“Be ready in season and out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2).
Pastoral ministry is seasonal. We pastors inevitably experience both winter-like blasts of ice-cold resistance and spring-like bursts of fresh life and responsiveness. And these changes aren’t always explainable in terms of our ministerial performance. Maybe the greatest pastor of all time, the apostle Paul himself, knew the full round of pastoral seasons.
However your ministry is going right now, you know to do this: “Be ready.” That attitude of urgency and alertness and eagerness is always right. But a guarded self-interest or a cowardly passivity or a defeated resignation is always wrong. As Jim Elliot put it, “Wherever you are, be all there!” Or to quote Richard Baxter, “Whatever you do, let the people see that you are in good earnest.”
When the ministry is going well and people are flocking in and being converted and set free, you will be helped by remembering these three things.
1. Remember how you got here.
Not by good luck, nor by good works. The blessing of God is the blessing of God—by his grace, for his glory. Remember how Paul put it? “I know that through your prayers and the help of
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