Awake! This Morn My Heart Would Rise

By / Mar 24

Editor’s Note: To encourage those considering a call to ministry, Midwestern Seminary is giving away an e-book copy of Christ Our All: Poems for the Christian Pilgrim by Charles Spurgeon during the month of March. Download your copy today and be encouraged by the reflections of a faithful minister as you follow the call of Christ.

Prayer: Awake! This Morn My Heart Would Rise[1]

Awake! This morn my heart would rise
Above this world to see thy face;
Beyond these narrow-cloudy skies
To gain from thee, supplies of grace.

Arise! O King thy people wait
To speak with thee, to feel thy love.
We come and waiting at thy gate,
Desire thy blessing from above.

Alone with thee, the world behind,
Our hearts are waiting thee to meet.
Still hoping in thy love to find
Our help while waiting at thy feet.

O can’st thou spurn us from thee[,] Lord
And disappoint each waiting soul?
Then thou must take away thy word,
Which bids us on thy name to call.

But wilt thou have us here to doubt
Thy goodness, love, forgiving heart?
Shall our petition be cast out?
Once sav’d, Lord, wilt thou from us part?

O Lord we cannot think of thee
With such hard thoughts, thy Life, thy Death
Thy rising, it was all for me
And all who love thee, Scripture saith.

For further reflection: Psalm 63:1–4

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[1] This poem was written by Charles Spurgeon and compiled by Geoffrey Chang in Christ Our All: Poems for the Christian Pilgrim (Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic, 2024), 24. It is reproduced at For the Church by permission of B&H Academic.



Surrender to Ministry

By / Mar 19

When I was a kid growing up in church, it was common to hear someone say, “I surrendered to ministry in 1968,” or, “It was on a Sunday night that I surrendered to ministry.” You don’t hear that kind of language much anymore—the word surrender. But it’s actually an incredibly powerful idea.

It doesn’t mean ministry is so bad, so hard, so awful that you finally give in to it. Rather, it means that God has placed a burden on your heart—so deep, so unavoidable—that you can’t give your vocational life to anything else but serving His church.

That word—burden—feels a little old-fashioned too, but it’s essential for understanding a pastor’s calling and staying in the race. Every pastor, at some point, receives a burden from God—a weight that pulls him toward vocational ministry. It’s not just a decision. It’s not just an opportunity. It’s a conviction, a compulsion, a sense that nothing else would be as faithful or as obedient to what God has put in his heart.

Most pastors I know could make more money doing something else. They could work fewer hours, have less stress, and deal with fewer challenges. And yet, they stay the course. Why? Because their heart aches for the church. Because they long to see it thrive. Because they want to be part of God’s work in a deep, meaningful way.

There’s been a lot written recently about why so many are leaving pastoral ministry. And yes, it is hard. But it’s always been hard. No one steps into this work because it’s an easy, stress-free job. We step in because we have a burden. Because God has placed in us an unshakable desire to see His church strong and healthy. Because we want to see the church reach its full potential for the glory of God.

If you want an easy job, go do something else. If you want to make money off churches without carrying their heaviest burdens, go be a church consultant or start a podcast. But brother, if God has given you a burden for His Church—if you long to see His people flourish no matter the cost—become a pastor, and stay a pastor. Even when it’s hard. Even when it’s exhausting. Even when you wonder if it’s worth it. Surrender to the burden of Christ’s bride and be faithful to that calling.

And if you do, one day, in the presence of the Lord, you’ll see the fullness of her beauty. You’ll share in the joy of Jesus as He looks upon the people you had the privilege to care for, disciple, teach, and shepherd. You’ll see how God used your faithfulness—how He took your prayers, your sermons, your tears, and your struggles, and He built something eternal.

Pastoral ministry is a heavy burden, but it is a beautiful burden. And I pray that God would lead many of His best to surrender to it—until we hear His words, “Well done.”



Episode 307: Mixing it Up on Student Ministry

By / Mar 19

Jared and Ross return to a past episode format — “mixing it up” — where they draw out the usual podcast banter to specific subjects. No agenda; no plan. Just a free-form conversation — this week, on student ministry.



What gives you hope for the church over the next five to ten years? – Dan Darling

By / Mar 18

Ftc.co asks Dan Darling ‘What gives you hope for the church over the next five to ten years?’.



The Real Reason We Struggle to Pray?

