Maybe Frederick Buechner is right. Maybe all moments are key moments. “In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it.” And yet, not all moments are equal. I believe that God has reserved some of these to meet us as he did Jacob in the night. There are these epiphanies under this open heaven that catch us unawares. Moments where the miraculous waits to be unwrapped within.

This has been the premise of these articles. God is doing something that gives us pause, stops us in our tracks, and moves us in a particular direction. He brings us to the end of ourselves yet moves us to the start of our lives.

Hopefully these articles have taught us to be attentive to them. Convinced us of our need to be fully present in the moment. The Senegalese proverb splashes frigid water in our unexpecting faces: “The opportunity which God sends does not wake up him who is sleeping.”

Moments come, and then they are gone. Time is never static. We are perpetually in transit. We must be alert.

Time, we have noted, belongs to God, and in the fullness of time, God acts in ways purposeful and perfect. When he chooses to enter and sweep through our lives, these moments have decisive significance. How we respond will give definition and shape to our pastoral work.

We identified twelve defining moments. With other pastors, I’ve lived—and survived—all of them. Let’s review them one more time. Write these moments on a list and keep it close by. Let it be a map that recounts previous points on the journey and presages future stations ahead. They are not exhaustive, and they do not necessarily follow the order presented. Some may come back to us again and again. The hope is that we all will navigate well.

The Moment to Yield

We begin with the moment to yield. We noted that this is the necessary first of these defining moments. God encounters us with a call to ministry. Over time, we discover this is a summons to a purpose far bigger than ourselves. It will serve as reference point, for the weight of ministry is beyond our ability to carry on our own.

God is calling us to a life of holiness, the kind that must serve as an example to others. He is charging us to lead the church with authority. Pastors are vested with power to establish order and guard against disorder. And God is leading us to preach, that by its very nature is a formidable task, a supernatural act. It commands a special imperatival calling. Nothing less.

The Moment of Self-Understanding

In the early days of ministry, we should prepare for a divine moment of clarity. We will need it. We’re called to be pastors, but who knows what that means? Over time, it is easy to become an aggregate of parishioner expectations. A summation of what others want us to be. And then comes a defining moment.

I made the case that God will meet us in our bewilderment and bring clarity. If we don’t get our definition of pastor sorted out, our ministry will reflect uncertainty and confusion. Along the way, God will call us to get our bearings, grounding us afresh in pastoral theology. He will take us to models that correct our course and confirm our identity.

Jesus is the ultimate pastoral model, the “pastor par excellence.” This is the obvious starting point. The Apostle Paul also gives us lines by which we can trace. In my own story, God led me to these reference points, but he did not stop there. He directed me to the first pastors of the Old Testament: the prophets, priests, sages, and kings. They were the core influencers in Israel, and I believe they serve the same purpose today. They gave me a grid.

The Moment to Find One’s Voice

In this article, we look at the moment God forces us to settle the question of who has the pulpit. Will we pursue whatever is required to be his voice? Will we give our best energy to the rigors of exegesis and exposition, or treat these as secondary to other tasks? Will we allow the text to master us, getting into the deepest parts of our being? Will we commit to the time prayer demands, asking the Spirit of God to empower an already powerful word?

Ultimately we face this question—“Will we become more enamored with God’s words or our own?” In addition, will we submit to the intent of Scripture, or will we use it to serve our purposes? Will we speak as those who have confidence in the power of the Word of God to save and transform lives, or will we assume it needs our help?

The Moment to Decide

Here we are reminded that we all enter ministry with a certain leadership bent. A defining moment comes, however, when God will press us to ask ourselves what kind of leader are we becoming? What style have I embraced? How well do I work with others?

Many of us begin as standalone leaders. Part of it reflects the size of our initial ministry. Some of it reveals a lack of leadership training and understanding of team dynamics. We tend towards a directive leadership, free of structured meetings and orderly reports. In our minds, this frees us to get things done.

But, God will show us that reducing leadership to ourselves stifles the institution. One is too small a number to achieve greatness. It’s critical to create a spirit of interdependence. There will be times the circumstances demand a leader go it alone. Collaborative leadership does not apply to every situation. But these are rare. In most moments, a leader who bypasses collaboration is prone to misjudgment and narrow thinking.

The Moment to Step Out

There comes another moment when God will summon us to boldly face the challenges and bring necessary change. I point out that we must be about drawing new s-curves before ministry plateaus.

Looking at history, we found that there are these visitations of the Spirit when God says, “This must change.” It requires holy resolve, a determination to not allow ministry to devolve into maintenance management. Become a mindless loop. If we are listening, we will hear God calling us to remove antiquated practices that impede the mission, prevent a ministry from flourishing, and dig us into a rut.

The Moment to Take a Stand

We tend to avoid confrontation and look past congregational sin. But we learned that a divine moment comes, calling us to reprove, correct, and even ostracize those who threaten the church’s integrity.

Within the context of divine grace, exhortation and correction are interwoven into the church’s daily existence. The hope is always reconciliation. As we noted, there are risks. Confronting sin will cost us time and energy, relationships and resources. Ignoring sin, however, allows sin to morph, for sin never remains static. Admonition is a pastoral duty.

The Moment to Engage

Beyond the internal work of leading a church, there is a broader world. The church can become so inwardly focused it loses sight of its mission. Pastors can become blind as well. But, as I warn, God will confront us with the idolatrous age in which we live.

