Journey’s 2019 Pastors’ Christmas Wish List – Part II
In our previous article, we presented twenty gift ideas for your pastor as suggested by some of history’s most faithful pastors. This wish list from faithful pastors of history includes twenty more gifts you can give your pastor, gifts that will not only be a blessing to him or her, but to you, your church, and the world.
A Pastor’s Christmas Wish List – Part II
Gifts that keep on giving, part two. . . .
A Career Killed, a Call Answered
Is it not clear by now that the religious programming that . . . takes up most of the pastor’s time and energy is destroying our vocations? It is becoming clear to many, and dissatisfaction is deepening among pastors. The fraud of popular religion in which we have so often been unwitting accomplices has us examining our vocational conscience. We are asking, “Is this in fact what I was called to? Is this what ‘pastor’ means?” We look at job descriptions handed to us, we look at the career profiles outlined for us, we listen to the council the experts give us, and we scratch our heads and wonder how we ended up here. One by one men and women are making their moves, beginning to move against the stream, refusing to be contemporary pastors, our lives trivialized by the contemporary, and are embarking on the recovery of the contemplative. Eugene Peterson, “Under the Unpredictable Plant”
Apostolic Preaching
Apostolic preaching is not marked by its beautiful diction, or literary polish, or cleverness of expression, but operates “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” Arthur Wallis, ““In the Day of Thy Power: The Spiritual Principles of Revival”
An Audience of One
A humble understanding of ourselves is necessary to have a right view of our calling as ministers. Such understanding will prevent us from performing for the crowd and instead encourage us to play to an audience of One (Galatians 1:10). Only then can we help the sheep entrusted to us to see our proper role in their lives and encourage them to keep their gaze on God, their true Shepherd and King. Michael Todd Wilson and Brad Hoffman, “Preventing Ministry Failure”
A Contemplative Life
It is rare to find American pastors who are true contemplatives, who embrace the disciplines that nurture a continuous and ready access to the soul and God, who understand themselves as persons of prayers set in a community of prayer. How have we gotten disconnected from our praying ancestors? Eugene Peterson, “Under the Unpredictable Plant”
Eternity Eyes
His throne is the pulpit; he stands in Christ’s stead; his message is the word of God; around him are immortal souls; the Savior, unseen, is beside him; the Holy Spirit broods over the congregation; angels gaze upon the scene, and heaven and hell await the issue. What associations, and what vast responsibility! Matthew Simpson, Quoted in Haddon Robinson, “Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages”
A Mentor-Coach
Seek out people wiser than yourself. Allow them to nurture and feed you. . . One hour spent with them can often provide encouragement that lasts weeks, months, or even years. Two hours with them will add several inches to your spiritual stature. . . Every minister should be able to identify at least two or three people who fulfill this place in his or her personal life. José Luis Navajo,“Mondays With My Old Pastor”
Good Books
A pastor’s books are as essential as the furniture of his home. Derek Prime and Alistair Begg, “On Being a Pastor”
When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes. Erasmus
Need
It is my sense of need (of grace) that leads me to tenderly pastor those in need of grace. Paul David Tripp, “Dangerous Calling”
Heart Preaching
My grand point in preaching is to break the hard heart and heal the broken one. John Newton
Incarnation
Simply put, pastoring is bringing God to people. A pastor is one who brings God to people by imparting the Word of God out of the reality of his or her life, which is undergoing authentic and continuous Christlike transformation. Just as in Jesus, the Word must become flesh in the pastor so that the transmission of truth is both exegetically sound and experientially real. John W Frye, “Jesus the Pastor”
A Ruthless Heart
We must be ruthless about our pastoral purpose and the mission of the church in the Word of God itself, in the Gospel itself. Thabiti Anyabwile, “The Unadjusted Gospel”
Learning On Time
Often in learning a lesson too quickly we imagine we have learned it fully, and so, we cease our study. D. Alan Baker
Resolve
Nothing is more needed among preachers today than that we should have the courage to shake ourselves free from the thousand and one trivialities in which we are asked to waste our time and strength, and resolutely return to the apostolic ideal which made necessary the office of the pastorate. (We must resolve that) we will continue steadfastly in prayer, and in the ministry of the Word. G. Campbell Morgan
An End to Trivial Pursuit
