Honoring the
Pastor/Teaching Elder
Among us
12 Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those
who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because
of their work. Live in peace with each other. I
Thessalonians 5:12-13
17The elders who direct the affairs of the church
well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and
teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, "Do
not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The
worker deserves his wages." 19 Do not entertain an accusation against an elder
unless it is brought by two or three witnesses.
I Timothy 5:17-20
I urge, then, first of
all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for
kings and all those in authority,
that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. I Timothy 2:1-2
Introduction
Good morning.
This morning I am going to share with you about a topic that is near and
dear to me. Over the past sixteen years,
in conjunction with Barbara’s and my role at the Center for Renewal, I have had
the privilege of getting to know a number of pastors. In the course of building these
relationships, I have come to the conclusion that we, members of the
congregations that these men pastor, don’t know how to love, support and
respect them.
And not being a professional pastor, I am in a unique
position to speak from a congregational perspective about this – because for
the past 33 years I have been sitting where you sit – as one who has been
shepherded by pastors. It would be very
awkward for a pastor to speak to you as I am going to speak to you today.
So fasten your seat belt. As you are embarking on a new marriage
between pastor and congregation, I want to share with you the insights that God
has given me to help you along this process.
Consider this sermon – pre-marriage counseling.
Over the past several months I have asked these
pastors to consider what they would want their congregations to know about holding
in high regard and respecting a pastor.
Graciously and anonymously they have contributed to this sermon. Listen
to their hearts and allow the Holy Spirit to influence your hearts concerning
this important step in the life of Christ the King.
[Prayer]
Here these words from one of these pastors:
Unfortunately,
pastors do not come with instruction manuals. But perhaps we should. Because a
lot of people just do not know how to take care of their new pastor.
The nature of our job is
such that we pastors can’t tell you how to take care of us. Jason is not going
to tell you. But he’s hoping that you will take care of him and his
family.
My hope is that today can be an introduction to just
such an instruction manual.
The Unique Call of the
Pastor
To begin to learn to honor and hold in highest regard
our pastors, we must understand the high calling of the pastor. Your Book of Order says the following:
When one
is called by a congregation to be the shepherd of that flock, that person shall
be called Pastor. As such, the duties of the Pastor shall be to preach and
expound the Word, to be God’s prophet to the people and to be the people’s
priest before God.
This definition creates some of the unique challenges
that Jason is going to face. Listen to
the heart of one of my pastor friends:
“Many people want a pastor
to efficiently manage systems, services, and programs that nicely package and
dispense God in easy doses, and comfortably facilitate nominal Christianity.
Real Christianity isn't quite so tame and the prophetic voice isn't usually very
calming. Sometimes that "narrow road" involves asking questions and facing
realities that people might prefer to sweep under the church rug. All that to
say, perhaps people should be prepared to accept that a true pastor isn't
really fulfilling his calling unless some people in the church are uncomfortable,
offended, and accusing him of being a heretic (which is likely if you take too
many of Jesus' teachings seriously).”
So in once sense, the challenges go with the territory. To be the one who is called to prophetically speak
God’s word into a congregation and a community presents a challenge unlike any
other job.
Another important thing to note is that the respect
for Pastoral calling has changed over the years. Years ago, the pastor was a highly respected
member of the community and was in fact, the
most respected occupation. Today
Pharmacists hold that place of respect. According to George Gallup
"Currently, a slim
majority of the public rates the honesty and ethical standards of the clergy as
'very high' or 'high,' but one person in three considers them only average, and
one in ten thinks they are 'low' or 'very low.'"
This raises the bar for the congregation. In the past, the pastor’s position was
naturally a place of honor. But today it
is viewed far less favorably and it is incumbent upon us to recognize that we
are to give honor when honor is due.
Another change is that problems that pastors face
today have changed drastically – even in the last 30 years. Barbara was the church secretary for our
church in the 1970’s. And she was kind
enough to give me some of the messages that she left for our pastor – John. And Sharon, our current church secretary was
kind enough to give me some of the messages that she has passed on to our
pastor – Don (these are fake – but you’ll get the point)
70’s John,
Joe
and Margaret want to set up an appointment for pre-marriage counseling
06’ Don,
70’s John,
The State Department of
Child and Family Services called and want to talk about placing a child with a
family in our congregation.
