Q: Why is quality more important than quantity to God?A: The LORD desires obedience over sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22-23; Gen 4:1-8); clean hands, a pure heart and a heart not lifted up to vanity or deception (Psalm 24:3-4); a broken spirit and contrite heart open to His observation (Ps. 51:16-17, Prov. 21:2-3). God delights in the prayer of the upright (Prov. 15:8), in one willing to be obedient (Isa. 1:10-20), in one who chooses God’s way over method or tradition (Isa. 66:3; Jer. 7:22-23). God desires the depth of intimate relationship (Hos. 6:6), of people who act like Him (Amos 5:21-2; Mi. 6:6-8; Matt. 23:23). The quality of a living ministry is like a house built on a rock (Matt. 7:21-27), is a ministry of mercy (Matt. 9:13; 12:7), a ministry of function--an all heart, mind and soul love for God, that spills over love to others—rather than ministry of form (Mark 12:33).
“One way to tell if a church is dead or alive spiritually is whether its focus and concern is more on the quality of its prayers, worship, love, preaching, fellowship, and communion with God, than with the multiplication of programs and physical activities. . . . God is infinitely more concerned with the purity and health of the inner man, than with the multiplication of mere external, ceremonial, fleshly, traditional, and religious activities. . . . Your goal is to present the congregation perfect in Christ on that last day. This goal cannot be accomplished without quality time in prayer, study, discipleship, visitation, and intercession. These are the channels by which the Holy Spirit ministers Christ through you and nurtures each person that providence sends your way. Conducting your ministry by worldly methods and on any other premise than quality is inconsistent with the biblical description of a minister of Christ. “It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing” (John. 6:63).”[1]Q: What is the cause of the problems and hypocrisy so often found in the ministry today?A: Lukewarmness, the lack of challenge and change, the “status quo”. This attitude allows the people to become their own enemy. The pastor’s mind and actions should be about repairing, building up, moving and equipping people (2 Chron. 24:4-5; Neh. 3:5; 13:11). God will repay if one does not learn from his sins and is unwilling to obey (Ezek. 16:43; 33:31-32). The lukewarm pastor is a half-baked cake left unturned (Hos 7:8), incomplete, and his ministry is displeasing to God and is only fit for spewing (Rev. 3:14-22).
“Lukewarmness is a sin which lurks about, seeking an entrance into the soul. It weakens all our graces and saps life from our ministry. After allowing a pastor to exist in a state of superficiality for a time, God, in great mercy, often awakens him by revealing this sin’s heinousness, causing him to loathe it and repent. With fresh and powerful impressions of its exceeding sinfulness, our determination deepens to never again fall into a pattern of ministerial lukewarmness. The Holy Spirit’s gracious acts of producing godly sorrow leading to repentance serve as loud warnings in the deepest recesses of our being.Nevertheless, lukewarmness often precedes a period of spiritual growth. Sometimes God brings us through a dry and thirsty land that we may again hunger for that land flowing with milk and honey. It is a crisis of mediocrity that forces a man to examine the spiritual foundations of his life and ministry. Mercifully, God often restores a backslidden pastor from spiritual decline without suffering him to leave the ministry. God has His way of using our mistakes for our good and His glory (Rom. 8:28). When God recuperates a pastor back to spiritual health, the restorative effects are immediately felt in the congregation, to their profit and to the minister’s needed renovation.”[2]One must work with all might to strengthen (Eccl. 9:10; Ez. 16:49) in order to be effective (Prov. 12:24). The pastor must be a diligent leader (Rom. 12:8,11; Col. 3:23,24), steadfast and unmovable in his work for the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58; Col 4:17), caring for others (2 Cor. 8:16; Col. 1:28,29) and redeeming the time for the days are evil (Eph. 5:16). The work of the ministry is felt by men and noticed by God (Heb. 6:10-12; Rev. 3:15,16).
