The Gospel Coalition

Rick Iglesias is the Senior Pastor of Pleasant Valley Church in Winona, Minnesota. He received his Masters of Divinity at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He has been participating in short-term mission/teaching trips to Romania for more than a decade. Rick served as a spiritual mentor to me during my time in Romania, and he has continued to encourage and support me in the ministry.

I began by asking Rick about his spiritual background and his call to ministry. Rick grew up in a family environment that took seriously the commands of God. Though his family was Roman Catholic, Rick believes his early family life equipped him for future service in the way that “God was honored, prayer was valued, the church was central and service to others was modeled.” Rick’s religious upbringing shaped his values and experiences.

Rick came to saving faith in Christ during his freshman year in college through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. During those years in college, Rick was discipled by other Christians and through his experiences he received a “greater vision for God’s purpose in the world and my part in that.”

As he began participating in local church ministry and foreign mission trips, Rick began to sense the Lord speaking to him about a calling to full-time ministry. To clarify this call, Rick spent extended times in the Word seeking to discern God’s call on his life. “I recall spending a weekend away during my senior year in college with a pastor friend, and as he prayed over me, he prayed a simple prayer, but one that the Lord used at that point in my life: ‘Rick, be like Jesus! Have compassion on the troubled, helpless crowds that have no Shepherd! Be ashamed to die until you have won a major victory for the unreached of the world.’” God used the encouragement and support of godly men around Rick to clarify his calling. “I’ve always believed that you need a specific call not to be in ministry. God calls us to change the world. I believe He called me through circumstances, the Word, people in my life, and an inner peace that continues to this day,” he says boldly.

Though Rick understood that God had called him to the ministry, he had some doubts as to how that would all take place. He served full-time at a church for seven years in a college ministry before going to seminary. His journey to seminary was a leap of faith, for he had no money, time, or desire to devote four years to study. Yet, the Lord spoke through his Word and through the generosity of faithful Christians supplied all his financial needs while in seminary.

“Every time that God has spoken and I have tried to respond with obedience, He has more than met me where I needed Him to be,” he testifies.

Rick has never faced any doubts about being in full-time ministry, although rough leadership meetings or discouraging emails occasionally threaten to steal his focus. During the tough moments of ministry, Rick is sustained by the transformation he sees taking place in his people’s lives. “We have front row seats to the life-transforming acts of God!” he says. Being in ministry is a privilege.

When asked about the necessary character traits that Scripture demands of church leaders, Rick mentions two that encompass many others: a passion for God and a compassion for people. “If you have a passion for God, you will be honest and faithful, and you will love the Word, live out your faith, and develop a whole host of traits that God calls us to exhibit as we walk with Him. If you have compassion for people, you will be compassionate and patient, passionate toward the lost, and a whole host of other traits that we need to model in our relationships with people.” The rubric of “loving God” and “loving people” comes from Jesus himself. Therefore, Rick believes that our character traits will come from this perspective.

Rick’s personal struggle is maintaining an “all-consuming passion for God” every day. Though he prays and spends time in the Word, he finds that a burning passion for God’s presence often eludes him. Rick’s goal is to “be connected to Jesus each and every day, to walk so closely that I hear his heartbeat for the lost, for the least, for the lonely, for those that he places in my path.” Keeping that desire at the forefront of his spiritual life is his deepest struggle.

Rick mentions several ways he protects himself from temptation. He meets with two pastor friends every week for accountability. “I have been meeting with these pastors for over 12 years now, so we are transparent and free to share some of the ugliest aspects of our lives,” he says. He also has safeguards on the computer to ensure that internet pornography does not become a snare. He carries a small card in his wallet that lists all the blessings that come from his ministry and what would happen if he were to fall. “Remember – temptation is an opportunity to do good!” he says.

When asked about temptations that plague other ministers, he lists off character flaws and actions such as selfishness, pride, being an overbearing authority figure, compromising integrity, lack of sexual purity, and lacking balance between ministry and family.

Regarding competency in leadership, Rick declares “communication gifts” to be absolutely essential. “Interpersonal relationship skills” follow closely behind, because these skills bring out the best in a leader’s ministry partners. Rick sees enormous value in coaching leaders through small groups, conferences, seminars, other churches and ministries and even businesses.

