Pastoral Ministry & Knowledge of Christ

The synchronicity on this was cool. My last daily Bible readings were in Hosea 4 and Philippians 3 where it gives us yet another prophetic diagnosis of our sick condition in both the Western church in general and in pastoral ministry in particular:

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." (Hosea 4:6).
"And it will be, like people, like priest; so I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds" (Hosea 4:9).

Pastors, why are your people being destroyed by the world, the flesh, the devil, temptations and trials they face in their lives? Youth pastors, why can't your kids handle peer pressure, and why do so many fall away when they graduate from high school? Because you teach them everything but the Bible, and because your teaching of the Bible is shallow because your knowledge of God is shallow. Brothers, this should not be!

I heard a Christian woman say yesterday "I saw his tattoos and said 'That guy can be my pastor.'" What is that? Pastors, why is it that goal of our clothing, appearance, entertainment, tastes and speech is "if I'm like them, they'll like / respect / listen to / be impressed with / come back to hear me?" God rebukes Israel's priests for taking their cues from the culture and seeking to "connect" with it, rather than being an example of godliness to the culture.

Instead, what should your ministry reflect? This...

"I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" (Phil 3:8-10).

May your life and ministry reflect this simple desire that Paul had 2000 years ago: to know Christ really and deeply and experientially in the midst of his day to day life.