Your Pastor is More Fragile and Needy than You Realize

October is Pastor Appreciation Month. Geneva’s Director of Ministerial Wellbeing, Rev. Paul Joiner, develops programs and resources to support pastors during every season of ministry. In this article, he invites us to consider how every church member plays a vital role in the life and ministry of their pastor.

For Pastor Appreciation Month, I want to help our congregations understand the partnership they have with their pastor in the ministry of the local church. You play a strategic and essential role in his ministry.

Remember, your pastor is more fragile and needy than you realize. Jesus has only entrusted the power of his gospel to clay pots. He is a human being, not a superhuman being. He has needs, hopes, dreams, and desires. And he has disappointments, frustrations, and often feels like a failure.

On top of this, what God has called him to do is more than he is capable of doing, beyond any of his competencies, and is always accomplished through his weaknesses. He is battling sin, Satan, and death — fierce foes that fight back with tenacity. He is fighting them within his own heart and life, and he is fighting them within the lives of his flock.

But he is fighting them on behalf of the Lord Jesus, and he is fighting them with the sin-defeating, Satan-crushing, death-defeating power of Jesus’ Word. He speaks on behalf of the Reigning Savior, who has a sword coming out of his mouth (Revelation 1:16) as he stands in the midst of his churches.

As he comes to you with that Word, you play an essential role in the work that he does.

Paul writes, “Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.” (Galatians 6:6)

There is a tendency to divorce the following verse from the previous verse here in Galatians 6. However, these are not a collection of unrelated statements. Most commentators agree that Paul is expounding Galatians 5:26 in these verses: “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”

The opposite of conceit is bearing one another’s burdens (6:2). And the opposite of envy is generosity. In this case, it is generosity toward the pastor who teaches the Word. The One who makes the Word effectual is God the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, the command to “share all good things with the one who teaches” is tendered with a warning and a promise.

“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8)

So as one who “is taught the word” sows to the Spirit by “sharing all good things with the one who teaches,” he will reap the resurrection life of Jesus. It is an act of faith to invest in the riches that Jesus dispenses through his Word. Likewise, if you sow to the flesh by lacking generosity, you will reap corruption.

Here are some suggestions for ways that you can “share all good things with the one who teaches:”

• Write him an encouraging note. Every pastor I know has a file of notes that he has received from his congregation, which have encouraged him. He keeps those because he treasures them so much that that file acts like a treasure chest for him. When his tank is running low, he will dig into that treasure chest for encouragement.
• Recognize his need for relationships with other pastors and invest financially in those relationships. Pastors need friends who are also pastors because these relationships are of a different type. A pastor can and should have deep relationships within his congregation. But those relationships are categorically different than the kind of honest, vulnerable, caring relationships that he can have with other pastors. Be an advocate for the elders in ensuring that financial resources are set aside to allow him time with other pastors.
• Be slow to criticize. It is healthy and good to humbly critique your leadership. These are men in the process of growing in grace. They have not arrived. And God only entrusts the gospel to fragile jars of clay. But know that they have hearts and souls. Ask yourself if it is either necessary to offer this criticism or whether it is timely. Be surgical in your criticism by ensuring it is the proper cut, in the right place, and delivered gently. And then give him time to consider it. It is not his responsibility to adjust to every criticism of God’s sheep, but to bring that criticism before the throne of grace and see if repentance and new obedience are in order. That takes time. No one changes overnight.
• Have realistic expectations. The pastor is not expected to be an expert on every issue or hold a strong opinion on every topic in the news cycle. Instead, “this is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1). Expect him to be a minister of God’s Word primarily. Adjust your expectations to match Jesus’ design, and you will find your frustrations begin to melt away into appreciation.
• Give generously to the church. This is most likely what Paul has in mind in Galatians 6:6 because he says almost the exact same thing in 1 Corinthians 9:11, where he mentions reaping “material things” from them because he has sown “spiritual things” among them. Your generosity to the pastor, as an act of faith that values God’s Word, allows the church to compensate the pastor adequately.
• Receive the Word from him with great expectation. Arrive on Sunday with a great sense of anticipation. You are not receiving your pastor’s crafted message; you are receiving the very Word of Jesus who stands forth from his throne to transform your life, strengthen you in your weakness, and speak the truth you need to live wisely in this world. You will make your pastor bold with God’s truth if he knows you are expecting God’s Word from him. And this world needs bold and courageous pastors.
• Ask him how you can pray for him and his family. And then actually pray for them. Satan is prowling around looking to devour God’s people, and pastors are not exempt from him. Instead, he and his family are strategic targets for this roaming beast.

As we honor our pastors, let us also embrace the responsibility of supporting them – through prayer, generosity, and partnership in the gospel – for the glory of Christ and the good of His church.

Geneva Benefits Group supports the wholistic wellbeing of those called to ministry. To explore some of Geneva’s wellbeing services, visit genevabenefits.org/wellbeing.