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The Gospel-Shaped Pastor

4. Remember the gospel so you will know how to measure success.

Growing a big church. Leading a growing staff. Preaching exceptional sermons. These are all admirable. But none of them is anything the Bible actually calls us to do. That doesn’t make them wrong goals. It just means we shouldn’t tune our hearts to our relative success in them.

No, the Bible calls pastors to do only a few important things: make disciples, feed the sheep, equip the saints. This means it’s not the pastor’s job to be successful, but to be faithful.

Pastor, may the Lord grant you incredible success. We can even pray he would help us be successful in the things he’s called us to do. But let us pray more often and more fervently that he would keep us faithful. No one gets into heaven because of a big church or a dynamic preaching style. No one gets the crown because of book deals or speaking platforms or social media followers. We are saved by grace alone.

Reflecting on his time in Corinth, Paul writes these incredible words:

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:5-7)

Big budgets and big buildings are not the true measure of our ministry’s success. The true measure is the faithfulness with which we both trusted in and led people to the glory of the risen Christ. True ministry success comes not from our increasing, but from Christ’s (John 3:30).

This is why it’s important to remember our identity in Christ—because we are “not anything.” Only God is. Let us pastor ourselves in and pastor others to that reality.

This article originally appeared here.