Dear Rose Park,
This Sunday, June 19, my cousin Tyler Brinks will be ordained as a Minister of Word & Sacrament during morning worship at Kirk in the Hills Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield Township, Michigan. He graciously asked me to write a charge that his dad, Kevin, will read at the end of the service. I am so grateful to be apart of this service, albeit from a distance. As I wrote the charge for Tyler, I started to reflect on my own ordination and the charge that was read.
Beloved servant in Christ, be attentive to yourself and to all the flock given to your care by the Holy Spirit. Love Christ: feed His lambs, tend His sheep. Be an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in purity. Attend to reading, prayer, study, preaching, and teaching. Do not neglect the gift that is in you. Put these things into practice, devote yourselves to them, so that all may see your progress. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; continue in these things, for in doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers. Guard what has been entrusted to you.
As I read this I am both convicted and comforted. I am convicted, in a healthy sense, to again commit myself daily to feeding His lambs, tending His sheep, being attentive to reading, prayer, study, preaching, and teaching, to not neglect the gift that is in me, and to guard what has been entrusted to me. I am also comforted because the above is what it truly means to be a pastor. To be a pastor isn’t to be the manager of the church. To be a pastor isn’t to be the director of the church’s social calendar. To be a pastor isn’t to be the CEO or CFO. Of course, there are times where managing, directing, and financial involvement are par for the course, but at the heart what it means to be a pastor is to love Christ, to feed His lambs and to tend His sheep.
I hope and pray I pastor you and your loved ones faithfully in this way. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to walk alongside you at Rose Park. I am so grateful for the occasions gathered around the family table. I am so grateful for moments to pray with you around the baptismal font. I am so grateful for the weekly rhythm of preaching God’s Word to you. I am so grateful to be called your pastor and I look forward to where God will call us and how He will use us for the advancement of His Kingdom.
So, to Tyler, myself, pastors for today, and pastors for tomorrow: let us never forget our first love and never let our eyes, hearts, and minds fall from His Kingdom but instead, love Christ, feed His lambs and tend His sheep.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Mark
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash