My father died in 2000. He passed away unexpectedly following a brief hospital stay. After the funeral, my family gathered for several days at the home where I had grown up and reminisced about his life.

When it came time for me to return to Cleveland, my mother took me aside and said, “Go ahead and take your dad’s Martin guitar home with you. You know where he kept it. It’s yours now.”

This was not the first introduction to my inheritance. I cherish many memories that center around Dad and guitars. We had a shared love for them.

When I turned 6, Dad started teaching me to play on a beginner’s Kalamazoo guitar. He gave me his Martin 0-18 when I graduated high school. He went with me when I bought a used 12-string Martin from an ad in the newspaper.

Time flew when we got out our guitars, tuned them, changed strings, polished the wood, made music as a family, then put them back in their cases.

But the Martin D-35 I inherited was special. It belonged to my father. As a teenager, I had accompanied him when he purchased it at New York Music on Phelps Street in Youngstown, Ohio. He played every Martin they had. Dad said each model had a slightly different tone. He intentionally selected that particular D-35. It was the first new guitar Dad had ever owned, and he brought it home in a hard-shell, velvet-lined case to protect it.

Sometimes Dad would let me play his guitar. Only he could get it out of its case, however — or put it back. He would always ask me, “Have you washed your hands? Salt on your fingers will impact the strings. Do you have any snaps, buckles, zippers, or jewelry that will scratch the back of the guitar?” After going through the checklist, Dad would gently hand me his guitar to play.

What I didn’t realize then was that my father was caring for my future inheritance.

Caring for God’s Inheritance

In Ephesians 1:18, the apostle Paul wrote, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.”

This inheritance is not our inheritance of heaven but rather God’s inheritance of us. We are “the riches of his glorious inheritance.” The Father looks forward to enjoying His people — the Church — forever.

As credentialed Assemblies of God ministers, God has called us to care for His inheritance. This is both a tremendous privilege and a great responsibility. How do we do this well?

Here are a few practical suggestions that have challenged me over the course of my own ministry. I hope they encourage you as they have encouraged me.

Lead Yourself First

In Ephesians 4:1–3, Paul wrote:

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

These verses apply to all Christians, of course. They apply even more to Christian leaders, however. Like Paul, we appeal to people not only with our words but also with our personal examples.

Many of these virtues seem out of step with the way we describe strong leaders today. Oh sure, standard leadership books talk about the importance of unity. But how many emphasize humility, gentleness, patience, and lovingly bearing others’ faults? Those characteristics may not fit popular descriptions of leadership, but they fit God’s description.

The Church doesn’t need celebrities or entertainers who don’t know the people they’re called to lead. God’s inheritance needs servant leaders who daily aim for metrics defined by the Bible.

Paul went on to write in verses 11–12 that Christ gave the Church the fivefold ministry — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers — “to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” He didn’t call us into ministry so we could have a title or to boost our self-esteem or give us a paying job. Christ called us to steward God’s inheritance.

The Church doesn’t need celebrities or entertainers who don’t know the people they’re called to lead. God’s inheritance needs servant leaders who daily aim for metrics defined by the Bible. The Church needs disciples who make disciples, leaders who show by example what it means to truly follow Christ.

Since we can only give away what we have, we first must be what we hope others will become. Leadership starts with leading ourselves.

Courageously Correct

It is tempting to turn our heads and pretend we don’t see sins that need to be called out. When we lead, calling out misconduct and bringing correction is costly. Doing so brings us into conflict with others, and who wants that?

It takes courage to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), but courage is a necessary part of ministry. And while courageously correcting others has costs, it also has benefits. “We will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”

When leading ordination services, we use 2 Timothy 4:2 as part of the charge to ministers: “Preach the word.” We like those three words, but the verse goes on to say, “Be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction.” Correct and rebuke are hard words. Most leaders find it difficult to provide correction to those they lead.

(On the other hand, if correcting and rebuking others comes easily, you may have a problem at the other end of the spectrum.)

Part of the problem is that we have mistaken notions of what correct and rebuke mean. We think of them as having a gotcha mindset in which we’re always looking out for people doing wrong. Playing gotcha is very different than exercising “great patience and careful instruction,” however. Correcting and rebuking really means looking for teachable moments where we can improve the health of Christ’s Church and its individual members.

Let me give a concrete example of what I mean. I’ve heard pastors imply they’re too busy doing ministry to take care of policies, processes, and paperwork. I admit that writing a good child safety policy, overseeing the volunteer application process, and maintaining up-to-date paperwork on criminal background checks are time-consuming.

