“The young lions suffer want and hunger…” (Ps. 34:10).
In the video, Paul Washer, president of Heartcry Missionary Society, confronts the phenomenon of young men who sense a call to missionary church planting because they “love the church,” and want to plant churches that will plant more churches that then plant more churches. Notwithstanding how admirable such a desire is (1 Tim. 3:1), Washer has been around the proverbial block enough times to know that even a few months of committed local church work can quell the ministry fire raging in the hearts of such young lions. So he suggests that a person’s love for the church be judged less by words and more by patience with local church people who disappoint the pastor/planter’s discipleship paradigms and church vision. Washer asks, paraphrasing, “Will you still love the church member if they’ve not grown in grace for years, and are still asking the same theological questions after 20 years? THAT is the test of if you love the church, not if you want to see churches spring up everywhere.”
These comments are especially poignant in an age where youthful ambition is often baptized by Christian ministry. Ambition that fails to first say, “But not my will, but yours be done” is sinful. This is exactly what James cautioned against when he said, “Instead (of saying that you'll live in this city or that city), you should say 'If the Lord wills, we will live in this city..'" (Jms. 4:13-15). The point is not that planning is a bad thing. The Proverbs repeatedly show God highlighting the wisdom of planning (4:26; 16:1,9; 19:21) and He is himself the Master planner (though with a caveat; he doesn’t experience a succession of moments like we do, so he is not planning for the “future,” from his perspective). But the godly mindset says, “Lord, here is what I want to do, but what would you have me do? If these two ‘do’s are not consistent, have your will instead of mine, and it is best.”
As you might expect, there were some...interesting...comments under the video. Based on my own experience of having to overcome youthful ministry ambition, I understand some of them. A lot of them ask, “What about Paul’s ministry? He went from town to town. Does Washer not have a category for him?” But the reality is that Paul had less of a call to the pastorate and more of a call to the Apostolate. Washer is addressing men who have more in common with Pastor-Timothy than with Apostle-Paul. Is it possible that these Twitter commenters think of themselves more like Paul than like Timothy? I know that when I began senior pastoring 11.5 years ago, I did. My, how local church ministry crushes our tendency toward self-flattery. I’m reminded of Spurgeon’s great quote, where he reminds young pastors of small churches that when they come to the end of their lives, even though their personal ministries never reached the heights that they had originally hoped for, nevertheless when they stand before God to answer for the 75 souls over which they presided in their local church, they will have had enough.
I’m no judge of these young men pushing back against Washer’s point; like I’ve implied, I was one of them (and in a lot of ways, still am). But Washer is saying that ministry is about, to borrow from the title to the famous Eugene Peterson book, a long obedience in the same direction. God does not call most men to get something started big and good and then move on towards things that are even bigger and better. Most men are called to either pick up where someone left off, or start something new and stick with it.
I think that that is why Paul told the Ephesian elders to pay careful attention to themselves and to all the flock (Ac. 20:28a). The verb at the beginning of the sentence is prosecheto, from which, I think, we get our word “prosecute.” The meaning is to intensely focus on, take to task, and face intently. Obviously it has to do with attentiveness to godliness and and growth in grace (2 Pet. 3:18), not grilling, like in a courtroom! So, Paul says, elders, intensely focus on your own discipleship and the discipleship of the flock (by the way, the word here for “flock” is poimo, which could be translated “micro-flock”; sounds like a small local church - not that it must be small, but most will be.) There are so many ways that you and your people can veer from the Lord’s truth. Look around. How many counter-sermons—that is, cultural messaging that is contrary to the gospel—are people hearing every week? So, elders, focus on staying on the narrow path, and keeping your people there, too (Matt. 7:13-14). When all is said and done, you will have had enough.
And if this doesn’t sound like Jesus’ post-resurrection restoration of Peter, I don’t know what does. “Peter, do you love me?” And you know the rest; Jesus tells him three different times, using varying terms, to feed his sheep (Jn. 21:15-19). When Peter gets stuck in comparison-mindset (21:20-21), Jesus reminds him of the simple phrase that he used when he first called him: You follow me. Don’t look around, Peter. You follow me where I lead you. Ministry has always been about loving the ones God has put in front of us, which is the way that we love the Lord and His church. When we demand a bigger platform or a greater recognition in ministry, we will, like Washer cautioned, resent our people for getting in our way. The young lion will, as the Psalm warns, suffer want and hunger.
But when we take as our task faithfulness to the micro-flock before us—and this is a point that can be adapted to not only refer to a pastor with a small flock, but to a dad with a family, or any other kind of Kingdom stewardship—the flock gets fed and we do, too. Love the church, yes. But make sure that you don’t really just love your ministry in the church.
