At the start of my pastoral ministry, I feel grieved because of a number of accounts I have heard of how different church members have suffered hurt from one another, and how much disillusionment and conflict exists even within the church. Of course, not knowing of these accounts previously did not blind me to the fact and acknowledgement that every church consists of much brokenness and pain, that no church is perfect or even close to it.
Yet I am grieved in spirit because the saving of a people and the forming of a community of believers, the Church, for himself, was the joy for which Christ endured suffering for...
"...Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame..." (Hebrews 12:2)
As Paul exhorted the Philippians:
"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind." (Philippians 2:1–2)
So even as the unity, love and harmony of a church brought much joy to Paul, conversely we see how disunity and conflict would grieve him. It grieves God; it should grieve us, and grieve us into repentance.
But perhaps this is also what God wants me to see right at the start of my pastoral ministry. Perhaps what he is calling me to is a ministry of mediation, of being a peacemaker, of stepping into the pain of troubled relationships to seek reconciliation and resolution.
God be gracious to us.
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