Resolved
A new year.
With the dawning of a new year, we are prone to make New Year’s resolutions designed to improve us or our lives in the year ahead, or maybe even for the rest of our lives. Among the more common are: reading our Bible and praying daily, exercising, and losing weight. But, unfortunately, all too often, with 365 days and yet another new year on us, our list of New Year’s resolutions is the same as the year before.
Rather than lament our “failing,” why not celebrate that we have not given up or given in but have decided to get up and fight one more round? The person who never gives up is never beaten, and victory is within their grasp because they plod on, yes, even two steps forward and one step back.
With the start of this new year, let me coin a word and set before pastors “Ten Resolveds.” Not “resolutions” in the sense that pastors will do their best to do these as long as they can, but “resolveds” in the sense of being resolute in pursuing a meaningful purpose. Not just the pursuit of good ideas but the passionate, patient, and relentless pursuit of a God idea. Resolved.
Pastor, in 2023, let us give ourselves to these Ten “Resolveds:”
1. I will be a Shepherd.
In heart, hands, and feet, Pastor.
A pastor has three primary tasks: prayer, Word, and making disciples. (Book of Acts)
A person giving him or herself to other tasks before these is not a pastor, for they know not the heart or way of the Great Good Shepherd. Times may have changed since the New Testament when Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John told pastors their job, but the souls of people and the needs of the world have not. Be a pastor. Do what pastors do.
2. I will fight any pull to Celebrity in me.
Pastor, fight it like the plague.
As a missionary in Europe, I pastored people from around the world during one happy season of ministry there. A number of my people had visited the US and attended church. Several asked me, “Pastor, why does the American church worship pastors? Why do pastors seem to embrace, even cultivate, this worship?” I had no answer, only the Spirit’s conviction.
I remember attending an international pastors’ conference in Brussels where the speaker, an internationally-known African professor, spoke to us about servant leadership. He not only spoke on the subject; he demonstrated it, refusing applause for his accomplishments. Without water or basin, it was clear he had come not to impress us but to wash our feet. I bought one of his books that day. I cannot look at the cover without feeling, not a hard-hitting conviction, but a tender wooing, to follow Jesus in taking a towel, wrapping it around my waist, and serving those I lead.
Pastor, fight celebrity as if you are fighting for your very soul because you are. Fight not for the first place but the last; not the highest position, but the lowest. This is the way of Jesus. We call Him “Lord” and do well in saying so, for He is. Or should be. Pray even now, “Oh, Father in Heaven, crush all pride in my heart. Break me of all self-loving. Let the heart that beats in Jesus be more and more my heart, a heart, you said, humble and gentle. Let me be like Him so that I might please you and serve you well. In His exalted name, Amen.”
3. I will take up my Cross.
If you haven’t taken it up already.
And if you haven’t taken it up, what are you doing pastoring God’s people? Or trying to pastor God’s people while disconnected from the Savior, who not only commands all believers to take up their crosses but even showed us how to do so. Pastors lead their people in The Way of Jesus, who told us the mark of His followers is a cross on our back.
If you have taken up your cross, let 2023 be a year when you check how deeply you are carrying it. A skin-level/abrasion-carry shows up in sermons, but a soul-level/wounds-carry shows up in character, sacrifice, and joyful servanthood.
4. I will relentlessly pursue the mother and father of all Virtues
Gratitude is the outflow of a life that knows it lives in the grace of God: all it enjoys in life, it enjoys as the gift of God, unearned and unearnable. Recognizing that God’s grace is raining on me constantly, I live in gratitude for His grace – grace given directly by God’s hand and indirectly through others. I breathe in grace; I breathe out gratitude.
Humility is seeing ourselves as God sees us, neither too high nor too low. And then, it is walking before God and others in light of this right view. Humility exalts us in that we see ourselves first in God, not in ourselves, so we feel no need for place or praise of people. We are as content washing feet as we are seated on thrones – it is all in Jesus and for Jesus.
5. I will steadfastly seek Silence
Turn off the tech. Cut the umbilical cord to your digital mama. Break the bonds that hold you like chains to that digital prison you call your phone. Imprisonment doesn’t always mean limited physical movement. Sometimes it means a slowly suffocating soul, strangled by the cords of activity and noise.
Instead, let us learn the way of the Savior, the way of a quiet heart and mind. Turn on the solitude and silence. Listen by meditating on God’s Word and then reflecting on the God of the Word. That means reading God’s Word as if He is in the room talking to you. That means turning off the tech. If this is hard for you, that should tell you something about the clutter in your soul (See the doctors in Psalms for the diagnosis you need to hear, the prognosis you need to fear, and the prescription to which you need to adhere).
“The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I should reply: Create silence . . . All will be acquired in stillness and made divine in silence. Soren Kierkegaard
6. I will train for Suffering.
I’ll let author Rod Dreher say it:
“A time of painful testing, even persecution, is coming. Lukewarm or shallow Christians will not come through with their faith intact. Christians must dig deep into the Bible and church tradition and teach themselves how and why today’s post-Christian world, with its self-centeredness, its quest for happiness and rejection of sacred order and transcendent values, is a rival religion to authentic Christianity. Live Not by Lies (p162)
Not only are people my age seeing this, but young adults as well: many of the young ministers I coach address this issue and ponder how to lead the people of God through it.
