On Perspective

In pastoral ministry perspective is significance.

Remember it is a job.

Being a pastor is your job.  It is hard work.  You will need to work hard; you will need to work smart.  Never apologize for being paid to do this work.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  You are not.  You are, in a very real sense, a hireling.  This does not mean you can ever abuse or neglect the flock.  It does mean that there are nights that you should go home, crack open a beer and forget about the congregation and its issues.  Let Jesus worry.  It’s his flock.

It is a job.  Get up in the morning and go do it.  Come home in the evening and let it go.

Remember it is a profession.

Have you heard this?  The difference between a job and a profession is about 15 hours a week?

You need to think about being a pastor also as a profession.  You cannot go home, crack open a beer and forget about the congregation and its issues every night, at least not always at 5:30!

There are two other characteristics of the three historic professions, medicine, law and theology, which you must honor.

First, you must exercise confidentiality.  People bare their souls to you.  You know intimate details about people and their families.  Such details can burden you.  But such details must remain with you.  Keeping a confidence is a professional trait.

Second, you must continue to learn.  If you expect the local computer geek to stay current and informed, how much more you expect your doctor and attorney to be well read.  And of all the things that help people, computer technology, medicine and the law, nothing is more crucial for helping people than theology, God’s word. 

You are a professional.  Read.  Study.  Learn.

(Note:  Historically high pay was not characteristic of professions.  Only in the last few decades has the word professional been used to contrast the difference between someone who “does it for money” and someone who “does it without pay.”   Do not equate your being a professional with the financial status of other professionals; i.e. doctors and lawyers.)

Remember it is a Calling.

Go to a local high school band, orchestra or choir concert.  You will be impressed by the conductor.

Follow a local high school sports team.  Get to know a tennis or cross country or swimming program.  You will be impressed by the coach.

Most conductors and coaches can’t give you a logical reason for doing what they do.  The hours are long and crazy.  The frustrations are many.  The financial benefits are not what they would reap if they devoted the same time and energy to some other endeavor.  Balancing their efforts with family and other interests is a challenge.

But there they are.  There they serve.   There they make a significant difference in the lives of others.

They may have tried to quit at different times, but somehow just couldn’t.

They have the right gift mix, inclination and unquenchable love for the field (music, sports).  They are called.  Called.  It is how God has made them to participate in his larger community.

Your work as a pastor is a calling, a Calling.  

You are to do it not for yourself.  Sure you will derive your living from the work (it’s a job), and, yes, you will experience self-improvement on your path to greater effectiveness (a profession), but being a pastor is much bigger than you.  You are Called.  It is how God has made you to participate in his larger community.

Now this realization may not be evident at the start.  Even though our church’s practice is to identify called pastors as those certified seminary graduates who have a call from a congregation, at some point you will also experience a “sense of Calling.”

I did not have it before becoming a pastor.  I did not have it when I became a pastor.  For me it hit at about the 15 year mark.  It was then that I realized being a pastor is what I am wired to do, it is what God has equipped me to do, it is what God wants me to do.  Try as I might, I could not quit.  God had a Call on my life.

As you serve as a pastor, look for Calling. 

There may come a time when you become convinced you are not really equipped or designed for being a pastor, that it is not your Calling.  Go find something else to do—a different job, or profession.  Search out what your Calling is.  You will burn out from the hard work of being a pastor if it is not your Calling.

I hope for you a point of great clarity, a time when you become convinced being a pastor really is your Calling, far more than a job or a profession; you have hit the sweet spot.  Dig in.

REMEMBER IT IS A GIFT

I have had a number of people, intending to encourage me, who have said, “Pastor, I wouldn’t want your job!” 

There are days you won’t want it either.  There are days you will envy the Wal-Mart greeter.

Remember, being a pastor is also a gift from God.  This is not your choosing.  He has chosen, called you to do this; your pastorate is a gift from God to you.

You should always do two things with any gift you receive:  be grateful for it and fruitful with it.

Give thanks to God for the gift of being a pastor.  Gratitude must completely trump any sense of pride.  “Thank you God for calling me to serve in this way.”

Be fruitful.  The “gift of the pastorate” is not like the gift of a tie or socks from a preschool student.  You don’t stuff this gift in a bottom drawer.  It is a gift from God.  Always seek the best and highest use of the gift God has given you.

And no grousing.  God gives nothing but good gifts!

So Pastor…. work hard, learn lots, serve lovingly, give thanks.

And show them Jesus.  Always.  He must increase.   You must decrease.

That’s the path toward significance.