By / Mar 18

A few weeks ago, my friend pulled me aside after our community group gathering. We had finished our discussion time with about 20 minutes of prayer together, and he was both challenged and encouraged. He said, “I’ve been a Christian for decades, but I’ve never learned to pray.” He continued, “I know I’m supposed to pray. But I don’t know what to do. I love Bible study, and I like serving. But for some reason I can’t explain, I just don’t really pray.”

I have some version of this conversation at least monthly, typically when a new person or couple joins our church and is trying to make sense of our significant emphasis on prayer. Why is this the case? Why is prayer so difficult? If prayer is such a constant theme in the Scriptures from beginning to end, why do so many Christians feel like they don’t know how to pray and feel little desire to develop a praying life?

Of course, there are many folks who love prayer. They don’t just value prayer as a concept; they actually pray. Deeply. They believe it really does something. They feel intimately connected to God, and as a result, their lives are marked by a gentleness, increasing maturity, and relational quality that many of us are seeking. What do they know that we don’t?

There are many reasons why prayer doesn’t come easily for us. We’re busy people. We haven’t been trained in prayer. It’s just difficult to sit still for more than five minutes without sweating in distraction. These are all true, but I think it goes deeper than all this. Recently, an unexpected source helped me see this clearly.

Why We Really Struggle with Prayer

Ricky Gervais is a British comedian and actor best known for writing and starring in the original BBC version of The Office. Gervais’s standup comedy specials are not exactly clean, and he is an outspoken atheist. But on a recent tour, he joked about his atheism and shared his views on prayer.

“People ask me, ‘Do you pray?’ No. I don’t mind if you pray. People say, ‘I’m praying for you,’ and I say, ‘Thank you.’ But if you cancel the chemotherapy, I’ll say, ‘Don’t do that.’ Do both. Pray and do the chemotherapy. Because doing both is the same as just doing the chemo. If you’re going to do one, do the one that works.”[1]

I laughed at first. Gervais is a master of delivery. But then something settled in like a dark cloud. At the time, I had been a Christian for most of my life—one who regularly prayed at the start of every day. But as I reflected, I realized Gervais’s remarks might indeed represent my own view of prayer more than the biblical vision. (More than might; they did.) My commitment to prayer was often agnostic—as if I believed in the existence of the Divine and mentally assented to the importance of prayer but didn’t engage deeply with a personal, living God.

If you had witnessed the weakness and inconsistency of my prayers in that season of my life, you’d likely conclude that I didn’t really expect all that much out of prayer, opting instead for the things that “worked.” Following my life closely, you’d undoubtedly conclude that I relied far more on my intellect than the Holy Spirit, more on my own energies than the power of God. You’d watch every morning pass as I, functionally speaking, said a few weak prayers and then opened my eyes, laced up my Nikes, and got to work as if it all depended on me.

Or at least, that’s until a few years ago, when I began to discover the joy and power of prayer.

Rediscovering the Joy and Power of Prayer

Toward the end of 2019, I was experiencing a dangerous level of fatigue and apathy. Nothing was utterly falling apart, but I was struggling through daily life. My spiritual life was dry, and I could barely feel God’s presence and love. Our little church plant was stumbling through its infancy stage, and our three boys were wonderful and exhausting at once. I was keeping my rhythms of Scripture, prayer, and fellowship, but I felt discouraged and powerless.

I was running on the mercies and energy of the past, and I was reaching the bottom of the tank. I began crying out to God with a mixture of lament, accusation, and petition. Desperation, as it turns out, is a key ingredient in prayer.

In this wilderness season, I cried out to God in the spirit of Lamentations 2:19.

“Arise, cry out in the night,
as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heart like water
in the presence of the Lord.” (NIV)

The Lord met me powerfully and gently in that wilderness season of pouring out my heart. I can’t say it was a sudden or explosive experience—like the ones I’ve read about in memoirs by Augustine and Blaise Pascal—and I didn’t reach the third heaven. But nonetheless, over the course of a few days, I felt swept up in the powerful mercies of God. His presence felt so real and tangible. His Word leaped off the page. I prayed for hours on end. I even gave fasting another try after years of avoiding it.

Now, let’s be clear: I have not become a prayer expert, nor have I become a super Christian. My journey is simply deepening. Said another way, I’ve come to understand these moments as personal “times of refreshing…from the Lord” (Acts 3:19–20, NIV). For the next few months, my prayer life came fully alive. I had newfound energy for life. My sweet wife, Jessie, was overjoyed that I had been lifted from my funk. My boys could notice a difference in me. In my ministry relationships, I timidly brought up my renewal to our leaders, and several of them were experiencing something similar. Something remarkable was happening.

