It’s time to put blame where blame is due. Squarely on the shoulders of those who choose to invest their lives in… people. Yes, we’re talking about the pastor here! Think with me:
Q: When I was in junior and senior high school, who said (every Sunday, by the way), Read your Bible! If you don’t read it, you won’t grow like God wants you to grow! Ask God to speak to you, and to speak His truth into your situation!
A: My pastor. Blame it on him that I finally started to really read the Bible for myself – not just everyone else’s devotionals, Bible studies, etc. (Blame it on me that I didn’t do this consistently until my 30s! Go figure!)
Blame it on my pastor that I finally started to really read the Bible for myself.
Q: Who said the following throughout my formative years:
God keeps His promises! Don’t worry about what people think! Worry more about what God thinks! If He’s given a condition in His Word and you follow it, then you can depend on Him to keep His Word.
A: My pastor. Blame it on him that I still think that God’s the Original “Promise-Keeper”. It’s all the fault of my pastor.
Don’t worry about what people think! Worry more about what God thinks!
Q: Who, when I was seated on Sunday mornings in church with a bunch of other young people all around me (and a few “secretly” rebellious ones of us, at that!), regularly said from the pulpit, What you sow, you’ll reap. Count on it! As 1+1 = 2, it’s just as certain!
A: My pastor. Blame it on him. He’s the reason why I believe so firmly that when I “sow” corn, I’ll “reap” corn (see? Some of us Midwesterners can never fully remove this reference to Galatians 6:7-8 from a mental image of a field of corn!). That if I “sow” corn, I will not “reap” soybeans!
Q: When I was in my early twenties, and had started to read philosophy, my head was spinning with the implications of this thought: What if the Bible were not true? Who was it, when I was at that “T-intersection” stage of my life [turn one way, and chase after God’s thoughts; turn the other way, and chase after the Enemy’s thoughts] who said, “The Bible is true – whether you choose to believe it ~ or…not! Better to choose to believe and obey it now while you’re younger than to choose not to believe and obey it, and look back after a lifetime filled with regrets!” (Hint: This same person refuted the popular line: God said it! I believe it! That settles it! He said – from the pulpit! Can you believe it? – that it doesn’t matter if I believe it or not: It’s still true!)
A: My pastor. Blame that statement on him. (How could he say such a thing, when he wasn’t much more than 10-12 years older than I was?) Although I do not have a “lifetime” of regrets, I still have a few things that I regret – because I thought that I “knew better” than God! Thankfully God is rich in mercy, and extravagant in grace, and as a good Father, runs after His kids to plead with them, and to meet them as they are coming back to Him!
Who was it, when I was at that “T-intersection” stage of my life [turn one way, and chase after God’s thoughts; turn the other way, and chase after the Enemy’s thoughts] who said, “The Bible is true – whether you choose to believe it ~ or…not!
Q: Who said, Children! Honor your parents – even if you disagree with their decisions! (Ugh! What a thing to say! He certainly didn’t know my parents!)
A: My pastor. (Again!) Blame it on him. If not for that pastor’s faithful preaching from Scripture ~ even the “hard” things ~ I would fit in “perfectly” with my siblings who even now, in their adult years, have actively chosen to not honor our parents… Does that make me “perfect”? Hardly! Was it hard – almost impossible sometimes – for me to put into practice the pastor’s words (lifted, by the way, directly from Ephesians 6:1-2)? You betcha. Yet… despite how difficult it has seemed at times to follow this command from Scripture, I have great joy (yes, that is a great word to describe) in knowing that I have done my dead-level best to respect my parents… Have I ever failed? Absolutely. But this has been one of my “lifetime goals”.
Q: Who said, Do what God tells you to do, and do it whole-heartedly?
A: That would be my pastor. Blame it on him.
Q: Who quoted Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher of the late 1800s, who said, If God has called you to be a missionary, never stoop to be the King [or the Queen] of England!
A: My pastor. Blame it on him that to this day I have a high view of missions and missionaries. My pastor’s “fault”! (Note: “high view of missions/missionaries” does not equal “an unrealistic view”, or a “put-‘em-on-an-impossibly-high-pedestal view”.)
Who quoted Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher of the late 1800s, who said, If God has called you to be a missionary, never stoop to be the King [or the Queen] of England!
