Dear Friend,

Pastor, associate pastor, elder, counselor, mentor, missionary, teacher, parent, and every other ministering Christian, has Christ blessed you with some "special cases" in your church, ministry, or circle of fellowship? Who are they?

Special cases are, well, very unpromising Christians, those whom other believers would unanimously vote "least likely to ever become Christlike." They are often confused, very slow to learn, habitually self-opposing, prone to stumbling spiritually, quick to envy, even quicker to anger, predictably quarrelsome, resistant to correction, forgetful of instructions, often depressed, and typically inept or unreliable with duties and other responsibilities. And, to top it all off, they are always judging others instead of themselves! Daily they digress or regress; only rarely do they progress. And God has committed them to you in loving trust to train them to be spiritually mature disciples of Christ! O my, what are your options?

   *RELOCATION - Pray for a "divine call" to go somewhere, anywhere where they are not?
   *REASSIGNMENT - Appoint another minister, or your assistant, to work with them?
   *REFERRAL - Farm them out to a psychologist, psychiatrist, or other specialist?
   *REDIRECTION - Send your special cases to another church and let them deal with them?
   *REPROACHMENT - Stop encouraging them and instead hatefully criticize and demean them daily as useless, hopeless, and a waste of your time, hoping that, offended, they will walk away?
   *RETIREMENT - Quit the ministry altogether and go play golf, tennis, or shuffleboard?

None of these options are viable for a servant of Jesus Christ. If we pursue any of them, we only forfeit our peace, grieve the Spirit, disappoint our Lord, and disqualify ourselves as His ministers for refusing to "feed my sheep" unless they suit us (John 21:15-17).

Instead, we know intuitively, by the "still, small voice" within (1 Kings 19:12), we should stick it out. "As I have loved you" keeps coming to our minds, again and again (John 13:34). And then, another thought visits and lingers, "Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7). Soon, we can't deny it. We know we should minister patiently, even enduringly, suffering long in God's love with our special cases - "as Christ" has for years "loved us"!

Indeed, we must never lose faith that Christ can change our special cases. Never lose hope that our sharing of God's Word will eventually bear fruit. Never lose patience, never shut our doors to them - unless they willfully turn against our love or walk away from Christ into open sin. Even then, we must stay after them with intercession, knowing the Holy Spirit has ample power, wisdom, and means to hunt them down in some Elijah's cave, Jonah's fish, or prodigal's pigpen, regain their attention, and send them home to Christ - and us - so we may have the inestimable privilege of working with them even more!

There is another reason we should persist: while we work on them Christ is working on us! However disobedient they are, if we remain obedient to Christ in dealing with them, feeding them, praying for them daily, counseling them for the umpteenth time with the same biblical counsel, we will grow spiritually, even while they stagnate or make painfully slow progress in grace. And, as alluded to above, the Holy Spirit will from time to time remind us that we were not such easy cases ourselves! And that perhaps even now there are attitudes, habits, and other things in our lives He is still trying to correct.

In conclusion, if we remain faithful, ultimately our special cases will produce special grace in us. They will drive us crazy or Christlike. They will transform us into faithless or faithful shepherds. They will make us grumpy or gracious elders. The most specially gracious, wise, and patient pastors, elders, counselors, teachers, missionaries, and parents are without exception those who have handled the most specially ungracious, foolish, and impetuous cases well - for love of Christ! "Lovest thou me?" (John 21:15-17).

So, today, love the Great Shepherd! Accept the special challenges He has set before you: your special cases! Let Him make you a great shepherd, a gracious teacher, a special pastor, a wise elder, a tireless mentor, an undiscourageable missionary, an enduring parent. We have far too many who are less than special.

Accepting the challenge,

Greg Hinnant
Greg Hinnant Ministries