Five Questions for Lou Going
By the grace of God Lou came to faith in 1969 during the height of the Jesus movement. He’s married to his wonderful and gracious wife of 45 years Cheryl and together they have been blessed with five adult children, two of whom are through marriage, and with three spunky and endearing grandchildren. Lou served two Advent Christian churches for 39 years and retired from pastoral ministry in November 2019. He is a graduate of Berkshire Christian College and of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He has served as adjunct faculty at Berkshire Christian College and at BICS. Presently, he serves with the Maranatha Advent Christian Conference as the minister of pastoral and church health and does freelance tutoring of Latin for children to prepare them for the National Latin Exam. He and Cheryl live on the banks of the beautiful Israel’s River in Lancaster, N.H. without a dog or a cat and he is okay with that.
What is the one big thing you got right in ministry?
LG: It isn’t so much that I got this right as it is that God opened my heart to the reality of the danger of turning ministry into an idol. I am sure that God called me to pastoral ministry, but in my early years I was engaged in ministry for my own ends. Now, I was not really aware of this motivation at first. Yet in a whole host of subtle ways, I was serving myself more than the Lord Jesus Christ and his church. I wanted a successful ministry so much that I was driven to secure it. All that I did from preaching, teaching, visiting, discipling, leading board meetings and seeking to cast a vision for the church, at the root level of my heart, was to secure a successful church ministry that would bring me a sense of accomplishment and maybe even (idolatrous) recognition. I really failed to love God and His people. I became aware of this as my deeper motivation due to the increasing frustration and anger I felt when success (as I was measuring it) did not materialize.
The stress only intensified and I just simply could not go on. I remember with both a heavy and joyous heart when the Lord Jesus Christ broke into my heart and impressed me with the fact that I was not serving him but myself. I had turned ministry into a life-dominating idol and he granted me a deep and humbling season of transformative repentance. From that point on, what my heavenly Father helped me to get right regarding ministry on the level of motivation and aspiration is what it really means to do it for God’s glory. I still have (even now that I am retired from pastoral ministry but not from kingdom ministry) to be on my guard for it is so easy to fall back into a self-serving and vain-glorious motivational dynamic. I have fought my sin in this area almost daily to keep my thinking, affections and will clear that I am a steward, who serves my Lord and all he calls me to be is faithful and to leave the results or success to him.
Now, I was not really aware of this motivation at first. Yet in a whole host of subtle ways, I was serving myself more than the Lord Jesus Christ and his church. I wanted a successful ministry so much that I was driven to secure it.
What's the one big thing you got wrong in ministry?
LG: Well, in a sense I answered that question with the previous one. Turning the ministry into the biggest idol in my heart and life seeped into every nook and cranny of ministry. This wrong ministry focus was not obvious as this idol ruled, for after all, I was a pastor engaged in ministry tasks that were in themselves not only good but what I was called to do. Even though my motivation was not pure, the Lord still saw fit to be gracious and use my preaching, teaching and leadership. I remember in seminary one of my professors, John Frame, said that our motives are always a mixed bag. So, it wasn’t that everything I did was without any degree of grace and light. Yet, I do think that overtime the stress that built up in my life and nearly broke me was the consequence of the idol of ministry success being the more dominant lord on a functional level in my life.
What brings you the most joy in ministry?
LG: I find deep joy when I see broken people and relationships transformed by the gospel and its grace. To be used as an instrument of God’s transformative grace in the salvation of sinners and in the maturity of the saints is to see nothing less than the hand of God at work for his glory. Ministry is all the triune God’s doing and part of God’s plan is to use men and women as instruments; to be engaged fully in that partnership is indeed a joyful enterprise. What a blessing and joy it is to know that God uses broken vessels and cracked pots (to allude to 2 Corinthians 4:7) out of whose lives he causes his light to shine and change people. This is indeed the power of the gospel as the Holy Spirit presses grace into the lives of God’s ministry instruments and from them impacts real change in lives of others.
What advice would you give your 25-year-old self?
LG: I don’t have to ponder this question too much. I would tell myself don’t be in such a hurry to enter pastoral ministry. I thank God for what I learned at Berkshire Christian College and Westminster Theological Seminary and I have no regrets in terms of my academic training but I came up short in issues of life experience. Bible college and seminary do not in themselves make a pastor. So, I would tell myself three things. First, cultivate your marriage and your family life with greater singleness of heart and mind as unto the Lord. Second, find a seasoned and godly saint or group of saints who would disciple and mentor you. Do this in the context of a local church and bring your family under the care of that church and be faithful among the saints there. Let them affirm your giftedness and your call to the ministry. Third, learn a marketable trade. I know that it is biblical for a teaching elder to make a living from the gospel. Yet, for me, I believe it would have been beneficial to have another trade to provide for my family as I had the opportunity to work out my calling without the double pressure of seeing pastoral ministry as also the career path for my family’s fiscal welfare.
What do you wish you were better at as a pastor or leader?
LG: I desire to be more effective in sharing the gospel with people. I know on one level that the gospel is the power of God for salvation. The gospel is a simple message that is clearly outlined by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-10 (of course it is found throughout the Bible). In plainly setting forth its content, the gospel is being shared and God’s power alone opens hearts and minds to its truth. The gospel is not dependent upon my rhetorical or communicative skills per se, yet God chooses to use people to communicate the gospel. I have had the privilege of seeing people come to Christ during my pastoral ministry and they remain his faithful followers to this day for which I am humbled and thankful. Yet, there is still this desire that I be able to help (especially beleaguered and struggling saints) to get their hearts and minds around the treasure the gospel truly is. If there is one verse that I might identify as my life verse, it is Galatians 2:20. I go back to it again and again and I pray that the apostle Paul’s affection that is embedded in the text would be my affection and that I could better express it to other believers who may be discouraged and crushed by the hardships and trials of life.
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20, ESV).
Here Paul captures the identity of every genuine believer. The saint has been crucified with Christ and the power of self-centered living has been truly broken. Christ has taken up his abode in the very heart-center of every saint’s life. This does not mean that the believer no longer has a self or has become somehow absorbed into Christ. Rather our identity is now marked by our relationship with the omnipotent Son of God. It is what Paul says about the Son of God in relation to the believer that I want to have govern my thinking and worldview and it is this I desire to be better at presenting and ministering to others. As I read this I think that Paul was simply amazed. The life every Christian now is to live in the flesh – this messy life that has yet to come under Christ’s dominion – is one of faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I think that every translation gets the punctuation wrong here. There should be at least a million exclamation marks at the end of the sentence: And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is the power of the gospel that saves sinners and it is the power of the gospel that enables believing sinners to live with joy and strength as we wait for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. I wish I were better at helping the saints see this more clearly.
Justin Nash, “Five Questions for Lou Going” The Witness, Spring 2022