I’ve mentioned the importance of God-centered motives, the need to stay cross-centered in our lives and ministry, and the challenge we face to become Bible-centered in our lives and service for God.

Today I end this series with a closing challenge.

A Closing Challenge

In Scripture, only a portion of those who led God’s people finished their ministry well. Professor Clinton, whose research I mentioned yesterday, claims that the number is around 30%. That means that 70% of those involved in spiritual leaders did not finish well in their lives and ministry. That is a very sobering statistic. It causes us to ask – How will my service for God end? It is something worth pondering.

To a large degree, the answer to that question depends on my “guarding my heart.” The quality of my relationship with God is linked with the quality of my service for him.

Several years ago I read the testimony of a Christian worker serving in the Middle East. It’s one of those stories that lodged itself in my mind and I often find myself thinking again about what he wrote. He’s just a short excerpt from his story,

I tried to analyze those who had been successful evangelists in our context. Something about them was attractive to non-believers, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.

First, I notice they were people of the Bible. They loved their Bibles and when someone asked them a question, they instinctively opened their bibles and gave them the answer. Second, others experienced them as men or women of God. Their life with God was an integral part of their entire life.

I knew however, that there was something else, a third characteristic they all had in common but I couldn’t figure out what it was. An older brother helped me find the missing piece. He told me, “I’ll tell you what makes all of them fruitful in ministry… It is the cross. Look once more at the life stories of each of those people you are examining. You will find that each of them passed through some sort of crisis that broke them – an experience where their only hope was in God, an experience that caused them to die to themselves… He was right. I began to understand that what made them attractive to unbelievers was the presence of God in their lives. And for that to happen, God had to break them.[1]

[1] Roland Miller, “The ” in MMC: The Messenger, the Message and the Community. 2006. www.rmuller.com

“Guarding our hearts” in ministry helps insure we will finish our life and ministry well and not “disqualify” ourselves. I’ve already written about the need for "God-centered" motives in ministry and for "cross-centered" living. Today I’m looking at a third way of “guarding our hearts” as we lead God’s people – that of living in God’s Word.

3. Is the Word of God "dwelling richly in me"?

Professor J. Robert Clinton and his students carried out a comprehensive study of over 1,200 spiritual leaders. As they examined the results of this research, one things was clear: Those spiritual workers who finished their ministry well were people whose ministry was grounded in Scripture. Dr. Clinton writes,

The Word of God is true and last’s forever (Isaiah 40:8). It equips me to lead God’s people (2 Timothy 3:16-17). If I work to become a Bible-centered leader who uses God’s word in ministry with confidence, then I can be sure that my service for God will have lasting results.[1]

I think one of the greatest challenges in ministry, especially in parts of the world where the work goes ahead slowly, is that of holding on to hope in God and confidence in the message entrusted to us (i.e. the gospel). This is especially difficult when we don’t see many visible results in ministry. Being "filled with hope" is possible, in such cases, only through faith and trust in God. But where does such faith come from?

Faith, when what we are trust God for is not visible, is based on God’s promises. And God’s promises are found in our Bibles. This is one of the reasons why life in God’s Word is so important for those who lead God’s people. We guard our harts when we find nourishment for our souls in the Bible.

[1] J. Robert Clinton, Having a Ministry that Lasts. Barnabas Publishers. 1997. A sampling Clinton’s writings are available for download at: http://www.bobbyclinton.com/articles/

“Guarding our hearts” in ministry helps insure we will finish our life and ministry well and not “disqualify” ourselves.

In Part 1  I wrote about one way of “guarding our hearts” – that of living for God’s glory. Today I look at a second way
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2. Living a “Cross-Centered Life”

The message of the cross is not only for unbelievers. One of the best ways of “guarding our hearts”  is by living a cross-centered life. The cross is the true foundation for a life of discipleship.

Following Jesus (the meaning of discipleship), means walking the “way of the cross” i.e. “daily taking up your cross” (as Jesus put it), and following “in his steps” (Luke 9:23; 2 Timothy 3:12; 1 Peter 2:21).

When we overemphasize the benefits and blessings that God offers those who are “children of the King” we will “find it strange” when suffering enters our lives.  Theologians call this an “over realized eschatology.”  Peter warned the believers he was writing in his first epistle of this very thing (1 Peter 4:12).