“Carrying the spiritual burdens of men’s souls is often so intense that only those who are given the spiritual capacity to hold up under them can survive. None other than an earnest ministry can equalize the pressures and burdens faced by the man of God. A cold, unsympathetic pastor needs earnestness to revive his love and compassion for the sheep. Earnestness adds life to every duty; it gives zeal and urgency to the heart; and it changes routine duties into matters of life and death”[3]Q: What is the object, or goal of living ministry and how is it accomplished?A: Souls must be both saved and matured in Christ Jesus. These are two complimentary elements of the same goal, not two goals. The pastor must fast and pray individually as well as corporately with joy (1 Sam. 12:23; Prov. 28:9; Acts 1:13-14; 13:1-3; Phil. 1:4). He must also do his ministry as unto the LORD listening to and relying on the power of the Holy Spirit (Ro. 1:9). The pastor must listen to His congregation, love them, and guide them to Christ-likeness and intimate knowledge of God (Eph. 1:15-17). Each person is to be strengthened by God’s Spirit, indwelt by Christ, rooted and grounded in love, filled with the fullness of God (knowing the unknowable, comprehending the incomprehensible in Him) (Eph 3:14-21 Phil 1:9-11; Col. 1:9-13; 2 Thess. 1:11). The pastor must help them persevere (Eph. 6:18; Col 2:1; 4:12), living quietly a life of godliness, pleasing the Lord (1 Tim. 2:1-3; Rom. 14:17,18), teaching and living out the whole council of God’s Word (2 Tim. 2:15;1 Tim. 4:6,12-16).
“As a pastor you must minister Christ, hence the title “Minister of Christ.” You cannot minister Christ unless you know Christ, walk with Christ, experience Christ, are controlled by Christ, and are endued with the power of Christ. In other words, Christ is first ministered to your own heart so that you can minister Him to the hearts of others.”[4]Q: What does God think of a pastor who has no regard for quality, is lukewarm and does not have these kinds of objectives in ministry?A: God says these are rebellious, without understanding, sinful and full of iniquity, sick, having forgotten God and provoked Him to anger. They are abandoned having separated themselves out, useless, imposing troublemakers, disobedient (Isaiah 1:1-20). They oppress in order to advance themselves, consume without limit, allowing no one to get in their way, not even their families (Amos 4:1-5). They are full of empty rhetoric, misunderstanding, confusing darkness for the light (Amos 5:16-27). These are known by God to be dead, without vision or strength, forgetful, an easy prey, unworthy, useless, naked, blind, poor, without zeal or remorse (Rev. 3:1-6,14-22).
“God delights more in one faithful pastor, pulsating with the life and love of Christ, than ten thousand dead ones over whose ministry is written “Ichabod.””[5]Q: How, then, is living ministry accomplished?A: He must practice what he preaches, both DOING and TEACHING all the commandments of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 5:19,20; James 1:22-25). He must be free to do what he should, not what he wants having seen the glory of the Lord and having been changed by Him (2 Cor. 3:17,18). His life destination is to be in the image of Jesus (Rom. 8:29) with no regard to the flesh (Rom. 13:14), bearing the image of the heavenly man (1 Cor. 15:49).
“[T]he most important aspect in training men for the ministry is the development of those graces which transform the minister into the message. This is so exceedingly important because a pastor cannot be minister of the Spirit without his life measuring-up to the message he proclaims. If he is to be a tool in the building of a distinctively spiritual kingdom, Christ’s Spirit must be the agent in communicating the message through the Word and through the man.”[6]Q: What is the center of person and ministry?A: None other than Christ Jesus Himself. Without Jesus, both person and ministry is nothing (John 15:5). Jesus draws all men to Himself (John 12:32) in order to have eternal life; that is to know God the Father through Jesus Christ (John 17:3). Self is to be crucified that the life of Christ be lived out through the new person (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21, 3:8-10) for the purpose that all our boasting is in the finished work of Christ Jesus (Gal. 6:14). God intendes to glorify Himself, to “make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27.)
“The goal of the pastor is that Christ may be formed in His people, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). This is your singular objective. All other duties and tools are but supportive of this grand end. Is visitation important? Yes. Are committee meetings necessary? Sometimes. Should we care for the infirm and hungry? Absolutely! Do we need books, study aids, and reference works? Yes, Yes, Yes! However, these things are not an end in themselves¾but a means to an end. But the end of all things is Christ! Jesus is the beginning, middle, and end of our ministry.”[7]Q: What, then, is the pastor to do?