Excellence is missing in today’s church leadership. “I think that the world sometimes fails to see the importance of character and the church fails to see the importance of competence,” Rick says. Excellence in ministry matters very much, but excellence does not in itself ensure a growing and enduring ministry. “Solid, biblical and theological underpinnings are key,” he adds. Rick criticizes ministries that latch onto a method that works elsewhere, without thinking, praying, or understanding its Scriptural basis. “Let’s make sure our quest for ‘relevance’ is always based on sound, biblical footing,” he says.

The passion in Rick’s answers reminded me again why I have found him to be such a source of personal encouragement through the years. His leadership skills are matched only by his passion for Christ that is manifested through his effusive love for other people.

Rick’s call to ministry came through a personal “sensing” of the Holy Spirit’s direction. His call was confirmed by ministers and friends, circumstances, and of course, his study of God’s Word. The ways Rick clarified his calling are very important. One should not rely solely on personal “feelings” of calling, however important these may be. Rick was wise to seek confirmation from godly people, from the circumstances in his life (seminary training, for example) and from his continual study of the Scriptures.

Rick provocatively asserts that instead of people feeling they must demonstrate their calling to ministry, people should have to demonstrate that they are not called. In other words, instead of assuming that someone is not called, we should assume that he is. It should be noted that Christians are all called to full-time ministry, though not necessarily through paid service to the church. All Christians are called to be ministers of the gospel, though this ministry takes place through the vocations that God has given us. In our fields of labor and secular calling, we are called to spread the fragrance of God’s new creation. In this sense, there is no Christian that is not called. In evangelical circles, we tend to overemphasize the calling to ministry as something that is on a higher spiritual level than a calling to minister through secular vocation.

Rick’s comments about the character traits of the Christian leader are evidenced by his own walk with God. Rick is a man who loves God and loves people. Everything he does comes down to these two simple truths that form the basis of the “Great Commandment” expressed by Jesus. This interview has challenged the false dichotomy that people often set up between love of God and neighbor. For some reason, people often seek to love God whole-heartedly without thinking too much how that love for God should overflow into their relationships with those around them. It is a fallacy to think that one can love God and not love neighbor, or that one can truly love others without that love being grounded in a passionate love for God.

Rick’s avoidance of temptation is centered in accountability. He mentioned that he spends more than two hours a week with the group of pastors he meets with. These relationships have been forged over a fifteen-year period. Rick emphasizes again and again the importance of solid accountability partners who have the freedom to pry into the difficult and dirty areas of a minister’s life.

Also helpful was Rick’s advice about installing practical safeguards for temptation. He is right to state that temptation is not necessarily a bad thing that must lead to sin, but a good thing that can lead to active obedience. How easily we forget this! Yet Jesus himself is our model in this regard. Every temptation he faced turned into an opportunity which he seized to actively follow his Father’s will and thus earn our salvation.

Rick stated that a minister must be able to communicate well. This belief stems from the emphasis that Rick places on his teaching ministry. Rick has mentioned before that he always seems in a hurry in his speaking in the pulpit because he has so much to say and so little time in which to say it. How refreshing to see someone enter the pulpit with so much on his heart and mind that he feels he must hurry to get it off his chest! Too often, Christians sit under pastoral teaching that seems to drag out a ten-minute devotional into a thirty-minute sermon. Rick is right to see the importance in teaching skills.

Excellence is sorely missing in many evangelical churches. A significant segment of the church culture decries the call for excellence as another sign of the “professionalization” of ministry into an organization that adopts business strategies over biblical leadership teaching. But surely this fear is unfounded. God is worthy of our best in worship. This does not mean we emphasize excellence over sincerity, but neither should we embrace sincerity at the expense of quality. Rick’s striving for excellence in church ministry is noble and should be adopted by more pastors. The “anything goes” mentality that has infected our churches should be called out for what it is – laziness in the service of the King of kings!

My time with Rick Iglesias was encouraging to me in my ministry. Rick’s enthusiasm for his ministry is infectious. His sense of humor is evident in many of the quotes I wrote down for this interview but did not have room to include. His love for people is visible through the many examples of people he has led to Christ. Most of all, Rick is a man who loves Jesus and his church, and therefore, he is a minister that we would all do well to emulate.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2007 Kingdom People blog