Pastoral ministry involves the shepherding role of guiding, nurturing, and caring for God's flock, emphasizing service over self and pleasing God rather than people (Acts 20:28). Illustrations often use the imagery of shepherds tending sheep, highlighting the pastor's spiritual battles, diligent study of Scripture, and the need for gentle restoration and faithful example (1 Peter 5:2-3).
A small church membership can still mean great accountability before God.
A young pastor of a little church complained to the "Prince of Preachers," Charles H. Spurgeon, about the smallness of his church and its few members. Spurgeon asked him, "How many members do you have?" "Fifty," replied the young pastor. "Ah," exclaimed Spurgeon, "that is more than you will want to account for on the day of judgment."
Ministers face unique pressures and spiritual battles unlike typical business challenges.
Nearly every businessman complains of at least one ulcer. Think how many ulcers the poor businessman would have if he worked under the same circumstances as the average minister! "Just suppose, Mr. Businessman, that you were the overseer of 100 workers. Suppose only about 50 percent of them ever showed up for work at a given time, and only 25 percent could be relied upon. Suppose that every time a simple flash of lightning appeared in the sky, large numbers of young workers pulled the covers over their heads and failed to report for duty. "Suppose your workers only worked when they felt like it and yet you must be very sweet and never fire one of them. To get them back to work you must beg them, plead with them, pat them on the back, and use every means under the sun to persuade them without offending them. And suppose you were in competition with a notorious rascal, the devil, who had no scruples and is far more clever than you are and uses such attractive things as fishing rods, guns, soft pillows, televisions and a thousand other things to attract your customers. "How many ulcers would you have?" The Pastor as the Tool Man You see them driving around most urban areas and even venturing out in small town USA. Their destinations are automotive garages and any other place of business that uses tools. Most of the vehicles are large vans or panel trucks and carry such logos as "Snap-On Tools," or "Matco." What if it were the job of these drivers to rush from place to place tightening, untightening and doing all the actual mechanical repairing of the vehicles? Imagine the mechanics in these shops calling on the tool man every time they needed a bolt tightened or a screw adjusted, sitting around waiting for them to arrive and do the work. It is a comical scene based on the ridiculous; hundreds of mechanics waiting for the help of few exhausted and distraught tool men. The truth of the matter is, these tool men in their vans only provide the tools. It is the mechanics who do the work. Sometimes we in the local church can actually get caught up in a similar comedy of errors. A church can look to their pastor as the one whom they hire to do their ministry for them. A pastor can also be at fault for allowing himself to be like the misguided tool man trying to do it all himself. The truth of the matter is, in God's economy of work in the local church it is the individual people in the congregation who are called by God to do the bulk of the ministry. The pastor's job is to equip them for their ministry.
A preacher's demanding duties extend far beyond preaching to serving and caring for people.
The preacher is a teacher, though he has to solicit his own class. He heals without pills or knife. He is a lawyer, a social worker, an editor, a philosopher, a salesman, a handy decorative piece for public functions, an entertainer, a chairman of the building fund and a first-class janitor. People come to him and he goes to the people. He rejoices when they rejoice and weeps when they weep. He visits the sick, marries the young, buries the dead, prepares and delivers speeches to every organization under the sun, and tries to stay sweet when he is abused for not calling on certain people. He helps plan the program of the church and meets with every group he can, which may mean that some nights he must attend two and three meetings. When he lies down at night, he is burdened and prays for certain "sheep," their weaknesses, their problems, and their absence from the service. And, oh yes, in his spare time, he prepares and delivers several sermons, Bible lessons, radio programs, class messages, etc. And when Monday comes and some chap roars, "What an easy job you preachers have!" he tries to smile and keep sweet. Have you ever heard the above question asked? Or the remark made thoughtlessly, "What an easy task the pastor has! He speaks about 20 minutes twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday with the rest of the week all his own!" However, with all these aggravations, many would rather be divinely called ministers of the gospel than be anything else. Where His Sermons Went Coming to the close of many years of faithful ministry, an aged pastor tied his sermon notes in a bundle and wrote on it: "Where has the influence of all the sermons I have preached gone?" One who had been under his ministry for years and who had grown in Christlikeness and in the knowledge of God's Word, gave the following heartfelt appraisal of his sermons: "Where are last year's sunrays? They have gone into fruits and grains and vegetables to feed mankind. Where are last year's raindrops? Forgotten, of course, but they did their gracious and refreshing work. Your sermons, preached over the years, have gone into my life and into the lives of others, to make me and them better, nobler, and more Christlike. They have deepened our love for God's Word, given us a vision of and love for unsaved ones, and have challenged us to go on in the Christian life!"
