Ministry is long term because we want to see fruit

We've got 2 apple trees in our garden, they've been there for 7 years already.  They take some looking after.  Initially the soil was poor so it had to be dug up and lots of nutrient rich material dug in.  Every year the same thing needs to happen, every year it needs tending, with different things done at different times of the year.  If you look at them they aren't very impressive, you can tell in their branches years when they haven't been cared for well enough.  But they have begun to bear fruit, and as they grow and grow they'll hopefully, if carefully tended, grow more fruit.

It's no wonder the Bible uses the fruit analogy is it.  We know from our own lives how slow change can be, how incremental it seems, in fact so incremental that we only really notice it when we look back after a period of time and see what God has been doing.  Change takes a lifetime.

I was reading today of a pastor who had the privilege of baptising the grandson, and years before the son, of a man who he had also baptised even more years previously.  I couldn't help but reflect on the need for longevity in order to grow fruit.  As pastors we should count our tenure in decades not years.  It takes decades to know, sow and grow the gospel.  It takes decades to build trust so that we listen to the preaching of someone who we know is as invested in us and our church family as we are and know the wounds come from loving study and application of scripture, that the application isn't just a hobby horse but a deeply held conviction, and that they will stick around to help us through the painful process of transformation as we apply it.

Such pastoring for the long term, or maybe even the life term, is so counter cultural to not just the world but often, tragically, our ministry culture.

Measuring commitment

How do we measure commitment?

I worry sometimes when the Pharisee in me comes out, I want to see people at this or that meeting as a sign of their commitment to things. I always find that Jesus challenge is by contrast to send people out to do what they do in a committed way. So rather than having such a busy calendar with 'church' stuff Jesus equips and sends out. So the disciples are sent out, those Jesus heals are then sent back to their homes to tell others and so on.

Paul seems to do like wise telling the Thessalonians off not for not spending enough time in committee or church meetings but for giving up work. I have to learn to measure commitment by determination to take the gospel into everyday life, to live every moment worthy of the gospel in front of a watching world, not to be at prayer meeting, home group, leading youth work, a missionary meeting, and two services on a Sunday. That is religion and legalism, and we are saved to go into our world and be grace to people.

That is not say we are not to meet up and pray and support one another, that is vital, but the question is one of balance. Have I got the balance right? Does my diary reveal a right balance or an imbalance? Does it reveal a missional Jesus follower or a religious fanatic?

Commitment-ophobia

I guess that is the term for it. Commitmentophobia - an irrational fear of making a commitment to something or someone. It is one of the features of our society. We do instant - be it coffee, fulfilment or happiness. If something isn't working how you want, well, you deserve to be happy so dump it goes the line.

That's why people move jobs so frequently - how rare it is to hear of someone who has been with the same company 25 years let alone a working lifetime. Ruby, golden and even silver wedding celebrations are becoming rarer and rarer as the average life of a marriage tumbles as a result of our instant society. It informs so much of our thinking from the trivial; the car is three years old I better start thinking about getting something newer, to the vital. I have to ask myself have I absorbed the commitmentophobic attitude of society? Especially when it comes to faith, discipleship and church.

Jesus makes no bones about the level of commitment that he is calling for when he calls the disciples. Mark 8:34-5 "Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it." Now that is commitment, and the reward is not instant.

Or take Luke 9:62: Jesus replied, "No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Jesus is calling those who follow him to do so above everything else, above career, family, and hobbies. And where does he give us to be grounded and equipped to serve him? The local church.

Am I committed to following Jesus? To discipleship? Am I committed to the local church? What is it that drives my decision making? Is it career, family or discipleship? As I've been thinking about commitment and what I am committed to, the question is will I give my life to serve Christ expressed in serving the local church, will I commit to staying long term to serve there for God's glory? Am I prepared to turn down other opportunities in order to serve Christ faithfully in one place for my one lifetime if he so calls me to?