PASTORAL MINISTRY-GOD-FOCUS
We
should, of course, seek to continually improve our skills in leadership,
personal discipline, time management, interpersonal relationships, and
teaching. But above all these things, we should seek to increase our knowledge
and enjoyment of Christ and deepen our love for Him (Phil. 3:8-14). After all,
the deeper our love for Him the more we will become like Him in love and the more
we will be able to teach others to love. There is, therefore, hardly anything
better we can do for those we lead than to love the Lord Jesus Christ supremely
and keep our love relationship with Him fresh and growing every day! Out of
this blessed and holy love relationship will come a
greater manifestation of God’s love in us, shining out to others and drawing
them to Christ.
Alexander Strauch
Leading With Love, Lewis and Roth, 2006, p.30-31, Used by
Permission.
It is only
those who truly love Christ that are fitted to minister to His flock! The work
is so laborious, the appreciation is often so small, the response so
discouraging, the criticisms so harsh, the attacks of Satan so fierce, that
only the “love of Christ” – His for us and ours for Him – can “constrain” to
such work. “Hirelings” will feed the goats, but only those who love Christ can
feed His sheep.
The Gospel of John, Zondervan, 1975, p.
1139-1140.
There is
something about throwing oneself into the everyday affairs of the church, into
the routine business of doing “church work,” that is deceptive. It soothes our
conscience and makes us feel we are in the right state of mind spiritually. But
proximity to God's work is no substitute for submission to the grace of God.
Bill Arnold
The NIV Application Commentary - 1 and 2
Samuel, Zondervan, www.zondervan.com,
2003, p. 77.
Whirled
from off our feet by a revival, carried aloft by popularity, exalted by success
in soul-winning, we should be as the chaff which the wind driveth
away, were it not that the gracious discipline of mercy breaks the ships of our
vainglory with a strong east wind, and casts us shipwrecked, naked and forlorn,
upon the Rock of Ages.
C.H. Spurgeon
The
Minister’s Fainting Fits, Lectures to My Students, Lecture XI, 1856.
Oh, then, let us hear these arguments of Christ, whenever
we feel ourselves grow dull and careless: “Did I die for these souls, and will
not you look after them? Were they worth My blood, and
are they not worth your labor? Did I come down from heaven to earth, ‘to seek
and to save that which was lost;’ and will you not go to the next door, or
street, or village, to seek them? How small is you
condescension and labor compared to Mine! I debased Myself
to this, but it is your honor to be so employed. Have I done and suffered so
much for their salvation, and was I willing to make you a fellow-worker with Me, and will you refuse to do that little which lies upon
your hands?”
Richard Baxter
The Reformed Pastor, Chapter 2, Section 3.
Every time we look upon our congregations, let us
believingly remember that they are the purchase of Christ’s blood, and
therefore should be regarded by us with the deepest interest and the most tender affection.
Richard Baxter
The Reformed Pastor, Chapter 2, Section 3.