Good pastor care

Go back and read the title carefully or I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed by this post. It’s not about getting good pastoral care but about good care of your pastor as a church.

I was re-reading a book recently which contained this statistic: 44%of those in pastoral ministry for more than 15 years suffer from burn-out, mental breakdown or serious illness (and that doesn’t include immorality or loss of faith).  Whilst that alarming statistic is from Australia, and the book is now quite old. I don’t imagine the UK is much different, in fact from my conversations with friends in ministry I think the last few years may have shortened the time span in which ministry burnout occurs to less than a decade .  I think in view of that it’s worth giving some time to think about this issue of caring for pastors.  How do we as leaders and as a church care for our pastors?

I’m going to suggest a number of things that are helpful and then leave some questions for you to think through, maybe pass on to elders, or even ask your pastor yourself:

Help him avoid distraction from gospel work

• What are our expectations of him in his duties?
• What priorities do we want him to have?
• What other things might occupy his time?
• What distracts him from his primary tasks?
• How can we help him enjoy his work?

Help him grow in his faith

• Is he reading and praying for himself?
• How can we encourage this even more if it is the case?
• Or facilitate it if it isn’t?
• Should we put in place a mentor system to ensure this is happening?
• If not how else do we pastor the pastor?

Resource him

• Are we encouraging him to continue being trained and if so how? If he is resistant why is that?
• Are we resourcing this with time and money and necessary changes to expectations?
• Is there a budget for conferences, books, etc… and if so is it sufficient?

Friendship

• Who is he spending time with outside of ministry?
• Who can he relax with?
• How will we encourage close friendships in the church?

Make expectations clear

• How many hours is he expected to work?
• How many hours he is actually working?
• How can we maintain a healthy balance here?
• Are members of the church clear about what hours he is expected to work? When his days off are? And who to contact when he is away?

Encourage him

It strikes me that we Brits never like to encourage someone in case it goes to his head and yet we are quick to challenge and even criticise, that ought not to be the case.

• How can we share with him what has helped or challenged us?
• How can we help him labour for the long term and not become disheartened by the often slow pace of change that accompanies sowing seed?

Provide for his family

• How generous can we be in providing financially? How often will we review this?
• What will we provide by way of holiday/days-off?  Will we check he takes it?
• How can we protect his day off with his family?
• How do we convey this to the church family and guard him from expectation creep over time?

Partner with him

Loneliness is one of the prime defeaters of ministry, it saps and sucks passion and energy.

• How can we share in vision setting and reaching that goal?
• How do we convey that an eldership is a team?  How do we build that team and build friendships on that team?

Rethinking how we keep watch

How do you read Matthew 24?  It’s a really complex passage.  But Jesus application of what he teaches about life before he returns and how his impending return in glory is clear.  Jesus doesn’t leave any doubts about how his disciples are to live.

• They aren’t to be alarmed (v6) when they hear of wars and rumours of wars.  This isn’t to freak them out and make them lose their faith or panic.
• They are to stand firm(v13) even when persecuted and some in the church turn against the church.
• They are to preach the gospel despite opposition and persecution (v14).
• They are to flee Jerusalem when they see the abomination that causes desolation(v15)
• They are to pray in the meantime that God would be merciful when it comes to timing(v20).
• They are not to be deceived and believe Jesus has come in secret or in one location(v23).
• They are to trust Jesus words and live by them(32-35).
• Then Jesus calls them to keep watch(v42). 

I wonder how you read that last one.  I think the way we read it exposes how much of the virus of individualism has infected our operating system. We read it individualistically, especially as Jesus tells the story about a homeowner being ready.  It’s each disciple on their own keeping watch, being ready for Jesus return.  But Jesus last illustration turns this on its head.

The wise and faithful servant doesn’t keep watch by making sure he’s ok.  He keeps watch by discharging the duty of care of the other servants that he has been charged with.  He provides for them.  By contrast the wicked servant doubts his master is coming and indulges himself at the expense of others.

Our keeping watch is not a lone wolf experience.  The disciples will apply this faith in Jesus words about his return by teaching the gospel to the church, pastoring the church, leading the church.  We keep watch not by just watching over ourselves but by caring for others, being in the church, being par of the body and using our God given grace gifts to spur others on.  We don’t indulge ourselves we serve and nourish others.

