Contributed by J. G. Swank
What makes you confident that you are doing anything worthwhile in
ministry?
Is it how certain folk define you as "success"?
But what happens to your validation when persons leave your church for
another church? How do you rate yourself as an accomplished pastor when
there are those who are lax in attending your services?
Do you gauge your pastoral achievements by the size of your congregation?
Your salary? Your position in the ecclesiastical line-up? Your degrees?
Your titles?
What happens when people walk away from your efforts or discount them by
criticizing them? How do you deal with laypersons who misinterpret you
completely regarding your motives, your hard work?
Dr. Laura Schlessinger wrote a book, TEN STUPID THINGS WOMEN DO TO MESS
UP THEIR LIVES (New York: HarperCollins, l994).
In that paperback she underlines that too many women validate their very
lives by how attached they are to men. Do the women please the men? Are
they acceptable to them? Do they bring out the masculine charm? Are
they called on the phone? Do they have dates? Do the men pay the women
enough attention?
Most of life for these females pivots on what the masculine presence does
to them. In other words, if the masculine is absent, the female falls
apart. Her whole life structure is based on what the man does, how he
reacts, whether or not he cares that she breathes.
Yet Dr. Schlessinger stresses that females must find their personal worth
outside such male presence. In that will be the true emancipation of the
female. She, in other words, must locate her own value in her own being,
whether or not there is any man in her life. She is validated by her own
existence, not whether or not a masculine says she is worth anything by
paying her some kind of nod.
Interestingly enough, such validation confusions parallel some pastors in
ministry. For instance, they conclude they are only valuable if they are
wanted by a certain number of parishioners, whether they receive a
particular salary check, whether they are applauded by the system and
cheered by those who walk out the church door after worship.
Sad.
What kind of validation then would Jesus have had when one day He said to
a small clutch, "Will you also turn away from Me?"
And what sort of personal worth would Jesus have had when his close
companion-in-the-way, indeed the treasurer of the lot, chucked him over
for a few coins?
Further, what value was Jesus when hanging as raw meat from a piece of
wood atop a hill?
In other words, as for the female, her true worth is in her own
integrity, regardless of anything or anyone else, so the pastor is of
value by his own integrity, regardless of numbers in the pews, his weekly
check or where he is placed anywhere on the organizational chart.
Integrity.
It spelled success for Jesus. It spells success for everyone else who
truly understands what Christian ministry is all about. . .now and
forever.
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