Pastor Jared Bangs hails from Cook, MN (population approx. 500), which is a stones throw from Canada, so it isn’t that Jared is Canadian but he is Canada-adjacent.
Jared has taken a fairly unique role since becoming lead pastor of 1st Baptist Church of Cook 7 years ago. He oversees the church as a whole, as well as essentially wearing the hat of the church youth pastor. He has an experienced associate pastor on staff that primarily does pastoral care and outreach. That isn’t necessarily the most common setup, but for 1st Baptist, it works. And that was a theme that ran through our conversation about ministry and life: find what works, and go with it.
When you are in leadership, there are a thousand people from all over that will tell you what you should be doing-that’s true in churches and in all walks of life. There are conferences, books, podcasts, video seminars, magazines, social media accounts, and loads of other message transmission sources that will share their tips, tricks, models and methods.
And that’s not just all right, that’s good! We all need new perspectives and ideas in order to move forward well. But there is a difference between a good idea, and an idea that is good for you. There are a million different programs and processes for everything, but they don’t all work the best in every situation. Just because a plan works in a church in Saint Paul or Blaine, that doesn’t mean it will work it Cook or Amboy.
That’s why Jared’s advice is so good. Find what works for you and go with it. Know who you are, how God has made you, what God has called you to do, and figure out the best way to faithfully follow the path He is leading you down.
As I think about what this looks like, I’m struck by the fact that it sounds easy, yet to follow through on it well takes a lot of work. We like shortcuts, and there are an awful lot of shortcuts to “find what it works and go with it” that lead to a lot of undesirable places. Many (most?) will claim that they’re following that advice, when in reality they’re just too lazy to do the work that it takes to fulfill God’s calling. What is the task we’re trying to accomplish? What is the mission? If we are serving God but we think our mission is to sit quietly in a corner and relax, then I think we have missed the meaning of “go and make disciples.”
As I walked through a tour of the 1st Baptist Church building – a very cool old-school church building, updated well but with the original winding passages and stairways – it struck me how they had walked through the process. They wanted to reach their community with the gospel, but not everything they had tried had worked. And that’s good – when something fails, we learn from it and move on to find what does works. Now they have a mix of ministries and activities that are providing for the needs of the community while helping the church grow in its devotion to God and each other.
Growth takes work and commitment, but its worth it. When we are willing, God will give us the power to accomplish exactly what He wants.
Driven 