How will you keep watch this week?  What will that look like in practice as your nourish your church family?

Being True to who we are

We hear that phrase a lot.  Or variations on that theme; ‘I’m just being authentic’.  ‘I’m being the real me’.  ‘I’m finally free to be true to myself’.

The good news of the gospel is that in Jesus we are finally free to be who we were made to be.  Christians can say we are being true to who we are with a greater clarity than anyone else.  And yet we find ourselves under increasing pressure in our culture in the west to constrain our freedom as Christians.  Societies mantra seems to be: ‘be true to who you are provide you fit these ideals…’  ‘And definitely don’t be free to be who you are if you don’t suit our ideals!’

But the world needs us as disciples to realise our freedom in Christ to be who we are – those who through his sanctify death and resurrection are liberated and Spirit filled and empowered to be Christ’s representatives on earth.  The world needs to see the tyranny of the so called freedom that is really an imposition of a new set of constraints – fit in to our view of the ideal, constrain yourself to our view of freedom, our morals, our norms, our values or be cancelled.  And it will only see that tyranny as we refuse to bow to it and truly live out who we are in Jesus.

We’re working our way through Matthew 24 at the minute and Jesus words are striking yet prophetically true.  “You will be hated by all nations because of my name.”  When we live out our identity in Christ it will provoke a reaction.  That mustn’t be because we’re being obnoxious or unloving or failing to treat people with compassion.  Jesus was never those things – he was authentically good, authentically gracious and compassionate, and yet he was hated because he spoke the authentic truth without compromise.  He named sin, warned of judgment, yet opened his arms wide to offer grace to the repentant.

Will we be true to ourselves?  True to our identity as those saved by the Son of God to live like the Son of God as we live life in the Spirit.  That won’t be easy, it will provoke hatred and opposition.   Jesus warns us, not so we duck it, but so that we’re prepared and stand firm under it and keep on being true to our identity in him because the world needs a Saviour, but they will only see that need if they see a people living out a better identity, being true to who we are in Christ.

It’s even worse than that!

As debates around marriage and whether it is just between a man and a woman and whether it is hate speech to teach that rage on I wonder if the world has slightly missed the point, because we as Jesus disciples have slightly missed the point.

The outrage over the church daring to hold to a biblical view of marriage has exposed something important we need to realise. The world doesn’t realise how bleak the Bible’s teaching about sin and how far short of God’s standard we actually fall as human beings. Sin is not a single-issue problem; marriage isn’t the only area where the Bible is out of step with our culture. The Bible’s teaching reveals that actually it is far worse than that. We fall so much shorter than we assume.

The problem isn’t just the Bible’s view of marriage. It’s the bible’s view of good – no-one is good but God alone, no one else is righteous, no not one. The Bible’s view of truth – Jesus alone is the way the truth and the life and no-one can come to the Father or be saved from a lost eternity apart from repentance and faith in Jesus. The Bible’s view of morality and ethics. The Bible’s view of the sanctity of life and when life begins (at conception) and the Bible’s view of murder. The Bible’s view of sex – no sex outside of marriage between a man and woman full stop, no pornography and uncovering another’s nakedness, no divorce except on very specific grounds. No baring false witness at all but rather your yes is yes and your no is no. Anger and hatred as equivalent to murder and lustful looking as equivalent to adultery. Acts of omission and passivity as sin just as acts of commission are.

I could go on. You get the picture. The Bible’s picture of the gulf between us and God is so much bigger and more wide-ranging and unbridgeable than we reduce it down to. Our hearts are cesspits of sin. Jesus said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.” Mark 7v20-23. Jesus says the problem is so much bigger than a single issue. The Bible calls sin so much of what our culture and society calls normal and we need to help people see that. We need to see it for ourselves as disciples and repent of our sin and be radically different from our society not reduce it down to a single issue or being a bit nicer.

