Dear Cobham Park Church Family,
Many years ago, I fell into a trap which keeps many pastors from being faithful to their call. No, I’m not talking about some spectacular moral failure or professional incompetence. Quite the opposite! This trap has more to do with too much of a good thing: I somehow began to think that I needed to wear every hat at church and to do nearly everything myself! I went to every church committee meeting and tried to micromanage the church’s ministry. The longer I did so, the more frustrated and burned out I became. Pastoring seemed increasingly loaded with guilt and stress. To use a picturesque old-time farm expression, “I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off.”
Thankfully, I realized my error before I seriously hurt myself. The turning point came as I was venting to an older pastor about my church’s problems. He interrupted to ask, “Would you like to know what I consider to be the true measure of a pastor’s success?” “Do tell,” I replied. He continued: “If, when a pastor leaves a church, most of its ministry suddenly grinds to a halt, that’s pastoral failure. But if a pastor leaves and church ministry continues as if nothing happened—that’s success. As pastors, we are supposed to be working ourselves out of a job!”
I knew he was right, and the Bible backs him up: “And he (God) gave…the shepherds (pastors)…to equip the saints (Christians) for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11–12, ESV) So, according to Scripture, my call is not to do the church’s ministry myself, but to equip God’s people for ministry! I should be working hard to help others serve as the Lord leads. We certainly don’t want to be limited by what one man can do. (And if we’re limited by what I can do, that would truly be a sad situation!) After all, no pastor has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit. We want what God can do through all of us together. Why am I sharing this? I want to tell you how grateful I am to God for you. You get it. You are serving Jesus in ways that I never could. And that’s how God intends for churches to function.
A couple of months ago, our planned revival speaker informed me that he would be out of the country and could therefore not preach for us. After trying to find another suitable preacher (and even wondering if I should preach myself), I found no peace. But as I thought about our church family, I realized that the Lord had already taken care of things! He had equipped and raised up saints in this church and community who could proclaim His Word or praise the Lord as well as any “professional” from somewhere else. This would be a “homegrown” Revival! Each of our Revival preachers is from our own church family (see next page). Other than Wednesday’s GloryWay concert, all of our music will be led by folks from the Northern Neck. Come and see for yourselves what the Lord will do!
In His Love,
Pastor Keith
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