An Example to Follow

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³ The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. ^[1]

I want to talk about one of my heros today; Godfrey Hubert.  Godfrey Hubert was the first pastor I worked for when I went into full time ministry.  Godfrey comes from a line of pastors.  His parents escaped Nazi Germany in the 40’s and became missionaries in Quito, Ecuador where they ran an orphanage (He had an uncle that was martyred during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia).  Godfrey told me that his bedroom was a renovated chicken coop, so obviously, Godfrey grew up poor.   I remember him relating a story to me one time about how he woke up one morning to find a snake lying on his chest, curled up because of his warmth.  He had to wait until his father came to check on him, being totally still and quiet so he could remove the thing.  If it had been me, I would have wet the bed. 

Godfrey came to the United State when he was eighteen with a 1000 bucks and the instructions to go to Asbury College.  He worked as a pastor, a bus driver, and probably about any other odd job he could find to get himself through school and seminary.  He and his young wife began to pastor Foundry United Methodist Church when he was in his early thirties and he’s still pastoring the church 30 years later.  There are so many lessons I’ve learned from Godfrey both personally and professionally, but there is a new lesson that his faithful service is challenging me with today. 

You see, pastoral ministry is hard.  In most churches you have a faithful 20%.  These are folks who make huge sacrifices so the ministry of the church can happen.  They tithe, they serve, and they understand their participation is important so they can be counted on to attend worship and many of the key church events.  They are people who actually understand that the pastor and his family are people and their long term faithfulness walked out over years provides the church with its strongest leaders and the pastor with his dearest friends.   These are the people who represent Jesus well to the outside community and are models to faithfulness inside the community of the church as well.  These people are easy to make sacrifices for, and it’s their presence that keeps pastors and their families sane.

Then there is the other 80%.  They are church hoppers that go from church to church looking for what they can get.  Like the fair weather fans of a sporting team, they are happy to cheer when things are going well, but they are quick to abandon ship when things get tough.  They are the first to say that the church is filled with hypocrites but fail to see that they are the hypocrites they are talking about.  The problem is that some of the 80% will become the 20% if you can move them along in their faith, you just don’t know who they are.  You don’t know who the diamonds in the rough are.  I know that over thirty years Godfrey has been told countless times his preaching stinks, he’s not good at leading a church, or he basically just stinks at everything.  He has had tons of leaders and people he thought were his friends leave by the droves.  I was one of those.  I was a young twenty something youth pastor who thought I knew everything.  I thought I was a better pastor, a better preacher, a better innovator, and if Godfrey would just do church the way I thought it should be done then all would be great.  I was saying this to a man who came in after a church split, and grew the church to 1500 people while I was there.  It’s now a church of 4000.  What I’ve learned since I left is if I could be even on sixty-fourth of the pastor Godfrey is I’d be O.K.

 6 months after I left, I called Godfrey repenting in dust and ashes, and because he is the kind of man that he is, he forgave me and has been one of my biggest cheerleaders (he always was, I just had to eat some humble pie to see it). 

 So here I am twelve years into the church I planted in Chattanooga Tennessee.  I’ll tell you a little secret; every pastor has their favorite exit strategies.  Mine involve planting a church next to a warm beach, in my beloved College Station, back home in Houston, or next to Disney World.  I’ve always kept these in my back pocket, just in case.  However, as I see the courageous leadership of Godfrey, I find myself asking the questions, “What if I committed myself to a group of people most of whom, I know, would never commit themselves to me? What if I followed the model of Godfrey who is following the model of Jesus and served whether I’m accepted or rejected by those whom I’m laying my life, dreams, and desires down for?   What if I burned up all my exit strategies and climbed up on the altar and said my life is not my own, but it belongs truly to the sheep to which you’ve called me, Lord.  What if…”

Well I haven’t left yet.  Godfrey, I hope I make you proud.  I hope I can be as faithful to my charge as you have been to yours.  You have been and always will be my pastor.

    

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^[1] The New International Version. 2011 (Jn 10:11–13). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.