Q: Who often quoted his life verse, So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom? Who reminded everyone he knew how short life is, and that one day, every single person on the planet will each stand before God – believers in the God of the Bible, to receive rewards for faithfulness (this is not preached on as often these days), and believers in themselves as “God”, to receive judgment, and everlasting punishment, separated from God forever. Who urged us forward constantly?
A: My pastor. Blame it on him that to this day, I still believe strongly in setting achievable goals, and especially in setting private goals in spiritual strength-building and faith-conditioning to “press on toward the prize” of God’s high calling of following after Jesus Christ.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. — Psalm 90:12 (KJV)
Q: Who said, Read biographies of great Godly men and women who pursued God with all of their hearts, souls, minds, strengths – then seek to build certain of their spiritual disciplines into your own life!
A: My pastor. Blame where blame is due. Place it squarely on his shoulders! He is the one who in his sermons dropped enticing biographical “morsels” of great believers into my very impressionable mind while I was still in junior and senior high school. I learned of Adoniram Judson’s laboring for 7 years without a single convert, losing his wife, and struggling alone; I heard of George Mueller’s “praying in” tens of thousands of British pounds sterling, all to feed and clothe the orphans under his care; I listened as he told of Gladys Aylward who had no formal “missionary training”, no seminary degrees or advanced degrees, who as a young woman of great faith went overseas to China at her own expense (she had been rejected by the “official” mission boards – who several decades later realized their error), and there made great inroads with the Gospel. My pastor’s “fault”!
Q: Who said, You can never out-give God! Never!
A: You already know. Again. It was my pastor from my junior and senior high school days.
You can never out-give God! Never!
He unashamedly preached all of the Bible – even the parts that probably made some members of the congregation nervous, angry, or upset. Whatever!
He unashamedly preached all of the Bible.
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In all of ten days it will be October – a month that has come to be known as Clergy Appreciation Month. But… why wait to let your pastor know that you appreciate him?
Idea: Drop your pastor a note, an e-mail, a postcard, an actual store-bought card, a voice-mail, and tell him that you appreciate him – before it’s the “official” month! Or… here’s a novel idea! Why not invite your pastor and his wife over for a meal, or over for coffee and dessert? (For those financially able to do so, what if you were radically generous, and even put a gift card for a coffee shop, a bookstore, or a restaurant in with that greeting card?)
Why wait to let your pastor know that you appreciate him?
You just might be surprised to find out that some pastors and their wives are rarely invited over, or… that they are invited over, but mainly to share a meal with just one or two families, or one or two couples. Why not start a new tradition of hospitality at your fellowship by inviting others over – you might start with inviting over the pastor! What if you spent an hour or so over a meal, dessert, or board games with your pastor and the pastor’s family? You will be blessed (I can guarantee this), and I have a “hunch” that your pastor will be, too!
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May I encourage you to pray for your pastor, and for your pastor’s marriage and family relationships? Pray for your pastor’s personal Bible reading, that God would be alive and real as your pastor reads. Ask God to give your pastor new insights from Scripture, and that the Holy Spirit would speak clearly and specifically to your pastor through the Scripture verses on which your pastor meditates. There is perhaps no greater gift that you can give your pastor than the gift of your Scripture-driven prayers.
While you are praying, you might also ask God to give your pastor Godly friends who will hold your pastor accountable, people with whom your pastor can honestly share struggles in ministry, in spending personal time with God each day, frustrations in trying to balance family time and “church time”, and a mentor with whom your pastor can be genuinely “transparent”. Ask God for that, for your pastor. Do not take for granted that “all pastors already have such friends” – they do not.
Ask God to give your pastor Godly friends who will hold your pastor accountable, people with whom your pastor can honestly share… Do not take for granted that “all pastors already have such friends” – they do not.
You might wind up your prayers on behalf of your pastor by thanking God for specific “zings” God has spoken to you during your pastor’s preaching or while leading a prayer time, or a small group. When you have opportunity, find a few friends from your fellowship, and together pray for your pastor, in your pastor’s hearing. You may never know in this lifetime how God has used you to touch His servant’s life!
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They watch for your souls, as those who must give account [before God], that they may do this [accounting] with joy, and not with grief… — Hebrews 13:17
Wide open spaces...of God's grace! 