Home Pastors Articles for Pastors You’re a Local Pastor at a Nowhere Church—What Do YOU Know?

You’re a Local Pastor at a Nowhere Church—What Do YOU Know?

I got to thinking: This is all a pretty ridiculous amount of pressure we put on ourselves.

And for what?

Sure, we’re called to grow our churches and be effective and reach out to the city—but if our motive is to go from a little known Christian to a better known Christian, then it doesn’t matter if we succeed anyway. An effective church is not everything; a faster donkey is still a jackass.

Really, everything that God says about you is true, no matter what’s happening around you. You truly are a unique, handcrafted masterpiece who has been placed by God to be engaged and present where you are. 

If you’re teaching five people at a Bible study, if you have 20 followers on your blog, if your church hasn’t grown past 50 and if you don’t even have a book published yet—you are still a vehicle for God to flex His power as a force for good in the universe.

God is still in the business of using weak, frail, broken, empty, unknown people for His glorious story on the earth. 

If God spoke through a jackass, certainly He can work through you and me.

I can’t tell you how many times I thought I bombed a sermon, messed up a song or fumbled a Bible study—but God graciously sowed that seed anyway, even days and weeks and years later. We don’t hear about the other end very often, but when we do, it is nothing short of God’s miraculous power. 

He is sowing. He is sovereign. He is doing His wildly wonderful work in you, not by the flip of a switch, but by the journey of a seed pushing through the dirt into the warmth of sunlight.

And if you still feel like no one knows you—God does.

If you feel like you know nothing—God knows you.

If God alone is not enough when you’re not successful, then nothing will be enough even when you do have success.

Serve that tiny place. Be OK behind the scenes. We need the unsung heroes. We need you.