Nine Years In and Pressing On

My family and I have served three rural Anglican churches for almost the last nine years. Like all of life, there have been ups and downs. There are challenges and encouragements. The views are very lovely. There are only 2000 people on the whole patch. Our more evangelical church gets maybe 50 on a good Sunday. The others 20 each, allowing for Pastor Inflation!

It has been wonderful to see a number of people come to Christ for the first time. And some people come alive in their faith and start serving. And people become real leaders. The ministries of the church have grown significantly. Toddlers and After School Club have been full. There is a new youth group and mum’s bible study and community choir and art group and people are reading the Bible together and….

But we have not seen the revival, for which we still pray! Things are small and fragile. Everyone who was here when we got here is now almost ten years older and 80 is different from 70. I am still good for the age demographic! My wife remains the youngest committed adult in one of our churches and my kids are the sometimes the only ones on a Sunday. In fact, if I did the graphs, I doubt I could even say that we have grown by 10% year on year. We expect the gospel to grow and the Word of God to bare fruit but the results really are down to God. It is really hard to persuade mature people that they should revolutionise their whole lives for the sake of the Biblical Jesus who, let’s face it, has some plausibility issues to your average secular Brit. With deaths and people moving away, I have decided that humanly speaking one is doing well if the congregation size more or less holds up, though we are not satisfied with that.

Three keen Bible believing families would make a huge difference. But I have resigned myself to the fact that the cavalry is probably not coming!

God calls us to love these people and to faithfully serve them and with them to seek to hold out the word of life to others. You must die to the what ifs and the lust for a bigger glitzier platform or a great name. The Senior Pastor for Vision and Preaching at 1^st Mega Church has his own issues and challenges. Biblical ministry is not easy anywhere. And even if you went somewhere else you would take yourself and all your baggage with you!

What are some things I would say to my younger self (or indeed myself today still)? There are so many things but let me restrict myself to three paragraphs:

·        Being the Senior Pastor and the only professional minister will feel and be very different from your time as Assistant Minister and there’ll be so much to learn. People might cc you on almost every email. You will feel responsible for everything from finance, buildings, safeguarding, to the quality of the coffee and the fliers. You can’t do it all. You’re not the Messiah. And what happens in the church (either good or bad) does not affect that you are a much-loved child of your heavenly Father.

·        You should find some way to daily deliberately delight in Jesus which works for you. Maybe what is sometimes called The Quiet Time! That really is key. And it is best for your people and work as well as your own soul. What your flock needs is not necessarily a better prepared sermon or a swifter response to its correspondence but a better prepared Pastor who is swift to pray. Guard your heart above all things. And seek out whatever help with that you need. SORT IT OUT!

·        Keep the main things the main things. Prayer. Jesus. The Bible. Dependence on the Spirit. People. Be bold in your evangelism and pastoral care and training in ministry. Who knows? Maybe the Brigadier would like to meet up with the spotty young Rector and read the Bible. And if he laughs and says “no” and dines out on what a silly sausage you are, that would be okay too! Jesus faced rather worse. It would be a privilege to share in a little of the scorn and defeat of the Crucified King.