have been less about clarity of calling, and more about seeing and savoring Jesus Christ more passionately. I hope that some flavor of this is communicated through these meditations.
With that in mind, let’s begin with verses 1-3:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
David begins with this great governing reality over the Christian life: The Lord is my shepherd. This Lord is the one who promised his unfading, longsuffering, all sufficient grace and love to his people as their assurance of his promises. Is this not a staggering thought? The God of the universe stoops down and promises to shepherd, to protect, guide, and provide for a rag-tag group of people in the back-wood hills of the Middle East? He might as well have picked some unknown village in Montana! The foundation of claiming the Lord as shepherd is his own self-initiated grace[1]. The assurance we have that God will pull through with his grace to be my shepherd is that God built his promises upon himself – God is faithful to God, therefore he will be faithful to be my shepherd because he promises it.
This foundation of God’s faithfulness to God taps into a massive, powerful spring of life for the young man thinking about pastoral ministry. On the one hand, he sees that the call to pastoral ministry is a noble calling[2], that it shouldn’t be trifled with, and that those who are pastors are scrutinized more closely by God[3]. He might rightly tremble and whisper, “Who is sufficient for these things?[4]” But we must continually return to God’s promises being grounded in God as strength for the effectiveness of Christ’s ministry through us.
Over the years of the Lord’s leading in my life in thinking through the difficult questions of pastoral calling, I have known many dark moments and doubts. Am I wasting my time thinking about pastoral ministry? Will I ever have clarity about pastoral calling? Why would anybody want to follow me for their pastor? So-and-so is much more effective/useful/gifted/charismatic/etc. than I will ever be. These are all questions I’ve wrestled with, and the Lord himself has shepherded me through them to find the joy of simple faith in Jesus, to be satisfied with my Great Shepherd, to not occupy my mind with those plans of God for my life that are too hidden up in the mind of God for me to know[5]. It is in this reality of knowing that the Lord leads us and uses these desires for pastoral ministry, ambitions for the kingdom work of Christ, and mighty dreams to storm the fortresses of the World to guide us and quiet our souls in Christ. If anxiety rules your heart about the question of pastoral ministry, it is because you are not fully satisfied with your master – He leads you beside still waters. Questioning if you’re called or not should not rock your world, and if it does, it’s a good sign that there is an idol you’re serving (like Gollum’s precious). Jesus restores your soul – idols will always leave you wanting. The more you simply want Jesus and to make him look great, the simpler your desires are and the more content you are with wherever he places you to serve.
Knowing the Lord as your Shepherd means that you are a sheep. Sheep have no rights, they are absolutely governed by the will of their shepherd. Here I would underline this to help you think through realities of calling, office, and service. If there is a call to pastoral ministry on your life, you are called to an office that is fundamentally about serving; and service location and type is directed by Christ. Dream a dream of where to serve the Lord, but more fundamentally hold out the reality that you are called to serve wherever the need is, and that those needs are under the governance and providence of Christ. Lift up and work through your desires to serve Christ’s people; hold loosely your plans for how to do it. The Shepherd leads. Learn to be a good sheep and follow wherever he goes. Remember this, the Shepherd knows his sheep, and he knows the gifts he’s given you[6]. He won’t waste your gifting. Learn to be joyfully content with where the Lord is applying your gifting in faithful service. When you feel discontentment, you can be assured that you’re doing something wrong – rest your soul and dreams in Christ, and keep in step with the Spirit’s work in your life. In faithful service and use of gifting, you’re glorifying God to your maximum potential with your season of life exactly where he has you serving him in his church right now.
The path of thinking through pastoral ministry is fundamentally concerned with learning the man God has made you to be, the gifts God has given you, and how the Lord intends to lead you in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. The only reason to become a pastor is because the Great Pastor has instated you for that function in his flock[7]. Pastoral ministry will primarily be given to helping other people.