Ezra exemplifies diligent study and teaching of God's law as a model for preachers.
"For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments" (Ezra 7:10). Ezra sought the law of the Lord. Newer versions translate "study" instead of "seek," and study is, of course, the way we seek it. We do not go to the priest, or seer, or to the witch of Endor; nor do we inquire of the Urim and Thummin. God's will is not found by contemplating our navels or getting in touch with our inner impulses. "When they say to you, 'Seek them that have familiar spirits, and seek wizards that peep and mutter'; should not a people seek their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is not light in them! (Isaiah 8:19-20). The preacher must study. Study takes time. Euclid told Ptolemy, King of Egypt, "There is no royal road to geometry"; so there is no mystic shortcut to a knowledge of the will of God. When we really know what God has revealed to man, we know something helpful and worthwhile to teach. When we teach what is helpful and valuable, people will come to hear and learn. They will not come again and again for empty platitudes or recycled outlines. Not even hogs will keep coming back to an empty trough. Study. Seek the Word of the Lord. Ezra did the law of the Lord. Unlike the scribes of Jesus' day, who said but did not (Matthew 23:2), Ezra practiced what he studied. Studying the Bible is not just an academic exercise. We must not be forgetful hearers, but doers, in order to be blessed (James 1:23-25). We may pride ourselves on knowing the truth, but Jesus did not say "This know and thou shalt live." He said, "This do and thou shalt live" (Luke 10:28). Ezra taught the Lord's statutes and judgment in Israel. So must we. "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught of God.'Every man therefore that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes to me" (John 6:45). What we have learned we are to teach to others, so that they can teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2). We are to teach to convert and then we are to teach the converted (Matthew 28:19-20). A preacher is a teacher who pleads with his students to do what they have been taught. Ezra set his heart to seek, to do, and to teach the law of the Lord. No one accidentally becomes a faithful servant of God. We will only be good students, faithful workers, and effective teachers to the extent we decide to be, and deliberately lay aside things that hinder us. Let Ezra be our model. Let us be models like Ezra.
A preacher's responsibility is limited when people do not follow spiritual guidance.
A man had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. He could receive little company and was not to be excited. While in the hospital, a rich uncle died and left him a million dollars. His family wondered how to break the news to him with the least amount of excitement. It was decided to ask the preacher if he would go and break the news quietly to the man. The preacher went, and gradually led up to the question. The preacher asked the patient what he would do if he inherited a million dollars. He said, "I think I would give half of it to the church." The preacher dropped dead. The Doc Prescribed, but the Patient Died It was only a cold in her head when Mrs. Mosby came to Doc Bradley. The doctor poured out some medicine from his store and told her how often to take it. A few days later he was called to her home, for in those days doctors made housecalls. The cold had settled in her chest. More medicine was prescribed, but the woman died. She could have survived, and it hurt the doctor to know he had prescribed, but the patient did not survive. A short time after the funeral, the doctor happened to meet Mrs. Mosby's sister and by accident learned that the sick woman had not taken a drop of his medicine, but instead poured it down the sink. The doctor then realized he was not responsible, for the patient had not followed orders. Obviously the preacher is responsible to prescribe the right medicine. Too many in the church pews listen but do not take the gospel medicine. Only those who listen and follow what is prescribed can expect to find spiritual health.
