Joby Martin: Why “Pace Is a Myth” and Faithfulness Wins

And what I really love about it is that when I’m dead and done, all of these churches have been raising disciples, and then God’s going to call somebody to be a pastor of that church. And it’s going to continuously replicate itself all over the world. I just want to be a part of that globally.

And locally? Make disciples at the places where we have campuses. I don’t have any grand visions for my life. I don’t care at all about notoriety or book sales. I just want to make disciples of the people right in front of me. 

In that answer, I hear your “direction, not vision” idea from before.

There it is.

As we close, I would love to hear any encouragement or exhortation you would like to offer your fellow pastors.

I mentioned the two-talent guy before. First and foremost, please do not compare. I mean, comparison is the thief of joy, because you always compare what you have—or what you don’t have—to what others have. And the problem with that is you compare what you know to what you don’t know. Like, you don’t know me, you don’t know my life, you don’t know what I’ve been through. So the more you can really focus on faithfulness of what God has called you to, the better. 

The other thing I would encourage others in is this: Even though I know theologically who I am in Christ, there still feels like this performance of pressure, you know? God, if I preach good, you’re gonna like me better, right? If more people get saved, that means I’m good, right? And so I reread all the time about the baptism of Jesus. We know it so well. The heavens open up, God the Father speaks out loud, and here’s his word: “Behold my son in whom I’m well pleased.” 

Now, how much ministry has Jesus done? Nothing. He hadn’t preached a sermon, hadn’t done a miracle, hadn’t walked on water, definitely hadn’t been to the cross and defeated sin, death and hell. Before he does anything, God’s voice over him is, “That’s my boy, and I’m really proud of him.” 

I hope that frees people up to quit looking around and comparing themselves to everybody. Just be faithful to go do the thing that God has called you to do.