[1] It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:7-8)
[2] The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. (1 Timothy 3:1)
[3] Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. (James 3:1)
[4] 2 Corinthians 2:16
[5] O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me. (Psalm 131:1)
[6] “I am the good shepherd. I know my own” (John 10:14)
[7] Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:3-4)
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Suggested Resources
In My Place – Why the Death of Jesus Matters
03 years ago
At my church, we recently finished a great sermon series called “In My Place: Why The Death of Jesus Matters.” Our pastoral team, headed by our senior pastor, Jared Mellinger, wanted to lead us through a timely sermon series zeroing in on the death of Jesus Christ, drawing from seven key texts through Scripture giving us different angles on that single glorious event. The seven sermons were:
- Death – 1 Corinthians 15:1-5. Here Jared’s main point was there is nothing more urgent and important for believer and unbeliever than understanding and embracing the penal substitution of Jesus Christ. He introduces the series and makes it crystal clear why Jesus was our substitute before God for the wrath of God that we justly deserved.
- Judgment - Exodus 12:1-28. This text teaches us that the God we need to be saved from is the God who saves us. Jared did a great job of connecting the judgment that the Egyptians deserved was equally what Israel and us deserve. I think he did the best job I’ve heard of connecting that sobering text in Exodus with our present condition today.
- Unclean - Leviticus 16:1-34. Here Jared spoke very clearly on how sinful people deal with a holy God is the fundamental question of human life. Jared took one of the foundational texts of the Old Testament and brought it to us with such clarity in its focus on the death and atoning work of Jesus Christ.
- See and Be Satisfied - Isaiah 53:10-12. Jesus Christ knew what he was aiming at when he went tot he cross. It was not a random event, nor an unexpected one, but one he intended for a particular purpose. Jesus purchased our reward in his death and resurrection.
- Forsaken - Mark 15:21-39. One of our other pastors, Jim Donohue preached an incredible message on how when the Son was forsaken by the Father we were redeemed. I told Jim after this message that I completely forgot that it was him preaching and was rather just gazing at the horror and beauty of the cross. This is not only the best sermon I’ve heard from Jim, but it is also the best sermon I’ve heard in recent memory on the cross event of Jesus Christ. I highly recommend this message.
- Wrath - Romans 3:21-26. With what Luther calls the most important passage in the Bible, Jared shows us how the Cross resolves the dilemma of God and the dilemma of man.
- Cursed - Galatians 3:10-14. Here Jared closes the series looking at how the blessing of the Father to us comes through the Son becoming a curse for us. This was a triumphant closing to such a glorious series, showing how the full blessings of God come to us through the Son, the eternal beloved of the Father, becoming our curse hung up on a tree.
This series was, in my estimation, phenomenal. Here at the church we ate it up. In particular, many people I talked to said that the preaching from the OT texts finally “made those parts not so intimidating.” It’s true, for many Christians understanding the OT is like trying to understand the ins-and-outs of English grammar, but the fact that our pastors preached messages that took hard passages and made them not only understandable, but important to people in how they understand and live their lives, well, that’s just good preach’n!
For me, the last three messages were the most affecting to my own soul. I left the whole series with my soul filled, but the last three in particular met me. Jim’s message, Forsaken, was just such a feast for my soul to look and dwell on. I didn’t take many notes through it, I just sat under the preaching of the Word, received, and viewed the cross of my Lord. Jared’s last message also affected me deeply. He began Cursed by talking about the current landscape of professing Christians in their views of what Jesus was doing on the cross. What was sobering and saddening to me was in his descriptions of how people call the penal substitution of Jesus on the cross “divine child abuse” and like phrases is the perspective many of the people I know from my past would take. Many of my friends would not hold a clear view of the cross, and would deride the view of it as penal substitution. The clear call is that such views that deny penal substitution are not Christian views, and undermine the claim of “Christian” by those pushing such views. What mercy of God that I, one of those who mocked his glory in the cross! Jared points out that the series isn’t a response to those people, but it would be naive to suppose that the series wasn’t to help us avoid such error.
I highly recommend listening to these, as you have the chance, in your devotional times. It’s not best to listen to sermon’s at times when you can simply turn them off – I’d note Tony Reinke’s thoughts here. The sermons and their personal application material can be downloaded here.
Forsaken – Jim Donahue (sermon)
03 years ago
This past Sunday at my church (Covenant Fellowship Church) one of my pastors, Jim Donahue, preached an excellent and powerful sermon entitled “Forsaken”. The sermon can be found here (or at the church website here). At that link you can listen to it, download it (in the top right corner), and get the “Take It Home” questions for personal application during the week. I really cannot recommend it enough. I told Jim on Sunday that for most of the sermon I completely forgot that he was there and that I was simply beholding the cross of Jesus Christ. Seriously, listen to it.