Over the past few years, my prayer life has ebbed and flowed; many dry seasons and powerless morning quiet times have come and gone. But as I’ve pressed further into the presence of God, He has been gracious and faithful to meet me with an increased love for Him and for others. Perhaps you know this feeling well, too. Or perhaps you long for it.

These days, I’m simply asking for more—more of God’s presence, more of His Spirit’s fruit ripening in my life, more Christlikeness as I walk with Jesus. To seek more of God is not to be discontent, but rather it’s a content, sitting-on-the-Father’s-lap prayer of a weaned child, seeking to be fully engaged in God’s presence (Psalm 131).

What Prayer Does

These days, I still reflect on the comedian’s words—“don’t do prayer, do something that works”—but I’m seeking to remind myself just how much prayer really does.

What exactly does prayer do?

Prayer welcomes us into the embrace of the Father and retrains us to live from belovedness.

Prayer uncovers our fragmented lives and invites us into wholehearted living.

Prayer is the means by which God moves history toward the renewal of all things; it leads to breakthrough.

Prayer invites us to face pain and suffering with honesty and hope.

Prayer opens us to a life of celebration and thanksgiving and teaches us to praise.

Prayer connects us to other believers more deeply and the mission of God more fruitfully.

Prayer increases our experience of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power.

Prayer reorients us to eternity—the coming new creation.

In short, prayer does stuff. And I’m not the only one who’s discovered this.

Over the past few years, along with my own spiritual awakening, our church has caught a vision for prayer. We have a long way to go, but we have become a praying church. Our calendar is filled with prayer meetings, and people are praying with joy, passion, and power. We’ve seen people experience profound inner healing. We’ve seen marriages restored. Members have seen their long-time friends come to Christ and be baptized. Lives are being changed, and it’s not our music, our level of production, and (certainly not) our preaching skills. It’s prayer.

Our lives are powerless apart from prayer. Prayer is the way in which we enter the presence of God and gain access to His strength, peace, and wisdom. And the more we experience God’s presence in prayer, the more we will keep turning to Him. Prayer cultivates a hunger for God. Prayer makes us more content (we are happy with less) and hungrier for God’s presence (we want more of Him).

There are many reasons it’s hard to pray deeply. But we don’t have to be afraid that prayer doesn’t do much. Prayer is powerful because God is powerful. Prayer works because we have a loving, sovereign Father who loves to answer prayer. And He invites us to pour out our hearts to Him. Why hold back?

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[1] Ricky Gervais, Netflix special, “Supernature,” 2022.

Editor’s Note: For more encouragement in prayer, see Jeremy Linneman’s book Pour Out Your Heart: Discovering Joy, Strength, and Intimacy with God through Prayer, available today from B&H Publishing.



Captain of Our Salvation, Prove

By / Mar 14

Editor’s Note: To encourage those considering a call to ministry, Midwestern Seminary is giving away an e-book copy of Christ Our All: Poems for the Christian Pilgrim by Charles Spurgeon during the month of March. Download your copy today and be encouraged by the reflections of a faithful minister as you follow the call of Christ.

Prayer: Captain of Our Salvation, Prove[1]

Captain of our salvation, prove
The greatness of thy saving love;
Teach thou this wayward heart to know
What made thee love poor sinners so.

Was it for aught that we had done
For thee, that thy great pity came?
Or that because our helpless state
Bespoke the rebel sinner[’]s fate?

Was it for love we bore thy name
That made thee bear the cross and shame?
Or that because our sins were deep
That made thy loving heart to weep?

Lord, did our ruin bring thee down
And make thee leave thy royal crown?
To wander here, endure the grave
Our sinful souls to buy and save?

Did our condition grieve thy heart
And bring thee down to bear our smart?
Or did thy loving heart desire
To save us from eternal fire?

If such great love as this was thine
To us a mass of guilt and sin,
Let me adore thy sovereign grace;
Save me, and let me see thy face.

For further reflection: 1 Timothy 1:15–16

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[1] This poem was written by Charles Spurgeon and compiled by Geoffrey Chang in Christ Our All: Poems for the Christian Pilgrim (Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic, 2024), 23. It is reproduced at For the Church by permission of B&H Academic.



