Before you decide what you’re going to do, decide who you’re going to be

What do you think were the goals of the apostles and disciples in scripture when preaching? Peter and John when they stood before the Sanhedrin, or Stephen when preaching in the temple, or of course the apostle Paul when taking the Gospel to the many areas of the world… Looking at Peter, John, Stephen, and the words of Paul, we can clearly see their goal was certainly not the expansion of their name. And if it was, they failed.

It’s crazy to think how we’ve now taken ministerial rolls and instead of labeling them callings, we’ve began to label them “careers”. Their are more full time minsters, priests, clergy, missionaries then ever before. Which is amazing to an extent, but forces questions on the other end.

Now with more people then ever in full time ministry, there are more people then ever who should not be in ministry. Who may actually be doing more harm than good.

I recently heard Andy Stanley give a message to a group of 20 somethings, the entire message surrounded one key statement, “before you decide what you’re going to do, decide who you’re going to be.”

So many of us young pastors (even older pastors) have made or will make this mistake. We’ve jump into ministry having an idea of what we want to do, before we’ve decided who we’re going to be. Which is why the average stay for a youth pastor is only 9 months. Which is why we see so many pastors suffer from burn out, or even have “moral failings”. They made the mistake of figuring out what they were going to do, before they knew who they wanted to be.

I read through scripture, and it bothers me that many of our modern day American pastors look nothing like the what christ is asking of his disciples. And I mean the basics, such as inviting strangers into ones home or discipling.(I know this isn’t all pastors)

Have we weighed the costs. Have we understood all that Christ is asking of us as followers? The opposition we’ll face? The sacrifice we’re going to have to make? Do we understand that following Jesus does not always end well (through the worlds eyes) for his followers, considering all of Christs apostles died of unnatural causes but one.

Consider this, “If we’re contextualizing the gospel so much that everyone likes it and likes you, we’re probably not preaching the gospel.”

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’” (Luke 14:28-30)

To pastors, students, Christians young or old ask yourself who is it that you want to be? And allow that to effect what you want to do.