The Pastor: Making a New World

By the Rev. Benjamin T. G. Mayes

Why should I become a pastor? I am one who has asked himself this question. Being raised in a pastor's family, I got to see not only the joys of the ministry, but also its struggles and sorrows. After attending public grade school and high school, I enrolled at Concordia University, Seward, Nebraska, thinking maybe, perhaps, I would become a pastor–but more than likely preengineering, science, or mathematics would hold more financial promise for me.

Soon, however, I discovered that for me the office of the holy ministry would be the most engaging and fulfilling of all vocations. No matter if I made less money than others, or if I was not popular. No matter! As I looked around I saw a dying world. What people needed more than anything else was the Gospel of Jesus Christ—the Son of God and Son of Mary who died and rose to restore humanity to fellowship with God. What people needed most of all was not the services of an engineer, they needed Christ, and I wanted to be the man to give Christ to them.

In the pre-seminary program at Seward I began an intense preparation for the office of the holy ministry. After studying Greek, Hebrew, Latin, philosophy, and history (and after marriage to a wonderful Lutheran woman, Rebecca), I headed off to seminary in Fort Wayne. There I strove to learn and push myself as much as possible, like an athlete trains and practices before setting foot on the field for a game. My goal was to prepare, train, and offer what I could to God and to His Church. Rebecca and I were blessed with a year in Germany as I studied at our sister church's seminary in Oberursel. After graduation I enrolled at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to study the age of Lutheran Orthodoxy and earn a Ph.D. While there, my goal of being a pastor was accomplished. I was called by the saints at Our Savior Lutheran Church to be their associate pastor and I received holy ordination.

Since that time, I've been able to see how important pastors are for the church and what great promises God has given concerning the ministry. Having great church programs, entertaining services, and a big church building are not what saves people. I've seen that Luther is right when he says, "But to build a marble church ... that makes a show that glitters! ...Well, let it make its show! Let it glitter! Meanwhile my pastor, who does not glitter, is practicing the virtue that increases God's kingdom, fills heaven with saints, plunders hell, robs the devil, wards off death, represses sin, instructs and comforts every man in the world according to his station in life, preserves peace and unity, raises fine young folk, and plants all kinds of virtue in the people. In a word, he is making a new world! He builds not a poor, temporary house, but an eternal and beautiful Paradise, in which God Himself is glad to dwell."¹

This is why I became a pastor. The Word of God does not preach or administer itself. It requires men to do it. And God has promised to bless their labors. Why should I become a pastor? To make a new world, a paradise in which God Himself is glad to dwell, for Jesus' sake.

1 Martin Luther, "Commentary on Ps. 82, 1530," in Luther's Works: American Edition, vol. 13 (St. Louis: Concordia, 1956), 52-53.

The Rev. Benjamin T. G. Mayes is an Associate Pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a Ph.D. student at Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids.