This is not an easy time to be the pastor of a church. We live in the latter days, and these are trying times in the church and in society.
Sunday afternoon I had the wonderful opportunity to address the Louisiana Baptist Convention Pastor’s Conference. I spoke about Jeremiah’s trying times and what you can do when you it’s not easy being either prophet or pastor.
How do we encourage those who shepherd us in these very difficult days?
First, we remind them not to be weary in doing well. Doing right or serving effectively doesn’t mean life is easy. Getting weary from doing right is one of the most common experiences for a shepherd. Elijah experienced one of the greatest triumphs in history and wound up under a broom tree wanting to die.
Elijah will not be the last pastor who is exhausted by doing good.
Second, we need to remind pastors God believes in them and has put them here in this place and in this time period for a purpose. Pastors are God’s people for this difficult time. As with Queen Esther, who knows but that you have been placed here for just such a time as this?
Third, we need to remind pastors that society and culture needs the church more than ever before. We know that culture is turning against Godliness. We fear ridicule and rejection, but the culture needs the church like never before.
Two competing views are emerging about our future. Many people say the church is doomed, that churches in America will be like the churches of Europe. The other view, which I believe with all my heart, is that many people will turn to the church to help their children and their families in perilous times. Our culture needs the church. Is there any other place in society to tell us something so basic as husbands and wives should be faithful to one another? Apart from the church, we do not hear the truth.
These latter days when cultural Christianity has died may be the greatest days of the church. We need to encourage one another with these words.
Finally, we need to remind them God is still God. All earthly kingdoms will pass away, but God’s kingdom reigns forever. This statement summarizes the teaching of God from Daniel the prophet and from John in the Apocalypse.
He shall reign forever and ever. Amen.
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4 Responses
How timely!
We ought to all pray for our pastor and for all pastors who are professing the true Gospel.
Nearly nine years ago you encouraged me to wait on God. I continue to wait. More recently you encouraged me to not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up (Gal 6:9). This verse is always with me as a daily reminder to pray, trust, wait and hope.
The stakes are high, they are personal, they are my family. I remember every life is personal to someone, especially to God.
So let’s be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power putting on the full armor of God so that we can take our stand against the devil’s schemes (Eph 6). We must fix our eyes on Jesus, the perfecter of our faith, and run the race marked out for us with perseverance (Heb 12)
God bless you and yours Waylon. You are never alone.
First I want to thank you for the reminder of Whose we are.
Secondly, I want to remember two men who influenced me in life in particular in Remembrance of Veteran’s Day. The remembrance is apropos, as it ties in perfectly with the objective of the verse/message you offered and the prayer petition shared. Two men had Vision, dedication, self-sacrifice and disappointment. Both served in WW2. Both served honorably and were changed by the experience. Both invested themselves that others may have opportunities. Both experienced changes that their peers later in life had difficulty understanding; and that difference in historical perception made a life of doing good difficult working with others who were clueless in the shaping and driving the urgency of their motivation. To focus on what had been, but not experienced by others, was considered negative. To consider their experience to be relevant to the future was something… not to be considered by their peers, but to be politely tolerated, as long as they didn’t interfere with the plans of their peers. The off-handed comments snidely expressed in the hubris of the “respected others” pejoratively pointed at them had the effect of a water torture that never ceased. They had to grasp on to God, seldom finding any survivors who could relate, as the world around them became increasingly more self-serving and less selflessly giving. I think of Dr. George Harrison and Fred C. Matthew and am thankful for their example, we have limits.
Thirdly, I wonder and pray for my family much as the Millers. I have watched and continue to watch dreams crumble in the time and tide of life. Can one out give God? It only works if you take your eyes off the world. Too many have died in want. I have been by their bed sides. I have read about the end of many of the signers of the 1776 Declaration. One does not have to look far. Some of the ministries in New Orleans I previously noted in days past and observed their families and seek context of Psalm 37 for each case. “I have been young, and now am old; and I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” Suitable for living in a righteous community of Saints. Yet it is this very community that watched Steven stoned and others persecuted to death, even to the concentration camps and gas chambers, gulags and mass graves. It is good to know, Christ, my one unfailing friend. Will the solution, Romans 12:4&5, show up? To be continued…
Blessings