A. Both Pastor (and his family) and ministry must be built by the LORD (Psalm 127:1). By the authority of Christ he is to go teaching the nations everything Jesus commanded, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:18-20). He must accept all the Father gives to Jesus (John 6:37,44) receiving life by the Spirit of God (John 6:63,65). He must love Jesus and take care of the sheep (John 21:15-17; Acts 20:24,28). The pastor works effective ministry by preaching the gospel to make disciples, confirming and calling them to continue in faith even through tribulation (Acts 14:21,22). He is to be the steward, an ambassador of the mystery of God (1 Cor. 4:1) with the task of reconciling men to God and men to men (2 Cor. 5:18-20) as an example of the believers in word, conduct, love, spirit, faith and purity. He is to dispense scripture and doctrine by reading, exhortation and teaching, to work according to the gifts given and confirmed in him (John 15:16; 1 Tim. 4:12-16; 2 Tim. 4:2). His work is to perfect, equip the saints for the work of the ministry and edify the body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-13), to present men to Christ as fully mature in Him (Col. 1:28,29).
“The glamour of ministry fades quickly due to its constant problems and negative orientation. It is no small undertaking in seeking to win recalcitrant sinners to Christ, and to sanctify stubborn saints. None but God can woo them, convert them, edify them, sanctify them, and keep them. All ministerial efforts are doomed to failure if their source is in the flesh. A miracle of grace is required for every conversion. You must be always mindful, therefore, that your strength is in the Lord and in the power of His might. “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain which build it.” The goal of your labors is the salvation of men and the holiness of the saints. This goal cannot be realized except by the Word of His power working through you.”[8]Q: Where does one begin his ministry?A: One must take God’s will to heart as if one were eating and go out to sow the seed of the Word of God, even to reap what others have sown (Matt. 13:1-9,18-23; John 4:31-38) as fellow workers (1 Cor. 3:5-15). The foundation laid should be the same. Abiding in Christ is necessary for fruit-bearing—living in Him and He in you that the Father be glorified. (John 15:1-8). Our ministry is not a competition or a war so we are to compliment our tasks, enduring and helping one another with patience (2 Tim. 2:1-6; James 5:7).
“As a faithful steward and laborer in God’s vineyard, he does not cease working until the harvest is reaped. The wise and faithful pastor sets his sights on harvesting spiritual fruit; for he knows that if he accepts counterfeit fruit in place of the real thing (a physical imitation masquerading in place of the spiritual reality), its fate will be as wood, hay, and stubble when put to the fire. “Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up” (Matt. 15:13).”[9]Q: What is the most effective tool to effect change in people’s lives?A: The Bible should be the delight of one’s heart, directing one’s walk, his standing, and providing seat of counsel, deserving of constant meditation (Psalm 1:1-3). The gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16) and is the theme of all preaching and study (1 Cor. 1:17). Clever speech and deep thoughts do not change a person but the good news of Christ Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:1-5). The pastor is not to promote himself (1 Cor. 3:4-6) but the cleansing power of the Word of God (Eph. 5:26) in every possible circumstance (2 Tim. 4:2). The Word of God should be welcome as effective in the lives of men (1 Thess. 2:13) as it is good for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness that the man of God be made complete for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16,17). It is on the authority of scripture one preaches to see men changed (Titus 1:9, 3:5; James 1:18) apart from their own good works. The heart and mind are discerned by the Word of God (Heb. 4:12), causing men to be born again (1 Pet. 1:23).
“The Word of God is one of the primary agencies in converting the lost and sanctifying the saints. As a pastor, you must know the Word, you must live the Word, and you must preach the Word. You must give yourself to the study of the Scriptures. The Word must be an integral part of your inner being. The Word should flow spontaneously from your heart when people look for your advice in impromptu situations. People do not need the wisdom of the world, or spellbinding stories and illustrations. People need the Word of God, proclaimed by true men of God, in the love and wisdom of God, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Human reason or cute answers cannot raise one sinner from the dead or break the power of sin. We need pastors who preach the pure, uncompromising Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the God ordained means by which the Holy Spirit regenerates souls who are “dead in trespasses and sins.””[10][1] Shelton,Jr. . Spiritual Foundations of Ministry. Pensacola: Mt. Zion Bible Institute, 2001.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
