faithfulness

Pastor Brett had shared some announcements regarding upcoming meetings pertaining to both children and student ministries.  I asked if I could share a few words.  I admitted being a little “flat” regarding church and the view of fall plans.  But then, I started hearing via phone calls, emails, and in-person meetings from a number of different people that they were committed to these ministries here at CrossPoint.  I began to hear similar accounts from other elders.

About this time, my Bible reading had been taking me through the book of Jeremiah.  It had been tough reading to be honest.  LOTS of difficult names, both of people and cities.  Sometimes I would finish a chapter and I felt like a cartoon character whose eyes were just spinning in their sockets.  But on the day I read Jeremiah 44, D.A. Carson (Trinity Seminary professor) made these comments:

One cannot say that Jeremiah’s ministry ended on a high note. We are all called to be faithful; some are called to be faithful in troubled and declining times. One dare not measure Jeremiah’s ministry by how many people he convinced, how many disasters he averted, or how many revivals he experienced. One must measure his ministry by whether or not he was faithful to God, by whether or not God was pleased with him. And so, finally, it is with each of us. I doubt that many of us living in the West have fully come to grips with how much the success syndrome shapes our views of ourselves and others—sometimes to make us hunger at all costs for success, and sometimes, in a kind of inverted pseudospirituality, to make us suspicious at all costs of success. But success is not the issue; faithfulness is.  (my bold added)

God was telling me that there are a lot of faithful people at CrossPoint.  He will raise up who and what he needs.  He cares far more about CrossPoint than any of us ever will.