BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was early in my ministry from a mentor, Dale Fisher.  He told me, “God knows where you are and how to get you where He wants you to be.”  Now, looking back over a half-century of preaching, I can see the reality of that.  If you are going to systematically preach through books of the Bible, it will require you to put down roots—to bloom where you are planted.  It enables you to love those people in your congregation—to get to know them and their needs—and to speak to them directly from the Word.  You feed those sheep rather than looking for a larger flock in greener pastures.  I never went to a church that I viewed as a stepping stone to get somewhere else.  I only left when compelled by God and with a tearful farewell.  Here are some thoughts on this from, “The Whole Counsel of God”:

Closely related to pride is jealousy, and this can be born out of a dissatisfaction with the place where God has called us. Instead of faithfully and thankfully laboring away at preaching through the Bible for a smallish congregation in a smallish town, we can instead look to the capital cities, with their megachurches and high-profile pastors, and think about how we could preach ourselves into contention for a role alongside them. In doing this, we are forgetting that God has us exactly where he wants us and that he is as pleased with us doing our work of feeding our particular flock the fullness of his word as he is with the megachurch pastor proclaiming the gospel to thousands each week. In fact, if we were not preaching the word of God to the members of our flock, they might miss out on it, and so what we are doing is essential in God’s economy. God has marked out some to be famous stadium preachers, so we can peacefully entrust that task to them. He has entrusted others of us with the various flocks and missions we have, so that is where we must concentrate our efforts. (Kindle edition, location 3038).

I realize there are some situations that make it impossible to have a long tenure. We may be fired!  It happens. God may direct us to another place. Yet, we should seek to bloom where we are planted. 

 

 

THE RELEVANCE OF “THE REFORMED PASTOR”

Many years ago I got hold of “The Reformed Pastor,” by Richard Baxter. It was a little paperback that had a powerful impact on me. Pastor, do not read it, unless you want to be brought under conviction—it did that to me!  Here was an old Puritan pastor whose ministry was so impactful to the flock he shepherded. His writing is merely theoretical, but for him these truths were transformational. I was reminded of them as I read an article by Jonathan Threlfall called “Richard Baxter’s Advice to Pastors.”  He summarizes some of the counsel Baxter presented in his book and fleshed out in his ministry. I am providing the link in hope you will read it and take it to heart. My prayer is that you will get hold of the book and that the book will then get hold of you!  Read the article here: https://www.9marks.org/article/richard-baxters-advice-to-pastors