Have you ever run across a comment by Ellen G. White that you’re unsure what to do with? The question in the title of this blog focuses on what we do (or don’t) with some of what she wrote. Do we…or don’t we…believe her? 

Back on January 27, 1890, The “Signs of the Times” published an article she authored titled “The Most Effective Agent for God”. It’s kind of a long paragraph, yet it makes a really good point. 

The success of a church does not depend on the efforts and labor of the living preacher, but it depends upon the piety of the individual members.” What comes next to my way of thinking is real “food for thought.” “When the members depend upon the minister as their source of power and efficiency, they will be utterly powerless. They will imbibe his impulses, and be stimulated by his ideas, but when he leaves them, they will find themselves in a more hopeless condition than before they had his labors. I hope that none of the churches in our land will depend upon a minister for support in spiritual things, for this is dangerous. When God gives you light, you should praise him for it. If you extol the messenger, you will be left to barrenness of soul.

What Ellen was getting at was you and I as members should never rely on the pastor, but rather look to God and go to work through the abilities God has given us. Continuing:

Just as soon as the members of a church call for the labors of a certain minister, and feel that he must remain with them, it is time that he was removed to another field, that they learn to exercise the ability which God has given them. Let the people go to work. Let them thank God for the encouragement they have received, and then make it manifest that it has wrought in them a good work. Let each member of the church be a living, active agent for God both in the church and out of it. We must all be educated to be independent, not helpless and useless. Let it be seen that Christ, not the minister, is the head of the church. The members of the body of Christ have a part to act, and they will not be accounted faithful unless they do their part. Let a divine work be wrought in every soul, until Christ shall behold his image reflected in his followers. 

When we depend on the pastor instead of the Lord it’s time for the Lord to move the pastor. Do we believe what she said?

In a way this is very positive: every member (including you) has been gifted by God with abilities to serve Him and His church. I encourage you and every member of our church family to go to work with our abilities, and in this way, we can reflect the image of Jesus in ourselves. This is a rare privilege.