Many people measure the quality of their church and pastor on the basis of whether or not he makes them feel “good” about themselves. “If I leave feeling affirmed and encouraged about myself, the ministry is great. But if I leave feeling convicted of my sin and the need to implement important changes to my life, the ministry is lousy. I mean, with all the stress I have to endure throughout the week, why would I want to go to a church where my emotional egg-shell gets cracked?”
About five years ago, a twenty nine year old professional man in our church had a wife and three small children, resulting in a high intensity lifestyle. Due to some pain he was experiencing, he went to a doctor for a check-up. The last thing in the world he needed was the bad news that he had Lymphoma Cancer and would need to run the grueling gauntlet of chemotherapy for five months. Sure, the doctor would have initially received a favorable evaluation if he’d have flattered the man about his handsome physique, and affirmed the man with a clean bill of health. But the doctor was a truly “good” physician who loved the man enough to dispense with myths and tell him the painful truth, even though it cracked the man’s egg-shell.
The chemotherapy was painful and grueling. But the cancer retreated. The man is now a survivor, and has a chance to raise his children into adulthood. His wife just gave birth to their fourth!
A faithful pastor is a good physician who rejects myths and tells his congregation of patients the truth. He’s not called to massage egos, but to doctor souls. He’s to be faithful to this solemn charge he’s received from his Great Physician Master:
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; butwanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:1-5).
“Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel ; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me. When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die’; and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand” (Ezekiel 3:17-18).
Mark Chanski, Pastor
Reformed Baptist Church of Holland
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