“My mouth will declare Your righteousness and Your salvation all day long, though I cannot know their full measure” (Psalm 71:15 BSB).
“The Spirit of God brings justification with a shattering, radiant light, and I know that I am saved, even though I don’t know how it was accomplished” (Oswald Chambers).
Pastor, do you know what you are doing?
This question applies to every pastor, but it applies exponentially to the pastor of the IC. Paul wrote, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part,” (1 Cor. 13:9), but the entire story of God’s work in any human soul, let alone the multicultural masses assembled in ICs, is and always shall be a mystery to us. We present the gospel, we pray, we preach, we lead worship, we counsel, we hold meetings, we encourage, we plan and seek to be intentional – good things that we should do – yet the work belongs ultimately to God and the means and measures He uses are by nature beyond us.
I am currently teaching a seminary course online named “Church Strategic Planning and Administration,” teaching church leaders how to lead a church to be intentional in ministry. God has given us certain things to do for Him: preach the gospel, make disciples, care for our neighbor, love one another, and love the Lord with all that is within us. Churches in cultures tend to define what these things look like, and in so doing we make the unmeasurable more practical and doable. I believe this was the intention of God from the beginning: to give us certain tasks to perform while retaining the mystery of how He works to Himself. And the mystery drives us to depend more on prayer and on God.
I remember how the cultural and personality differences between two volunteers came to a head in a pre-school Sunday School class. One of the volunteers from a southeast Asian culture wanted the children to sit still and to sit upright and listen, while the other volunteer, a Western man, got under the table with all the children on the floor to tell the Bible story, and even put a big blanket over all their heads. Which was right?
The nature of the IC means that the convenient cultural crutches that the church can fall upon to prove that it is doing the will of God are often simply not there, or not clearly agreed upon. It requires us to be prayerful and watchful and to go back to the basics of the Bible to identify what we must do in the place where we exist, as a united congregation. The prophet Nahum wrote, the “clouds are the dust beneath His feet” (Nahum 1:3), and when obstacles and emotions seem to obscure God’s work and even the paths that we should take, it is good to remember that He and His works are closer to us than we dream. That dust cloud could simply be the evidence that God has passed this way.
After three decades of pastoring ICs, I believe I have learned some things, but the mystery of God at work through the gospel in human lives remains. I have learned it is best to be biblical and to be loving, but love is never shown without patience, and patience is never revealed without some irritations in the congregation. Being intentional in ministry is wise, but we still prophesy in part and plan in part. It is best to have broad-based church support for our policies and procedures, as well as our plans and strategic objectives, but the work belongs to God. And this mystery is what makes life and ministry in the IC exciting. God is at work among our churches and He is doing today as He has always done: He is exalting Jesus Christ, bringing people to faith and to spiritual maturity, calling people to service, and building His church.
Perhaps the best answer to the question whether we pastors know what we are doing is, “Sometimes.” But we may always trust that God knows what He is doing, and He will use us and bless us as we follow Him.
David Packer
MICN Pastor Care