We look at four different postures. The first is a posture of separation. This is a position that ranges from cultural indifference to cultural aversion. The opposite extreme is a posture of assimilation. Finding that cultural adaptation is part of the biblical story, some are persuaded to tear down the barriers that turn off culture. The third posture is one of domination. This is driven by the conviction the church is called to be in the world and over the world. The final posture is the posture of engagement. This characterized Jesus’ approach. It involves a listening ear, a discernment of the cultural issues, and a willingness to thoughtfully dialogue.

The Moment of Realism

It’s here we discuss the moment when our pastoral fantasies are stripped bare. Ministry has a way of creating illusions. It is a profession we romanticize.

We will face several myths. One of them is the myth of indispensability. In a defining moment, however, God will post a sign that declares that we are not up to being God. Another myth is that a perfect church is out there waiting for us. The truth is that all are, to some degree, a mess.

We look at other myths. We have this assumption that we are in control and in charge of our time. But even if we are inclined to efficiency and sterling graduates of time-management schools, time is not ours to control.

We also have this vision that ministry is safe. But this too is a myth. Ministry is anything but benign. Congregants can be dangerous. They can be both loving and toxic.

The Moment to Grow

Looking at the ministerial landscape, we observed that there come moments when restlessness takes hold. It may be that we feel stuck. If we’re honest, we admit to ourselves and others that we have been playing it safe. Sometimes, in a divine and defining moment, God prompts us to step out. It’s all part of finding and fulfilling the purpose of our lives.

We look at the numerous lives of men and women who faced such moments. In time, God called David to leave the security of the sheepfold and lead a nation. God confronted Esther with a life-altering decision that placed her life at risk. Some, like Paul, had a Damascus Road experience. Other lives summoned to more expansive ministries included Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Tim Keller, Frederick Buechner, and James Houston. All had life altering encounters with God.

What almost all had in common was a conviction they were made for more. They were willing to meet the requirements that such a defining moment calls for. It requires an honest assessment of self, an attentiveness to God’s ways, a desire to go to the next level, a willingness to receive wise counsel along the way, and the faith and resolution to step out. When we do, we find that God is able to do the unimaginable and do it through us.

The Moment to Endure

I make the case that every pastor faces a dark night of the soul. A series of setbacks, an ongoing conflict, a loss of passion, an unaddressed distraction, a growing disillusionment, or a demonic attack. These interrupt our halcyon days.

We traced the lives of some who encountered the darkness and lived to talk about it. These represent defining moments. The more obvious included Job, who faced a divine impenetrability that isolated his soul. The lament psalms reveal David’s occasional moments of despair. Qohelet’s life, as told in Ecclesiastes, had its dark places. Life isn’t the nice, neat boxes we anticipated. Among the prophets, few had darker nights than Jeremiah. He discovered that to be God’s person means to have “vulnerability met by ruthlessness.”

What prompts this? We looked at various causes. The darkness might come with the quest for purgation and the eventual awareness of just how dark the soul really is. Darkness is often part of the experience of correction. When we turn from God, a holy God must turn from us and withdraw his light. God may also plunge us into the dark places to test our faith. Darkness, as we noted, also comes with spiritual attacks. Satan’s kingdom is a kingdom of darkness.

In certain moments, our response must be one of resistance, seeing that the enemy is behind this. But sometimes, the darkness is a divine moment we are encouraged to endure, even embrace. There are lessons we may not learn any other way.

The Moment to Transition

Here we underscore that every ministry, one way or another, shifts. Somewhere in the process we encounter a defining moment with God. He may be stirring a restlessness, calling us to a different place. He may be using a difficult season to test our resolve and deepen our faith.

We outline a series of questions every pastor must ask. Is this decision to move on driven by God or me? Have I grown beyond my present work? Is it no longer a challenge? Have I stopped to consider what the gains will be, as well as the losses? Have I considered the relationship I have had with those I have been leading—and may soon be leaving? Have I finished the work God has summoned me to do? Has the church moved beyond me? Am I no longer able to do this? What are those voices, the ones I have relied on, telling me? Is this the right fit? Am I moving closer to convergence? Have I prepared the church for my departure?

The Moment to Reposition

We end our look at defining moments by grappling with the reality of end points. In some cases, the conclusion of the ministry is a choice that is made for us (an inoperable disease, a family crisis, an aging body). In others, we will have to decide. Am I coming to the end of my journey? It is another defining moment, one initiated ultimately by God.

In the latter season of life, the God who has summoned us and encounters us at core ministry moments will call us to reposition. Society uses the word retirement but reposition is a better fit. Most of us did not sign up to spend our last days on a golf course. As noted, most of us are unprepared. This is uncharted territory.

Like other defining moments this one has its responsibilities. The first is to be honest with the evidence. Does it tell us the mind and body are diminishing and the opportunities for ministry are ending? The second responsibility is to face the critical questions that come with this season. Have I carried out my call? Am I numbering what days I have left? Am I willing to let go?

But, as also observed, letting go does not necessarily mean we are consigned to irrelevance. Our greater awareness of who we are, as well as our accumulation of wisdom and experience, may be used of God for even greater ministry—even if we no longer have a formal role. We are free to take greater risks, as well as focus on becoming rather than doing. With the attendant pains of aging, it can be a great moment.

All of us want to look back and believe our ministry counted. None of us enter this work to mark time. We want to know we stepped up to God’s summons and lived out the implications of each defining moment. If we seize each one of them and fully discharge our duty, to the glory of God, we will have lived to the edge of our God-defined boundaries. And, hopefully, we will have changed the world.

John E. Johnson is an adjunct professor of Pastoral Theology and Leadership at Western Seminary in Portland, OR. He has served as a lead pastor for thirty five years, and currently is a writer working on his fourth book, as well as serving as an interim teaching pastor.