During a conversation I was asked if I was supported by family and friends in my calling to be a leader in the Church. For a second the question caught me off guard not because I don't have support but because of the type of support I have. You see my family is my first ring of support and well my family is very wise. I asked my parents a few years back what they thought of my aim to be a pastor or chaplain in an evangelical setting. I was told they'd have never wished it upon me. Interesting answer to say the least, but they were sincere and I began to understand the reasoning used to come to this conclusion. I believe the main inspiration for my parents' response to my question is James 3:1.
The passage reads, "Not too many of you should presume to be teachers my brothers because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." (NIV)
Teachers are more strictly judged. It is spelled out for you in the verse. In the Greek it would best translate "My brothers not many of you will/should become teachers because we [James is teacher thus the 1st plural indicating teachers] will receive greater/mighty/much more judgment." And yes it is a blunt warning to any who desire to teach the in the Church. This is not fine print that one might miss when they decide they might want to try their hand at teaching in the Church. No this is the reality teachers in the Church live. In my own life this blunt truth serves as a reminder of the responsibility I am beginning to receive. If one denies the justice in God then one should not teach lest he experience the fullness of that justice in the day of Christ's return.
The cost of faith is great already, and they become greater still for a leader in the Church. We are all called to live an authentic life as a testimony to our faith in Christ. For culture at large the litmus test for seeing if the Church is authentic is to look at its leadership. Why do you think Paul spends so much time explaining to Timothy the importance of appointing righteous men as overseers and deacons? These men are to be the core of the congregation. Inevitably if the core shifts away from faith the majority of the congregation will. That is a fact of nature. Teachers, specifically senior pastors who have the authority to recommend elder appointees have the task of finding righteous men. If these pastors are not themselves righteous men how could they appoint a righteous man? As it is commonly said, "it takes one to know one" I believe that sums it up nicely.
To add to this there is the cost of relationships. It is common practice for a pastor to also be a counselor to the congregation he serves. Have you ever listened to a person's grieving heart? Or how about their slander? Has someone ever told you a secret they truly expect you to take to your grave? Do you know what those sorts of conversations do to your relationship not only that person but the other people around you? On the flip side your number of brothers and sisters grows exponentially when you come to the Church and this is both exciting and daunting to those of us who have biological siblings and those who don't. Leaders in a sense become the older siblings in the family. 1 Timothy 5:1, "Do not rebuke an older man harshly but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters with absolute purity." Did you catch those last two words? Yes, absolute purity. ABSOLUTE PURITY. Purity can also be read as holy if that helps (the Greek allows either and even sacredness). Each brother and sister is precious and sacred in the Church and the first persons to recognize this in them ought be the leaders of the Church! Even if this was a widely held practice in the Church today so much would change! I digress though. If you love people you know how it is difficult to love.
The crux of the issue is discipleship. Is a teacher making disciples of Christ who in time will also make disciples? The work of the Church is this to make disciples. There are no shortcuts to this work. Lifetimes are spent making disciples. That is the cost of this path. A lifetime, but to live is Christ and to die is gain. I lose nothing in the end. I pick up this cross now understanding I stumble to my death in this world. Material wealth will not follow me nor will fame both are desires of this world and cannot come where I am going. Some of you may be thinking why continue this if it looks so gloomy? My friends it is obedience. Leaders are called and obediently answer knowing full well the implications of this obedience. This is not the desired path for the journey of faith, but a path none the less. It is the path I find myself a few steps into already. I do not turn back though. I close with Philippians 3:13, "Brothers (and Sisters), I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it [the goal or fulfillment Christ has for me]. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead."
May you strain towards obedience.
Blessings
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