In his book Under the Unpredictable Plant, Eugene Peterson writes about the geographical nature of the pastorate. Peterson writes that “pastoral work is as much geographical as much as it is theological.”1 To be a pastor is to be tied to a place. The problem, is that pastors often struggle with being tied to our places.
There are two primary ways pastors go off the rails in regard to place. The first is that we idealize another place. This happens when we spend more time “in” other places by spending a bulk of our time thinking about another pastorate. We imagine what another congregation or ministry would be like. We see other church’s websites and how forward thinking and mission driven they seem to be and just wish we could be at a church like that. We spend hours perusing job boards to find the perfect job in the perfect location. We think the place we need to be is somewhere else and we visit it all too frequently in our minds. “That place,” “that ministry,” “that role,” always begs for our attention, pulling it away from the place and ministry to which we have been called.
It’s easy to see why this is an issue. To spend our time romanticizing another role or church is no different than spending time romanticizing another woman to be married to. Perhaps that sounds harsh, but that is the seriousness with which we ought to view our callings to a specific place and people. The Lord has entrusted these souls in this place to us until (really, if) he calls us elsewhere. It is no light thing to spend time thinking and dreaming about leaving them if we have not been called to do so. We mustn’t excuse our ecclesial lust because it’s not adultery.
The second way occurs by spending actual time in other places. Of course, the pastorate is a calling that requires some level of this. We have meetings with other pastors to go to, we have denominational conferences to attend, we are trustees on camp boards which require our time. Let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with this! In fact, many of these things are vitally necessary roles a pastor must fill depending on the context and scope of his ministry.
The danger, though, is when we begin to see these things as “real” ministry. Sure, we work weekly at that congregation but, so we subconsciously or even consciously think, the real meat and potatoes of our ministry is done away from the campus of our church. This second way of neglecting the geographical nature of pastoral ministry happens by going about our lives as though our most important ministry occurs elsewhere than the local church to which we have been called. None of us would ever admit that or say it that explicitly, but practically many pastors function as though the most worthwhile parts of their ministry are not tied to the people and place they have been called to. I sure have.
So, whether it is through day dreaming and web browsing or by actual time spent elsewhere, there is an incredible temptation to untether our ministry from the geographical, tangible, real place we have been called to pastor. The neighbor’s grass really is just so nice to look at.
The fact is though, that we have not been called to “those places” but to this one. Pastoral ministry is intrinsically tied to its place. As Peterson says, “it is absurd to resent your place: your place is that without which you could not do your work.”2 Self-defeat and self-destruction, personal erasure is all at that exist at bottom of the dead-end street of taking our eyes off our localized ministries to gawk at others.
We dare not neglect it or resent our ministries by romanticizing other pastorates or viewing our most important work as occurring in places other than the local church we’ve been called to. Pastoral ministry is a call of a particular pastor to a particular people in a particular place for a particular time. If that is the case, to long for other pastures or sheep and/or to spend too much time away from our own, is the ultimate undoing of a pastor. Without his sheep, the pastor is not.
“I was with you the whole time”
This idea of laser-focus on a particular place and people is the first charge we see Paul give in his address to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20. Paul says in verse 18, “You know, from the first day I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time” (CSB).
This is the Apostle Paul, whose general MO was to go from place to place planting churches at breakneck speed. Hardly ever did he stay in a single place for years at a time. Three years may not sound like much to us but that’s because most of us don’t have the gifting to go from place to place to place planting churches and leaving elders behind to shepherd those churches. We are those elders called to shepherd. And most of us aren’t working in a place where the literal birth of the church in that place is happening which requires this kind of roaming ministry. Paul did. Three years for Paul was an extremely long time to remain planted in one spot.
It was a sacrifice, in part, for him to stay put there. Surely, he was tempted to think of the other places he could have been getting to with the gospel–we know Paul’s heart burned to get to Spain for example (Romans 15:24, 28). Perhaps his heart burned to visit other congregations for their building up. But this apostle to the nations believed God had called him to stay put. And so Paul set up shop among the Ephesians. He didn’t work remotely and travel into town whenever he was needed. Paul, a man we typically see on the go, stayed three years in Ephesus. And while he was there, he was among them “the whole time.”
Now why mention that last point? Wouldn’t that fact be obvious to the Ephesian elders? Paul brings it up because it is a clear demonstration of his peculiar love for this particular people and he wants the Ephesian elders to follow suit. Acts 20 is Paul’s charge to the Ephesian elder and the first thing off his lips is that he wants them to live among their people the whole time just as he had done. He doesn’t want them venturing off to other flocks. Paul knew that to be a pastor was to live in, to dwell among, to be with the people and place the Lord has planted you. He is reminding the elders of how he had done this for them and, by charging them to imitate him, is calling them to do the same.
What does it entail to be with a people the whole time? It requires focus. It takes a willingness to rub elbows with the people we serve. It means not daydreaming about leaving for seemingly bigger or better or more exciting things. It means to be present physically, mentally, and affectionally and to remain present in that way until (if) the Lord calls us elsewhere.
And so we must ask ourselves, If the Lord calls us elsewhere and we stand in that pulpit for the final time looking over this flock can we say to them, “You yourselves know how I was with you the whole time”? I hesitate to ask myself because I know it has not always been true of me. At times I have viewed the “really important” parts of my ministry as the parts that happen outside my local ministry. Important things. Worthy things. None my primary calling. I have spent time on job boards out of frustration and restlessness rather than from sensing a call from God. And when I’ve done that, I’ve fail to live among my people the whole time.
Most of us have spent time dreaming of other places. Many of us have “lived” in other places than with the people we are called to whether it be through our imagination or through having our hands in too many other works. We’ve all stolen glances of other people and places. We’ve failed to be with our people “the whole time.” Paul would tell us that by doing so we have committed pastoral malpractice. But then he would remind us of the gospel that covers even pastoral malpractice. And finally he would charge us to walk in the power of the Spirit who enables pastoral faithfulness in a time of seemingly anything but.
Pastor, do not chase after other flocks. They are all just as unflattering, unsatisfying, and boring as the one you have no matter what their website looks like. Not only that, but yours is just as supernaturally glorious and precious as any other. But what it has going for it no other one does: it’s yours, given to you by the God who obtained them “with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). Without them you (as a pastor) are not. That people with their peculiar and even perplexing proclivities living in that particular place are the sheep and pasture that make possible your pastorate. Do not neglect them, but be with them “the whole time” the Lord graces you the privilege of doing so.
So, let’s look to Christ. He will sustain us. He lives among us the whole time through his Spirit. He does not look to other sheep to the neglect of you. He has placed you with intention where he wants you for your own good, the growth of God’s people, and his own glory. Don’t wander off to other places in mind or body or heart. Be with your people the whole time.
zch
Eugene Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmands, 1994), 123.
Ibid., 131.
Beautifully said, convicting, and helpful. Thank you.