Encouraging and supporting pastors sustains their ministry and effectiveness.
Sit up front, smile and say "amen" every time he says something good. He will preach himself to death. Pat him on the back and tell him what good work he is doing in the church and community. He will work himself to death. Increase your offering in the church. Then he will suffer from shock. Tell him you have decided to join the visitation group and win souls for the Lord. He will probably suffer a heart attack. Get the whole church to band together and pray for him. He will get so efficient that some other church will hear about him and give him a call. That will take him off your hands. A Question for the Preacher When the Rev. George Pentecost had finished a discourse in the city of Edinburgh, Horatius Bonar put his hand upon his shoulder and said, "You love to preach to men, don't you?" and Dr. Pentecost answered, "Yes." Then Mr. Bonar said, "Do you love the men you preach to?" The Lord's Servant One day as G. Campbell Morgan prayed, the Lord seemed to say to him, "Which do you want to be-a servant of mine or a great preacher?" Morgan replied, "May I not be both, Lord?" A spiritual struggle ensued as he thought, God may want me to be an unknown minister in an obscure place. Then Morgan submissively prayed, "O Lord, my greatest wish is to be a servant of Thine!" The Lord responded by making him one of the greatest preachers of his time.
Pastors must seek to please God alone rather than people.
A young man had just become pastor of a large church. At a reception given him by his people, one of the gossips, a woman with a dangerous tongue, came up and said, "I do not understand how you dared attempt the task of pleasing seven hundred people." Quick as a flash the Lord gave him the answer. He replied, "I did not come to this city to please seven hundred people. I have to please only One; and if I please Him, all will be well."
Shepherds must nurture and care for their flock, not harshly discipline them.
We preachers desperately need the advice which an aged minister gave a young man who was just entering upon his life work as a shepherd of God's flock. "My son," he said, "feed the sheep; do not beat them. If a sheep is well fed, he can endure and will submit to some harsh treatment, but to starve and beat him at the same time is likely to prove fatal."
Erring believers need gentle, loving correction rather than harsh rebuke to restore them.
"Though swine or dogs be driven with violence, yet poor stray lambs must be brought home, as the shepherd brought home his lost sheep upon his shoulders rejoicing, Luke xv. Many well-meaning men may err; be not too severe with them, lest prejudice make them obstinate, and so from erring brethren, they become heretical." Sound advice this. It is true that certain troublesome heretics need to be rebuked sharply that they may be sound in the faith, but discretion is needed, and a loving spirit to guide the discretion: the sheep must not be driven as if they were swine. The tendency of stern orthodoxy is to act towards an erring one as cruel fathers do when they whip their boys without mercy, for they drive ten devils in while they think they are whipping one out. A doubter may be worried into a heretic before we are aware of it. Certain minds will learn anything from those they love, and nothing from those who are masterful with them. The gentleness of Christ is a choice qualification for a pastor. Heresies are better kept out by a full gospel than driven out by fierce controversy. Sheep may be worried into worse strayings, but they can be held by their teeth most securely if they are led into plentiful pasture. O for the Holy Spirit's direction in dealing with weak and unstable minds.
Ministers must live rightly as their example shapes the faith and conduct of others.
"O ye ministers of the word, consider well that you are the first sheets from the King's press; others are printed after your copy. If the first sheet be well set, a thousand more are stamped with ease. See, then, that the power of religion prevail over your own hearts lest you not only lose your own souls, but cause the ruin of others." Correcting for the press is work which has to be done with great care, since thousands of copies will be faulty if the proof-sheet be not as it should be. So should the minister of a congregation be seriously earnest to be right, because his people will imitate him. Like priest, like people; the sheep will follow the shepherd. What need there is that the pastor should order his steps aright lest he lead a whole flock astray! If the town-clock be wrong half the watches in the place will be out of time. We have all an influence over others. Even the least one among us has some individual beneath his power to whom he serves as an example, for whom, indeed, he is a sort of proof sheet. O that the good Lord would make us correct in all points, lest we be propagators of sin through the influence of our faults. By self-examination let us labour to correct the proofs.
