Tag Archives: Pastoral Ministry

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

The Privilege of Pastoral Ministry

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“Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight,
not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you;
not for shameful gain, but eagerly…”
(1 Peter 5:2)

There have been a lot of articles circulating on the internet lately about the difficulties of pastoral ministry.  After having been a pastor for 12 years, I could probably write a list of my own.  Pastoral ministry can be isolating, discouraging, emotionally and spiritually exhausting call.  We encounter people in some of the hardest times of their lives: when they are hurt, lost, angry, alone, shamed, caught, desperate for an answer.  Sometimes as Pastors we shine, and we bring comfort and hope to those in need, other times we respond with the same brokenness we have encountered, and we only make matters worse.  This calling is tough, and not everyone is equipped for it, not everyone is called to it.  But those who are called know the unique privilege of pastoral care.

Several times this past week I’ve had people come to me and say something to the order of, “I don’t envy you your job.”  This week I’ve had two funerals for men in my congregation, men who were faithful members of the congregation I serve and men I counted as friends and brothers in Christ.  It has been a struggle for me to write the services for these men, but it was also a privilege that I do not take for granted.

Yes, it is difficult to speak from the heart on such an occasion.  But when you consider that it is also an opportunity to proclaim our faith in Jesus Christ, to share the hope we have in Him, to take part in His ministry of compassion in binding up the brokenhearted; it is an honor that I could never turn down.

Yes, it is painful to sit with a family as they watch their loved one die.  But when you consider that this is an opportunity to witness a saint passing from one glory to the next, to be there to recount the mercies of God and the promises afforded in God’s Word for such a time, to be an ambassador of God’s kingdom; it is an honor I could never turn down.

Yes, very few will willingly walk into a situation where a family is in crisis, where the consequences of a lifetime of bad decisions come crashing down, where years of bitterness and hostility have created a wall of division.  But to be able to speak a word of grace, of peace, in such a time, to take part in the ministry of reconciliation that was established on the cross of Christ; that is an honor I could never turn down.

No, shepherding has never been a highly valued form of employment.  In the days of scripture it wasn’t a position that attracted the best and the brightest.  But a good shepherd lovingly cared for his sheep, guided them to quiet waters and green pastures, protected them from harm, and delivered them healthy and strong to his master. 

This is the privilege of pastoral ministry: to guide a congregation through difficult times, to sing over them words of peace and promise, to feed them with the feast of the heavenly banquet, to refresh their hearts with streams of living water, to lead them in joy to before their Lord. 

Were it not a calling, I could never do it.  Had I to rely on my own strength, I would be a complete failure.  But since God is the one who calls us to serve, then equips those whom He calls, I will gladly, eagerly, faithfully shepherd the flock. 

SDG