But what happens if a minor child is violated because you were too busy? If that happens, the well-being of God’s inheritance, the Church, is harmed — especially the well-being of that precious child. And it could have been prevented!

The three P’s — policy, process, and paperwork — are not alternatives to ministry. They are ministry too!

You are called to care for the whole flock. Grace does not mean ignoring the misconduct of those under your watch. It means patiently and lovingly correcting, rebuking, and exhorting them. You do this for the sake of errant members, but also for the sake of others who have been or will be negatively impacted by those members’ sinful actions.

Steward the Power Differential

Have you ever noticed some leaders behave one way with their superiors and peers and a very different way with their subordinates?

There is a power differential between leaders and followers in any organization. All too often, leaders think their hard work and positions of authority entitle them to privilege and deference. This entitlement mentality slides easily into authoritarianism and abuse.

No matter their specific role, every minister needs to steward the power differential between leader and follower in a healthy manner.

How very different is this worldly entitlement mentality from the biblical, servant mindset! In Matthew 23:11–12, Christ said, “The greatest among you shall be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

And in Romans 12:3, Paul wrote, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”

Both passages teach that the more authority God gives you, the more responsibility you have to be the humble servant of others. We’ve seen the wreckage that authoritarian and abusive church leaders leave in their wake. The Church is most healthy when it is a welcoming environment and safe place for all — especially the most vulnerable among us.

No matter their specific role, every minister needs to steward the power differential between leader and follower in a healthy manner. Meekness is not weakness, but strength under control. If you can steward the power God has given you now, He will entrust greater responsibilities to you in the future.

Establish Healthy Governance Structures

My final suggestion pertains to your church’s constitution and bylaws.

You’re probably scratching your head and thinking to yourself, What does caring for God’s inheritance have to do with something so boring as my church’s governing documents?

It’s a fair question, but hear me out. The quality of your governing documents directly affects the quality of your governance structures. And good structures lay a foundation for effective ministry.

If you want to steward God’s inheritance well, you need to pay attention to how your church is governed.

That being the case, let me ask a few questions:

Do your governing documents serve the health of your church by guiding transitions between pastorates? Do they provide accountability to leadership? Do they empower the priesthood of all believers?

Do your constitution and bylaws set term limits on and stagger rotation for board members? Or do they leave the same people in office for decades, giving them no break and making no room to raise up new lay leaders?

If you want to steward God’s inheritance well, you need to pay attention to how your church is governed.

Many founding pastors find it preferable to populate their boards with a few out-of-state mentors who don’t attend the church weekly. Does that best serve the long-term health of the congregation? Wouldn’t it be better to mentor leaders chosen from within who attend weekly and are willing to pray for, participate, and be present in the life of the church?

In the short term, developing leaders from within is messy and takes extra effort from the pastor. But it helps your church build toward health, longevity, and multiplication — especially during pastoral transitions.

I know some pastors want governance structures that don’t have “speed bumps” slowing them down. Those speed bumps include governance structures such as voting membership, board members elected from the congregation, and board accountability for pastors. In my opinion, those speed bumps are really guardrails protecting the long-term health of the church.

If we’re going to care well for God’s inheritance, we need to make sure our governing documents and governance structures work well for us and our successors. We’re not the first stewards of the Church, and unless Christ returns in our lifetime, we won’t be the last. We need to do our best to ensure continuity of high-level care.

What If?

When I worked as a paralegal, I often drafted a client’s last will and testament. It included a provision for the client — technically, the testator — to write a letter suggesting how personal items would be given to certain individuals.

Clients would often ask, “But what if I decide to sell that item during my lifetime?” Answer: The person inherits nothing. 

“What if I use the china set and some of the pieces break?” Then they inherit the china set in a broken condition.

These legal questions have spiritual counterparts for ministers. Will we “sell out” before the Day of Judgment and give the Lord nothing? Will we hand Him His Church in broken pieces? Is that how we will care for His inheritance?

I’m so thankful for the care my father provided my inheritance. I can’t tell you the enjoyment I’ve derived from this guitar over the past two decades. Thanks to Dad’s stewardship, I’ve been able to use it is gospel-related contexts. (I’ve included a picture of me playing the guitar and teaching my ESL friends Christmas carols when I pastored in Cleveland, Ohio.)

As ministers, let’s stay focused on stewarding “the riches of [God’s] glorious inheritance in his holy people” (Ephesians 1:18)!

This article appears in the fall 2022 issue of Called to Serve, the ministers letter of the Assemblies of God.