Five Things You Can Do for Your Pastor

Once upon a time, there was a pastor who was notorious for his long-winded sermons. After half an hour of preaching, he was just getting warmed up. Well, one Sunday he showed up at church with a Band-Aid on his chin. He didn’t say anything about it, and everyone was wondering how it got there.

After the service was over, and he had preached his usual lengthy message, the pastor was standing at the door of the church shaking hands with the people as they went out. One of the women of the church, who was noted for her outspokenness, came up to him and asked him the question that was on everyone’s mind: “Pastor, what happened to your chin?”

The Pastor said “Oh, that happened while I was shaving this morning. I was thinking so much about my sermon that I wasn’t concentrating on what I was doing.”

The lady replied, “That’s too bad, Pastor. Maybe next Sunday morning you should concentrate on your shaving and cut your sermon instead.”

Well, I have to confess that, not only have I not cut my sermon this morning, I have actually added to it. Those of you with sharp minds will remember that this message was advertised last week as “Four Things You Can Do for your Pastor.” But this past week, the Lord gave me another point to add to it, so now it has grown to “Five Things You Can Do for your Pastor.”

Last week, we looked at the five things your pastor can do for you. Let me remind you what they are: Your pastor can be for you

- an expositor - one who explains and helps you to understand the Word of God.

- an equipper - one who helps you to live the Christian life and get involved in service.

- an encourager - one who comes alongside you and supports and encourages you.

- an exhorter - one who challenges you to grow, and who may even confront you when you need confronting.

- an example - one who models the principles of the Word of God in his own life.

Now let’s look at the five things that you can do for your pastor, because this is a two-way relationship. There are five significant Biblical ways that you can minister to your pastor even as he ministers to you.

1. Pray for him

The greatest gift that a congregation can give to its pastor is to uphold him faithfully and consistently in prayer. In the passage we read earlier in Hebrews, the author has been talking about the church’s responsibility to its spiritual leaders. Then, he simply says…

Hebrews 13:18 Pray for us.

2 Thessalonians 3:1-2 Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.

Ephesians 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

Paul knew that the effectiveness of any spiritual leader is directly proportional to the prayers of his people on his behalf.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was one of the greatest preachers who ever lived. Under his leadership, the Metropolitan Tabernacle had a powerful ministry in 19th century London, England. Every Sunday, over 5,000 people would show up for church. The only reason that more didn’t come was that they simply couldn’t fit in the building. In fact, once a quarter, Spurgeon would ask his regular church members to stay home so that there would be more room to accommodate newcomers.

One day, Spurgeon was showing some visitors around the church. After showing them the sanctuary and the other parts of the church, he said “Come, and I’ll show you the heating apparatus.” With that, he quietly opened the door of a large room. Inside, over 400 people were on their knees in prayer. Spurgeon knew that the spiritual warmth of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and the fruitfulness of his own ministry, was generated by the prayers of his people.

Every Sunday that Spurgeon got up to preach, he knew that there was a group of his deacons meeting in a room directly beneath the sanctuary, on their knees praying for him all the way through the sermon. It’s no wonder that he was a powerful preacher! His ministry was built upon the prayers of his people.

Why is it so essential for you to pray for your pastor? Because the pastor is the spiritual point man of the church. During the Viet Nam war, squads of American soldiers would go into the jungle on patrol. Leading the squad was the point man. He had the most dangerous job of all. If that patrol walked into an ambush, if a fire fight broke out, the point man would be the first man the enemy would shoot at.

Spiritually speaking, the pastor is in much the same position. Satan would like nothing better than to bring down the point man. He’ll do whatever he can to take him out.

You might be asking, “Well, how should I pray for the pastor? What specific things should I pray for?”

First: Pray that he would be a man of God. Pray that your pastor’s personal walk with God would be strong and heathy. One of the occupational hazards of being a pastor is that he can get so involved in carrying water for others that he forgets to drink it himself. The result is that he becomes a hollow man. He has a veneer of spirituality with no reality inside. Pray for your pastor’s personal walk with God.

