Reset

          On the eve of every new season (and certainly, even, in the times between) it is a good idea to reassess and reexamine the course of one’s life and vocation. I don’t do this nearly enough. Life and ministry happens at an alarming speed and I soon find that months have passed. This week marks the beginning of a new season: if kids have not already headed back to school, this is the week; the “fall” routine of football, school, pumpkin spice lattes, and post-summer work begins in earnest; our church year essentially kicks-off with the advent of Sunday school and a new preaching series (The Gospel of John). It is a good time to take a step back and examine things.

            We do this as a consistory every month, though sometimes without using the language of “assessment.” We consider all of you, the congregation—prayer and felt needs, worship attendance, participation in ministry, concerns, etc.—and we consider the general health of the church. This exercise never fails to be humbling and cause for gratitude.

            This modest weekly newsletter could certainly be a tool for regaling you—spurning you on to more exuberant worship, deeper faith, more commitment to the life and ministries of the church, greater participation in outreach, and better stewardship in giving. But I’m not going to do that. In fact, in my own self-assessment and examination, I’ve decided to take a bit of a different course with this newsletter. In the past, I’ve made the focus those things that are going on here at FCC during the course of the next week. You can read your bulletin, consult the calendar and Connections newsletter, and search the webpage for that kind of information. While I am certainly not desiring to neglect the information that is vital to our operation as a church, I am far more interested in transformation. This greater interest compels me to think of my own vocation here at FCC—my calling to be your co-pastor along with my friend and colleague Pastor Shane. All of that is to say that I am reflective this morning of my calling as a pastor—reassessing and reexamining my own pastoral life.

            This newsletter will therefore look less like a memo detailing events in the week to come, and more like a pastor’s reflection on life, faith, ministry, and the calling we all share as disciples of Jesus Christ, the King. So, in the spirit of this new focus and a heart full of thoughts on my own calling as co-pastor of FCC, I offer just a few considerations.

            As pastor, I must cultivate a life of prayer. This sounds rather obvious, doesn’t it? Of course pastors pray! But what is your response in my suggesting that the chief part of my calling is to pray, or even to suggest that the most important thing I do each day is to sit “answeringly attentive” before God in prayer (Eugene Peterson, Tell It Slant)?

            As pastor, I must study the Scriptures. Again, this perhaps sounds very obvious. It is remarkable, however, how “ministry needs” consume time and energy, leaving little room for genuine study upon and reflection of God’s word. This is quiet, head-and-heart work that, like prayer, happens in the margins.

            As pastor, I must provide spiritual direction. Pastoral ministry always takes place in relationship—otherwise I would be a monk or a professor. It is an honor to walk through life with all of you, sharing your joy and sorrow, life and death, hope and worry. I have been called to this church at this time in history to provide spiritual direction, to help you understand the shape and direction of this life of discipleship.

            These three things are vital to pastoral ministry. This is what I’ve been called to. Unlike most professions, pastoral ministry doesn’t operate on standards of “production”—producing goods or services to be bought and consumed. Interestingly, the siren for most pastors is to turn pastoral ministry into something resembling production—producing ministries, congregants, budget dollars, etc. These are all good things, but they are not the foci of pastoral ministry. I will be untrue to my vocation and untrue to all of you if I respond to the temptation of the siren song and reinvent myself as a pastor-entrepreneur or pastor-CEO.

            Prayer. Study. Spiritual direction. That is my call. Pastor/theologian Eugene Peterson calls this “working the angles” (Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987). It certainly looks different than most jobs, but that is the nature of this unique calling, is it not?

            Today, we have the joy of gathering here at 910 Main Street in West Chicago—sinners all of us, redeemed by Jesus Christ and gathered as God’s own to hear His word. To eat the bread and drink the cup. Word and sacrament.

            After graduating from Western Seminary and before being ordained, I met with my mentor J. Todd Billings and asked him a very simple question: “What is the most important thing for me to know as I enter into pastoral ministry?” His answer was simple: “Word and sacrament.” I wrote it on a piece of newspaper and put it in my pocket. I have it to this day.

            I reflect often as to why these two things are the most important things to know in pastoral ministry. It is because Word and Sacrament bring transformation. Information isn’t going to do it. Pastors-as-CEO’s aren’t going to do it. Only God at work in Word and Sacrament through His stewards—those called into pastoral ministry—is God going to bring about transformation. So as His steward I will pray. I will study His word. And I will provide direction.

            God bless you and keep this week, Church.