If you are in a church that has a pastor, then I hope you are thankful. There are hundreds of pastoral vacancies in the United Kingdom, and the small pool of pastors is diminishing. It is reported from the USA that men are leaving paid ministry in their hundreds every year, and this sad trend is also observed over here.
Pastors do not have all of the gifts and abilities. Did you know that? They are rather like you and me. They are limited, frail, and make many mistakes. They work to keep churches faithful, build up the congregations, and reach out to a world that is increasingly lost and is heading towards an even more hopeless eternity.
Churches with a pastoral vacancy produce a job spec for a pastor which is overwhelming and unrealistic in scope and expectancy. In fact, the Archangel Gabriel applied for a job recently, but was turned down as he did not have local church ministry experience or a wife and two children!
We can tick box teaching, preaching and leading, but we can so easily forget how massive the Bible’s call to our leaders to be gentle, kind and patient. 2 Timothy 2:24 is a revelation! ‘The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.’ Despite his evident weaknesses, the pastor is, according to the Bible, one of the great gifts that God has showered on his church. Ephesians 4 is such a help.
One vital question is this: How can we shepherd the shepherd? I have been in pastoral ministry for over forty years, and only twice was I asked by a member of the congregation, ‘But who cares for you?’ A great question! As church members, we should be a wonderful answer to it, so here are a few ideas to help focus on caring for our pastor.
Love and pray
In one word, cherish the man the Lord has gifted to you. Love is more than sentiment. It is always practical, so it means tangible commitment, a longing to listen and to play our part in the local congregation as we serve together. When love is shown in thankfulness, and it is well-oiled in prayer, it is so powerful. The Americans have introduced ‘Pastors Appreciation Sunday’ on the second Sunday of October each year. It’s a kind gesture, but we should be doing this all year round. We need to pray for our pastor and long in prayer that, as he shepherds us through long hours of preparation, diligence, preaching and teaching, he ‘builds us up in our holy faith.’ I love looking out for ‘Noddys’ in church, those people who are actively listening with their Bibles in their hands. What a help they are to the preacher!
Protect and serve
If truth be told, the pastor is found ‘living above the shop’. When Jesus spoke of the widow who tossed two tiny coins into the temple treasury, observing her and commending her, he said, ‘She has given everything she has.’ Being a pastor is more than a job. It is a whole life event, and bound up with that is where he lives and who he lives with. Care for his family. So often in order to make a point or simply ‘take a pop’, the congregation can attack the pastor through his wife, who has to bear much, and also sometimes, and very sadly, through his children. Some kids love being PKs (pastors’ kids) and brilliantly ride the storm of the complication of home, work and worship being wrapped up together. It has to be said that others loathe it. As we serve the minister and his family, we also must protect them.
Honour and esteem
So often in church life, we hide away from talking about money, but to quote my old boss, who said memorably in a sermon once, ‘Of course we don’t live by faith, do we…? We live by money … we teach faith.’ The famous ‘double honour’ teaching in the pastoral epistles refers fundamentally to the esteem that we must show those who are employed and give of their whole lives to be pastors and teachers. Sometimes salary details are kept within the remit of the leadership, sometimes they are more public, but as we think of the pastor and his situation, we need to ask the leadership humbly and honestly if what we are giving is realistic. The wonderful folk who stack shelves in the supermarkets make about £30k if you include antisocial hours and some weekend work. So many pastors earn much less than this. When it’s hard to make ends meet, concern about bills, especially those that are unexpected, can dominate thinking and family life.
Rest and relaxation
A lot of people get two days off a week, which is usually the weekend. Traditionally, pastors take one day off in seven, but as we all know, with pastoral emergencies or an occasional service such as a funeral or something that is simply ‘needs must’, that day can easily be lost and not made up. This story is told of the American President Ronald Reagan. A pastor once visited him and said, ‘Mr. President, you have the hardest job in the world,’ to which Reagan immediately replied, ‘It’s you that has the toughest job because you’re working with volunteers.’ Organising, planning and overseeing, coupled with the relentlessness of week in week out ministry of providing wonderful fresh food to feed the congregation, takes its toll. A senior leader involved in training pastors across the country spoke about his visits and commented to me sadly that the ministers he met were all so exhausted. Pastors need time off. This is where churches can step in to give them proper holidays and provide for time off.
Family guy
Very often, our pastor is a family man. How very easily we can have unrealistic expectations about what he can and cannot do! He needs input, as does his family. The churches I have worked at have had the foresight to send me every year to conferences for pastors and pay for them. I think they call it in the trade ‘professional development’. Yet, what is even more wonderful is when churches provide their pastors with the chance to go to a residential conference with their family, such as the EMW Aber conference, Keswick or the new Rising Lights (organised by FIEC but open to all who may come). Pastors will be refreshed with time to meet old friends, children will meet with other pastors’ kids, and families will have time to share, learn and grow together. This is a great privilege that helps pastors and their families, which in turn helps the church.
How can you, as churches and individuals within churches, help shepherd your shepherd?