Second: Pray that his ministry would be solidly built upon the Word of God and energized by the Spirit of God.

There’s an old story about a mother who walked in on her six year old son only to find him crying bitterly. “What’s the matter?” she asked.

“I’ve just figured out how to tie my shoes,” he sobbed.

“Why honey, that’s wonderful,” she replied, “that shows that you’re growing up. So why are you crying?”

“Because” he said, “now I’ll have to do it every day for the rest of my life.”

You know, preaching is a lot like that. Sundays just keep coming. Just like the Eveready bunny. There’s always another message to prepare, another sermon to preach, another study to lead. Some weeks, it seems like every other day is a Sunday.

If a pastor is not building his ministry on the Word of God, and is not relying on the Spirit of God, all that ministry will soon burn him out. So pray for him in his public ministry, and pray for him in his private life.

The first, and foremost thing you can do for your pastor is to pray for him.

2. Pay heed to his leadership:

Hebrews 13:17 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.

There are two words in this verse which have been utterly discredited by the culture in which we live in 1993. They are the words “obey” and “submit”. We are living in a culture in which obedience and submission to authority are regarded with contempt. Americans believe that personal freedom is their most prized possession; that the autonomy of the individual is their most inalienable right.

I make my choices and you make yours, and nobody had better interfere with our right to do so; not the government, not the schools, not the family, and least of all, not the church.

Most Americans today don’t accept the fact that they need to be under the authority of anyone, let alone a spiritual leader. They point to the abusers of spiritual authority, the Jim Joneses and the David Koreshes and say “See, that’s what happens when you submit to a spiritual leader. Submission and obedience are dangerous.”

But the Word of God says “Obey your spiritual leaders and submit to their authority, for that will ultimately be of benefit to you.” Could it be that God has a better idea? Could it be that God places us as Christians under the leadership of gifted men who are seeking our well-being? Who want to guide us in our choices, who want to help us to live effective and productive lives?

One of the responsibilities of church membership is to obey the leadership of the church. But how many Christians take that seriously? If the pastor and the deacons were to say to a church member who was about to divorce his spouse “Don’t do it.” would he listen?

If the leaders of the church were to tell a disgruntled member that he would no longer be permitted to go around stirring up trouble in the fellowship, would he take that admonition seriously? Or would he place his own personal freedom above his responsibility to obey the spiritual leaders that God placed over him?

Most of us are willing to follow our spiritual leaders as long as they seem to be taking us in a direction that we have already decided to go. We will listen to their teaching as long as it agrees with our personal theology, or with our interpretation of Scripture.

But I am here to tell you this morning that that is not what the Bible teaches. Hebrews 13:17 indicates that God, in His sovereignty, has placed you under certain spiritual leaders for your good. And the best thing you can do for yourself, as well as for them, is to pay attention to their leadership. Take seriously their instruction. Listen to their counsel. Obey their guidance.

That’s the second thing that you can do for your pastor.

3. Partner with him in the work.

Ephesians 4:11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

v. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

With the NFL season almost upon us, let me share with you this definition of a football game. “A football game consists of 22 men down on the field desperately in need of rest, attended by 75,000 people up in the stands desperately in need of exercise.”

That may be true of a football game, but it was never meant to be true of the church. Church is not a spectator sport. In Ephesians 4, we read that the pastor’s job is “to prepare God’s people for works of service”, and that the Body is built up and grows, not as the pastor does all the work, but “as each part does its work.”

One of the beautiful pictures that comes to us out of the ministry of Paul in the NT is that there were so many people who partnered with him in the work.

Philippians 1:3-5 I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

Later in that epistle, Paul calls one of them his loyal yokefellow. He mentions two particular women who contended at his side in the cause of the Gospel. Sometime you should look at the conclusion of his letter to the Colossians, or the end of 2 Timothy to see all the people that Paul mentions there. The picture he paints is that of a team working together.

