home > Pastor’s Desk > 2017 > October 14th > DO YOUR BEST

YOU CAN ONLY DO YOUR BEST

It’s almost unbelievable who Christ entrusted with His mission to save the world! His motley bunch of original disciples were the most unlikely candidates for being the founding agents of global redemption. Yet they did it! And along the way, they stumbled, faltered, and probably let Christ down more than once. But they did it! And this should give us— who stumble and falter—great hope. God in the flesh did not choose the best, but He did choose the best for the job. Christ knows what He’s doing when He chose you! 

There are some churches around the world that are “world’s best practice”. Their music is world-class as validated their millions of albums sold and iTunes downloads. Their ‘customer’ service is second-to-none. They are models of hospitality to their thousands of visitors who attend each of their weekend services. Their preachers are more inspirational than the best TED talkers. Their facilities are better than the best Westfield shopping centre. They hold international conferences which attract thousands of delegates from around the world. As far as churches go, these are the best. But they only comprise less than 1% of all churches around the world. For the rest of us in the 99% of churches around the world, we may not be among the best, but we are generally comprised of those who are doing our best. And it seems that Jesus is still entrusting His mission to people like us – people who still stumble and falter. God’s plan of redemption for this world has still been entrusted to local churches!

Pastor Andrew Corbett, pastor of the word’s slowest growing church, preaching at Legana Christian Church

At Legana we are blessed. We opened our new auditorium in 2017. Many people have encouraged us by telling us how much they enjoy our auditorium. We think it is a beautiful, practical, simple, elegant, worship and teaching centre. Regardless of what people might think of our church—our facilities, our programs, our leaders and staff—we continue to aim to strive to do our best rather than conceitedly attempt to be the best. And this is why I am both stirred and encouraged by the apostle Paul’s final words to Timothy. 

PAUL’S LAST LETTER

The last letter the Apostle Paul wrote, that we know of, was his Second Epistle to Timothy. In it, he tells his young protégé Timothy, “Do your best” — three times.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,
a worker who has no need to be ashamed,
rightly handling the word of truth.
Second Timothy 2:15

Being the best requires making comparisons. Doing your best simply means working with your availability, abilities, training, experience, and use of available resources. Sometimes each of these qualifiers (time, talent, training, experience, and resources) are limited. In the 99% of local churches scattered around the world, there are usually 20% of the people doing 80% of the work. I wonder if this is because the 80% don’t feel good or worthy enough to be able to serve? Paul’s injunction to young Timothy was to do your best to present yourself to God as a pastor of God’s people whose primary task was teach the Word of God to his congregation. When we do our best, we have no need to be ashamed. 

Shortly after I began pastoring Legana I was nearly overcome with a sense of inadequacy as a preacher. Each Sunday morning before I went to church I would go on a prayer walk and cry out to God for His help. I asked and asked and asked that He might use me more effectively to teach His Word (and I still do). I begged Him to make me into the kind of preacher who cared deeply for those I ministered to. I pleaded with Him to mould me into a persuasive preacher to rescue those who were wrestling with doubts and to enable me to deliver the antidote to their doubts – the truth – in the power of the Holy Spirit. I sought Him for the insight to be able to convince the hardest sceptics and cynics to turn to Christ based on the evidence for the God of the Bible (shortly after I began praying this, I was to discover F.W. Boreham who set an example for me of what my answered prayers would look like). I have continued to surrender to Him prayerfully asking that He would help me to grow as a pastor, a preacher and a teacher – and I would still value your occasional prayer for this as well. I have tried to do my best.

“That’s all any of us can do – our best.”

We may never be the best at anything, but we can do our best in everything. This is why, must to the surprise of many, I’m relatively relaxed about how we are doing as a church. We have an extraordinary percentage of our church who serve and give support. I am deeply grateful for everyone who volunteers to help in the various things that need doing in our church. I am grateful for you who offer yourselves to the Lord and prayerfully ask God to help you to do your best in however you serve. I have noticed that many of our young people have been doing this and have volunteered to help out in various roles. What I am also noticing is that there must be people asking God to help them to do their best. Because, when I began to earnestly seek God those few years back to help me to do my best as a preacher I became hungrier to learn and to grow. My openness to instruction and training increased. And I am seeing a similar hunger happen among many in our church.

¶ Do your best to come to me soon.
Second Timothy 4:9 (Also see 2Tim. 4:21)

OUR BEST IS SOMETIMES JUST BEING THERE

Paul’s plea for Timothy to come to him (in prison) soon is heart-warming. Paul goes on in this epistle to reveal that he knew he was about to die soon. Indeed, he would. Toward the end of AD64, shortly after the Apostle Peter was crucified by order of Caesar Nero, the Apostle Paul would be beheaded by order of the same tyrant who executed Peter. His plea to Timothy reminds us that while we can each do our best, sometimes we can be the difference in someone’s life. At this lonely time for Paul, he longed to see Timothy, his son in the faith (1Tim. 1:2). None of us should dismiss the encouragement we are by just being there. Paul longed for Timothy to just be there with him in this trying hour. Sometimes doing our best involves sacrifice and inconvenience. Each Sunday when we enjoy the music that our worship team provides we may not be aware that these musicians have met through the week for practice and then individually to hone their singing and musical skills to give us their best. When Paul want to Timothy to give his best it involved trekking for weeks to come to Rome to simply be there with Paul in what would be his final days. Sometimes our being there is an expression of us doing our best. Coming to worship on Sundays, even if you are not rostered on to serve as a volunteer, is being an encouragement to others. Doing your best to come to worship on Sundays is an encouragement to your brothers and sisters that you may not even be aware of.

GIVE CHRIST YOUR BEST SHOT

The beautiful thing about Church is that it is comprised mostly of people who are not the best and we know it. But with the help of the Holy Spirit we are each learning to improve and to spur one another on to even greater effectiveness for Christ. So don’t worry if you’re not as good as someone else, or that many others might be better than you at whatever. Instead, just keep giving Christ your best shot. And somehow, I suspect, that just as He established the church with faltering, frail, and stumbling servant-apostles, He will probably culminate His church’s closing efforts with similarly weak and faltering servants like you and me!

Letitia Shelton says she is just an ordinary woman trying her best who has achieved remarkable things with a team of women who have simply done the best they could do.

Your Pastor,

Andrew

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