The words I hate to hear – “well done.” Don’t get me wrong, I love whenever I get the opportunity to eat steak with my wife. But it hurts buying her a filet mignon when she treats it like that. I’ve tried to convince her to stop using those words and to venture into a far superior dining experience, but to no avail. I know you thought this was going to be a post about spiritual things and ministry, but.

Ok, it is. We pastors often say that we want to glorify God alone and simply do everything in life to hear the words “well done” spoken to us by the Lord. But is this really true? Is it consistent with our behavior? Is there something else that we long to hear even more? Doesn’t the evidence suggest that many evangelical pastors do things to be “well remembered,” rather than to hear “well done?” I think that it does. I want to list some reasons why we tend to live this way and encourage you to overcome these challenges.

Pastors who are actively engaged in their family, church, local community, and denomination make hard decisions each day. Each of these spheres brings unique challenges to decision making. The stress accompanying each of these ministry spheres has the tendency to influence pastors to create unique personas for each challenge. So, the local shepherd creates a podcast to engage in the latest denominational and cultural dialogues. He may write a book, serve on a denominational committee, speak on a panel, or just feel obligated to roll the dice on social media platforms. But whatever the outlet of engagement, the pastor begins to write his own story. Why? Because he feels obligated to do so. Every other pastor seems to be doing so, AND they are lauded for being so engaged. They are resected and praised for how much they seem to care about issues, people, and God. This tends to create a longing in other pastors who are motivated by hearing “well done” by the Lord, but who now feel they may not be cutting it. So, they enter the fray and stumble upon a new motivating impulse.

The result is that evangelicalism becomes flooded with pastors who seem more concerned with being remembered as one who fought hard for the Lord, than simply being an instrument in the Lord’s hands. The word “legacy” is often talked about among pastors and in denominational settings. Every pastor has their own cadre of ministry heroes; most of whom are perched neatly in bobble-head form on the shelves of their study. Calvin, Luther, Knox, and Spurgeon – men whom none of us knew personally. We have no idea how they were received into the Lord’s hands or what his words were to them. Why? Because their relationship with the Lord was personal and their stewardship from the Lord was unique. Truth be told, we don’t want to be like these heroes because we know exactly how they lived unto the Lord. We don’t have access to those details. We want to be like them because their public lives and actions are respectfully etched in the annuls of Christian history. So, while these men may be worthy of hero status, there are countless others who may also, but whose heads will never bobble on our shelves. Why not? Not because they weren’t faithful to do well, but because they were largely unknown during their time and therefore forgotten for the rest of time.

In sum, we pastors (and denominations) have a tendency, accelerated by contemporary impulses and exacerbated by well-meaning heroism, to engage in legacy-building for the Lord. We feel the pressure from within the church and without that we too must do something that will be remembered. We must leave our mark in such a way that nobody forgets our impact on the world for Christ. Anything short of accomplishing this is failure and disobedience. Unfortunately, in doing so, we essentially say to the Lord that we don’t care to hear “well done.” We would rather be worthy of bobble-head status; even if bobble-head legacy building comes at the price of our ethics, and even if it means we turn a blind eye to sexual abuse, for example. “But the kingdom of God needs me and my influence!” No sir, it does not. And your soul is on the line; better see to that first. See to the things in your heart, not the things written (or not written) about you in the headlines. Because on that day the Lord will not look you over for medals, bobble-heads, or twitter mentions and facebook followers. Your legacy won’t matter, because “from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things.” Only your personal faith in Christ will matter. Abide in Him and do not grow weary of anticipating the words, “well done.”

P.S. I have nothing against y’all’s bobble-heads. And I am thankful for the many media outlets and contemporary tools that pastors have made available to others like us.