Posted by Rodetta Cook

Rodetta Cook has been a pastor’s wife for over 40 years. She and her husband, Ron, have actively served the Lord together in ministry during the entire time and are co-founders of Care for Pastors. She understands the expectations, loneliness and how hard it is to find balance in ministry as a pastor’s wife. Rodetta also leads the pastor’s wives initiative at Care for Pastors called The Confidante and ministers to hundreds of wives each week. She strives to share blogs with other pastors’ wives that will help them in their ministry walk.

Posted by Rodetta Cook

Topics: Balance · For Pastors' Wives

Church Life

Monday, February 18, 2019

We don’t have to be in ministry long until we realize we all get caught up in numbers and the size of our church. This can cause such a distraction that we get off track of what God has called us to do. Many times, pastors and wives feel that if they are serving a small congregation they aren’t as important as the pastor that has a church of hundreds or thousands. I want to encourage you to not get caught up in that comparison of ministries. God has called you to be where you are and you are just as important as any other pastor’s wife.

I want to share a blog with you today from Baptist Bible hour that speaks to this subject and I pray you will take it to heart.

Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them– Matthew 18:20

We tend to place too much emphasis on crowds, on statistics, on the size of a particular group or movement. We, every one of us, are too easily influenced by the “mob mentality” — the desire to be doing what everyone else is doing and going in the same direction everyone else is going.

But God is not concerned about numbers or popular approval. As Jonathan observed before facing an entire army with only his armor-bearer beside him: “there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few” (1 Samuel 14:6). For this reason the sixteenth century preacher John Knox contended, “A man with God is always in the majority.”

Here Jesus promises His presence in even the smallest gathering in His name. He is just as much interested in the struggling church plant as He is in the mega-church. He is just as present and active in the small prayer meeting as He is in the Christian conference that fills a stadium.

The context of this passage, it is important to note, is a gathering for the sake of ironing out personal differences and possible offenses in the church. So Jesus is not just present when we feel the emotional high of singing praises; He is also present in the nitty-gritty work of personal admonitions and church discipline.

Jesus is concerned about people, but He is not anxious about numbers. Jesus will bless the smallest group that is faithfully seeking His glory and obeying His Word.

I pray you will serve the Lord with all your heart where He has you and realize that He is the only one you need to be concerned about pleasing.

We are here to walk with you on your ministry journey. Please let us know how we can help.

Click here to read the original blog on BaptistBibleHour.org