When Leaders Don’t Affirm Your Ministry
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - One young man writes in to ask this,
00:00:06.720 | "Pastor John, what do you do in a local church
00:00:09.080 | "when the people affirm your leadership,
00:00:11.080 | "but the leadership in your church doesn't?"
00:00:13.940 | - Yeah, that's a question that comes to me
00:00:18.880 | often from youth ministers or assistant pastors
00:00:26.120 | who love the Bible and are trying to teach it faithfully.
00:00:31.120 | The kids and their parents are often eating it up,
00:00:35.720 | or the small groups are,
00:00:38.520 | and the senior pastor's a little bit wary
00:00:41.640 | or something like that.
00:00:42.520 | So that's the kind of situation I'm thinking
00:00:45.200 | when you ask that question, that's what I've heard.
00:00:47.760 | So whom you listen to in your ministry is really important.
00:00:56.040 | Do you listen to the people who are loving your work,
00:00:59.200 | or do you listen to your senior leadership?
00:01:01.520 | If you're not the senior, do you listen to others,
00:01:04.880 | like colleagues outside of your church?
00:01:06.800 | Do you listen to your spouse, your friends?
00:01:08.960 | Who do you listen to?
00:01:10.680 | And here's my take.
00:01:14.040 | First, take your cues from the scriptures.
00:01:18.720 | Listen to God.
00:01:20.340 | Whatever any man says,
00:01:22.240 | it cannot compare with what God says.
00:01:25.400 | Your conscience must be clear before God
00:01:28.440 | that you are teaching and ministering faithfully.
00:01:30.840 | Paul said, and it's so sweet, Romans 14, 22,
00:01:34.960 | "Blessed is the one who has no reason
00:01:38.520 | "to pass judgment on himself for what he approves."
00:01:43.040 | Wow, that's so true.
00:01:45.280 | A clear conscience is a powerful thing.
00:01:48.440 | You must be true to your own discernment
00:01:51.160 | of what God says in his word.
00:01:54.440 | And of course, you know you're fallible.
00:01:57.360 | You know you should be always open to counsel,
00:01:59.960 | that you may be reading the Bible wrongly,
00:02:03.080 | but in the end, you gotta have peace
00:02:05.840 | that you're one with God's word.
00:02:09.600 | That's the first thing, listen to God.
00:02:11.260 | The second thing is listen long and hard
00:02:13.600 | to your seniors and your overseers,
00:02:15.120 | even the ones who disagree with you,
00:02:16.680 | or are critical of you,
00:02:17.800 | or not happy with what you're doing.
00:02:22.400 | They may seem to be disapproving of what's going on,
00:02:27.200 | but listen, don't write them off too quickly.
00:02:30.320 | Test all things, hold fast to what is good.
00:02:35.200 | I think a mark of a mature, young pastor,
00:02:39.840 | that is a pastor who's maturing quickly,
00:02:43.160 | is his humility and his willingness to be rebuked,
00:02:46.920 | his willingness to be questioned.
00:02:48.240 | He may not agree with everything,
00:02:49.960 | but he's not defensive in a knee-jerk kind of way.
00:02:54.960 | But you know that they're fallible too,
00:02:57.600 | and so in the end, it's gonna be the word of God,
00:03:00.320 | and a wider constituency that are gonna make
00:03:03.840 | the final difference here.
00:03:05.840 | The third thing is listen to trusted spiritual counselors.
00:03:09.160 | Not just yes men, don't surround yourself
00:03:11.240 | with just people who think that you're
00:03:13.680 | the best thing after whole bread,
00:03:18.040 | but the most spiritual people you know,
00:03:22.000 | the people who love the word of God,
00:03:24.240 | who are deeply prayerful and worshipful,
00:03:27.920 | the people who are bold in their witness
00:03:30.120 | and risk-taking in their service of Christ,
00:03:32.480 | listen to them, the people who obey Jesus,
00:03:35.800 | whatever the cost, they're the ones
00:03:37.800 | who will tell you like it is,
00:03:40.800 | and take them seriously, seek them out,
00:03:44.120 | tell them the situation, let them know what's going on,
00:03:46.880 | and listen to their heart.
00:03:49.480 | And then the fourth thing, listen to those
00:03:52.200 | who have walked through similar circumstances.
00:03:55.280 | If you know people who are 20 years ahead of you
00:03:58.080 | in ministry, the same thing happened to them,
00:04:00.280 | ask them what they learned from it, and grow from that.
00:04:06.720 | And then pray earnestly that Christ
00:04:10.840 | would illumine all of this listening,
00:04:13.040 | 'cause it can be very confusing.
00:04:16.040 | If your leaders will entrust you to God,
00:04:18.760 | if your leaders will allow you to teach and lead
00:04:21.120 | according to what you see in the word,
00:04:23.120 | you may have a fruitful ministry right there
00:04:25.240 | in that setting, even if there's not complete agreement.
00:04:28.520 | But if your leaders want you to cease
00:04:32.800 | from teaching significant things
00:04:35.140 | that you see as true and necessary,
00:04:38.360 | cease from patterns of ministry that you think are biblical,
00:04:41.960 | then you'll probably need to look
00:04:43.420 | for another place of service,
00:04:45.040 | and I would just plead with God,
00:04:47.520 | open a door so that there would be
00:04:50.280 | a confirming call to something,
00:04:53.320 | not just away from something.
00:04:55.840 | - Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you
00:04:56.960 | for listening to this podcast.
00:04:58.280 | On Monday, we'll be back to look at Psalm 103, verse three,
00:05:01.640 | which says, "God heals all of our diseases."
00:05:05.720 | So how literally do we take that promise?
00:05:07.960 | Until then, please email your questions to us
00:05:09.800 | at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org,
00:05:12.000 | and visit us online at desiringgod.org
00:05:14.440 | to find thousands of books, articles, sermons,
00:05:16.120 | and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge.
00:05:18.440 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:05:19.400 | Thanks for listening.
00:05:20.440 | (upbeat music)
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