Honor Such Men

I love the space an apostle devotes to honoring two specific names in Philippians 2. 

Just think of it, the glorious, compact book of Philippians! The epistle bursting with joy, joy, joy at every seam! And of only four chapters, Paul gives half of chapter 2 to commending Timothy (verses 19–24) and Epaphroditus (verses 25–30). 

So, as he says there, we too want to do in this important and bittersweet season of the life of our church: “honor such men” (verse 29).

Thank God for Three Scattering Pastors

Our men are pastors Joe Rigney, Kenny Ortiz, and Joshua Foster. We sent out Josh and the Foster family in May, to plant in northeast Minneapolis. We commissioned Kenny and the Ortizes last month, to plant in Florida. And we will together pray and thank God for Joe and the Rigneys on Sunday, August 6, as they head out for Idaho.

Every Sunday we rehearse for such sendings at the Commission: “we have been the church gathered in worship; now we are the church scattered in mission.” But when these big sendings come, to plant new churches and move across borders, it can be oh so hard to say farewell for now. Especially when men like these pastors have loved and served and taught us so well.

Listening and Speaking

Much of what Paul commends in his specific men also applies to ours. 

These brothers, as your pastors, have been “genuinely concerned for your welfare” (verse 20). I have seen it in pastors meetings. I’ve heard it in their prayers. I’ve seen it in tears as they stood before you on Sundays. In particular, I’ll never forget seeing the emotion on Pastor Kenny’s face as he served you Communion for his final time last month. 

These brothers have loved you, and loved you well. At various moments, all three of them stepped forward to be involved in, and endure, in some of the most difficult pastoral-care crises. All three took the work seriously, and prepared their teaching carefully, and sat long to listen first, and sought to speak into well-heard specifics with specially tailored pastoral counsel.

But not only did they have genuine concern and sympathy and love. Like Paul says of Timothy, these brothers “served with me in the gospel” (verse 22). As well-rounded and emotionally in touch these brothers have been, they all, to a man, are unashamed truth-speakers. They sought to advance the gospel, in the world, in these Cities, in specific lives. Their concern, you might say, really has been genuine. That is, it has not been the thin, shallow concern that would cater to sinners in their sin, but the thick, deep concern to win congregants from darkness to light, from error to truth, from the miseries of cherished sin to the glories and freedom of true holiness.

Brothers, Workers, Soldiers

For the rest of us pastors who remain — for Jonathan and Kevin and Max and two Mikes and two Davids — we consider each of these men “my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier” (verse 25). What a sequence! “My brother,” that is, family — and not just extended family but near family. “Brother” is proverbial for closeness (Proverbs 18:24). And all the more when “brothers” in the blood of Christ.

And “fellow worker” — which is true, these men have worked. It’s called pastoral work and labor for good reason. It can be spiritually and emotionally taxing, even as we serve, like Gandalf — with great joy under every line of care and sorrow, “a fountain of mirth enough to set a kingdom laughing.” These brothers have indeed worked, and worked well, and deserve to be honored.

Yes, “fellow soldier.” Something great is at stake in pastoral ministry, in soul care, in Christian teaching, in the life of the church, in the kind of labor they have given themselves to, and finished so well, as pastors for Cities Church. Significant and scary and monumental as human wars can be, these brothers have been, and continue to be, engaged in a far greater contest, as good soldiers of Christ Jesus, aiming to please the one who enlisted them, and trying to avoid getting entangled in civilian pursuits (2 Timothy 2:3–4). May Christ so help us all, and be pleased.

We Happy Sheep

In their Christian lives and ongoing ministries as pastors elsewhere, Joe and Kenny and Josh have more race to run, more course to finish, more battle to fight. But their season with us, for this church, has come to its completion, and they ran it well. They finished — faithful and fruitful. And so we say, thank you, God, for such men.

And those of us who remain — along with those who we hope to add to our number in the coming months — resolve afresh to run our race with such joy and grit as these brothers, fellow workers, and fellow soldiers.

We do that, first and foremost, not as Christ’s under-shepherds but as sheep — happy sheep of the great shepherd, alongside you, our dear congregation, far more excited that he has written our names in heaven than in anything he might choose to do through us.