Tag Archives: Encouragement

Encouraging Your Pastor

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“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls,
as those who will have to give an account.”                                                                        (Hebrews 13:17)

I want to begin this article by giving thanks to Memorial Presbyterian for the support and encouragement they have given me as their pastor.  There are days when my inadequacies for such a calling are manifest, and their prayers and kind words are an invaluable source of strength.  There have been ups and downs in ministry; times I’ve wanted to pack it all up and find “greener pastures,” and there have been times when I have been overwhelmed by the compassion, love, and trust I have been given.  Over these past 7 years, I have come into a richer and deeper understanding of what it means to be a pastor, and how I have been called to love and serve the Lord as I love and serve his church.  My greatest desire is that God would be glorified in my life, and likewise in the life of the church – that for me would be a successful ministry.

I recently finished reading Kent Hughes’ book, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, an excellent book on how to redefine success in ministry from a biblical, rather than worldly, perspective.  At the end of the book, there is a great chapter on how the congregation can help encourage their pastor.  While reading through the chapter, I identified many of the things my own congregation does for me and for my family and I thought I would pass along a summary of Hughes’ concluding points to help you continue to encourage your pastor.

You can encourage your pastor by living biblically successful lives

There is little that will lift the pastoral heart more than people who are successes before God (faithful, serving, loving, believing, praying, holy, and positive), for this means that the fullness of Christ is active in the congregation and that the vision and burden of ministry is being shared.  It means that the pastor will have some people around him who are cheerful, hardworking, selfless, and supportive.  The heartening effect of this cannot be overestimated.

You can encourage your pastor by your personal commitment to help him know success

Commit yourself to freeing your pastor from a ministry of numbers.  While growing attendance and conversion is significant, it is not the only indication of success in ministry.  This does not mean that the Pastor shouldn’t be held accountable in matters of work habits, administration, creativity, preaching, and spiritual discipline.  Those are necessary.  But the church must also commit itself to creating an environment in which its pastors are encouraged to be men of God and to pursue biblically defined success.

Encourage your pastor by not expecting (or allowing) him to be involved in everything. 

Reject the ubiquitous pastor fallacy – that the good minister must be present and presiding at everything.  The leadership of the church should help the pastor understand which boards and committees he must regularly attend, and those which he should only infrequently visit, ensuring that the pastor has ample time for his devotional life, family, sermon preparation, exercise, and leisure.

Encourage your pastor by providing adequately for him and his family.

Salary – An excellent rule of thumb is that the pastor’s salary and benefits should be at a level that is near the median income of the congregation, ensuring that the pastor can support his family.

Study Time – These are not vacations.  They are for spiritual and intellectual renewal.

Vacation and Days Off – It is not uncommon, because of emergencies and special meetings, for a minister to go two or three weeks without taking one day off.  Help him by gently reminding him that his calling does not cancel his humanity.  Burn-out has become epidemic in the ministry.  The church can help forestall this by making wise provision for time away from work.

Encourage your pastor by loving his family

The fishbowl life of the pastoral ministry can take its toll – especially on the pastor’s family.  Not a few PKs have reacted to the feeling of being under the congregation’s microscope.  What can we do to minimize this effect?  Simply love his family.  By this we are not emphasizing a public display of compassion, but a quiet familylike love that recognizes that they are people in process like those in one’s own family.  This love does not demand more from them than from other children.  This love honors their individuality and gives them space to grow.  It refuses to gossip, believes the best, has a kind word, and prays for the pastor’s family.

Encourage your pastor by treating him with respect.

The pastorate is a divine office, and thus a minister should never have to earn his congregation’s respect unless he has done something to lose it.  Furthermore, he should be respected no matter how great or small, grand or humble his ministry is.  The church must dismiss the world’s rung-dropping, numbers-counting way of according respect.  True, your pastor is to lead by being a servant, but such a call is intrinsically honored.

When you have done these things you have done almost everything to encourage your pastor – except for the most important thing, which is to pray.

“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (1 Thess 5:11)

SDG

Keep Calm and Carry On

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“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”
(Psalm 42:5 (ESV))

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) is meeting this week, and while many good things may be coming out of this meeting, it’s hard to stay positive when so much of what is reported just makes you want to shake your head.  From the election of a Vice Moderator who had just officiated a marriage ceremony in Washington, D.C. (in violation of the constitution which the Vice Moderator is sworn to uphold – BTW – the VM resigned from the position within 36 hours of being confirmed), the Rainbow stoles and tablecloths that decorated the cross and Lord’s Table for the opening worship service (suggestive of the denomination’s implicit support of the LGBQT body of the church), and the playing of ABBA and Cyndi  Lauper music over the PA system as transition music between session, I can honestly say I’m glad I stayed home this year.

I am not optimistic that there will be good news at the conclusion of the General Assembly regarding the historical and Biblical teaching of the church on marriage.  It has already been decided that the Presbyteries will once again have to take up the issue of adding the Belhar Confession to our Book of Confessions, which was defeated by the Presbyteries after the last GA.  As I write this, the plenary session is currently discussing the issue of gracious dismissal and the release of church property for churches seeking to separate from the PC(USA).  Other decisions regarding ordination standards and the possible divestment from American companies such as Caterpillar, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard which allegedly profit from non-peaceful pursuits in Israel-Palestine will be made before the end of the week; we await the results.

Having attending General Assembly in the past, once as an observer, once as an Overture Advocate, and as an active Teaching Elder I am very interested and concerned with the business before the GA, but perhaps a little less interested and concerned than in years past.  I honestly admit, as I am writing this and also preparing my sermon today, I am streaming the video of GA and scanning the blogosphere and twitters – but I have found myself rather unflappable when more news comes out.  And that, for me, is a big change.

Previously, GA would send me into a downward spiral.  I’d get so caught up in the arguments and felt like I’d taken a personal blow when something was approved with which I disagreed, it would take me a couple of weeks to shake the funk.  Having witnessed it personally, I was so disheartened by the vitriol and political posturing used by both sides of the arguments that the application to truck driving school looked very tempting.

But not anymore.

It’s not that I am no longer disappointed and disheartened by the continuing descent of the PC(USA) into the realm of cultural relativism and Biblical and moral ambiguity, my heart still breaks for this church.  Still, there is a greater joy that sustains me through the midst of such troubled waters.  As the Psalmist said above, “Why are you downcast, o my soul?  My hope is in God.”  Each morning and evening I have the privilege of coming before the Lord in prayer and supplication, of listening to His word and applying the teaching of Scripture to my life; I have the assurance of the promises of God’s covenant, secured in the Spirit; I have been in the presence of God – what more could I possibly ask or seek?

Such joy, such presence, is enough to sustain me through the ups and downs of the denominational hoopla, and it is sufficient for whatever you are facing today.  If you have spent time in fellowship with the Father, if you have trusted in His promises, His grace, His love for your salvation, there is nothing that this day holds that should be able to quench that joy.  As the saying goes, “keep calm and carry on,” for we know that “for those who love God all things work together for good” and there is nothing that can separate us from His love for us in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

SDG