Build Their Ministry, Not Yours

Last week I listened to a podcast episode about what it’s like to be an airport CEO.

During the interview, the CEO shared something that caught my attention. As part of redesigning the airport, she had to hire an architect, and the airport received 20–30 proposals. Almost immediately, they set aside the submissions that centered on the firm’s own credentials and prestige. They weren’t looking for an architect who wanted to showcase a signature style or reproduce an airport that could go anywhere. They sought a partner who understood Pittsburgh's unique needs and culture, and was committed to meeting the community's operational demands.

One line in particular stayed with me: “We do not want an architect to build their airport in Pittsburgh. We want an architect to build Pittsburgh’s airport.”

I enjoyed the entire interview, and the podcast as a whole is one I like. But that quote also got me thinking about pastoral ministry.

When a church looks for a pastor, it doesn’t need someone who’s going to build a ministry at that church. It needs someone who will pastor that church—someone who understands its people, carries its burdens, and is committed to serving its particular calling and context. There’s a world of difference between these two approaches to ministry.

I’ve made plenty of mistakes as a pastor, but one of the biggest, especially in my early years, was treating pastorates as platforms to establish myself and my ministry. I saw my first church as an arena: a place to preach, prove myself, and advance to the next opportunity. I did love the church, but my love was mixed with ambition. And that selfishness, however subtle, made me a lesser pastor than I should have been.

I wish I could say that ended with my first ministry. Sadly, it didn’t. We’re never completely free of ego and self-promotion. The drift toward self can be quiet, gradual, and hard to detect, until we look back and see it for what it is.

But when ministry becomes less about the pastor and more about how the pastor can serve the church, something beautiful begins to happen. We become what Jesus calls us to be: servants. We take up the towel. We learn again that leadership in the kingdom looks like foot-washing.

Instead of assuming the church is privileged to have us, we begin to realize how privileged we are to serve the Lord in this way. We also learn to get out of the way, to make room for others to serve, to grow, and to use their gifts. Ministry stops being about our name, our ego, or what we feel we need to prove. It becomes about faithfulness to the calling God has given us.

So don’t go to a church to build your ministry. Go because you want to build their ministry. Serve. A pastor’s ministry should never be about how great he is; it should always be about how great Jesus is, and how, by his grace, the pastor can lovingly serve the church that Christ has entrusted to him.