I make no claim that pastors are perfect people. We mess
up. We can be arrogant and uncaring at times. At the same time, though, most
pastors I know are genuine, faithful followers of God who love their
congregations. They’ve learned, too, that the work of pastoral
ministry often carries heartache with it. Here are some of those
aches:
1.
We mourn when marriages fall apart. We
usually hear both sides of the story, and we’re privy to both anguish and sin.
Often, we’ve seen the pain that divorce can cause.
2.
We hurt when young people make decisions
that lead to trouble. None of us wants our church young people
to go down paths that could lead to long-term difficulty. Nor can we always
stop it, however.
3.
We occasionally beat ourselves up when our
sermon wasn’t nearly as strong as we thought it would be. We’re
usually our own
worst critics. And, some of us will think for days about how we could
have done better.
4.
We sometimes grieve the sin of others more
than they do. We know we can’t bring them to repentance
on our own, and it’s agonizing to watch them continue toward destruction.
5.
We ache when our church must carry
out church
discipline. In all my years of ministry, few
situations were as painful as removing a church member who chose to ignore our
attempts at guidance and reconciliation. It felt like I had failed in reaching
him as his pastor.
6.
We struggle when the churches we lead
aren’t growing. I realize that we can become idolatrous
of numbers, but most pastors I know aren’t comfortable when the churches they
lead are not reaching people.
7.
We sometimes hurt alone when we see the
loneliness and struggles of our families. I’m casting blame
on no one here; I’m simply making the point that some pastoral
families struggle under the weight of the task—and we keep that
struggle to ourselves.
8.
We quietly grieve funerals for persons who
showed no evidence of Christian conversion. We
have to lead in those situations, but the tears sometimes come in the quiet
rooms of our lives.
9.
We wrestle with loneliness when we don’t
know how to develop strong friendships. Frankly, I think this
problem is more often our issue than our congregation’s issue, but it
nevertheless can lead
to aloneness.
10.
We often feel guilty even expressing any of these thoughts. Maybe
I’m the only pastor who’s ever felt these things, but I doubt it—so I use this
post to ask for prayer on behalf of all my pastoral colleagues.
Say a prayer for your pastors this weekend.
Source: Chuck Lawless
Chuck Lawless currently serves as Professor of Evangelism and Missions and Dean of Graduate Studies at Southeastern Seminary.
This article originally appeared here.
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