A Message of Grace…

I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to be part of steering The Rooted Conference which took place recently. A friend from Rooted, Clark Fobes, who is the youth pastor at Sunset Church in San Francisco wrote the following on his way home from the conference. It really captures some of the beauty of the conference.

Today marks the end of this year’s Rooted Conference. Beginning last Thursday afternoon, approximately 250 youth pastors and leaders gathered in Chicago, IL, to be encouraged and refreshed in the Gospel. Over the course of the next two days, seven main sessions, many workshops, and one panel, we were all exhorted to make our ministries – really our lives – about rejoicing in and proclaiming the glories of the Gospel. Though the conference is over, there are many thoughts from the sessions that still linger with me.

Leaders Need Community
In the second session, David Plant (Associate Pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York), charged us from 2 Samuel 11-12 to not become spiritually isolated as we lead. As David (King of Israel, not Plant) grew more and more comfortable with his isolation, so he grew more and more comfortable with his sin, which eventually led to his downfall into adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah. This idea of community for the leader was reinforced throughout the conference. The danger for those in ministry is that we set ourselves up on a “rooftop terrace” (2 Sam 11:2), looking down on everyone else, in isolation from spiritual community. If youth pastors and leaders wish to remain effective and healthy in life and ministry, we need community. We cannot lead out of isolation.
The longer I’ve been in pastoral leadership, the more I’ve come to realize how lonely it can be. People often place pastors on a spiritual pedestal, causing us to feel pressure to be “presentable” – as if we have everything all figured out, aren’t struggling with our own sin, and don’t desperately need the Gospel for ourselves. Often we as pastors can even place ourselves on a spiritual pedestal, thinking that if we don’t have it all together, our people won’t follow or be willing to listen to us. So we create what Paul Tripp calls “a delusion of strength or spirituality,” acting as if we do have it together and don’t need help. This mindset leads to our eventual isolation and loneliness.
Anyone working in ministry knows (or at least deep down suspects) that nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to our spiritual presentability. We are all broken, sinful people; we just get really good at hiding it. As those in the position of leading others to rest and rejoicing in their identity in Christ, we need a radical commitment to our own sanctification. We cannot achieve this in our own strength, but only by the means of the Gospel and the God-given grace of community. Rooted has reminded and re-convicted me that I need to surround myself with people who can be real with me, not impressed with me.

Read more on Leaders as the Chief Repenters and Leaders Rejoicing in the Gospel here

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