The Agents of Mission

By / Mar 12

From the beginning of history, God has worked through agents to carry out His mission. Patrick Schreiner, Associate Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Midwestern Seminary, writes, “[God] enacts His mission and furthers His mission specifically through His people.”[1]

First, God created Adam and Eve as His image bearers on earth. God blessed them and commissioned them “to reflect, resemble, and represent his greatness and glory on a global scale.”[2] Later, God chose Abraham, sent him from his own country, and promised to bless the nations through him (Gen. 12:1–3; 17:4–5; 22:18). The Old Testament records how God deputized and sent many other emissaries on His behalf, people like Moses, David, and Elijah. In fact, God sent the entire people of Israel to fulfill His plan.

Israel’s God-given mission was to be a kingdom of priests and a light to the nations (Ex. 19:6; Isa. 49:6). Their mission was to display the joy and peace of living in obedience to God, and in the process, to draw the nations to worship the true and living God. Jason DeRouchie, Research Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology at Midwestern Seminary, writes that Israel’s mission “to the nations was centripetal,” which involved “calling others to ‘come and see.’”[3]

While Israel did not have a commission to “go” to the nations in the same way that the Church has the Great Commission, the most fervent lovers of God in the Old Testament repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction with provincially limited praise and, therefore, longed for all nations to glorify God. For example, Psalm 67:3–4 says, “Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.” God affirms that He will fulfill their longing. In Psalm 46:10, God promises, “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” And yet, for generations, the people of Israel turned away from God and failed to fulfill their intended mission.[4]

When the fullness of time came, God sent His Son and Spirit as the ultimate agents of mission. Andreas Köstenberger writes, “The Lord of the Scriptures is a missionary God who not only reached out and gathers the lost but also sends His servants, and particularly His beloved Son, to achieve His gracious saving purposes.”[5] The incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement of Jesus and the arrival of the Spirit form the centerpiece of history and mark the climactic events in God’s mission.

The Son’s Mission

Where other agents failed to perfectly reflect, resemble, and represent God, Jesus succeeded. Jesus fulfilled His mission by perfectly glorifying His heavenly Father through His words and works (John 17:4–5). In the greatest display of love in history, Jesus voluntarily sacrificed His life on the cross, securing redemption for all who trust in Him. Then God raised Him up from the dead and exalted Him (Acts 2:32–33; Rom. 1:4).

After His resurrection and before His ascension, Jesus said to His disciples, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21). Jesus commissioned His disciples to be agents of His mission. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18–20).[6]

Yet Jesus instructed His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit. He said, “I am sending the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes, “He will glorify Me” (John 16:14). Just as Jesus’s mission was to exalt the Father, the Holy Spirit’s mission is to exalt Jesus.

The Spirit’s Mission

Ten days after Christ’s ascension, God sent the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1–4). Immediately, the Spirit went to work. He empowered the small band of believers in Jerusalem to testify to the death and resurrection of Jesus to people from all over the world (Acts 2:5–36).[7] As this band of believers quickly grew in number, they faced persecution. The believers started to spread out from Jerusalem as agents of mission, filled with the Spirit of mission, and began to “turn the world upside down” (Acts 17:6 KJV).[8]

The Spirit first saves people, then gathers His people, and then sends His people.[9] To this day, the Spirit is choosing a people for His own possession and empowering them to proclaim the excellencies of Christ (1 Pet. 2:9). Those whom the Spirit unites to the eternal Son through faith, the Father adopts as His children.[10] The three Persons of the Godhead are involved in salvation because it is a Trinitarian phenomenon. God fills His children with the Holy Spirit of Jesus, who empowers them to cry out, “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15). The Spirit unites the children of God to one another as brothers and sisters. The family of God, the Church, is a new community in the Spirit.

The Church’s Mission

The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 provides a definition for church. Section IV says, “A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.”[11] It is significant that this definition includes extending the gospel to the ends of the earth as one of the church’s primary duties.[12]

Today, the Church is God’s agent of mission in the world.[13] The Spirit leads the Church to continue His mission of exalting Christ.[14] According to the pattern in Acts 13:2–4, the Holy Spirit, in response to the prayers of the Church, sets apart and sends out missionaries. The Church prays for them, ordains them, and dispatches them. Missionaries remain connected to their sending church, but they serve as envoys where no church exists.[15]

Missionaries are not merely concerned with evangelizing lost people, but also with bringing the gospel to and discipling unreached and unengaged people groups.[16]  The difference between “lost” and “unreached” is a matter of access to the gospel. Paul embodies the heart of a missionary when he says, “My aim is to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named” (Rom. 15:20). The core missionary task is to enter new contexts, preach the gospel, make disciples, establish churches, train leaders, and entrust the church to the local believers. In this way, God blesses the nations with the gospel through the Church.

