JUNE 2023 featured Article

Introducing ANDREW PETRO

Rev. Andrew Petro has served as the Superintendent of the Midwest District (now the Great Plains Region) since 2009. As a regional director, he is a member of the Ministry Leadership Counsel. Andy also serves on the national Constitution Committee. God has blessed Andy and his wife, Ramona, with six children and twelve grandchildren. He and Ramona live in Lincoln, Nebraska.

WANTED: SPIRITUAL FATHERS

I’ve been thinking about fatherhood lately. The concept is hardly new to me. Ramona and I have six children, and I’ve had ample time to consider the subject as our kids have grown into adulthood. As they begin to have children of their own, however, and as my sons become fathers themselves, I’ve been able to see it from a fresh perspective. What a great privilege and responsibility God has given to fathers! A godly father turns out to be one of God’s greatest gifts.

Recent events have got me thinking about what it means to be a spiritual father. In May my spiritual father, Steve Stump, went home to be with the Lord. He was instrumental in my return to Christ after a long season of disobedience. He mentored me. He made space for me to discover and exercise my spiritual gifts in the local church. Virtually every significant step I took in ministry I did under his tutelage. He modeled for me what faithful shepherding looked like. He demonstrated, week after week, what it meant to “correctly handle the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). He showed how to love his people well. I have not always lived up to his example, but he provided a template for me that still shapes my life. As I remembered with gratitude his life and legacy, the words of Paul came to mind: “Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers” (1 Cor. 4:15). Steve was a father to me.

I don’t doubt that Steve knew he had influence with me. I do know, however, that he couldn’t grasp its magnitude — even though I tried on at least two occasions to tell him. He was humble and self-effacing and perhaps not the best one to appreciate his own gifts. While he was certainly intentional in his relationship with me — assigning tasks and providing oversight — he shaped me most profoundly not by what he said or did, necessarily, but by simply being the kind of man he was.

This spurred my thoughts even further. As leaders, we can become so task oriented. We can begin to think that our effectiveness is chiefly dependent on the things we do — the teams we lead, the vision we cast, the sermons we preach. Is it possible that genuine spiritual fruitfulness is less about the strength of the organizations we lead and more about the depth of the relationships we have? Is it possible that “success” in ministry is less about what we do than the kind of people we are, by the grace of God?

I don’t want to devalue the other components required for us to lead effectively. We need to organize and communicate well. There are things that simply must be done, and we’re remiss if we neglect them. But at the end of the day, it’s character that matters most. That’s what sticks to the lives of others. It’s no coincidence that character considerations dwarf everything else in the qualification lists for biblical elders (1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:6-9). Character strengths and weaknesses ultimately percolate through the whole of our ministries and determine their ultimate worth. It’s character alone that can produce the kind of “good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21) that the Lord commends.

Perhaps we need to recalibrate our view of ministry. Perhaps we need to recognize that as much as the church needs capable leaders, she needs spiritual fathers even more. (We need more spiritual mothers as well, but that’s a subject for another day!) Surely Paul — no mean leader, mind you! — understood his ministry as fatherhood. He called Timothy, “my true son in the faith” (1 Tim. 1:2). He said to the Thessalonians: “As you know, like a father with his own children, we encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to walk worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:11-12).

What we need — by becoming such men ourselves, and by raising up others to join us — is more spiritual fathers. We need men of integrity, men of unimpeachable character. We need men who are not so busy with their to-do lists that they have no time to invest in the lives of others. It’s hard to calculate the immediate benefit of such labors, but those of us (like myself) who have had a spiritual father know that those labors still bear fruit — even when our spiritual fathers have gone to their reward.