Kingdom-Minded Pastors Champion One Another
"Better Together" is More Than a Slogan. It's a Kingdom Strategy.
I recently interviewed my friend, Pastor Chuck Groover. Upon his retirement, I wanted other pastors to hear why championing other churches, befriending local pastors, and collaborating with other community leaders are Gospel-motivated priorities for him.
In many ways over the last 25 years in our community, he’s become a “town parson.” Whether you attend his church or not, Chuck is a pastor-figure for you. His church made a habit of hosting outside groups for activities and events. He is a faithful member of the local Rotary Club. He’s a go-to funeral preacher for families who may not have a church of their own. As he shepherded his congregation, he also shepherded the community.
Vance Pitman, pastor of Hope Church in Las Vegas, Nevada says, “God doesn’t just call us to a church. He calls us to a city.” Much of the New Testament are letters the apostle Paul wrote to churches that were identified by their city.
“God doesn’t just call us to a church. He calls us to a city.”—Vance Pitman
One of the implications for his calling to serve the community was Pastor Chuck’s commitment to champion other churches and pastors. By watching him and others like him, we can learn important lessons about kingdom unity.
Kingdom-minded pastors remove any notion of competition.
While helping another local church build their building, Chuck said that people asked why he was helping the “competition.” The reality is that every community needs more and diverse local churches in order to give every neighbor the opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel. There is not “one-church-for-everyone.”
If you ever hear a pastor or church member suggest something like, “We do church better than those other churches,” or “We’re the only church that gets it right,” beware.
Beyond the simple math problem of local population and local church capacity, the reality is that Jesus is the only King of his kingdom. A pastor is not called to build a kingdom. A church is not called to build a kingdom. Jesus is building his kingdom. So any notion that local churches are competing is a distortion of our Gospel mandate.
Any notion that local churches are competing is a distortion of our Gospel mandate.
So if you ever hear a pastor or church member suggest something like, “We do church better than those other churches,” or “We’re the only church that gets it right,” beware. Every church can do better, but that sentiment is an anti-gospel, anti-kingdom attitude that divides the Church, hurts people, and dishonors the Lord.
Kingdom-minded pastors look for ways to work together.
It’s healthy for pastors to focus on the ministry programming of their own congregation, but it’s also healthy for pastors and church members to consider how their church can collaborate with other churches and community organizations.
Pastor Chuck consistently leveraged his time and influence, and that of his congregation, to pursue the peace of the community. Whether serving on community committees, coaching basketball teams, or opening our facilities, we advance the kingdom by the way we serve people who may never come to our church.
Even more practically, as churches create margin in their calendar, leadership capacity, and budget to cooperate with other churches, we allow our congregations to work together on the things we all care about and to impact people we could never impact alone.
“Better together” is more than a slogan. It’s a kingdom strategy for community transformation.
Kingdom-minded pastors take a humble posture with congregational distinctives.
Every faithful church has core theological convictions and a particular philosophy of ministry. God has designed it that way. Our distinctives are important and a gift to the community and to the kingdom.
Boldness in Gospel proclamation, however, does not dismiss our calling to bear the fruit of the Spirit the apostle Paul described here:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23
He gave that list in contrast to another list he called “works of the flesh” which include:
…Sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things — as I warned you before — that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21
As distinctive as our convictions are, so are the distinctives of Holy Spirit-filled living. Kingdom pastors, then, take on the posture of humility assuming we have more to learn, more grace to show, and greater depths of God’s ways to discover.
Kingdom-minded pastors build robust friendships with one another.
Many pastors are lonely, and isolation puts us in an incredibly vulnerable position personally. Wrong-headed philosophies shipwrecks our ministry. Unresolved anger swells up within us. Unwise choices stack up unnoticed. A host of ills can plague us when we remove ourselves from healthy friendships.
Additionally, when pastors practice isolation, our congregations follow suit. Without even noticing, we take on a sectarian disposition, and our church members begin assuming their church is the lone hope for the world.
Kingdom pastors believe the Lord does as much, and sometimes more, through other churches as the Lord does in our own.
In contrast, Pastor Chuck made it a priority through the years to build genuine friendships with other local pastors. He invited us into his life, and invested prayer and encouragement into us. He believed the Lord was doing as much or more through our churches as the Lord was doing in his.
The result of building friendships with other pastors is that it’s easier to champion pastors you know and love. It’s easier to show grace to pastors you know and love. It’s more likely to receive counsel and even correction from pastors you know and love. And ultimately, it’s more likely you will collaborate with and expend leadership equity to support pastors you know and love.
A Last Word
Jesus compared the kingdom of God to things like a mustard seed, a treasure, a pearl, and even a fishing net. I’d like to think if he had the chance, Jesus would see Pastor Chuck’s ministry and others like him, and say, “The kingdom of God is also like that.”
Want to Help Your Church, Business, or Organization Make a Lasting Community Impact?
Whether it’s a weekend worship event, small group session, business executive team, or a company wide retreat, I’d be honored to speak to your church, business, or organization about how you can move from “charity work” to sustainable change in your community.
Just send me an email at darylcrouch@everyoneswilson.org or click the Contact Daryl button and complete the form. I’d love to hear from you.