Do you appreciate your pastor? And if you do, does he know it?
My motivation for writing this is to help church members understand their
pastors. The things I am going to point out are often things that pastors will NOT
tell their members. Why? Because it is often difficult to predict how people
will react. Some members will become angry. Some will judge. Some will
wrongfully assume that it is just the pastor being selfish. However, some will
be understanding. Some will take it as an opportunity to love their pastors
more. It is risky to put these things out in the open. People may not respond
in the way anticipated.
This is something that has been on my heart for some time. But there was
a big elephant in the room that prevented me from ever following through with
communicating these thoughts: My desire is to go into full-time ministry.
I was (and still am) afraid of others reading this post and saying, “Oh,
Blake just wrote this because in the future he wants people to give him special
treatment.” But that is not my intention. I wrote this because I have seen many
examples in the past where the congregation has hurt their pastor. I have seen
times when people in the congregation do not understand their pastor, and the
pastor feels that he is not allowed to communicate these things. I have many
friends who are in full-time ministry that have opened up to me with these very
real struggles.
I didn't write this to serve myself. I studied this out as one of the
church members to examine how I could support MY OWN pastor better than I
currently was.
Your pastor has been appointed as a shepherd. It is his responsibility to
equip the saints and to guide the congregation in the right direction. It is
your and my responsibility to make sure we are not getting in the way of
progress. Even more than that, it is our responsibility to follow and support
our pastors, even when we disagree with them.
So what are some
of these little-known things that your pastor would like you to know about
himself?