An awareness that life with Christ, lived in the power of his resurrection, includes participation in the “fellowship of his sufferings” (Philippians 3:10) greatly benefits spiritual leaders, especially when things don’t go as they had hoped in ministry.

The cross is the central point of reference for believers because of our continual need for God’s grace. Even believers need the ongoing grace of God.  We sin.  Daily we find ourselves in need of the blood of Jesus his Son to continually cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1:7). That is what makes ongoing fellowship with God and his Son, and with other believers, possible. It is “at the cross” that we find ongoing cleansing from sin.

A cross-centered life both encourages us and humbles us. It frees us from the need to always be right. It liberates us from the need to cover our sin. It helps us be open and honest with other believers. It also frees us from those wearying and futile efforts to try to gain favor God by more and more effort and commitment. Living that way puts us under a burden we cannot carry and robs us of joy in life and ministry. Jesus, in his work on the cross, has satisfied the righteous demands of the Father. In him we are accepted by God.

There is a tendency today, on the part of some Bible teachers, to emphasize the Kingdom of God. This is right and good, if it at the same time we highlight the centrality of the cross, for believers and unbelievers alike. In the Bible they go together. Some teachers separate the two and pit them against each other. Don’t fall into that trap. We are called to boast in the cross of Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14). The cross will the object of our praise and worship even in eternity (Revelation 5:9)!

C.J. Mahaney’s advice is for those who desire to “guard their hearts,

“The first priority of a spiritual leader is to care for his own soul before God, to grow in love for our Savior and to grow in thankfulness for his sacrifice on the cross for our sin.”

"In our context, many leaders give up because of discouragement. An even greater number remain in ministry, but are no longer growing. They have reached a point of spiritual stagnation. Unfortunately, there are also those who fall into sin and bring shame to the name of Christ."

This is not a new problem. Even in the first century, Paul wrote Timothy, "All [my spiritual co-workers] who are in Asia turned away from me" (2 Timothy 1:15).

We who lead God’s people would do well to ask ourselves, "How will I finish my ministry?" The answer to that question is connected to my current obedience to a well known verse from Proverbs, "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. In the next three postings I’ll suggest three areas of life where it is important that we "guard our hearts."

1. Do I live and serve with the goal of bringing glory to God?

Why am I serving as a spiritual leader? If I’m doing it to please people or so that people will praise me as a good person, then I’m walking on shaky ground. If that’s my motivation for serving, then when ministry goes well, I will think well of myself – "I must be doing pretty well as a spiritual leader." That makes me vulnerable to the temptation to pride, and the temptation to be critical of others. If my work as a spiritual leader is not going well, I’ll end up vulnerable to discouragement and depression and be tempted to become angry at those I’m leading for their "disobedience to God."

The only proper motivation for leading the people of God is that of pleasing God, of working to see his name "hallowed." When I live and work with this as my goal, everything else finds its proper place. My desire to bring glory and praise to God serves as an anchor in the life of a spiritual worker and makes possible faithful, perseverant, lifelong service for God.

Why are you serving God? Repentance over false motives in ministry is one way we can "guard our hearts."

These are times in a leader’s life when he or she stops growing spiritually and just “coasts.”  A spiritually plateaued leader often is able to fulfill his or her job responsibilities and “keep the program going”

From the outside, everything may appear normal.  But inside, the leader is no longer growing.  He or she needs a time of spiritual renewal; of meeting God in a fresh way.  If this does not happen, that leader will not “finish well,” warns Dr. Clinton.

The following list, from Neil Cole’s book Organic Leadership (pg 22-25), can help us recognize some of the signs of this problem.  A spiritually plateaued leader…

1. Avoids relationships of personal accountability
2. Rarely applies the truths of God’s Word to himself personally
3. Has replaced his joy, peace, and love with envy and resentment
4. Frequently looks for greener pastures in other places
5. Finds faults in others more often than in self
6. Is burned out with busyness that has been substituted for simply intimacy with Christ
7. Compromises on ethical principles once held dear
8. Stays within safe areas of expertise rather than new learning endeavors
9. Is unable to acknowledge the wisdom of others
10. Has reduced the Christian life to a routine

(Here’s the link this was taken from)