John's pastoral care leads a lost soul to repentance and restoration in the church.
John. When on a visit to a city in the neighborhood of Ephesus, he commended to the care of the bishop a young man of fine stature, graceful countenance, and ardent mind, as suited to the work of the ministry. The bishop neglected his charge. The young man became idle and dissolute, and was at length prevailed on to join a band of robbers, such as commonly had their holds in the neighborhood of ancient Greek cities. He soon became their captain, and attained to eminence in crime. Long after, John entered the city again, and inquired for the young man, "He is dead," said the bishop, "dead to God." Having ascertained the particulars, the apostle exclaimed, "I left a fine keeper of a brother's soul!" then, mounting a horse, he rode into the country, and was taken prisoner. He attempted not to flee, but said, "For this purpose am I come: conduct me to your captain." He entered the presence of the armed bandit, who, recognizing the apostle, attempted to escape. "Why dost thou fly, my son," said he, "from thy father, — thy defenceless, aged father? Fear not: thou still hast hopes of life. I will pray to Christ for thee. I will suffer death for thee. I will give my life for thine. Believe that Christ hath sent me." The man was subdued; fell into the apostle's arms; prayed with many tears; became perfectly reformed; and was restored to the communion of the Church.
A pastor's life should be a guiding light leading others to salvation.
As in a dark night one goes before with a lantern for others to follow, even so the life and conversation of the pastor ought to be a burning torch to guide others in the way of salvation. Cawdray.
A good pastor exemplifies spiritual nourishment, discipline, and protection for the flock.
A spiritual pastor, like a real shepherd, should carry bread and salt in a bag; that is, the bread of a good life and discretion: he should use water for drink; that is, living water: he should eat green herbs; that is, have provision of good examples: he should keep a dog to guard the sheep; that is, a learned tongue: he should wear coarse raiment and a leathern girdle; indicating that he despises earthly pleasures, and subdues the flesh: he should sleep under a low roof; implying that he has no remaining city, but sighs after heaven: he should have straw for his bed (significative of living an austere life), and trees and leaves for sheets in heat; representing the words of Scripture, which are his covering and defence: he should have a crook for a staff, implying his dependence on the cross; a pipe to play on to collect the flock, denoting the voice of praise and prayer; and a sling for the wolf, to signify the justice with which he may put to flight the Devil. Bucchius.
Pastors should persist in caring for sinners, never abandoning them like a doctor.
As the physician, having tried many remedies in vain, does not abandon his patient so long as he lives; no more should the pastor the incorrigible sinner.
— Cawdray
John Welsh deeply anguished over the eternal fate of thousands of souls he was responsible for.
Fleming mentions one John Welsh, often, in the coldest winter-nights, found weeping on the ground, and wrestling with the Lord, on account of his people, and saying to his wife when she pressed him for an explanation of his distress, "I have the souls of three thousand to answer for, while I know not how it is with many of them."
Unfaithful ministers face the worst hell, motivating zeal for faithful service.
Weary and happy, I retired to rest, soon fell asleep, and dreamed a horrid dream. I thought I died. Instead of finding myself in heaven, resistlessly sinking, I entered a gloomy vault, where countenances stamped with hopeless despair surrounded me. "Where am I?"—"In hell," a hollow voice replied. "And are these sad souls to be my everlasting companions?"—"Nay, nay," was answered in the same sepulchral tone, "lower down, lower down than this for unfaithful ministers!" It is no fiction, that of all hells a fallen minister's would prove most terrible. That dream enshrines within its grim symbology a tremendous truth.
— S. Coley
A congregation must support and pray for their minister to sustain his spiritual strength.
