My Dear Shepherds,

I long ago forgot the commencement address from my seminary graduation but I’m pretty sure nothing was said about how downright frightening ministry can be. I doubt it had the tone of those speeches generals give to troops before battle.

But after completing all our training in theology, Bible books, church history, counseling, evangelism, and leadership, it would have been good if someone would have gotten in our faces and drilled us with, “Only be strong and courageous! Do you hear me?! Be strong and courageous!”

Because as we all know now, pastoring is not for the faint-hearted. David the shepherd boy only had to face an occasional bear or lion. Kid stuff compared to a hostile congregational meeting, hearing an abuse victim’s harrowing story, or helping a community ravaged by tragedy.

When Joshua took over shepherding from Moses, with Israel finally on the threshold of the Promised Land, God couldn’t have been clearer about the qualities he needed most! The command is repeated four times in Joshua 1.

In order to fortify him, God didn’t give him instructions on military strategy or how to motivate the troops. Instead, God took Joshua inward:

Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Josh. 1:7-9)

That is still God’s preparation for our inevitable they-didn’t-prepare-us-for-that-in seminary experiences. Intertwined with the delights of pastoring are hours and seasons of weakness and fear. No Christian leader has ever been exempt. Paul himself wrote, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.” Few of us aspire to heroism, but in the end it will come down to that.

This is another instance of biblical counter intuitiveness. Only God would instill strength and courage by schooling us in holiness and grace. The great granite stones of the law grounded redeemed slaves in God’s holiness and grace. The terrifying God of Mt Sinai is also “the LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God … abounding in love and faithfulness … forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”

Today, we are adorned in the bridal gown of that grace through Jesus Christ. The New Covenant, lifted from rigid tablets, is engraved on our hearts. What’s more, the Paraclete never stops working that Word into our lives. The law of Moses, so crucial to Joshua and to Jesus, is now incomparably strengthened and enriched by sixty-one other books of Scripture, all embodied in Jesus, the living Word.

Apart from conversion, nothing equips us for ministry leadership like being immersed in Scripture. But even if we possessed a photographic memory and a professor’s grasp of every page, we still need to meditate on it day and night, we still need to obey, because the Word must continually permeate our thinking and leadership.

Few of us obey, speak, and contemplate Scripture like we’ve resolved to do. Like Martha, we’re often “distracted by much ministering,” when we could be sitting at Jesus’ feet. Yet, what a privilege our churches give us when they employ us and wait on us to be God’s Wordworkers!

Be ye glad!

Lee Eclov recently retired after 40 years of local pastoral ministry and now focuses on ministry among pastors. He writes a weekly devotional for preachers on Preaching Today.