This People, This Place
Jeremiah 32:36–41
They shall be my people, and I will be their God. Jeremiah 32:38

Here are three principles to guide us in ministry to the city or wherever God has called us to serve.

1. People before programs. The problem rises when we come with our programs and we want to impose them on the people. We ought to be working the other way around. We ought to be concerned for the people, and out of a concern for the people come the programs. How do we figure out if a program that is already in place but is not going well is really the program needed? Do we get angry at the people? Sometimes we get impatient, and we think people should be behind this thing more. When we are thinking that way, we are thinking programs first.

2. Place before promotions. There ought to be a commitment to place. Not everybody has to have the same commitment to place, but it ought to be true for some. It takes time to make an impact, and it certainly takes time to make an impact in a church where you are in the business of developing character and discipleship. Therefore, a commitment to place takes priority over our own opportunity. This means that we don’t move on simply because we have a nice opportunity.

3. A permanent commitment. We are not to be committed to one place “for the time being.” We are not to leave unless the Lord absolutely prods us out of the place, and even then only after we have talked with others who have the same commitment to place to make sure it isn’t just restlessness on our part.

There are challenges in each of the areas. If you talk about people, well, the problem about people is that they aren’t nice; they are sinners. We are too, and we’re not nice, and we all get tired of that. The problem about place is that grass is always greener somewhere else. You begin to think you’ve had about enough of this and you just want to go someplace else. And when we talk about permanence, well, the problem there is we just get tired. Especially as you get older you get tired because you face the same battles that you faced twenty years ago. You haven’t solved all of the problems, and you have to keep fighting, and you just get worn out.

But God does not get worn out. God is committed to the place, and the people, and forever and ever! And if that’s our God, then by the grace of God who empowers us to do what he does and to be like Jesus Christ, we can do the same thing. It is that kind of commitment that God honors and blesses, and I’d like to commend it to you.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.