A pastor I’ve come to respect recently told me that my greatest asset as a pastor right now is my age. The statement struck me. I hadn’t really thought of my age as an asset before. With age comes experience. With age comes knowledge and wisdom. With age comes a degree of respect from others in the church because they know that you’ve counseled people through problems, you’ve preached faithfully for many years, and you’ve served the church through years of ministry.
But I understand why my pastor friend might have said that. At least I think I do. Young pastors typically have a zeal about them that’s contagious. Young pastors typically have charismatic personalities and a passion in ministry. People seem to love to listen to young pastors preach because they bring a youthfulness, excitement, and singularity of focus to the church that Christians long for.
But when I think about those advantages of being a young pastor, I see myself in them very little. I don’t have a charismatic personality. I’m not an awesome preacher. And while I have a passion to reach people for Christ, I certainly don’t have the kind of demeanor that people flock to listen to.
If you ask me, my greatest asset as a pastor is the same as every other pastor, despite their age. The gospel is my greatest asset. The gospel is what changes lives. Romans 1:16 starts out, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” I think some pastors have become ashamed of the gospel, and they try to attract people to the church through various events, programs, and young pastors – everything but the gospel itself. There’s nothing wrong with those things, and they can be used in mighty ways to point people to Christ. But if we truly realized how powerful the gospel is, it would be our greatest tool in bringing people to join the church: through introducing them to Christ so that they would experience the grace of God.