Joby Martin: What Happens When Pastors Finally Understand Grace

“One of my favorite things to share with pastors is Jesus’ baptism. And we know it. He goes into the water, the heavens open up, God the Father speaks out loud and says, ‘Behold, my son, in whom I am well pleased.’ And he hasn’t done any ministry other than the Incarnation…and before he does it, God places his approval on his son.”

“When you realize that God has already placed his approval on you because you’re his son, that you’re more than a conqueror, that should drive a grace-driven effort to do all the things that he’s called us to do.”

“Whether you’ve got a huge church or not—a huge church, that’s not the point, because the fruit is up to God. The key is…were you faithful to steward what God has given to you?”

“We should never expect God to bring us more people than we can disciple.”

“Discipleship is just saying, what’s my next step of obedience?”

“Our churches are full of people that claim to have encountered something exponentially more than a freight train. And their lives show no difference. So I’m just saying that when you meet Jesus, everything changes.”

“Most of us think, even as pastors—maybe especially as pastors—that God’s a little frustrated with us because it’s not going as good as it could be going.”

“If you are in Christ, and he is the payment that satisfies, this means that God cannot be dissatisfied in you.”

“The best thing that you could do is be the you that God created you to be, as faithful as you can be, and then trust him with the results.”

“If you don’t understand the grace of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and you screw up, you think, ‘Oh, don’t tell dad.’ But when you understand the gospel, you think, ‘Oh, no, I’ve screwed up. I need to tell my dad. I got to call my dad.’ You run to him, you don’t run from him.”

“I’ve seen a few things that seem to be consistent in these guys that fall big. One is they don’t have actual friends. And if you haven’t been the butt of a joke lately and you’ve only been a pastor, something’s wrong.”

“Ministry does not have to be isolating and miserable.”

“If your church is your hobby, bro, you are in big, big trouble, I’m just telling you.”

“Over and over and over, the Bible calls us shepherds. In our current situation, we got way more cowboys than we do shepherds.”

Mentioned in the Show

Ephesians 2
James 5:16
1 John 4
John 4
John 15
John 21
Matthew 25
Revelation 2
Romans 3

“Run Over by the Grace Train: How the Unstoppable Love of God Transforms Everything” by Joby Martin

The Church of Eleven22

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Eric Geiger
“Joby Martin: Guardrails of Grace for Healthy Ministry Leaders” by Jason Daye on ChurchLeaders
Mel Gibson‘s “The Passion”
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State of the Church initiative
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