John Ortberg is the Senior Pastor of the 4,000 member Menlo Park Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) and the author of multiple books on spiritual formation. In the Fall 2012 edition of Leadership Journal, he wrote an article entitled “Our Presumptuous Calling,” in which he challenged followers of Jesus to live into that calling by living out the Great Commission in big and bold ways. Ortberg cautions all followers, but especially pastors and ministry leaders, to avoid common perspectives that misunderstand a secondary concern as primary:
The great danger in ministry is that we think about the task before us in ways that are too small. We are not called to fill buildings or balance budgets or launch successful programs or grow at a 10-percent annual growth rate. We are not called to be more successful than our peers in order to boost our self-esteem. We are not called to dream up the next big post-seeker post-emergent post-missional ministry trend (p. 30).
So What?
Many ministries in local congregations do great work, but lack the appropriate focus needed to do the right work well.
- Does your congregation have a mission statement and other guiding ideals that permeate every area of congregational life
- Does each committee, work group, board or other functional team have a defined scope and understand how their efforts support the larger congregational mission?
- When has thinking small harmed your ability to fully live into your calling as a follower of Jesus? How have you seen a similar shortcoming adversely impact a ministry in your local congregation?