Lloyd Ogilvie was speaking at a major convention and the woman who introduced him just before his first presentation began with the words: “We have a very unusual privilege tonight. For in our midst is without doubt the world’s finest communicator. He is extremely sensitive, alert, perceptive, compassionate and wise. He can sense a person’s hurt and speak just the right word that brings healing.”

On and on this woman went in this vein, and Dr Ogilvie says he was at once flattered and frightened. How was he ever going to live up to that billing? Finally, the woman came to the end of the introduction, and she said, “We are in for a wonderful experience tonight because a lover of people is in our midst. Who is he? He is Jesus Christ, and here to tell us about him is Lloyd Ogilvie.”

I have given my life to training leaders for Christian ministry and mission. When I think about the attributes I most long to see in a Christian leader, at the top of my list would be this: they point people to Jesus. Whether they are a preacher or a pastor, a youth minister or a mission leader, whatever their particular domain of service, they proclaim Jesus.

I love the famous painting by Matthias Grunewald – his rendering of the crucifixion in the centrepiece of the Isenheim altarpiece. There, in the middle, is the tortured Christ writhing on the cross. On his right, Mary Magdalene kneels in prayer while the beloved disciple cradles Jesus’ mother, Mary. On Jesus’ left, John the Baptist stands with an open Bible in one hand, his other outstretched hand pointing to Jesus, directing our eyes towards Christ crucified. Behind John’s hand in Latin are the words, ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’ Our calling, as Christian leaders, is to point people to Jesus.

You see this throughout the New Testament. The apostle Paul insisted on this. In his great mission statement to the Colossian church he declared, “He [Christ] is the one we proclaim” (Col 1:28). To the Corinthian church he declared, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors” (2 Cor 5:20).

Rick Lawrence, editor of Group Magazine, writes about youth ministry in the States. He says:

Up until now most of us have been like overworked pruners in a fast-growing orchard. We scurry around trying to cut off the bad fruit we see around us. We do teaching series on sex, on money, on music and movies, on relationships.… The truth is, as kids come to know Jesus more deeply and begin to abide in him as the ‘root’ of their life, their fruit will change.

It is as we contemplate the glory of God in Jesus, that the Spirit transforms us into his likeness with ever-increasing glory (2 Cor 3:18). We are not only justified by grace; we are sanctified by grace. The same gospel that brought us into the family of God, is the power that transforms us as children of God. We need to hear that gospel again and again, because we forget it. We never outgrow the need to hear the good news of what God has done for us in Christ. That’s why James Stewart says this:

Nothing else your ministry may achieve will be of much account unless you show [people] Christ, and get their eyes open to the real presence of the risen Lord. If in the grace of God you can do that, they will bless you for it, and the power of the Spirit will go through the Church again: and hearts will burn with that authentic fire without which all altars are cold and all worship dead.

(Stewart, Heralds of God, 75, 91-2)

How do we do that? How do we get people’s eyes onto Jesus? We do that by focusing our own eyes on him. I like how Henri Nouwen puts it:

Ministry is the least important thing. You cannot not minister if you are in communion with God and live in community. A lot of people are always concerned about: ‘How can I help people? Or help the youth to come to Christ? Or preach well? But these are all basically nonissues. If you are burning with the love of Jesus, don’t worry: everyone will know. They will say, ‘I want to get close to this person who is so full of God.'”

John Dunne writes about the early Spanish sailors who reached the continent of South America after an arduous voyage crossing the Atlantic Ocean. When they sailed into the headwaters of the Amazon River, it was an expanse of water so wide the sailors presumed it was still the Atlantic Ocean. They were wrong. As a result, some of them died of thirst, even as their ships floated on the world’s largest source of fresh water. People are dying of spiritual thirst. And the living water is right there with them.

May we be people who are so focused on Jesus, so satisfied with Jesus, that we can’t help but proclaim Jesus, through our words, our work, and the witness of our lives.

“Grant, O Lord,
that from the written word,
and by our spoken word,
men and women may catch a vision of the Incarnate Word,
through the power of the Spirit.”
Donald Coggan