Because only then, when people see the utter pitch-black reality of sin will they see that the gospel isn’t a lifestyle choice, it’s not a hobby, only then will they love of the light of the gospel. Jesus doesn’t come to save us from a single issue; he doesn’t redeem us from one thing. He offers us forgiveness from every sin, he says I know how utterly sinful you are down to your very hearts, desires and motives and I want to forgive you for that. I will experience the forsakenness from God, the judgment, your sin – all of it – deserves at the cross, so that you can have my deserved sons welcome if you repent and trust me. That isn’t a single-issue offer, it is because we all fall short of the glory of God and only Jesus can save us.

The world needs to hear that the Bible’s diagnosis is worse than it dares imagine in it’s worst imaginings but that God’s rescue in Jesus is better than it could possibly dream.

How would you feel if your pastor went on strike?

How would you feel if your pastor went on strike? We’ve just been through months of labour turmoil, as union after union has balloted their members and gone on strike over below cost of living pay offers, loss of benefits, working conditions and pension changes, among other things. How would you feel if your pastor went on strike over those same issues? Outrage or sympathy?

Would you understand immediately why he was going on strike? Do you know what your pastor and other staff members are paid? What their pension is and if it is sufficient to enable them to retire? Do you know what their pay and conditions are and whether they are repeatedly working above and beyond them? Do they take their holiday entitlement? What training and development have they had?

They are great questions for church members to ask elders and deacons. They are signs of care for staff. But I wonder is we don’t ask them because we know the answer will reveal gaps because of budget constraints.

I know pastors who refuse suggested pay increases because the church can’t afford them.  Pastors who have had no pay increase for 5 years.  Others who, not only don’t have a pay increase but, when giving dips, voluntarily do a salary sacrifice so the church doesn’t go into financial trouble.  I know others who don’t claim any expenses and pay for their own conferences and courses because they know how tight money is for the church they serve and love.  Others, who regularly have to dip into their family savings because their salary doesn’t meet their everyday needs.

Imagine for a minute that was you.  That was your work.  That was your reality.  Would you feel valued and loved?  Or might there be a creeping sense of frustration and feeling undervalued and unloved?  Would you stay?   Would it lift worries and enable you to pour yourself out in service of others?  I know pastors who at times wrestle with these things and who can blame them.

It is in part because of the way we fund our churches.  For independent evangelical churches there is no central pot of funding to tap into, there’s no government scheme, beyond gift aid, that enables churches to reclaim tax, to help pay pastors salaries.   Pastor’s salaries are paid for by the giving of church members.  And that means that as a church member you directly contribute to the salary of your pastor, or not.

There are some phenomenally generous church members who give and give and give.  They will give to their own church, give to other churches, and make the most of every opportunity to give more at a cost to their own standard of living.  And yet all the figures show that giving is going down, I worked out that if every person that worked in my own church stopped work and only lived off the state pension but tithed 10% of that our giving would actually go up, and yet many earn way more than the state pension a week.  And that’s without that fact that there are lots of church members in every church who don’t give because they “can’t afford to” which is really a mask for ‘there are lots of others things I’d rather spend my money on, and I’m definitely not sacrificing my comfort or wants in order to give.’

The two things above are mutually exclusive.  You can’t be concerned that your church should provide for its staff but not be part of the means of that provision.  In fact God instructs his people to give.  It is one of the ways we love our neighbour, both those in our churches enabling then to be taught well and pastored and provided for and it is one of the ways we take the great commission seriously as we invest in the spread of the kingdom.

How would you feel if your pastor went on strike because of a lack of pay increase, because his work conditions and training weren’t good?  Does your pastor have cause to go on strike?  Would you go on strike if you were him?

Church leaderships, we need to be more proactive in making clear to our churches where funding comes from and where it goes.  To talk about cost of living pay increases, and other ways we can show we value those we employ making their service a joy not expecting them to subsist because they are called.  To ask the hard questions about how a pastor feels and if his family feel they are provided for?  We need to have honest conversations about giving and just be more transparent in showing our churches the need to give.

And as individuals we need to think hard about our responsibilities.  If you as a church call a pastor you take on the responsibility to provide for him and his family.  If you join a church that has a pastor you join saying you will provide for him and the rest of the church.  Practically that means more than collection plate giving, more than just giving the spare change or the left overs.  Our giving should represent a significant investment in eternity on our monthly statements.