Why Missional Pastor?

In case you are wondering why the title of this site is Missional Pastor, here is a brief explanation that I hope is helpful.

After a summer mission trip to Central Asia in 2003, I assumed God would call me to be a missionary to the nations, but He had other plans. That same summer, I became the youth pastor at Germanton Baptist Church, a role I served in for 12 years. While I settled into pastoring youth and families, I never lost my passion for missions. In fact, thankfully, God led me to start asking important questions that have shaped my life and ministry.

The questions I began asking centered on the relationship between pastoring and missions. What would it look like for me to participate in God’s mission as a pastor? As a church leader, what was my role in leading, equipping, and sending out the church to fulfill its role in God’s mission? How might I use my sermons to help God’s people see the vastness of God’s mission and their place in it? What was the relationship between God’s mission, pastoring the church, and making disciples of all nations?

I began leading short-term mission trips that allowed men, women, youth, and children to see what God was doing in other places around the world. I went back to school at the age of 27 to be trained for the pastorate. At Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, I was challenged in every classroom to become a Great Commission Christian and a Great Commission pastor. I went on to write my dissertation on the intersection of missional hermeneutics and missional preaching. Slowly, God opened my eyes to understand how I could be a missional pastor, leveraging my pastoring and my preaching to equip the church for its mission to make disciples.

We don’t often think of pastoring in terms of mission, but I hope to change that over time. Our God is a missionary God, His Word reveals His mission, His church was saved through His mission and called to participate in His mission, and pastors are set apart to lead the church to fulfill its mission.

The mission of the church is to make disciples that make disciples. Pastors are on the front lines of this work. They are in the trenches with their people, caring for the wounded, encouraging the weary, and building up their congregation into Christlikeness. By leading, feeding, and guarding our sheep, pastors are ultimately helping Christians become growing, mature, mission-minded disciples of Jesus. To shepherd the church of God faithfully is to carry out the mission of God in the local church in order to prepare the church to make disciples of all nations. There is a missional nature to pastoral ministry.

My prayer for this blog is that I might encourage pastors and Christians to think biblically and deeply about the mission of God, the church, and our mission to make disciples.