in August, 1985, Ann & I moved into a small house in Polk City, Iowa to begin a one-year internship at the Evangelical Free Church of Polk City. Twenty-nine years laters, I’m still pastoring.
On November 16, 1997, I began serving as the pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church, Rochester, MN. Yesterday marked the beginning of Year 18. I said nothing to no one about this yesterday. No one said anything to me about it either. It went completely under the radar. Unnoticed. Unobserved.
I had lunch with another pastor recently and when this came up, he asked if we were having a celebration with many other churches invited to come and join in the celebration. I didn’t know how to answer him. How could I? It would have been me planning it, inviting the other churches and conducting the ceremony. The thought never even crossed my mind.
As far as I’m concerned, I’m thankful for the unobserved moments which would call attention to me. It’s not always been this way, but closing in upon 30 years of ministry makes me long more and more to make sure my pastorate is not about me. While there’s a place inside of me that likes to significance of such things, it is embarrassing to be made much of in front of others, who so often go quietly unobserved among our church family.
Don Carson’s book, ‘Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor’ captures it well:
Most pastors will not regularly preach to thousands, let alone tens of thousands. They will not write influential books, they will not supervise large staffs, and they will never see more than modest growth. They will plug away at their care for the aged, at their visitation, at their counseling, at their Bible studies, and preaching…Most of us – let us be frank – are ordinary pastors.
It’s really all I want to be: ordinary. For if I can be ordinary, it guarantees that I’m not blocking the light of the One who is so amazingly extraordinary.