What I object to most is the appalling and systematic trivializing of the pastoral office. . . . A staggeringly high percentage of pastors actually collaborate with the enemy, the world that wants a religion that is mostly entertainment with occasional breaks for moral commercials. Eugene Peterson, “Under the Unpredictable Plant”
Quiet Collisions
Ministry can be fruitful only if it grows out of a direct and intimate encounter with our Lord. Henri Nouwen, “The Spiritual Life”
Being a Shepherd
A man may have a charismatic personality; he may be a gifted administrator and a silken orator; he may be armed with an impressive program; he may even have the people skills of a politician and the empathic listening skills of a counselor; but he will starve the sheep if he cannot feed the people of God on the Word of God. Programs and personalities are dispensable. But without food, sheep die. Feeding the flock is therefore the pastor’s first priority. “Feed my lambs” (John 21:15, ESV). Mark Dever and Paul Alexander, “The Deliberate Church”
A Closed Shop
The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep are churches. They are preoccupied with shopkeepers’ concerns: how to keep customers happy, how to lure customers away from competitors down the street, how to package the goods so that the customers will lay out more money. Eugene Peterson, “Working the Angles”
A Worn Out Bible
Our authority does not rest in our skill, knowledge, or experience. It rests in the word of God. H. B. Charles, Jr., “On Preaching”
An Upper Room
Prayer is not a preparation for work or an indispensable condition for effective ministry. Prayer is life; prayer and ministry are the same and can never be divorced. If they are, the minister becomes a handyman and the priesthood nothing more then another way to soften the many pains of daily life. Henri Nouwen, “Creative Ministry”
The Gift of His Own Pastor
Doctors need medical care. Lawyers need legal advice. Counselors need counseling. Pastors need pastoring. Jimmy Dodd, “Survive or Thrive”
A FINAL THOUGHT
In Ephesians 4, God tells us that the role of the pastor is a gift to the church, the individual pastor is a gift to the individual church. When that gift is in placeand fulfilling a pastoral role, the church and its members have unlimited potential for health and strength. When a pastor is not present, or a non-pastor is in the position (someone filling the position but not being a pastor and doing the work of a pastor; Jesus calls him a “hireling.”) the church and its members are weak and helpless. Proof: Matthew 9.36-37 . . .
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (disciples without pastors). Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
May God remove the hirelings from our churches and give us pastors, undershepherds of the Great and Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.
Note: Next week as we continue this Christmas series, we missionaries of history will suggest gifts you can give the missionaries who go in your stead, taking the Gospel to all the world.
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Special Note: We invite you to purchase our recently released book, “When the Call Comes,” written to help ministers as they walk with those who mourn. Unexpected, or after an extended illness, there is no pastoral responsibility, or privilege, that compares with shepherding people as they say their final goodbyes and mourn their loss. “When the Call Comes” helps pastors serve those who mourn, from the initial call to the end of the funeral. We address issues like:
“What is the purpose of a funeral and how do I conduct one?”
“What is my role as a pastor, walking families through grief?”
“What should I say when I meet with the family?”
“What do I do in the case of a difficult death: suicide, violence, or infant death?”
“Why do we conduct funeral and graveside services?”
“What do I do when ‘the call’ comes?”
You can read the preface to the book by clicking on this link or you can purchase your copy by clicking here.
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NOTE: Journey Pastoral Coaching exists to provide pastoral coaching to Millennial ministers.
Saddled with large student debt, just beginning to set up homes and start families, and serving in low paying first and second positions, Millennials are those who most desire but can least afford to pay for pastoral coaching.
So we offer it to them at NO COST: Our members do not PAY for coaching; they EARN it by investing in each other.
We are able to do so thanks to the faithful and generous support of individuals and churches like yours who want to see young leaders not only enter the ministry, but remain in the ministry. If you or your church would like to help Millennial ministers in 20 US states and 5 nations build strong for a lifetime in ministry, please click here to contact us by email or to support Journey monthly or with your one-time gift. Thank you.
We also invite you to click and subscribe to our twice-monthly blogs at journeypastoralcoaching.com
“In the early years when I was becoming a pastor, I needed a pastor.”
Eugene H. Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir
