7 Years of Pastoring: Reflections by Mark Stevens

Last updated on: January 26, 2014 at 2:50 pm by Scot McKnight

7 Years of Pastoring: Reflections by Mark Stevens 2014-01-21T07:52:08-06:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Living Faithfully as the People of God, by our friend in Adelaide Australia, Mark Stevens.

Seven years ago last week I started my journey as pastor and shepherd of the Happy Valley Church of Christ. I’ve found that we don’t often use these words any more to describe what it is we do. We call ourselves ministers, senior pastors, team leaders. All accurate descriptors of what we do. However, the metaphor of pastor and shepherd, I think, best describes who we are. These past 7 years you have taught me the importance of these two metaphors for ministry. This anniversary gave me reason to reflect on what I do, how I do it and the one question that continually guides me as a pastor.

Leading up to my arrival our arrival at Happy Valley both Beck and I had been on quite the journey. Having left our spiritual home-land (our church and denomination) we ventured out into the spiritual un-known. We didn’t know it at the time but it would be a long 4-5 years. Eventually we ended up in our current denomination and eventually we found our way to Happy Valley Church of Christ (Church of Christ being Christian Church/Disciples of Christ in the US). It had been a long season of wandering the desert. A time of exile of sorts. Not a day goes by that I don’t give thanks for this church. They have been for us a Promised Land.

Starting out as a pastor is an interesting thing. Especially a second time around. The first time it had all been about success and how I might grow the church. Imagine a young man pushing a boulder uphill in extreme heat and you’d have a fairly accurate picture of me and my approach to ministry. A lot of sweat for not much reward. A young man growing more and more frustrated at the boulder. Eventually the boulder began to roll backwards eventually trapping me under it. Me still trying to push.

The second time around I was determined to do things differently. Eugene Peterson had equipped my mind with a different vision for ministry. One where God was in charge. One that helped me embrace the actuality of church life and not the idol of church I had created in my mind. But here I was still in search of a metaphor for how I thought I should undertake this new vocation into which I’d soon be ordained.

At the time a friend, Greg, a pastor himself, was working with me to help me transition into my new role. I’ll be honest I had no illusions of grandeur. All of them had been crushed under the boulder. All I had were visions of failure and I was scared out of my britches! Greg had given me quite a bit of sound advice but somewhere along the way he had said to me, “You just need to discern what it means to live faithfully as the people of God within the context of Happy Valley.” To Greg it was most likely a throwaway line, but to me I had found a working metaphor for it meant to be a church: The faithfulness of God and the response of living faithfully! It was my role as pastor/shepherd to help these people live faithfully.

In light of this I have spent the last seven years asking, “What does it mean to live faithfully as the people of God?”

If there was one thing I had learnt through our own years of exile it was that God is faithful. The good thing about faithfulness, especially the faithfulness of God, is that it endures the varying seasons of life. Seasons of toil and hard work as well as seasons of joy and hope. The Bible tells us time and time again of God’s faithfulness. In my opinion, the entire story of God and the people of God found in the Bible is one of faithfulness: The faithfulness of God and the question of his people as to what it means to live faithfully as His people.

Faithfulness seems to me to be a lost word. Although the word is still in our vocabulary its meaning has lost its virtue, its power. Faithfulness has given way to rationalism and pragmatism. In a world that demands results and likes to see bang-for-buck return, faithfulness is an uncomfortable bed-fellow.

Faithfulness is also lost art in the church today. In fact it is more than an art it is a spiritual discipline. Faithfulness and a spiritual discipline; especially as it relates to the Mission of God in the world, is perhaps lost.

My reflections over the past 7 years is that faithfulness is what God requires of us and what he empowers us to do. The question of how we live faithfully as God’s people should always be on our heart; both individually and as a community. It is easy, as the exiled people of God discovered, to lose heart and begin to question faithfulness and let it give way to faithlessness. On my shelves I have many books that tell me how to be a good pastor and how to grow a big church. Most of them tell me what I need to do to fix the church as if the church is an old ramshackle house in need of repair. These books are a kind of DIY of church leadership. However, what the Bible tells us time and time again, is what it means to live faithfully as the people of God. Most of the time that means living with the mess and not being able to fix stuff.

The story of God reminds us that God is our God and we are his people. We are a people called to love him with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul, and all of our strength. Jesus then went on to say, and love your neighbour as yourself! We are reminded on every page that God is always with us, and that faithfulness is more important than worldly success, that love is better than power, and that God has asked us to be his servant – not the other way around.

The future of any church does not lie in its ability to create a vision and implement programs. Our future is in Christ and in God’s hands. May I therefore suggest that living faithfully is about being a people of prayer, a people of the story (the Bible), a people who let God lead, a people committed not to the church but to being disciples of Jesus, and ultimately a people who love God with every ounce of their being and who love their neighbour as themselves?

Pastoring and Leading

Previous Post

January 26, 2014

Peyton Manning and Faith

Next Post

January 27, 2014 Two Challenges for Pastors

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I was lifted up on a pole that healed those who looked at me. What am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A healing statue The Stone Tablets The bronze serpent The Golden Calf