Gospel Forgetfulness

My guess about you and I is that we didn’t enter ministry for the money, for fame, or for power. We entered into ministry because of a strong sense of calling from God and a desire to make a difference. We long to see people come to know Jesus and see them grow in their faith. We long to see our churches healthy, growing, and living on mission in our communities.

Let’s face it, we often long for someone to legitimize our work. We pour out our hearts and souls into what we do and yet we rarely feel like we can celebrate “mission accomplished”. We finish preaching only to feel a brief sense of relief until we start

thinking about next Sunday’s sermon. We get off the phone with one person going through a crisis, only to see an email about someone else’s struggles. On top of this all is the reality that we always

disappoint someone. Our sermon was too long or too short. Our counsel is too harsh or too gracious. I am sure you could keep adding to this.

What often haunts us as pastors and church leaders is the desire to feel like our work is successful. This desire, as innocent as it seems, can lead us to a dangerous place of gospel forgetfulness. Are you suffering from this? Some symptoms of gospel forgetfulness can be despair, anxiousness, fear, a deep desire for approval, and burnout.

We need to not just remember the gospel but preach the gospel to ourselves week in and week out. The gospel comes to us and tells us that our success in ministry isn’t founded in what we do, in the size of our church, or how great our last sermon was. Our success has been purchased by Jesus on the cross as he proclaimed it is finished. Because Jesus’ mission is accomplished, we are free to serve, knowing that God’s declaration over us is,

“This is my son, this is my daughter, in whom I am well pleased.”

As we embrace and minister out of the gospel, we are freed from the slavery of success, knowing our value isn’t in what we do or how well we do it but in whose we are. As Paul reminds us, nothing can separate us from the love of God. That nothing includes sermons that fall flat, church members who might not like us, and feelings of not being enough. As we head into the fall, my prayer for you is that you will not forget the gospel.

Luke Etelamaki,
SKMB Church Multiplication Team (CMT)