It is time to prepare. Christians face significant challenges from their employers, educators, media, and government – abortion before and after birth, euthanasia, gender, transgender, LGBTQ+, gay marriage, pedophilia, and drag queens. We can talk about the recently passed (and craftily mislabeled) “Respect for Marriage Act,” through which the church, Christian schools, and parachurch ministries will eventually be told to bend the knee or else. All in the name of compassion, justice, and equity.
Christians face challenges not long seen in history, and the totalitarian train shows no signs of slowing down for the church: it will run over those who refuse to get on board. Pastor, prepare now. Train now for the suffering that will be required to stand for Christ. If we do not train now, we will not stand then. We cannot worship Jesus as Lord and burn incense to the emperor. We serve one Lord.
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” I Peter 4.12-16
7. I will be a follower of Jesus Christ.
Not an admirer. A passionate, Word-defined, always-in-prayer, Spirit-led and controlled, disciplined apprentice and maker of apprentices of Jesus.
Let others applaud Him, we will imitate Him, paying whatever price is required of us, not out of heavy bondage, but joyful obedience to Him who paid the ultimate price for us. We want to know Him in the length, breadth, height and depth of His love. (see Ephesians 3.18)
Whatever gain we have, we count as loss for the sake of Christ. We count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. For his sake we are willing to suffer the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, that we may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith – that we may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible we may attain the resurrection from the dead. . . . We press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus Philippians 3.7-11, 14
As Brother Lawrence said, “we give all to the All.”
“When we are called to follow Christ, we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to his person.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
8. I will fill every moment with Christ.
No, not in a “wow, what a sweet, poetic, but not practical” kind of way, but in real, every day, every heartbeat, desire, motive, attitude, thought, word – every way.
No, I will never attain this high ideal. However, I will rise higher in it by giving my life to its pursuit than I will in not seeking this ideal at all.
The Carmelite brother known to us as Brother Lawrence was known to have said his greatest desire was to fill every moment of every day with Christ. Every. Moment. Christ.
He also said, “I just make it my business to persevere in His holy presence…My soul has had an habitual, silent, secret conversation with God.”
Jesus is life! He gives life so eternal it is abundant even now. He gives life so abundant it is eternal. Life is filled with many wonderful things to be enjoyed. But none can compare with His person and presence; all are made more pleasurable as we experience them in Him.
9. I will be Faithful to Christ.
Consumer Church is consuming the church – the pew and the pulpit. Especially the pulpit. Studies reveal how much pressure pastors feel to keep up with “successful” pastors online. And down the street. And so, we “dress” the church and our ministry for success.
But Jesus does not call us to success. He calls us to faithfulness: “Well done, good and faithful servant,” is His award for every pastor, every follower of Christ. It may well be that those we called the most prominent success here on earth are least successful, i.e., faithful, before the Audience of One, the only audience that counts.
Resolve to be faithful. Not first to your church or ministry, but to Jesus our Lord.
“Followers of Christ are called simply to be faithful in our moment of history. Nothing more, nothing less.” John Seel, Nostalgia for the Lost Empire, quoted in No God But God by Os Guinness
10. I will let God be God
Do you practice the spiritual discipline of Sabbath, Pastor? Do you practice the disciplines of giving yourself to the study of God’s Word and coming before Him in prayer?
No, not “I try.” No, not “Sometimes.”
Yes or no: do you practice the disciplines of Sabbath, practice the study of God’s Word and prayer? If you don’t, you have yourself confused with God. And nothing good can ever come of that.
When I was a missionary in Europe, I had lunch in the Swiss Alps with a pastor from the US. As he described his weekly schedule, he was obviously too busy. I asked him, “When is your day off?” “Day off?” he laughed. “I never take a day off. There’s too much for me to do.” I asked him when he prepared his messages and gave time to prayer. “In the car while I’m driving to my next meeting,” he exclaimed as he hit the table for emphasis. Translation: I’m indispensable; my people – and God Himself – can’t make it without me.”
Not even the breathtaking grandeur of the Alps could convince Him of the all-surpassing sufficiency of the God who has commanded us to learn Sabbath, study, and prayer. Think of it: the same God who commanded a universe into existence (and it had to obey) commands a puny person like you or me to come away with Him, and we have to think about it. What arrogance we practice in the name of ministry and worship.
Pastor, resolve to let God be God, and you be you, His obedient servant.
“There is a God, and you aren’t him. True freedom comes when you embrace God’s overall design for the world and your place in it. This is why in the Bible you see the strong connection between God’s law and soul freedom.” John Ortberg, Soul Keeping (Book)
A FINAL THOUGHT
“The opportunity of a lifetime needs to be seized during the lifetime of the opportunity.” Leonard Ravenhill
Resolved: This is the opportunity of a lifetime; I will seize it this year, now, during its opportunity.
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