Because I'm most at home behind a pulpit, I spend my mornings reading through advertisements for open ministry posts. And when one catches my heart, I'll apply.
A prophet lived among them.
I also spend a good deal of my time consulting with churches and pastors about ministry. So I pay particular attention to things like "metrics" -- the way churches and pastors measure themselves, their vitality, their growth.
And I've noticed something over the past decade or so.
The Church is increasingly taken with corporate metrics of growth and success.
A former student was sharing with me recently of one national church's way of reporting attendance and membership by means of a computer program, focused entirely on numbers.
That's a metric.
Ministry is hard work. That's why I've always been drawn to speaking about pastoral ministry with young ordinands by reading through the prophets -- but particularly Ezekiel 2.
The people Ezekiel is being sent to are described, over and over, as rebels. They are obstinate and stubborn. They are hard-headed. And living among them is like living with thorns and scorpions.
Ears perk up. Because ordinands aren't accustomed to hearing ministry described in those ways.
But it's true. Ministers need to be tough, like Ezekiel needed to be tough. If the people are stubborn the pastor must be even more stubborn. If the people are hard-headed the pastor's head must be harder still. "I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them." When you live among scorpions, you gotta be tough.
But how do you measure pastoral toughness? How was Ezekiel to be measured?
This is where it gets interesting.
Of course, we always pray for revival. We in the Church always pray for revival. As we should. But revival isn't what Ezekiel is promised.
Ezekiel is promised an outcome. It's found in 2.4-5:
The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says.' And whether they listen or fail to listen -- for they are a rebellious people -- they will know that a prophet has been among them.They may listen. They may not listen. But the one thing they will know is this:
A prophet lived among them.
That's the metric of pastoral success. That a people would remember that a spokesperson for God had lived among them.
That, I tell young ordinands, is the only thing you can control. That when people look back at their lives they remember your words and life. They remember, perhaps from a long time ago, that they once knew a person who spoke truth to them. In a world full of thorns and scorpions they once knew a child of God. A man or a woman who spoke words of judgment and words of grace.
They remember that a spokesperson for God once lived among them.