As people with a life calling to serve and give of our lives to others in ministry, it can be easy to forget that we need to receive as well.
We’ve probably all at some point noticed ourselves sitting down to open the Scriptures and seeing in them only things we can share with someone else—something that will preach, something we can offer as encouragement, or guidance, or perhaps even correction. We too easily forget when we’re reading Scripture devotionally we are doing it to hear the word of the Lord for us first of all.
The same dynamic can be at play in the Easter season. It comes early this year, and that’s probably tightened timelines as you’re planning Easter services, camps, and outreach events. You may be thinking about how to might serve your community, preach the gospel, or at the least run the services people are expecting—in freshly creative and winsome ways... if we can pull it off.
Amidst all of this pressure and busyness we can lose sight of the reality that Easter is also for us. And given the reality of active ministry lives, to not lose sight of something we need to consciously attend to it.
Hopefully, at least in our better moments, it’s not that we think we don’t need ministry, that we’re somehow discipled enough—when we take a courageous look at our own hearts, we couldn’t honestly say that was the case. And if we were ever in doubt about this, we could check in with those who love us and live with us and, if your family is anything like mine, they would assure us there was plenty of room for growth.
Additionally, if you’re in ministry I can almost guarantee that the year since last Easter has roughed you up in some way, to a greater or lesser degree. You cannot enter in to the fray of ministry, or even of life, and come out unscathed.
And so, I offer the invitation to you, pastor, to consider what the Spirit might be saying to you this Easter.
What is the Lord inviting you into in this Easter season?
Do you need to sit in the shadows and grief of Maundy Thursday or with the brutality and dashed hopes of Good Friday? Perhaps you need to pause in the in-between of Holy Saturday and take time to speak out loud your disappointment and unfulfilled expectations. Or perhaps, for you, the invitation is to dwell on the redeemed life that Resurrection Sunday offers—the life we experience in part now, and the hoped-for fullness of life yet to come.
We know it isn’t a zero sum equation when it comes to the work of the Spirit, as if there was only so much ministry to go around, and so we had better not take more than our fair share.
But, in reality, it is a zero sum equation when it comes to our time: there is only so much of us to go around, and so many hours of the day. We like to be selfless people, or at least we try to be, and so we tend to over-give... and no one benefits. One of the potential undoings for those in ministry is to give ourselves to the urgent to the neglect of the important, particularly when the urgent is for others and the important is for ourselves. It is the mature leader who is able to live within reasonable limits, ensuring sustainability and personal flourishing within a life of long service—I’m certainly not there yet, and while I would like to make excuses, this is a matter of personal responsibility. No one else is going to prioritise this for me, or for you.
What we need to prioritise here is not just personal growth, it is our personal followership of Christ we must protect and cultivate. This is no individual event; we need to be ministered to—yes, by the Spirit in the secret place, but also by others, empowered by the Spirit, in the communal spaces.
What might it look like for you to attend to the needs of your own heart, to allow yourself to be ministered to this Easter?
Perhaps you might take some time to participate in something that is not of your own creation, where you are not responsible for making it happen and you can position yourself wholly as one who receives. I myself am part of a Pentecostal church and I love it, but the trying times of recent years have found me seeking more contemplative spaces. When I am looking for ministry for myself, I tend to turn up to a more liturgical worship service with tissues aplenty packed. Perhaps you could carve out some time to spend with the Lord in a way that is outside your usual pattern or context. Or, perhaps, ask a friend for a time of mutual ministry; you might sit and talk with the Lord together, sharing communion perhaps.
The Easter story holds space for all the feelings, from the highest highs to the lowest lows. And so whatever season of life you are in, pastor, may you hear the invitation of the Spirit this Easter and find yourself as one ministered to in the midst of your ministry.
(Maja is responsible for overseeing our growing relationships with partner churches and is the Practical Theology Lead for Laidlaw’s School of Theology. Maja is a pastor in the Equippers Church network and she is passionate about equipping people for life in Jesus Christ.)