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[1] Patrick Schreiner, The Mission of the Triune God (Wheaton: Crossway, 2022), 154.

[2] Jason DeRouchie, “By the Waters of Babylon: Global Missions from Genesis to Revelation,” Midwestern Journal of Theology 20, no. 2 (Fall 2021): 7.

[3] DeRouchie, “By the Waters of Babylon,” 12.

[4] Israel came the closest to fulfilling their mission of being a “come and see” people during the prosperous reign of Solomon. First Kings 10:24 says, “All the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon.” Yet even Solomon turned away from the LORD, failed in his mission, and left a glaring hole that only the true Messiah could fill.

[5] Andreas Köstenberger, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission, New Studies in Biblical Theology 53 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2020), 261.

[6] The old canard that claims that the word ‘go’ (poreuthentes) is a participle that should be translated “as you are going” is wrong. This oft-repeated falsehood undercuts the imperatival force for Christians to move across boundaries. Making disciples of all nations simply is not possible unless some people “go” to the nations. Additionally, most Greek and New Testament scholars maintain that the word “go” is a command. For example, Daniel Wallace, Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, identifies poreuthentes in this context as a particle of “attendant circumstance,” which means that the participle takes on the mood of the verb. In this case, the word “make disciples” (matheteusate) is a command, which means the participle should also be translated as a command. Daniel Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 640–45.

[7] Patrick Schreiner writes, “The Spirit compels boldness in speaking of Jesus. The Spirit is also always pointing back to the work of Jesus. [His] mission is always to exalt Christ.” Schreiner, The Mission of the Triune God, 152.

[8] “The Spirit is about mission, [and] the mission is to save, recreate, and reconcile a new people.” Schreiner, The Mission of the Triune God, 67.

[9] Schreiner argues that the book of Acts presents the Spirit from three perspectives, soteriological, ecclesiological, and missiological. Schreiner, The Mission of the Triune God, 67.

[10] Adoption as a motif for entrance into God’s family is unique to Paul in the NT (Rom. 8:15; 8:23; 9:4; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:4). John emphasizes new birth to describe a believer’s entrance into the family of God (John 1:12; 3:16; 1 John 3:1–4). John marvels at God’s work, saying, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are” (1 John 3:1).

[11] The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, section IV. Available at https://bfm.sbc.net/ bfm2000/#vi.

[12] The Foundations document of the IMB elaborates on the BF&M 2000 by providing guidelines for church planting, leadership training, and statistical reporting. It also discusses 12 characteristics of a healthy church. Foundations, v. 4, IMB, 78–83. Accessed December 1, 2022.

[13] For a fuller discussion of the church and mission, see Robin Dale Hadaway, A Survey of World Missions (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2020) 53–54.

[14] “We believe God uses the local church to disciple believers, to discern their giftings and callings, to train potential cross-cultural workers in the basics of Christian evangelism and discipleship, to assess their readiness for service, and to send them out to the nations (Ephesians 3:10).” Foundations, 19.

[15] The missionary task is a group assignment. The picture of a lone missionary heroically pioneering new regions is unbiblical. Except in rare cases, Paul, the prototypical missionary, did not work alone. In his letters, Paul identifies well over 70 men and women as his ministry associates, and specifically calls many of them “coworkers.”

[16] The Foundations document clarifies the concept of unreached. It says, “Unreached peoples and places are those among whom Christ is largely unknown and the church is relatively insufficient to make Christ known in its broader population without outside help.” Foundations, 88.



Episode 306: Conspiracy Theories

By / Mar 12

JFK. 9/11. QAnon. Lizard people? This week, Jared Wilson and Ross Ferguson discuss conspiracy theories! Why do they attract? What’s the fascination? Are they all bunk? And how should Christians think about them?



What resources would you recommend to ministry leaders? – Madison Grace

By / Mar 11

Ftc.co asks Madison Grace ‘What resources would you recommend to ministry leaders?’.



Pastoral Ministry and Christian Progress

By / Mar 5

Our Struggle with Progress

I’m coming up on two years in pastoral ministry. Although I’ve not spent much time in pastoral ministry, I’ve come to realize something—there is importance in progress. Waiting patiently for God to do His work in His people is more important than seeing someone change overnight. Looking for a quick fix will not produce the obedience we desire in our sheep. Rather, we must trust the Lord’s plan of lifelong discipleship, knowing that He will produce obedience in the lives of our sheep.