‘06 Don,
The State Department of
Child and Family Services called and want to audit our procedures about how we
train our Sunday School teachers and nursery care givers to ensure the safety
of the children of this state.
70’s John,
Frank
wants you to know that the sink in the men’s room is clogged.
06’ Don,
George wants you to know
that the hard disk on your computer has crashed and this week’s sermon is gone
The demands on our pastors are far different than
they were even just 30 years ago. And
that should influence the way we treat them. George Barna has said.
"To appreciate the
contribution made by pastors you have to understand their world and the
challenges they face. Our studies show that church-goers expect their pastor to
juggle an average of 16 major tasks —whereas other professionals are expected to
master three or four major tasks required for their work. That's a recipe for
failure - nobody can handle the wide range of responsibilities that people
expect pastors to master. “
And these changes have taken their toll on our
pastors . According to one study of pastors commissioned by Focus on the
Family:
50 percent feel they are unable to meet the demands of the job.
90 percent
feel they were inadequately trained to cope with the demands of ministry.
33 percent
have seriously considered leaving the pastorate.
The Focus on the Family survey found this
about the home lives of pastors:
80 percent believe that pastoral ministry affected their
families negatively.
33 percent said that
ministry is an outright hazard to family life.
94 percent feel
pressure to have an ideal family.
24 percent are
currently receiving marital counseling.
So what can be done about this? Our scriptures this morning give us four ways
for us to relate to our pastors:
·
Respect them
·
Hold them in
Highest Regard
·
Consider them
worthy of Double Honor
·
Remember them –
which is to say – remember them in prayer.
Respect Him
A. To respect someone requires that you know him. In fact, many translations translate the word
that the NIV uses here as “to know.” To respect him means that you will get to know
his gifts and strengths and limitations.
I want to encourage you to get to know Jason’s gifts. Guaranteed, if he is human, he is not gifted
to handle all 16 major tasks that you are expecting him to do. Find out what are his real passions and gifts. Pay to have some organization like Klesis or
Doma or People Management who specialize in gift assessment of Pastors help you
understand how God made Jason. At our
company, we put every employee through such a gift assessment. Every church should do like wise. And then put it into practice. Where Jason isn’t gifted (and I’m sure there
are some areas), pray that God would raise up godly lay leaders.
B. To respect Jason means that you will honor his family
time and his privacy. The demands of
ministry can consume him 24/7. Be very
careful that you allow him to guard that time carefully.
C. To respect Jason means that I hereby declare Christ
the King a “No Gossip Zone.” Our
scripture today encourages us not to “entertain an accusation” without
supporting evidence. Watch out for statements
that start with: “I’m just telling you
this so that you can pray for Jason.”
D. Finally – to respect Jason means that we agree
together to put an end to the following statements:
a. “The Lord told me that the church needs to … blah
blah blah.”
b. “I know there are many who feel just like I do.”
Holding them
in Highest Regard
Let me give you a couple of ways to hold
Jason in Highest regard:
A.
Make Christ the King a safe place for Jason to be
imperfect.
Remember last week when John spoke to you about Peter. And how Jesus allowed for failure in calling
Peter back into the ministry. Jesus is
inviting Christ the King to give Jason the freedom to not be perfect. To give him the same freedom that Jesus gave
Peter in allowing him to shepherd his lambs even though he didn’t’ love Jesus
perfectly. Even though he failed. You don’t want Jason to fake it. Here is how one friend of mine put it:
Know that your pastor and his family are normal people with the same
needs, hurts, stresses, and faults just like you. Give them grace and
some latitude as you would anyone else.
B. Make Christ
the King a safe place for
Reduce your
expectations of her to zero. I heard one
church told a candidate that they were very proud that they were not expecting
his wife to be the Sunday School
superintendent. Only in the next
breath to tell him how much they were looking forward to her leadership in the
women’s ministry. As one pastor said to
me: “No ‘two for the price of one’ thinking/assuming/guilting allowed.” And then he added three exclamation
points. I think he had some experience
with this.
Consider them
Worthy of “Double Honor”
Our passage today from Timothy is very
unique. What is going on here with the
connection with “double honor” and “paying wages”? The Greek word used here literally means “the
value or money paid.” It’s where we get
the word “honorarium.” Paul is telling Timothy how things should be conducted
in the churches. And paying your Pastor
a fair wage is important. Believe it or
not, some people think that a pastor should be kept in poverty because it will
make him more spiritual and thus a better pastor.
