As this article is being written, the past few days in my life were spent with many of the fine pastors of the Texas District at our annual fall pastors conference. The theme of this year’s conference was ministerial health—of vital importance for all pastors. Pastors are subject to the frailties that beset all Christians and the temptations that result. When the pressure becomes too much, the feelings of inadequacy surface, along with all the negative behaviors that come with that.

Especially significant among those feelings of inadequacy is the lack of giftedness in a particular area that the pastor perceives he has. In my closing remarks, I had the opportunity to remind the brothers that God did not call a pastor with another set of gifts to the place that they are called. He called them—with all their gifts and all their weaknesses.

And that’s where this message turns to you. You are in exactly the place that God wants you, too. God’s Word says so: “From one man he [God] made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” (Acts 17:26-27 NIV84, emphasis mine)

It’s not an accident that you are where you are and living when you are. God determined that. And he did so with a redemptive purpose—so that people like you and me would find God, who Scripture says, “is not far from each one of us.”

Of course, the purposefulness of God’s placement of people is not just for you and me. It is for everyone who has, is, and will live on this earth. And God places us in proximity to them for a specific purpose as well. St. Peter puts it this way: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9 NIV84)

That’s the common cause that we share and about which I have been writing since my installation at Texas District president—sharing the Good News of Jesus with those who are around us. It is every Christian’s calling. Declarations that are made based on the common convictions about the truths of God’s Word that we share. And it is work that we do together in common community, each one stewarding the special gifts that God has given. Don’t miss what God’s Word says about all this in 1 Timothy 4:16, 2 Corinthians 5:14ff., Acts 15:1-31, and 1 Corinthians 12:4-31.

God has you exactly where he wants you!

By Jon Braunersreuther, D.Min.
President