Most preachers do either all pastoring or all evangelism. As one of the rare preachers who for a very long time has done both, I can tell you that they are radically different tasks and generate radically different emotions.
As an evangelist, I will be at a church for a few nights and then be gone. I do make friends most everywhere I go, sometimes very good friends, but I am not usually around long enough to develop bonds of deepest affection, unless it is one of the churches I go back to year after year.
But as a pastor, I get oh so very attached to people.
Pastor Bo WagnerOur church recently lost a very special person to me, to all of us. In fact, she held a lofty and powerful position among us; she was our CFO, our chief fudge officer.
Brenda was saved, but she was not rich. She had only a basic high school education, and she did not travel in the high echelons of the popular and powerful. She did not have much money to give. She did not sing specials or even in one of our choirs. She was not on any committees. She did not teach Sunday school. She did not work in the bus ministry. She did not play any instruments. By all of the "normal measures" of service, she may have seemed to anyone who did not know her to be one who did not do much.
But if anyone was ever discouraged, she showed up with homemade fudge for them. Other times she showed up with fudge even if no one was discouraged. And if it was not fudge, it was her world-famous mandarin orange cake or a Butterfinger cake or some other delectable treat guaranteed to sabotage any diet all while making the recipient glad to fall off the calorie-counting wagon.
In other words, she found something she was good at and put it to use in the Lord's work.
In 1 Samuel 17, we find the historical account of David and Goliath. On the conservative side, Goliath was at least 9 feet, 9 inches tall. If the longer cubit, the king's cubit, was being spoken of, he may well have been over 11 feet tall. Either way, he was the most fearsome warrior to ever pass across the pages of Scripture and the path of Israel.
And yet, by the time the battle was over, a kid named David had cut him down. Everyone knows this. But many have never considered the two unnamed people who made it possible for David to fight and win this battle.
1 Samuel 17:20-22: "And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper and took and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to the trench, as the host was going forth to the fight, and shouted for the battle. For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army. And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage and ran into the army and came and saluted his brethren."
The keepers. One man who kept the sheep so he could go and another who kept the carriage so he could go. Without them he could not have done what he did. The sheep could not be left unattended, and neither could the carriage. But two unnamed individuals did the anonymous work of "keeping" while David did the famous work of killing Goliath.
How often does the work of the Lord suffer, not for lack of giant killers but for lack of keepers?
Nursery keepers, those precious souls who make sure that young mothers can hear the Gospel message without being distracted by a fussy child. Security keepers, those brave folks who silently stand between the worshipers within and any harm that wants to get in. Custodial keepers, people willing to wield plunger, broom and mop in the cause of the Lord.
The potential list is well nigh inexhaustible. Sunday School teachers. Bus workers. Ministers to the homeless. Sound technicians. Singers. Musicians. Soul winners. Vacation Bible School workers. Those who minister to the nursing homes week after week, bringing church to those who cannot come to church. Givers.
Or, like Brenda, those for whom the love of Christ flows from fingertips to oven and comes out in the form of baked goods.
God never, ever, saved anyone to sit. Whomever he saves, he saves to serve. He may not always be looking for a king. He only occasionally looks for a giant killer, but he is always looking for more keepers.
So long for now, Brenda. Tell the angels I expect them to save me a slice of my personal favorite, your orange mandarin cake.
Bo Wagner is pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, North Carolina, a widely traveled evangelist and the author of several books available on Amazon and at www.wordofhismouth.com. Email him at 2know him@cbc-web.org.