"Chad, right?" How to get your identity from Christ

“The one who conquers will be clothed… in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 3:5-6).

Shortly after our leadership transition at Cuyahoga Valley Church, I preached my heart out at 5 weekend services. After one of the services, I made my way to our guest reception when a young man, in front of about 6-7 CVCers, greeted me with... "Chad, right?" 

Chad is our new Lead Pastor, the man that I passed the leadership baton to back in September, 2012.

I smiled at the “Chad, right?” guy and said, "I will answer to whatever you want to call me!" People laughed.

Inside, though, I must admit that I felt an "ouch." And that "ouch" betrayed an "ugh" in my heart.

I thought I was beyond it or above it, but I sinfully found myself wanting recognition and appreciation for being the founding pastor of CVC. It’s fleshly, I know. But I felt slighted that someone didn’t know me and my history here are CVC.

That “ugh” is pretty ugly.

As I have reflected on the internal ugliness of that "ouch" and "ugh," I am convinced that God is working in me to help me not get my identity from CVC, but from the gospel. 

Chad recently sent our team a blog post from Paul Tripp that speaks to these issues. The post is entitled Pastoral Ministry is War.

“Because the inertia of sin leads away from God’s purpose and glory toward my purpose and glory, as long as sin is inside of me there will be temptation in ministry to exchange God’s glory for my own. In ways that are subtle and not so subtle, I begin to pursue the accoutrements of human glory. Things like appreciation, reputation, success, power, comfort, and control become all too important. Because they are too important to me, they begin to shape the way I think about ministry, the things I want out of my ministry, and the things I do in ministry.

“When you forget the gospel, you begin to seek from the situations, locations, and relationships of ministry what you have already been given in Christ. You begin to look to ministry for identity, security, hope, well-being, meaning, and purpose. These are things you will only ever find vertically. They are already yours in Christ. So you have to fight to give the gospel presence in your heart.”

Good words, Paul Tripp!  Thank you.

We must decrease so He can increase. I know that from John 3:30. I have preached it. Now, can I live it? 

O Lord my God, I know these truths in my mind. Please move them 18 inches lower from my mind to my heart. Please. Remind me that what matters is not whether I am called Rick or Chad or anything else. What matters is that there is a new name reserved in heaven for me – one that will be known only to Jesus and me. Make me long more and more for that day and that name, Lord Jesus! In Jesus’ name, amen.