God is the Goal. Not More People. Not More Baptisms.

Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. (1 Timothy 4:14)

No one unpacked for me that being a pastor was going to be a part of my own sanctification. It’s going to be the process of God disciplining me for the rest of my life. In this culture, it’s imperative to know that your calling is God’s calling to him on you for the body. If you don’t get this, then I don’t understand how you’re making it. God is the end. He is who we’re after. We get more of him by being obedient to his call to be pastors.

He’s the goal. Not more people. Not more baptisms. I am at The Village Church as an act of obedience. If anything else is your pursuit I don’t know how you will persevere. Sometimes it’s a long time that the baptismal waters stay still. I don’t know how you’re sustained in those hours if he’s not enough for you.

I came home for lunch a year and a half ago. I came home to be with my wife and my son was sleeping. We heard a noise and she runs upstairs. I hear her scream at the top of her lungs. She carries my son down the stairs and he’s convulsing and his face is blue and he’s fighting for air. We lay him on the floor and we call 911. I’m saying, “I know he’s not mine, I know he’s not mine.” Do you think I care in that moment how big our church is or how many conferences I’m speaking at? I’m thinking about God’s sovereignty over my son’s life. Thankfully, he let my son live.

If you misunderstand your call, I think it’s just a matter of time before all your zeal is dried up and your frustration sets in.

I also find that one of the things we don’t preach well is that ministry that looks fruitless is constantly happening in the Scriptures. We don’t do conferences on that. There aren’t too many books written about how you can toil away all your life and be unbelievably faithful to God and see little fruit this side of heaven.

This is an excerpt of notes taken from Matt Chandler’s message titled, “A Shepherd and His Unregenerate Sheep,” he gave at Desiring God’s 2009 Conference for Pastors.