- We must be faithful to the Triune God Himself.
It all starts here, of course. There is a sense in which pastors are professionals who work for churches. But at a much deeper level, pastors are servants of the Most High God who has redeemed them, regenerated them and expects their reverent, moment-by-moment submission.
God has graciously brought us into intimate relationships with Himself. Our outward performance is of little importance to God if our service is not motivated by the love of the sought by the Seeker, the servant for the suffering Savior (I Corinthians 4:1-5).
Our ministries should be like the lavish anointing of Jesus with costly oils by two disciples who loved Him deeply. Ultimately, our faithfulness failures are failures to love our Heavenly Lover.
- We must be faithful to the faith.
This doesn’t mean that we can’t ever change our minds about anything – a harmful notion that confuses faithfulness with stubbornness.
What this does mean is not “changing our minds” about what we believe or what we should do because of outward pressures or inward compulsions.
We all must have our own nonnegotiable truths to which we bind our souls. We must pass the faith along to the next generation undiluted, undiminished and unpolluted.
- We must be faithful in the use of our gifts.
All believers in Jesus have been given natural gifts and abilities and spiritual gifts as well: Heaven-sent proficiencies made operational by the Holy Spirit Himself. Let’s not forget the wonder of this.
Jesus told pointed parables about our need to be faithful stewards of that which God has entrusted to us. In the story about the talents (large sums of money) the individual who hid his single talent in the sand is severely taken to task for his unfaithfulness (Matthew 25:14-30).
It’s not going to work to tell Jesus that we had poor self-esteem or were victims of our circumstances; Jesus takes the faithful use of our gifts, “beaten with many stripes” seriously.
A popular summary says that we must be stewards of “our time, our talents and our treasure.” I like to add “and the totality of our experiences,” for every mountain we’ve climbed and valley we’ve traversed has helped us to learn precious lessons we can pass on to others.
- We must be faithful to our commission.
The commission (Matthew 28:18-20) to make disciples of Jesus out of the raw material of non-Christian adults (as well as children), was not a suggestion. It’s not for some of us, it’s for all of us.
As pastors we must be faithful to our commission as individuals and we have the added responsibility of doing everything in our power to persuade our followers to be faithful as well.
Our churches exist to storm the gates of hades (Matthew 16:18) not to soothe the wounds of the sheep.
Christian churches are supposed to be service organizations, not support groups. They do not exist for themselves; they exist for the very people who don’t like us and whom we’re tempted to not like in return.
Faithfulness to our commission – as pastors – demands our own evangelistic efforts and that we see ourselves as leaders, not just feeders, of God’s people.
This is a challenging task.
The sweet news for every pastor is that the omnipotent God, who gives us the grace to be faithful to Himself, to the Christian faith, and to the Giver of our gifts, will also enable us to be faithful to our commission to evangelize the lost and lead God’s people to evangelize the lost.
