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 ow to maintain your integrity in ministry
by pastor and author Gordon MacDonald
Because I’m often the oldest guy in a room of leaders, I am asked those questions that many perceive take a lifetime to answer. How to stay “pure” in the ministry is one of them.
But the fact is that no one is ever pure in the fullest sense of that word. Pursuing purity? Another story. Truthfully, I would not have used the word purity in this writing if the editor had not assigned it to me.
I like the word integrity because it suggests a vital and informing connection between what one believes and what one does. In 1 Timothy 4:16, Paul’s “watch your life and doctrine” admonition is an important biblical sound bite calling leaders to healthy introspection.
A few lines before this he offers these words to Timothy: “Set an example . . . in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity” (4:12). Important categories. They broaden the core issues that mark the integrity of a leader’s life. I take the word purity in that phrase to allude to Timothy’s moral life. But I am impressed that Paul sees both possibility and failure in other categories as well:
- speech: words that build or words that tear down
- life: how one lives out the personal life of bill-paying, making the bed, being nice to the dog
- love: how I love and respect my spouse, children, friends, partners, the weaker person
- faith: how I engage with God and grow in my relationship with Christ
- purity: presumably my moral life
Purity is mentioned last, but is probably there to remind Timothy that he lives in a pretty debauched city where issues of morality are in his face every day.
When I browse the five-point list, I find that I can fit almost every kind of potential personal failure into one or more of the categories. So in my latter years I have made a checklist to use when I want to review my current status: Am I headed toward purity, or am I in danger of lurching away from it?
|  | The Passage to Purity
The underlying challenge is to be reflective rather than reactionary. The former describes one who periodically examines the state of his/her life alone or in the company of others (both are necessary). The latter describes a person who bumps through each day responding to circumstances (opportunities and adversities) and rarely checks his spiritual gas gauge.
Anyone who knows me personally has heard me tell of several critical moments in my life when the gauge on my soul read “E,” and I faced hard moments. I think I’ve finally learned my lesson now.
To move toward purity, one must mark “watch-your-life-and-doctrine-closely times” on the calendar. For most of us, the quiet, worshiping, reflective moments which build both inner strength and sensitivity simply will not happen without being scheduled.
Moving toward purity means filling the mind with the substance that elevates thoughts and aspirations. If you stuff the mind with “junk food,” you will reap the consequences.
Moving toward purity means always having a vision of who you want to be five years down the road.
Moving toward purity means prevention. With some regularity one needs to ask, “What things are taking over my time, my thought life, my spending, my pleasure needs?” If the answers are not good, a kind of spiritual surgery may be necessary.
Moving toward purity means slowing down. Our souls can only take so much. When we get bogged down in the minutia of organizational work and people problems, we end up like Elijah in the desert: exhausted, sad, and full of doubt—with a distorted view of reality.
|  | Finally, the trek toward purity depends on one’s quality of friendships. A good marriage isn’t enough. Other friendships—that are not wrapped around ministry-talk—are crucial. I have come to believe that it takes about fifteen intimate relationships (including one’s closest family members) to sustain each of us in the way of purity. If there is no one brave enough to look a leader in the eye and raise “purity” matters, there’s trouble ahead.
Did Paul ever have impure moments in which he uttered words he shouldn’t have? Did he ever betray a friend? Did he ever let down just a bit on his quality of work in the tent-making business? Did he ever have moments of distance from God? Did he ever get bogged down with moments of sexual fantasy?
I bet he did. But he always seems to have bounced back in the right direction. And that’s all Jesus asks us to do. |
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 n interview with author Philip Yancey
Sometimes the best spiritual practices are the easiest to excuse—like not meditating on Scripture because you’ve already pored over it for 10 hours in preparation for your exegesis course. And when we do excuse them, we often wallow in guilt.
Philip Yancey, best-selling Christian author of What’s So Amazing about Grace, Finding God in Unexpected Places and Rumors of Another World, knows what it is like to desire discipline but fail at managing it. In a recent interview with Ministry Mentor, he openly talks about what disciplines you can’t live without during the seminary years and how to experience grace when you fail.
MM: What spiritual practices do you wish you had put in place earlier in life?
Philip Yancey: I believe in the two spiritual practices of 1) keeping a spiritual journal and 2) meeting with a spiritual director. But I must admit that I do neither!
