I love that our church is filled with people who value the mission of the Gospel more important than the changing methods of how we do church. You guys are some of the most unselfish people in the world. You have followed my leadership even when it has not always been easy or comfortable. You have allowed me to lead as I seek to follow God's direction. I remember the first deacon's meeting I attended as the pastor of our church. Each deacon went around the room and committed to me that they would follow my leadership as long as it was biblical and ethical. I can honestly say that this attitude has permeated our church throughout the years. I am so humbled to be your pastor. I want to recommit myself to leading our church in the way that I believe God would be honored. I cannot promise you that I will always make the right decisions. However, I hope that any mistakes I make will be mistakes of the head and not the heart. I recommit to being a pastor who leads biblically and ethically. I will always try to communicate the vision God has given me for our church in the mission of helping people love God, love others, and serve the world. I have discovered that most people are willing to support the mission if they understand what it is, and why it is important.
I do want to make a confession, however. A burden is growing within me over the lost condition of people in our community. I write these words with tears in my eyes. My heart is not only broken for people that we all know who are far from God, but also for my lack of urgency in reaching them over the years. I have spent a lot of time in ministry focused on the people who are already saved. I love being a pastor. I love hanging out with God's people. I love ministering to believers in times of need. I do not believe anyone could honestly accuse me of not loving my congregation. But my love for God's people has often been at the expense of my obedience to God's will in doing whatever it takes to reach the lost. Most pastors I know live with the tension of ministering to the people they love in the church and being obedient to the will of God by reaching those outside the church. Pleasing people and pleasing God are not always the same. I spoke to a pastor recently who is probably going to be asked to resign. If his church gets rid of him it will not be because of moral failures or theological errors. His congregation is literally dying because they refuse to change their methods to fulfill the mission of the Gospel. What they are doing is not working. It is not that they're doing anything bad. What they're doing once worked. Their methods were once effective. His church that was started decades ago with the explicit purpose of penetrating the spiritual darkness of the community has now replaced the great commission with the great refusal. They refuse to change any method because they are more in love now with the methods than the mission. Of course, when they interviewed him to become their pastor they said they wanted to reach their community for Jesus. Evidently that meant as long as they do not have to change the way they do church now. This pastor is heartbroken because he wants to see people saved. He knows the gospel is still the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. But he is also heartbroken because he sees a generation of Christians who are going to miss out on partnering with God in reaching this new generation with the Gospel. What is worse, they will one day stand before God and have to answer for why they blocked everything their pastor tried to do in the church.
So I want to recommit to you to being a pastor who makes full proof of his ministry and does the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5). I hope you will pray for me and hold me accountable to sharing the gospel in my personal life as well as in the pulpit. Pray for me that I will be more concerned about those we are trying to reach than the ones who are already convinced. I say this because the greater tragedy of the two is not when a church member gets mad and moves their letter to another congregation, but when a lost person dies without Jesus and moves into an eternity without Christ. This keeps me up at night.
