Dear Pastor (part 1)



Dear Pastor,

If serving Jesus and leading your church seem overwhelming...

If you are tired and weary... 

If you feel dry and disconnected because you have poured out your soul and have given your life to serving Jesus through your church...

If you are discouraged because your best efforts produce no visible results...

If you feel fruitless...

If your critics make you feel like a failure...

If you do not believe you have what it takes to lead your church...

If people and circumstances make you feel like quitting...

But, in the midst of all this, if you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God has called you to serve where you are serving...

DO NOT QUIT!  

DO NOT CHECK OUT!

DO NOT LET YOUR HEART WANDER!


As a pastor, I understand the growing challenges of leading a church. 

On one hand, our own expectations lead us to become our worst enemies. Maybe we compare ourselves with other pastors and see where we are not. 

On the other hand, people have expectations of what a pastor should be and do. As a result, you face criticism, you hear people's frustrations, you feel pressure from multiple groups with different agendas in the church. 

Physically, you are worn out. The expectations placed on you are physically impossible for anyone to fulfill.

You have people to visit, church meetings, counseling sessions, weddings, funerals, and ministry training you need to lead. People invite you to birthday parties, children's performances, graduation, sporting events, coffee, lunch, dinner, and the list goes on and on. 

You face a weekly deadline where you are expected to preach sermons that are life-changing, inspiring, engaging, informative, applicable, and theologically correctThe pastor's sermon is often the standard guests use to determine if they will come back to the church or not. Regular attenders look to the pastor's sermon to challenge them, comfort, inform, inspire, encourage, give hope, and answer questions. 

The greatest challenge in sermon preparation may not be the work itself. It could be that you are spiritually dry inside. Having a sermon you can honestly say comes from God, one that you can speak from the bottom of your heart, has not happened for you in a while. 

Going through the motions and writing sermons have run you dry spiritually. You struggle because you are supposed to speak on behalf of God--words that give life and point people to Jesus. Instead your words are not from God and come from an empty place. 

Still, no one knows about your hard work and time spent (20-25 hours per week) toiling over a passage and hearing from God. Most people do not know the time it takes to prepare sermons--pray, seek God, study commentaries, read articles,and examine books as you prepare your sermon. 

Many think that giving a sermon is easy--just go up there and speak. You know it is not easy at all--that it is hard work.  

Maybe you are discouraged because the church you serve is not growing. You look around and see other churches in your community growing. You have pastor friends who tell you how God is building and growing their church. It's exciting for them. But if your church has been nothing more than stagnant in every possible way over the last few years, discouragement can set in. 

You keep silent about the vision God has laid on your heart because you fear push back, rejection, or failure. Or maybe you are leading the vision God has given you but are paying a tremendous price. You wrestle with this tension and wonder if it would be best to ignore God's vision because of the weight that pursuing it brings.  

Maintaining the church budget, raising up leaders, supporting and growing church ministries, and understanding how trends in our culture impact the church all come under your watch. You are responsible--it's all on you!

OK, I'll stop here for now. Lots to absorb from this post. Please look for my next blog post (part 2), which will come out soon. I will share how we as pastors should trust Jesus through discouragement and hardship. 

Yes, ministry is challenging. Serving as pastor is not for the faint of heart. However, we need to remember that if this is what God has called us to do, there are no other options. It is all about obedience. 

My purpose for this blog post (part 1) is to encourage you and challenge you to not quit. Pastor, please give Jesus your all and serve Him well. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will fill you and empower you to do great things for God's glory. I am reminded of Jeremiah's words in Jeremiah 20:7-9: 

"You deceived me LORD and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me." 

"Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long."

"But if I say, 'I will not mention His word or speak in His name,' His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot."

In Christ,
James




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