We had a youth pastor one time who had
inherited a car from his parents and so for a time had three cars. A good Christian member of our church called
him to tell him that it did not look right for a pastor to have three cars!
Part of paying an adequate wage includes allowing
Jason to have many planned times apart.
The church can become stifling.
Make sure that Jason has time to get apart - to get alone with God – regularly and for
various durations.
One of the guys at work used to enjoy coming
to our church the first few weeks after our pastor got back from
Sabbatical. “He was so on-fire. Every sermon was powerful.” Are we listening? Build it into his schedule. You will be blessed. Give him lots of time to be alone with God.
Pray for Him
Jason is one in authority. Remember Jason in prayer - daily. Remember
Somebody once said:
If you want a new pastor –
pray for the one you’ve got.
Sadly, most congregations don’t take time to do that
before they dump somebody.
Peter Wagner has written a book entitled Prayer
Shield which is a great beginning for learning how to intercede for
pastors. In this book he says:
“The most underutilized
source of spiritual power in our churches today is intercession for Christian
leaders.”
He lays out three circles of prayer support for
pastors. The first is an inner circle of
called and gifted intercessors. Perhaps
two or three. These will spend concerted
efforts daily lifting the pastor and his family before the Lord. The pastor is in contact 4-7 times per week with
these pray-ers – letting them know specific prayer needs. Is God inviting you
to that role?
The next circle he calls the casual intercessors –
For a church the size of Christ the King – he would recommend that a group of 10-15
know the specifics for prayer in Jason and
Circle three is the rest of the church who will on a
daily basis make mention of their pastor in prayer. I have over 70 people who daily pray for my
business – some more – some less. I send
out 5 emails a week to this faithful group of intercessors informing their
prayers. We have been doing this for 16
months since the business hit rock bottom in January of 2005. The day we began doing this – everything changed.
Ought the church be doing anything less for its leaders?
D.L. Moody tells a story about a time he ministered
in
I want to close by handing out a Covenant that I
would like you to consider making between yourself and Jason. [That’s what you get for calling a pastor
from “Covenant” Presbyterian and having me from a different “Covenant”
Presbyterian.] This is a way for you to voice
your support before God and before Jason that by the grace of God you will
endeavor to respect him, hold him in high regard, honor and remember him in
prayer.
I want you to take this home and pray about it. God is inviting Christ the King to a new
level of commitment to their pastor.
Don’t sign this if you don’t understand it or if you have problems with
it. Call or email me if you have
questions. Over the next few weeks I
would like to collect them signed and present them to Jason when he comes. I am not going to pursue those who are not
here today – so if you are uncomfortable not signing this for what-ever reason
– Jason won’t know whether you chose not to sign or if you just weren’t here
today. Imagine yourself as a young
pastor and getting 30 or 40 of these commitments! What an inspiring welcome that would be!
Let’s Pray.
1. By God’s
grace, I will pray specifically and consistently for Jason.
I urge, then, first of all,
that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for
kings and all those in authority,
that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. (I Timothy 2:1-2)
2. By God’s grace, I will give freely of my
time and talents so that Jason can direct the affairs of the church using his
gifts—rather than doing the entire ministry alone.
The
elders who direct the affairs of the
church well are worthy of double honor… (I Timothy 5:17)
3. By God’s grace, I will give cheerfully
and liberally to God to provide for the physical and material needs of Jason’s
family.
The elders
who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and
teaching. For the Scripture says,
"Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his wages."
(I Timothy 5:17-18)
4. By God’s grace, I will refuse to listen
to or spread gossip about Jason. Rather,
I will look for ways to encourage Jason and his family.
Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. (I
Timothy 5:19. See also Proverbs 17:4)
5. By God’s grace, I will work hard to enable
Jason’s family relationships to flourish. (Sandy, Cassandra and Mikayla).
If anyone does not know how
to manage his own family, how can he
take care of God's church? (I Timothy 3:5)
6. By God’s
grace, I will obey and submit to Jason’s leadership and oversight.
Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Hebrews 13:17)
This covenant shall remain in effect as long as I am a
member of Christ the King Presbyterian Church in
Signed: __________________________________________ Date: _____________________