There are two sticky notes I keep posted on my desk that I am sure to notice and read at least once a week. The first says, “You know that you are not the best of pastors, but you are the best your congregation has now.”¹ The second: “When you don’t believe in yourself – believe in the one who called you.”

The purpose of these notes is not to demean. These are not negative statements to remind me of my inabilities (for which I do not need a post-it note to remember). Rather, these notes remind me that I am not the savior of this congregation. Whether or not I am a good pastor or a bad pastor or somewhere in between, God is the primary actor. God is the one who called me. God is the one who is working salvation, forgiveness, and healing in the lives of these people. Any “success” that can be claimed must be attributed to God and not me. God is the one who called me. God is the one who sustains me and this congregation. I may very well be a mediocre pastor, but I am the only pastor God has called to pastor this people in this time. Regardless of my abilities or lack thereof, the results are in the hands of God.

God can do great things through mediocre ministers. This last week I preached on the story of Jonah. When Jonah is finally “obedient” and preaches in Nineveh, he preaches what I believe to be one of the worst sermons ever preached. In Hebrew, the sermon is only five words: “Still forty days Nineveh overthrown.” There is no mention in this sermon of Nineveh’s sin nor mention of an appropriate response. Even more egregious, Jonah’s sermon is Godless. God is not even given credit for the ensuing act of judgment. The most egregious error a preacher can make is to fail to mention God! Nevertheless, Jonah’s sermon is one of the most successful sermons – the whole city believes in God and repents.

The text is clear on this point: it is not that the people believe Jonah, the people believe God. God is present and at work despite the failings of the preacher. In a sermon, the preacher is not the most important person speaking: God is. Even during the worst of sermons, the Spirit is moving, convicting, forgiving, and saving.

None of this is to say that the pastor may as well phone it in and not try if God is going to do the work anyway! As Paul would say, “May it never be!” But I do the work of preaching and pastoring with the understanding that my work is both in cooperation with and in subordination to the work of God. I work so that God can use my work as a building block in the Kingdom, but in the full knowledge that God builds the Kingdom and I do not.

There are no superstar pastors. Most of us are more like Jonah than we would like to admit: fickle, disobedient, sometimes begrudgingly obedient, temperamental, and in a process of slowly learning how to pray and submit to the judgment and will of God. But for whatever reason, God has called us anyway. And just like God would not let Jonah escape the call, there is no running from the call of God. I know I am not the best of pastors, but I am the best this congregation has now. And when I don’t believe in myself, I continue to believe and trust in the God who called me.

1. I adapted this quote from William H. Willimon: “You know you are not the best of preachers, but you are the best your congregation has now.” Integrative Preaching: The Pulpit at the Center (Nashville: Abingdon, 1981), 100. ↩︎