When you think of spiritual growth or change, what would you say makes the most difference? There’s lots of potential good (right) answers. But when I look back on the seasons of the most significant spiritual growth, there’s always been a loving person delivering God’s Word to my heart. It really is that simple, and that profound.
On the surface, that may sound like a defense of pastoral ministry or the activity of preaching and, in a sense, it is. But that’s not the point I’m making right now. For interestingly, the people who have made the biggest spiritual impact in my life have only occasionally been pastors.
This week in staff meeting we took time to personally apply the first point of last week’s sermon from Psalm 44, namely, that God’s ordinary means of passing on the faith to the next generation is the family of faith, the church. I asked each staff member to tell us about someone in their past who made a big spiritual impact. We named mothers, Sunday School teachers, youth volunteers, and, yes, a pastor or two. But it was noteworthy that for almost all of us, the single biggest spiritual influencers were ordinary Christians who loved us enough to minister the truth of God’s Word to where we needed it most.
At staff meeting, I mentioned the name Chuck Thompson. He helped lead the 3rd-5th grade boys’ class on Wednesday nights at my home church in Laurel, MS. I remember one night in particular. Chuck told us he’d had a long week and didn’t have much time to prepare a lesson, but that he wanted to teach us about thanksgiving.
He had each boy—probably 4 or 5 of us—retell all the events of our day. From the moment we woke up, to the moment we stepped into the room for Bible study that night. As we painstakingly rehearsed the day’s activities, Chuck would stop us and say, “How can you give thanks to God for that?” From brushing our teeth to playing catch in the backyard, Chuck was calling us to pause, consider, and give thanks to God.
Little did we know, he was teaching us the life transformative truth of 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” The teaching was so simple. It was even unprepared! But thirty years later I remember it and am still learning the lesson of it. In fact, I’m sharing the lesson with you! Chuck has gone on to be with the Lord, but the impact of Chuck’s ministry remains with me to this day. That’s how God loves to work.
Who has God used in your life to make a spiritual difference? Go ahead and stop right now and give thanks for them. Then, for God’s glory alone, ask the Lord to use you to lovingly minister the truth of God’s Word to someone else. Trust me, that’s the kind of prayer He’s inclined to answer.