BY RAPHAEL MNKANDHLA
In 2015, I accepted a position at City Church in Williamsport PA, as the Lead Pastor. As I have been meeting with different pastors, I have encountered two kinds of people, those that are interested in building their own kingdom, and those that are interested in building God’s kingdom.
Background
Before explaining further what I mean by that, let me give you a background story of our church. Our church has been in Williamsport for decades, but during that time a lot of things have occurred, which has branded the church with a negative stigma. When my family and I arrived, there were as low as 12 committed adults and currently, in mid-summer, I have counted at least 60 committed adults. This number increases during the fall when we welcome back our college students. We have witnessed baptisms, seen marriages restored, and watched lives be transformed. It was an amazing sight this summer witnessing these same lives serve in our community events. This is a church revitalization/replant and those don’t usually have great success. @@As I meet pastors that seem to be ahead of us in many ways, they usually fall into two categories, about their kingdom or about God’s kingdom.@@
About Their Kingdom
Usually, these individuals are not interested in how God has been working redemption in people’s lives through the church. They don’t care about the journey of how God has providentially led you to pastor the church. They don’t care about your story. THEY JUST WANT TO COME AND TAKE OVER, slap their logo on your building, and brag how they are a multisite church. It was barely a month after God had moved heaven and earth to get us here, when one pastor reached out to me and told me what his intention was to buy me out of the building. This left me feeling as if I had been misled by God and had walked into a situation beyond hope. Pastors that are about their kingdom will drive you into a dungeon of despair by sharing the statistics of the hopelessness of revitalizing, but thank God that even there He has given a key of promise to escape. My escape was looking to the resurrection and believing with all my heart that if God, through Jesus, had conquered our most hopeless foe, death, then He could certainly give life to a dead church. Our savior triumphed against death and now forever leads us into triumph. In these pastors I found no gospel encouragement at all; it felt like they were just waiting for me to quit so that I could give them our building, people, or whatever they could scavenge off me. There are some that I have encountered along the way that even mentioned that maybe I was meant to go back to Africa. These kind of leaders want to build their own kingdom like Alexander the Great who sought out kingdoms to conquer one after another.
About God’s Kingdom.
The pastors who are about God’s kingdom are those who, from the moment they meet you, are excited that God has added another laborer in the field. They pastor what are called Kingdom churches. Whether their churches are large or small, they want to build the kingdom, not just their own castles. They joyfully defer their own desires in order to bless others; and they eagerly partner with other congregations, setting aside secondary theological and philosophical differences, as they unite in the gospel.[i] There are three examples that humble me when I think about them.
Pastor 1: “Welcome to our city! We cannot tell you how excited we are that you are here! We have been praying daily for God to send more laborers into our city because of Luke 10:2. We believe that God has brought you here to come and partner with us in the harvest. How can I serve you today?”
Pastor 2: “We are so glad you are here! Let’s get together and pray with one another in the upcoming weeks. We want to get to know you and how we can be praying for you. We want to also find ways we can partner with each other in ministry, so let me know how I can help you settle in.”
Pastor 3: (From another city): “Our resources are yours, let us know how we can help. If you would like it, let’s set up a time to do some coaching bi- monthly. I’m excited about how God is going to use you, challenge you, and conform you to the image of Christ. Although what you are doing is tough, I am here for you.”
This is encouraging because even now these brothers are a channel of God’s grace to me in this season. I have been challenged by their love for the Lord, His words, families, churches and the community. They helped me immensely, to check my mentality whether I am seeking to build my kingdom or God’s kingdom. Where I saw no value in other pastors as partners I now respond like Paul to Mark.[ii] They are “profitable for me in the ministry” (2 Timothy 4:11)
The difference
You see the difference is, to the first pastor, I am a competitor to be eliminated and plundered, and to the second pastor, I am a brother and fellow laborer in Christ who is working for the same cause and boss. His success is my success and vice versa. @@ I pray that God would make us pastors that care about building His kingdom, rather than our own kingdoms. @@ @@I pray for more Pauls' than Alexander the Great’s; more brothers, more partners, and more encouragers.@@
What kind of pastor are you?
[ Note: all thoughts in this blog are mine, and have no intention to condemn anyone, but to build and encourage]
[i] The book “Churches Partnering Together: Biblical Strategies for Fellowship, Evangelism, and Compassion” by Bruno Chris and Matt Dirks has been very eye opening to me, and this line was taken from that book. I believe that in order for churches to partner it begins with pastors crossing the street and meeting and building relationships with one another.
[ii] If you remember Paul and Mark did not see eye to eye, because Mark had deserted him at some point. It was because of Mark that Paul and Barnabas parted ways. Read the Story in Acts 15:38. We see in 2 Timothy Paul saying mark is now profitable to him. Something had changed.