”So, I found myself on the very first duty I ever did as a pastor with a mop in my hand, cleaning the floor.”
When Jonathan arrived for his first day as a newly elected pastor, there was a stench coming from the kitchen.
“I could smell this terrible, disgusting odor.”
There were not many people were around the church at this time and one of the fridges had failed. Inside the freezer was a trevally fish thawed out and rotten with ice cream running down all over the ground.
“I think God has a sense of humour,” he says. “Reminding me that ministry is about service, so my head didn’t get too big.”
Jonathan had no misconceptions about the ministry because he grew up in a pastor’s home, so he knew that pastoring a church is all about serving others.
“I don’t like to call it a job, it’s a ministry here at Calvary Chapel.”
Jonathan Andrew Downs is the pastor of Calvary Chapel United Pentecostal Church in Chifley. Jonathan served within many other ministries in the church including assistant pastor before he was elected by the to lead the church back in 2013.
“There’s a weight of responsibility,” he says. “It’s one thing to live in a pastor’s home and to be part of a pastor’s family and do the work of the ministry as a family, but it’s another thing when the responsibility rests on your shoulders. It’s kind of like, you know, when a son works with his father in a business, and then the father hands the business over to the son. The son knows everything about how the company works, but he never had to accept full responsibility before.”
Jonathan is a husband, father to three boys, and a spiritual leader for many. Through his experiences he shares what it means to not only to be a pastor, but to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
One who serves others.
“We know from the Bible and Jesus’ example that ministry is about service.”
“For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Mark.10:45).
Jonathan likes to share a story about the last days of Jesus, emphasising that at the peak of His ministry, His last actions were to serve others. He was having a feast with His disciples, and it was a Jewish custom at the time that the lowest servant would wash all of the guest’s feet as they entered into the house. But on this night there was nobody at the door and no one, not even the disciples, took that role. But Jesus Himself took the bowl and a towel and washed all of His disciple’s feet.
“He is showing us very clearly, this is His last actions,” Jonathan says. “He was showing us very clearly, that we cannot do what God has called us to do without being a servant, without taking a towel and washing people’s feet.”
This story leads naturally to the topic of humility, which Jonathan admits to struggling with as it goes against our human nature. But he believes that the more we are filled with the Spirit of God the more power we have to over come those desires.
“The power of humility is what ministry is all about.”
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. (1 Peter. 5:6)
“Pastoring is about hatching, matching and dispatching.”
New life. Marriage. Death.
A pastor gets to deal with all aspects of life.
Hatching is about newborn dedications; matching is about bringing people together in marriage and dispatching is about funerals. Matching may just be Jonathan’s favourite part.
“It’s a very beautiful commitment to see two people make vows to each other in front of their friends and families,” he says.
Early on, Jonathan found it challenging to manage his schedule because it was determined by the needs of other people, as well as preparing his sermons and mid-week bible studies.
Dispatching ties into his hardest day as a pastor, when his best friend took his own life. Jonathan raced over to the house after receiving a call from his friend’s wife.
“I did everything that I could,” he says. “I still thought that he was alive and that I could do something but when I got there, he was already gone.”
The next-hardest day was the officiating his friends funeral.
“My favourite days are when someone rings me with good news. Nobody goes to a doctor to tell him that everything is fine, but sometimes when you hear testimonies of things you’ve been praying about for a long time, it’s amazing.”
Jonathan loves to see people overcome challenges.
“I’ve learned that we can do it, we can make it, if we put our mind to it, the power of having a made-up mind, I think is very important.”
Jonathan talks brokenness — that no matter how good someone else’s life may appear we are all going through something. But this is where we find our hope.
“Hope is probably the most valuable thing in the world.”
“I always like to think that it’s through that brokenness that we see our need for God, the cracks in the pot is how the light gets in, if we didn’t have any needs, we wouldn’t need God, in fact we’d probably be so proud that we wouldn’t have need of anyone, and no one would like us anyway because we wouldn’t be real.”
“When we have hope in God, we are not hopeless, even if we die, we have hope.”
Original photos by Luke Hrstic