Theology Thursday: Five Things I've Learned from Pastoral Ministry So Far

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's topic:
Five Things I've Learned from Pastoral Ministry So Far

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
My first day on the job as Lead Minister at MCC was June 17, 2024, so just shy of two years ago. Here are five things I’ve learned so far:

Everybody is going through something.
I haven’t had one serious conversation with anyone in our church body where real pain isn’t present. Either fresh wounds, or a past affliction still deeply felt. Tragic situations where a loved one dies out of order, broken relationships, long-fought illnesses, and sinful decisions all contribute to significant hurt of just about all of us. The weight of life is heavy, and the privilege of knowing so many people’s personal struggles has caused me to be even more thankful for the hope of heaven. It has also caused me to be even more thankful that Jesus gave us the church. We all have baggage - some we’ve caused, some we’re the victims of - but none of us have to carry that weight alone.

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. - Romans 12:15

The biggest challenge isn’t what I’d thought it’d be.
If you had asked me in May or June 2024 what I anticipated being the biggest challenge of the job, I would have said attracting new people to MCC. That is a challenge, but I’ve learned there’s something harder: convincing people who consider MCC to be their church home - and even would say they are “committed” to the church - to come to church. If everyone who says MCC is their church came to worship on Sunday mornings three or four Sundays a month instead of one Sunday a month or less, we’d be a church of more than 300 people. I’m not obsessed with attendance numbers, but I do lament the lost opportunities for discipleship, service, and relationship growth that just isn’t possible without showing up.

…encourage one another and build each other up… - 1st Thessalonians 5:11

Preaching is fun!
I always believe preaching to be important, but having prepared and delivered about 75 sermons over the last two years, the whole process is more enjoyable than I anticipated. I like studying a passage of scripture to mine its truths and try to figure out how it applies to us. I like standing in the pulpit and working to connect with our congregation and communicate God’s love for us and his desire for our love in return. I like trying to find new and compelling and persuasive ways to tell the greatest story ever told. It’s a joy. I thought I would like it, but it turns out I love it! What a blessing.

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. - 2nd Timothy 4:2

Preaching is humbling.
Speaking of preaching. In his grace, God has seen fit to teach me that, while all leaders are tempted at times to think otherwise, it isn’t all about my skills and talents. Here’s what I mean: there are times I feel very good about a sermon going into Sunday morning. I’m confident in its argument, I’m excited about its logical structure and gospel presentation, I think the stories and illustrations are moving and powerful, and I expect the call to action to move the church. I deliver the sermon and then…nothing. No real feedback, very little apparent effect. That’s humbling!

But there are also times when I don’t feel nearly as good about a sermon, and I hear a number of positive comments. Or, even better, someone wants to get baptized, someone wants to become a member, someone asks me a follow-up question about something I said. Here I thought it was a messy or boring sermon, and God has made more of it than I could make of it myself. That is also humbling!

In both cases - the sermons I like that amount to little, and the sermons I don’t that amount to much - the Holy Spirit is showing me that the power of preaching isn’t in the preacher, but the message.

…When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. - 1st Corinthians 2:1-5

The church is missional or it is not the church.
Because of the regular, rhythmic nature of the weekly gathering, and the community and social aspects of the church and its ministries - even the fact that the church building is used for a variety of things (township meetings, blood drives, voting precinct, etc.) that are not church-related - and the relatively low bar for inclusion, it can be tempting to think of the church as just one of many civic organizations: good and useful as far as it goes, but not essential to life itself. This is false. The church is the body of Christ, established by God himself to “make disciples of all people” (Matthew 28:19). It isn’t a social club or hobbyist group - it’s the embassy of Christ’s kingdom here on earth, comprised of blood-bought adopted children in God’s family committed to their Lord and each other.

The church’s mission isn’t merely good for peoples’ stability or helpful in the community (though it can also be that), it is a matter of eternal life or eternal death. This is something that has become so very apparent to me during these beginning years of pastoral ministry. I’ve become insistent upon us understanding and being regularly reminded that the church’s mission is unique amongst all other groupings of people; it exists by, for, and through the grace and glory of God to foster a permanent and prioritized identity for all who say yes to the gospel good news of Jesus Christ. In other words, to know God and make him known. That’s what we’re doing here. If we’re doing anything else, we are failing to worship God and doing severe damage to our witness of his saving truth.

“The church exists by mission,” theologian Emil Brunner said, “just as a fire exists by burning. Where there is no mission, there is no church. And where there is no mission or church, there is no faith.”

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. - 2nd Corinthians 5:20

SPECIAL NOTE: Theology Thursday is taking a break for the summer. It’ll be back in August.

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.