One of the greatest things that you can do for your pastor is to come alongside him and say “Pastor, how can I help in the ministry? What can I do to partner with you?” We want to build a team concept here at First Baptist, where the people of the church are capable of ministering to each other, and the pastor is not expected to do it all.

I thank God for the evidence that this is already happening. And I’m grateful for the ways that so many of you have already indicated your willingness to partner with me.

4. Be Patient with him.

Pastors are human. They make mistakes. They are not always sensitive and loving and patient and kind. They do not always say or do the right thing, in your way of thinking. Your pastor’s tastes and personal preferences may be different from yours.

There may be times when you disagree with your pastor, or when you are even offended by something that he says or does. How you respond at times like this will tell you how much you really love your pastor.

Let me give you an example. I know of a situation where an older woman donated to the church a piece of stitchery that she had made. She had labored long and spent many hours working on it. When it was finished, she gave it to the pastor, and she suggested to him where he should hang it.

The next Sunday she went to church, and it wasn’t there. Nor was it there the Sunday after. The woman became quite upset that the pastor hadn’t followed her recommendations about where to hang her work of art. She became offended. She became convinced that he was an insensitive, ungrateful man who didn’t care about her. So she began to nurse a grudge against him. She spoke poorly of him to anyone who would listen. Ultimately, she left the church.

For his part, although he appreciated her gift, that pastor simply didn’t think that that piece of stitchery should go where the woman wanted him to hang it. He simply preferred not to hang it there. But she didn’t give him the freedom to do what he wanted with that gift. That gift came with some strings attached - the strings were her expectations. The pastor didn’t meet her expectations. So she allowed a piece of stitchery to create a rift in her relationship with him.

Sound ridiculous? Sure it does. But this kind of thing happens more often than you would believe in churches. People get angry with the pastor over the most trivial things. They get angry because they fail to apply…

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

The fourth thing you can do for your pastor is to be patient with him. Be kind and compassionate; give him the benefit of the doubt. Give him room to be himself. And when he messes up, as sooner or later he must because he’s a sinner just like you, you need to forgive him, just as God in Christ forgave you.

5. Provide for him.

1 Timothy 5:17-18 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.”

Galatians 6:6 Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.

This is a very personal area that you don’t often hear a pastor speak about. It is the area of finances. It is the issue of how a church pays its pastor. Many pastors are reluctant to talk about this. They are afraid that they might appear greedy or materialistic or unspiritual if they do.

But the NT is very specific in its teaching on this issue. It says that the people of God have an obligation to provide for the one who teaches them the Word of God. In other words, every church has a responsibility to provide for its pastor.

I want to go on record today as expressing my appreciation for how you have already provided for me and my family. I believe that First Baptist Church is upholding its responsibility in this area, and doing a good job of it. I cannot begin to tell you how grateful we are, as a family, for the way that you have provided for us. You have provided for us an income package that enables us to live comfortably as a family of seven in this community, without having to worry about whether the bills are going to get paid.

But that’s only the beginning. In the few short days that we have been here, you have given us “double honor”. You have brought us delicious meals to enjoy while we were moving in. You brought us groceries to help stock our empty shelves. Many of you brought us the fruit of your own gardens - tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchinis, squash, pears - all sorts of good things. Several of you have treated us to delicious restaurant meals. Many of you have shared your knowledge with us - giving us the gift of information as we have tried to find our way around a new community.

We have been overwhelmed by your generosity to us, and I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so kind and generous and loving to your pastor. What you have done, and continue to do, is honoring to the Lord. And don’t think that he doesn’t take notice of how you treat your pastor. You have provided for him.

So what have we learned today and last week? Well, we have learned that there are five things that your pastor can do for you. He can be an expositor, an equipper, an encourager, an exhorter, and an example. And today we have learned that there are five things that you can do for your pastor. You can pray for him, pay heed to his leadership, partner with him in the work, be patient with him, and provide for his needs.

I pray that our relationship as pastor and people in the days to come would bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ as together we put these principles into practice.