I excuse the first by telling myself that I’m a writer, that most of what I think eventually ends up in my writing (a kind of spiritual journal), and that writing seems too much like work. Yet I wish I had taken up this practice long ago, making notes after each time I meet with God.
I also wish I had found a spiritual director long ago, one with whom I could have developed some continuity. I do have friends who provide a kind of accountability, but no one person who serves that role in any formal sense. I feel that as a loss.
What practices have been the most spiritually beneficial?
For as long as I can remember, I have begun the day by reading spiritually nourishing material, usually for 30 minutes to an hour. I also read the Bible regularly, and have a semi-consistent time of prayer. That has become a discipline I insist on. Whenever I think I’m too busy for it, I realize how much I need it. And, amazingly, when I do take the time, I get more done in a day than I would have if I had omitted it!
How should seminary students stay spiritually vital during the education years?
The Christian life should come with a warning label, “Do not practice alone.” I advise students to find a community—a prayer group, a Bible study group, or a church—that encourages honesty and vulnerability.
The church should be a place that rewards honesty; all too often, it seems to punish it. Yet I know of no more honest book than the Bible, so we have strong models for penetrating below the exterior to the real person underneath. God already knows our secrets. We must learn to trust God with what God already knows—and often other believers play a vital role in that process.
|  | You have written often about your fundamentalist upbringing and education. How does a student not let a fundamentalist perspective distort their calling?
I’ve concluded that the best pattern of all is to be raised under “law”—fundamentalist strictness—and then discover grace.
From my past I took away good Bible knowledge, a pattern of discipline, and a sensitive conscience (guilt can be a very good thing). Then, when I discovered God’s grace and love, it was revolutionary. I’ve been writing about it ever since.
The problem, though, is that many people never survive the period of strictness and law. They jettison the faith or limp through life, wounded.
I would encourage a student to sort through a “recycling” pile from the past, choosing what is worth saving or learning from, and moving away from the impediments to growth. Paul himself said the law was a “schoolmaster” to lead us to Christ. That’s our ultimate goal. |
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ow to not worry about where you’ll be after seminary
by Shane Fookes, Denver Seminary
I struggle to live in the present and enjoy life as it comes. I regularly try to figure out what my life will look like four to six months from now. If you spy me in the library, gazing off into nothingness, I’m not likely pondering the nuances of infralapsarianism or overly-realized eschatology. I’m more likely inferring where I will lapse in my reading schedule next month or troubled because I just realized I will not escape the logjam of papers due at the end of the term.
Right now, I’m about halfway through a three-year MDiv program—without a firm idea of what life will look like on the other side. You see, I’ve never been a pastor. My resume shows experience in aerospace engineering, conference marketing, administration, and project management. Frankly, I don’t know how well I’m suited for pastoral work, except that I cannot seem to escape God’s calling.
|  | As a result, I often waste time and energy worrying about life after seminary. Sometimes I wish I could just “get on with it”—that I could skip to graduation—so I would know where my life is headed. In weak moments, I easily become overwhelmed and yearn, like Saul, to run away and hide in a baggage compartment somewhere.
Remembering God’s Faithfulness
A recent Old Testament survey class reminded me of the Bible’s emphasis on remembering. Constantly, God called his people to recount his faithfulness in the past so they would act courageously—no matter what the future would hold.
Such was the case with David, as portrayed in Psalm 77, who was distressed by circumstances and searching for relief. He came to a quiet understanding when he looked back on God’s faithfulness to the Israelites: “But then I recall all you have done, O Lord;I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. They are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works. O God, your ways are holy. Is there any god as mighty as you?” (Psalm 77:11-13, NLT).
Reminded of this, I recalled a dozen times God sustained our family. I specifically remembered our decision to leave a comfortable setting and move across the country to attend seminary. We faced huge unknowns: How would we fund seminary? Where would we live? How would our kids react to leaving the only environment they’d known? What would my study habits be like after a twenty-year academic hiatus?
|  | | My soul ached when I realized we had to launch out before any of these questions were answered. I reminded myself to keep the future in the future. Remembering God’s faithfulness in our past, I hold onto the hope of a future in pastoral ministry. I choose to set my heart on enjoying God’s presence and care in this unique, character-stretching season of life—seminary. |
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