A Welsh clergyman, invited to assist in the ordination of a minister in some part of England, was appointed to deliver the address to the church and congregation; and having been informed that their previous minister had suffered much from pecuniary embarrassment, although the church was fully able to support him comfortably, he took the following singular method of administering reproof.
In his address to the church, he remarked, "You have been praying, no doubt, that God would send you a man after his own heart to be your pastor. You have done well. God, we hope, has heard your prayer, and given you such a minister as he approves, who will go in and out before you, and feed your souls with the bread of life. But now you have prayed for a minister, and God has given you one to your mind, you have something more to do; you must take care of him; and in order to his being happy among you, I have been thinking you have need to pray again. 'Pray again? Pray again? What should we pray again for?' Well, I think you have need to pray again. 'But for what?' Why, I'll tell you. Pray that God would put Jacob's ladder down to the earth again. 'Jacob's ladder! Jacob's ladder! What has Jacob's ladder to do with our minister?' Why, I think, if God would put Jacob's ladder down, that your minister could go up into heaven on the Sabbath evening after preaching, and remain there all the week; then he could come down every Sabbath morning so spiritually minded and so full of heaven, that he would preach to you almost like an angel. 'Oh, yes, that may be all very well; and, if it were possible, we should like it; but, then, we need our minister with us during the week, to attend prayer-meetings, visit the sick, hear experience, give advice, &c., &c., and, therefore, must have him always with us; we want the whole of his time and attention.' That may be, and I will admit the necessity of his daily attention to your concerns; but, then, you will remember, that if he remains here he must have bread and cheese; and I have been told that your former minister was often wanting the common necessaries of life, while many of you can enjoy its luxuries; and, therefore, I thought, if God would put Jacob's ladder down, your present minister might preach to you on the Sabbath, and, by going up into heaven after the services of the day, save you the painful necessity of supporting him."
Dr. Nettleton showed compassion and discretion toward an ineffective minister's reputation.
The following anecdote of Dr. Nettleton, is a delightful instance of his peculiar tenderness for the ministerial reputation and influence of his brethren. It serves both as a powerful rebuke to that reckless spirit which too often marks the character of flaming zealots, and as a gentle admonition for that reprehensible coldness, which perhaps equally as often prevails in the bosom of the ministry.
Dr. Nettleton was most sensitively careful to sustain the influence of his brethren. He would not, when he knew there was an evident deficiency, do any thing that might tend, in the least degree, to disparage them in the estimation of their people. There was one instance, which I am about to name, in which he showed his delicacy of feeling and address, in a most Christian manner. A clergyman who lived not far from the place where Dr. Nettleton resided, bore the reputation of an indolent and inefficient pastor, and had, in consequence, caused considerable uneasiness amongst his people. Some of the more faithful part of the church, who deplored the low state of religion and growing laxity of morals among the youth of the congregation, went to Dr. Nettleton, and desired him to come and preach to them. To this he would by no means consent, without an express invitation from the pastor, and of that he had little hope. But there happened to be a desert spot on the borders of the town, where religious meetings were seldom held, and where the influence of the pastor did not particularly extend. When he was made acquainted with the fact, he said that he had no objection to go there and hold a few evening meetings with them. He went, and without exciting observation, held several religious meetings. In a short time, a number of the youth were under deep conviction for sin. As soon as he perceived the joyful appearance, he requested all who were under serious impressions, to meet with him the next day, informing them that he had something of an important nature, which he wished to communicate. When they had all met, he advised the young ladies to go that same evening to their pastor, and ask his counsel respecting the present state of their minds; and the young men he advised to go the evening following for the same purpose. They all did as he had prudently directed them; and the effect was so powerfully electric, that the slothful pastor rose up at once, went to work with all his might, preached and labored with assiduous energy, and was the favored instrument in reaping a glorious harvest of souls. As soon as the pastor got thus fairly to work, Dr. N. retired; the pastor ever remained a faithful and useful man.
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