THE END OF THE MINISTRY
I
once lamented to a fellow pastor that the ministry does not often show progress
or results. The ministry is not like gardening, in which you can see the seed’s
progress as it sprouts and grows. The ministry deals with preaching faith into
the heart. Faith, which is invisible, cannot be seen or quantified. Many pastors and laymen, unable to bear the
strain of working with things unseen, seek out visible benchmarks and
measurements of their congregations to gauge their progress. This mentality has
blossomed into what is now called the Church
Growth Movement, which measures the success of a pastor by the three “B”s:
Bodies in the pews, Bucks in the offering plate, and Buildings being erected to
seat all those new bodies. According to this methodology, if a church is
growing outwardly, that is, if (multitudes) of new members are joining, the
budget is growing, and buildings are being built, then that pastor’s ministry
is judged as successful. The sinful flesh likes outward results. But outward,
visible, measurable growth is not the end of the ministry.
My
brother pastor responded by sending me a quotation from a book by H.E. Jacobs
called “Summary of the Christian Faith.”
Jacob’s sixtieth question is “What is the
end of the ministry?” By “end” he means “goal.” While the modern Church
Growth Movement (and our sinful flesh) want the end of the ministry to be the
three “B”s, Jacobs redirects our thoughts to the Holy Scriptures. Jacobs
answers the question this way:
Its
ultimate end is the salvation of men. “Take heed to
yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who
hear you.” (1 Timothy 4:16) Its
intermediate end is the reconciliation of men with God. “Now all things are of God,
who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the
ministry of reconciliation;” (2
Corinthians 5:18) as well as the edification of believers in faith
and other Christian virtues or the
equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ. (Ephesians 4:12-13)
First and foremost, the end of the ministry is the
salvation of men’s souls through the preaching of the true Christian faith. A
pastor is to “take heed’ to his doctrine through study and prayer so that he is
always certain his preaching is in alignment with the pure Word of God. Lies
and half-truths are not the Christian faith and do not bring men to salvation. Thus
it is of utmost importance that a pastor watch his doctrine.
Second, the intermediate end, or goal, of the ministry is
the reconciliation of men with God, which occurs when the promises of the gospel
are believed in the heart. So the end of the ministry is faith in men’s hearts,
not just one time in a lifetime, but throughout the lives of the hearers.
The final ‘end’ of the ministry is the believer’s edification
in faith and good works. This edification, this building up of the faith in
men’s hearts results in “the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of
God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ,” St. Paul says. So the final end of the ministry includes a unity of
the congregation in
The Christian Faith. Through the Holy Ministry, the Lord
is molding us into the image of Christ as individuals and as a body, His One,
Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
The end of the ministry has nothing to do then with
bigger buildings be built, more bodies in the pews, and more bucks in the
offering plate. Don’t hear what I’m not saying. I am not saying that we should
despise outward growth. Every pastor desires to see his congregation grow in
membership and offering. But these are not a true pastor’s goal. A true
pastor’s goal will be the salvation of his people by faith in Christ and the
edification, the confirmation, and the preservation of that faith throughout
their lives.
After the above section, Pastor Jacobs puts it all
together. He writes:
The end of the
ministry, therefore, is not simply to increase, from year to year, the roll of
communicants, but to deepen each member of the Church in all the gifts and
graces of Christian character. The outward extension of the Church and
all about it that meets men's eyes are subordinate to its inner growth, i.e.,
the bringing to men "righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost"
(Rom 14:17). Such is the only test of a successful pastorate.
“The
outward extension of the Church and all about it that meets men’s eyes are
subordinate to its inner growth.” Buildings, budgets, and more bodies (just as
all the external trappings of the church) are all subordinate to the true end
of the ministry, which is “to deepen each member of the Church in all the gifts
and graces of Christian
character,”
the first and foremost of which is faith in Christ. This is not something
visible. Every now and then the Lord, in His mercy, gives a pastor (and his
congregation) a visible sign of growth. But we ought never to put our trust in
the external trappings of the Church.
And
so, to that end, the end of the ministry, I intend to write this monthly letter
to you. That is the meaning of the Latin Header of this periodical, “Ad Finem
Illum,” “to that end,” that your faith be built up and strengthened, that you
think about the Faith as pertains to the different aspects of life in this
sinful world, that you grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and finally
that you preserve in that faith unto life everlasting. This is the end of the
ministry which Christ has given to His church, which He has entrusted to me as
your pastor.
The
end of the ministry is not to grow our congregation numerically. Instead we
pray that the gospel will continue to be preached in this generation and in the
next and let Him decide what to do with that preaching. Our goal is not to
increase our budget. Instead we pray that the Lord of the Church would provide
daily bread to our congregation. Our goal is not to build bigger buildings.
Instead we give thanks for the beautiful sanctuary we have been given and work
to preserve it for future generations. The end of the ministry is that we grow
in faith towards God and love towards one another through the preaching of the
pure Gospel, through the study of the Holy Scriptures, and through the
administration of the Sacraments as Christ gave them to us. To that end may God
grant us His Holy Spirit. Ad Finem Illum. Amen.
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