Let me give some examples of situations we may encounter in our churches. You meet with a few men each week to discuss Scripture. Every week, the men seem to get off track as they love to tell stories about their life that have nothing to do with this passage, or they riff off one word they read. They just can’t seem to come to focus on the passage and attempt to understand what the passage means to the original audience, how Christ is connected to the passage, and what we must do in light of these things.

Perhaps week by week you meet with the same guy struggling to let go of his sin. You’re unsure if he even comprehends the severity of his sin. After months, there seems to be some progress, but you wish he’d just be done with that sin by now. If only he could defeat it.

Someone riddled with anxiety comes to your office every few months to talk. Last month they were looking for counsel because some conspiracy theory post on social media got them going. This time they are looking for counsel because they fear a fellow church member is avoiding them even though there is no evidence for this. There’s just always something wrong for this one.

These situations can cause some doubts within the pastor. Doubts come about whether your people are listening to you or not. Sometimes, you may even begin to doubt a church member’s salvation. It feels like they just don’t understand the hope we have in Christ. Maybe you begin to doubt your ability to teach or to counsel. In the end, it just doesn’t feel like these people are making any progress in the faith.

Scriptural Progress

If you’re feeling like Moses leading the Israelites in the desert, then you probably know what I’m talking about. It’s here that I’d like to remind you that a pastor practices patience because a pastor recognizes that progress is the goal of ministry. Hear these words from Paul: “I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). Paul understood that the gospel work in our hearts is completed at Christ’s return. We too should expect that our people’s progress will not be complete until His return.

The book of 1 John is helpful for us to understand how God is working in us. 1 John 1:5–6 can be summed up by saying that God is pure light and no darkness dwells in Him; therefore, anyone who claims they have fellowship with God but walks in darkness does not walk with God. We are to understand that sin is darkness and that by participating in sin we walk in darkness. Our problem of sin causes us to remain in darkness; however, God has provided a way. Through Jesus, we are taken from the realm of darkness and into God’s glorious light. Living in the light, then, is exposing ourselves to God’s light, His purity, and His holiness. That is why 1 John 1:9 gives us the hope that by the confession of our sin—that is, the exposure of our sin—we are forgiven by the faithful and righteous God.

We can say this then, that progress in our spiritual lives is exposing ourselves to God’s light which reveals our darkness. This is our main concern when seeking the progress of the saints. Are they being made more like Christ over time? Some days will be better than others, but do they look more like Christ this year over last year? By God’s grace and work, they should. Our exposure to the knowledge of the beauty and radiance of God will produce changes in our minds that extend to changes in our hearts and work their way out through our hands. The exposure of our sin to the glory of God fuels us to grow and be more like Christ in our knowledge, affections, and actions.

Making Progress with Progress

Okay, so the goal is making progress by being more like Christ. Got it. But what does that have to do with people who are missing the point in Bible study, or that guy still struggling with that one sin, or that person who seems led by fear more than faith? Well, change takes a while. The very fact that we won’t be complete until we are in the presence of the come-again Christ is evidence that we will be consistently changing throughout our life. Change takes time.

Pastors, practice patience with your flock. You didn’t come to the place you are quickly, but the Lord had to mold you and make you into a qualified man over time. Patiently shepherd the flock for their long-term growth, not short-term. For the men that don’t get the main point of the text, be patient with them and help them see how to find it. Show them how to faithfully apply Christ to those texts. Expose them to the glory of God’s inexhaustible light in Christ through the study of Scripture. For the guy still struggling with that one sin, teach him of the delight and satisfaction found in Christ alone. Help him get his eyes focused on Christ and prepare for when distractions would call his attention away from Christ. For the person led by fear, call them to trust the Lord in a way that recognizes their fear but doesn’t allow them to continue living in it. And when a new fear arises, do the same thing again.

Eventually, those in Christ will produce fruit. Fruit production isn’t quick. The seed takes time to take root, sprout, and then grow into a fruit-bearing tree. Then we must wait for the fruit to be ready to eat. In a similar way, when we push for progress instead of complete change in a person, we are allowing the fruit to grow with best results. If we demand someone to produce fruit upon our first talking to them, then the truth we speak may not take root in them. Plant the truth that needs to be said, and let it take root in their mind, sprout in their heart, and then produce fruit from their hands. Gospel change looks to the process of being conformed to the truth, not forced into a mold. Let us be patient and witness the life-changing work of God. Let us watch as God does His work and brings His people to completion.