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By Pastor Chuck Swindoll

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They Will Remember Your Character

“I read somewhere that life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you want to, but you can only spend it once. At your eulogy, at your death, in your casket, at your funeral, we’ll learn how you spent it. No one will ever mention your grade point average. Trust me, many will mention your kindness, life of gratitude, lack of complaining, gracious spirit, unselfish heart, care about others, genuine compassion. There will be some who will know you well enough to talk about how you treated your wife with such kindness, or your husband. How you took such good care to kneel down and listen to your children and were patient when they spilled the milk on the table time and again as they were learning how to hold the glass. They won’t mention all the places you pastored. They will talk about how you treated your neighbor or how you worked with your staff, or how you loved your parishioners.”

Character Over Knowledge

“But I do care about your character, and some of you will fail because of that. I’ve seen it through my 60 plus years in ministry, and it breaks my heart every time I see it. Every time I have to deal with an individual who has fallen, my heart breaks because they’ve hurt the ministry. Somewhere along the way, they missed something very important in their training. All of them, as I recall, were very bright people. I’ve run across no dummies in ministry. I see some on television, but I (laughter) . . . I don’t come across any that have graduated from Dallas Seminary that are dummies. Again, you have the brains for it, but you may not have the character for it. That’s why I [say] this to you.”

God and the Enemy at Work in Your Ministry

“God will use hardship, disappointment, and failure to break our wills, humble our hearts, and cultivate depth within us. At the same time, the adversary will use quick promotions, public applause, and impressive success to counteract God’s ways of developing our character. Both are at work throughout our ministry and our lives. How we respond to both the Lord’s sovereign bruisings and the enemy’s subtle tactics will determine what others will remember in the eulogy virtues stated at our funeral by those who knew us best.”

Teach Truth, Love Others

“Toussaint used to say, ‘The secret of ministry is really very simple. Teach truth and love the people.’ You’ll be good at teaching truth. You’ll learn how to do it here. I want you to be just as good at loving the people. They may forget what you teach them. They will never forget how you loved them. That’s character. That’s what lasts. That’s what lasts when you’re gone. And they’ve carved a few words into granite, and they remember how you lived your life. Teach truth, love others.”

Don’t Let the Flesh Take Control

“Few callings can lead to a more selfish, self-serving lifestyle than ministry if the flesh is allowed to take control.”

Additional Resources

First, sign up for our Chuck’s Insights on Ministry email where we bring you his best thoughts on preaching, leadership, and ministry each week. By signing up, you’ll instantly receive a one-page checklist with 20 preaching insights from Chuck. See this page’s sidebar.

Second, check out our new Preach The Word articles and video series on YouTube where we’re teaching Chuck’s best insights on this important calling.

Third, listen to Chuck’s messages to those in ministry through our Seminary Chapels page. For decades, he offered students at Dallas Theological Seminary his best thoughts on church leadership and ministry. Now, we have put them at your finger tips. Also, you can find them through this YouTube playlist we created for you.

Fourth, if you don’t own a copy of Chuck’s book on preaching, Saying It Well, we highly recommend you add it to your library. It’s his preaching memoir that is also like a practical preaching manual. You won’t be able to put it down.

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