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David Platt: Like I told my wife the other day, we’ve just been walking through a lot of challenges, and I was just talking about how tired I was, but I said, Babe, I can honestly say that I know the Lord more as a result of walking through these days, and I trust him more, and I’ve found more strength in him. And I said, so I guess if God’s the goal, then these have been great days. Biggest mistake I made as young pastor. Okay, that list, I think, is long. One that comes to my mind is I remember, I had been at this church, first church ever pastored, and within a few months, I cast like a 10 year vision for where we’re going as a church. And it was awesome, like it was exhilarating, inspiring. And I remember, I was traveling soon after that, and I came across a conversation with an older brother in ministry, and I was like, hey, just what’s any advice you’d give me? Any counsel you give me as I’m starting out? And he said, first thing he said, he said, Whatever you do, don’t cast a 10 year vision, and I don’t think he knew that I had, like, just done this in our church. But I was like, okay, good counsel.
And I’m so well. I wish I’d have received the council like, two weeks before. That had been really helpful, but looking back, I did. I had zeal, desire, I had a lot to learn about. Not just, yes, we do cast vision for shepherding people, but patience and one, helping people come along in that vision, but two, getting to know the people you’re leading. To try to do that without really getting to know them and where they are and where God’s leading us and doing that together. That’s not just one person’s vision. What needs to be imposed upon a church like that’s plurality of leadership that’s in the body. What’s the Holy Spirit doing? So that would be my encouragement to a young pastor to, yeah, get to know people well, cast, create shared vision with other leaders, and then cast that vision with patience, knowing it’s probably not going to happen exactly like you had envisioned in your 10 year dream.
The most important thing I’ve learned as a pastor that I didn’t learn in seminary. Well, I think I probably was told this in seminary, but it didn’t catch the temptation there would be to get so focused on doing ministry that you lose sight of intimacy with Jesus. That’s a lesson I had to learn the hard way at a Yeah, there was a long season in my life as a pastor where things were going awesome on the outside and church growing and, yeah, just a lot of great things. And I was super busy doing all kinds of different things, but for a long period of time, like my intimacy with the Lord was inconsistent at best. The reality is just non existent. Like I would study the Bible, like I’d learned in seminary to preach a sermon, but not just to know God. And I could turn on a public prayer just like that. But yeah, I wasn’t in the prayer closet just because I wanted to be with God. And that’s that’s scary to me, even looking back, how successful, so to speak, I could be in the eyes of the church world, even in my own eyes, in ministry, and do it totally apart from intimacy with Jesus. And so I think I got a lot of really good tools in seminary that I am so thankful for. I needed to realize that all those tools absent walking deeply with Jesus, you missed the whole point.
And I praise God for His grace and the way he used some people in my life to pull me out of that. I mean, that season could have gone in so many different directions that I would not be sitting here right now if the Lord had not been gracious to pull me back, but that would be my encouragement. Like, don’t try to manufacture a heart for ministry, and do use all these tools in ministry. And Miss intimacy, miss a heart for Jesus. When I think about weary days as a pastor, I don’t I don’t feel like I have to go a long way back. I feel like I’ve been walking through a really wearying season. So my encouragement to you, anybody who’s walking through weariness as a pastor, I remember specifically where I was when I was listening to a sort. Sermon from somebody who preached at a pastor’s conference, and before he dove into the text, he said, Hey, two things, just to encourage you guys. He said, one, if it was easy, everybody be doing it. So he said that.
And then two, he said, Don’t forget that everything that’s happening in your life God intends for your good, for your sanctification, and that has always stuck with me, especially in really tiring, hard seasons as a pastor, to remember that, yes, as I’m doing this work, I hope serving and shepherding others like God’s doing a work in me, and he’s refining me, he’s pruning me, He’s removing pride from me. He is helping me see my need for him, my dependence on him, and to find my satisfaction in him, like I told my wife the other day. We’ve just been walking through a lot of challenges, and I was just talking about how tired I was, but I said, Babe, I can honestly say that I know the Lord more as a result of walking through these days, and I trust him more, and I’ve found more strength in him. And I said, so I guess if God’s the goal, then these have been great days, and that’s the good news. Like he is the goal, like he’s He’s worth it. And so it’s not just about seeing certain results and ministry or feeling even certain things. It’s it’s about knowing God at deeper levels. And in the end, that reward is worth more than anything else. I really believe that more now as a result of wearying season.
So I guess my encouragement would be, press down, trust the Lord that he’s working all things together for your good, and hold on to him, knowing that he’s your reward. My favorite thing about being a pastor, I love shepherding the people of God with the Word of God, on the mission of God, and I mean all of those words very intentionally, like shepherding, like not just teaching God’s word, but helping people experience God through His Word and experience life in Jesus. Like shepherding people, real people who are walking through all kinds of struggles and challenges and joys and yeah, highs and lows to show how God’s Word speaks life into every single one of those situations and stages in life. So shepherding the people of God with the Word of God, I love the fact that I don’t have to, like, come up with the content here. God has provided revelation of Himself, who he is, how to have life. Like it’s just freeing. I don’t have to create anything. I just need to say what’s there and help them see what’s there on the mission of God.
Like we live in a world that desperately needs Jesus and to see them, not just find life themselves in Jesus, but to find life in making Jesus known, and a world where so many people around them don’t know Jesus, and billions of people in the world have little to no knowledge of the gospel, like what a time and place, to be alive, to follow Jesus and make him known. So the process of shepherding people to know and enjoy and exalt God in the world on mission like that’s exhilarating. It’s hard, it’s challenging, it’s sanctifying. But I I can’t imagine doing anything else, even as I’m talking about it right now.
With the rate of pastors retiring, burning out, or concluding their ministries, the need has never been more urgent for aspiring ministry leaders to prepare well for their pastoral calling.
