Congregational Fellowship Essay
In Matthew 22 the Pharisees come together to test Jesus and ask him, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment?” In order to understand what God is calling the Church to be and do in this time and place it is crucial that our answer to this question be in line with Christ’s. Quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5 Jesus replies, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Every other commandment in the Bible is contained in this commandment but no other commandment contains it. Many would say God is calling the Church to evangelize the world, care for the poor, worship him, or be his holy people. I agree. But to make any of these things primary would be to elevate a lesser command above the greatest command.
Our greatest teacher on the form and function of the Church is certainly the Apostle Paul, who I suspect had Deuteronomy 6:5 as his foundation when in Romans 12 he wrote, “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.” Loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind looks different then according to the grace given each of us. Therefore, the role of the Church is to empower people to fulfill the greatest commandment by being the body of Christ in the world. When we wrestle with questions like, “What does it look like for me?” and “What gifts have I been given?” We are wrestling with questions of vocation.
I was introduced to questions of vocation at a young age being raised in the Church my father planted the year before I was born. It was clear to everyone early on that I shared my father’s gifts of leadership and teaching, so as a child I learned to shrug off the assumptions that I too would be a pastor as well-meaning old ladies so often suggested. In college, with graduate school and careers looming large in my mind, I began to seriously wrestle with my calling. I dreamed of being a musician or a writer, I considered being a farmer or a carpenter, and at one point I was even convinced I could be a great filmmaker. Mostly though I dreamed of being a professor, because I would get to use my gift of teaching in my own service, and maybe even make a bit of a name for myself while I was at it. My main concern in all of this was to be able to do what I wanted. Like the mother in The Screwtape Letters, I didn’t think I was being idolatrous because I wanted so little – my toast buttered just right, or in my case to be left alone to lead a quiet life. I knew first hand that the life of the pastor was one of service – you were not left alone, you could not punch out.
After college I returned to my home Church and signed on for a year-long pastoral internship. I have no idea why I did this – I was so looking forward to my ‘year off.’ As my internship responsibilities and full-time job began to absorb the lion’s share of my time, God brought my idolatry into focus. I was so frustrated with how the year was turning out. I can clearly remember sitting at my desk preparing a Bible study for later that night and being absolutely furious that I was reading commentaries instead of novels. Previously in my life I would cope with this kind of frustration by fantasizing about a future where I could shed all my responsibilities and do all the things I wanted to do. Yet I was simultaneously feeling a more and more concrete call to the pastorate. I thought about my dad, and I thought about what it would require of me.
It got to where the future I pictured was not bliss, rather I projected my current angst into my daydreams and began to dread a life of total frustration – torn between what I felt called to do and what I selfishly desired. Then one day it hit me: “Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” In an instant I saw my idolatry for what it was. The Holy Spirit convicted me, by the grace of God I repented, and through the atoning sacrifice of Christ that sin was put to death in me. And now a remarkable thing has happened – I am more excited about being a pastor than I ever thought I could be.
It does not matter what vocation we undertake (the body of Christ contains artists, plumbers, missionaries, elementary school teachers, lawyers, farmers, marketers) as long as we are laboring to fulfill this greatest commandment and being faithful with the gifts given us. Therefore, I see the role of the pastor in a congregation (now my role) as empowering people to fulfill the greatest commandment by helping them find their role in the body of Christ – in a sense, helping them find their vocation just as I had to find mine. The pastor does this by preaching the Gospel in public and in private to every need and every sin, every demographic and every individual. As the Holy Spirit applies it to peoples’ lives they become new creations in Christ. They lose their lives to find them again in the body. Then with every hand and every foot and every heart and every mind in place, the body of Christ will fulfill all the purposes that God has ordained for it. If it were possible to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind then at that moment it would be impossible to break any other command in scripture. If the entire body of Christ were mobilized to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, and mind then all of the lesser purposes God has ordained for the Church from evangelism and social justice to worship and holiness would also be accomplished. God would be supremely glorified.
