As he does every morning, a young pastor rises early. He can do so because last evening, he went to bed early, focused on beginning this day well as a disciple and pastor: he knows that what he does tomorrow will affect eternity for one, possibly for many.

He prepares for the day before driving to his church. Entering the office suite early, he puts the coffee machine to work. While he waits for the coffee to pour through, he begins even now to pray, meditating on the goodness of God, His sovereignty, and love.

Steaming coffee cup in hand, he walks into his study and settles comfortably into his desk chair. His Bible is before him. His resource library is around him. He clicks on his music playlist, a quiet mix designed to help him separate from the outside world.

He is alone with God. Worshipping. Waiting. Anticipating.

He opens his Bible and reads the portion of the day from his reading plan. Other chapters and verses come to mind as he reads. Marking the original text with a poem-filled bookmark that begins “My Pastor,” he flips through the Bible, following his cross-references until he lands back where he began his Bible reading for the day. Bible still open, he pauses, he waits. Looking out the window, down to the floor, or up to the ceiling, he meditates on what he has read. Themes and thoughts, some for him, some for his family, and some for his people, flow like a stream in his mind and heart where he embraces them, contemplating their meaning and purposes.

His mind goes to God, himself, his family, and the people that God has entrusted to Him. Once again, he feels the weight and the privilege of being Christ’s undershepherd to this people in this place and time.

The pastor prays, asking God to actively be Lord and Master in his life this day, conforming him to the image of Jesus and growing him as a disciple.

He prays, asking God to meet the needs of the people God has entrusted to Him. Faces and names, situations simple, and some too serious for words, come to mind. He lifts them all to God, asking the Lord of the universe to help him leave them in His all-powerful and loving hands. Given this pastor’s natural tendency to take action, it’s not easy to “do nothing.” Everything in him yearns to move the mountains of pain and suffering that rise over his people, transforming those rough places into plains of health, peace, love, and life. But his soul rules his self, and His Savior rules his soul: Into Jesus’ hands, he not only commits his people and their needs, but himself, in Jesus’ strong name.

A strong season of focused worship, waiting, reading, meditating, and intercession now over, he turns again to his Bible. He takes a sip of coffee as he selects the necessary resources for the work ahead. It’s time to work hard at his preaching and teaching (I Timothy 5.17). It’s time to “pray down” and “study up” the sermon and teachings of the week. How he treasures the privilege of giving his life to digging and mining for gold in God’s Word. He loves the work that the Word does in His own life as he prays over it and studies. How he wrestles with himself to “present himself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth (II Timothy 2.15). How he wrestles to adequately prepare for preaching and teaching the Word of God this week to the flock that God has entrusted to his care (Acts 20.27-28)

The morning passes quickly, too quickly. It’s time now to see to his ministry outside the refuge of his study.

A quick bite to eat and he’s out the door to the hospitals. He’ll check in on a church member he prayed with just before surgery yesterday at 6:00 am. In a hospital farther away, he’ll visit and pray with a child and her parents as she goes through testing to determine the cause of a mysterious and troubling illness. While he’s there, he stops in to pray with other children and parents he has met on previous visits.

Between hospitals, he stops by a coffee shop to keep an appointment with a man from his church. The man has a looming deadline on a serious decision. Tears in his eyes and his hands clenching, he asks his pastor for counsel and prayer.

Finally, there will be a stop to visit and pray with an older woman from the church who will graduate into the presence of God any day now. He’s already laboring over his sermon for her funeral. This visit will be the hardest of the day. He has long leaned on her faith, quiet wisdom, and prayer. Her loss will be hard on him. Who in his church will step up to take her place?

Most of the pastor’s afternoon gone, there is still work to do. He travels back to the church, where he picks up his never-ending to-do list. There are emails and calls to return, letters to write – church members, visitors from last week’s service, missionaries, salespeople, local charities, denominational leaders, and fellow pastors in the city. The heating company still hasn’t returned his call about the needed repair of the church HVAC system. He calls again. Waiting on hold, he asks himself, if a repair isn’t possible, how will the church afford to replace it? It looks like he and his family will have to tighten their belts a while longer. Then there’s the church board meeting to prepare for later this week, as well as the financial reports to review.

Looking up, he sees the clock nearing 5:45. He suddenly recalls that he has marriage counseling that evening with a couple in his church. He’ll have to wrap up his administrative duties for the day and resume them tomorrow. As is his custom, he makes notes on all he has done today and all the tasks he must roll over into tomorrow. He hurriedly straightens his desk before rushing out the door for home, a quick meal with his family, before coming back to church that evening to help this couple save their marriage.

Later that evening, as he waits for the couple to arrive, he sighs, telling himself that tomorrow should be an easier day. He will, as always, give his morning to study and prayer. That’s a given, a must, a duty, a privilege, a joy. He’ll call the hospitals tomorrow instead of visiting. But there is that meeting with the men’s ministry leader. And he will need, want really, to visit again with his church member, his friend, who is approaching death – her call home to heaven could even come tonight. He will need to finalize the board meeting agenda. And the list of calls to make and return may have changed in terms of names, but certainly not in terms of length. However, if nothing changes, he should be able to attend his daughter’s basketball game tomorrow night.

Years later.

As he does every morning, an old pastor rises early. He can do so because last evening, he went to bed early, focused on beginning this day well as a disciple and pastor: he knows that what he does tomorrow will affect eternity for one, possibly for many.

He prepares for the day before driving to his church. Entering the office suite early, he puts the coffee machine to work. While he waits for the coffee to pour through, he begins even now to pray, meditating on the goodness of God, His sovereignty, and love.

Steaming coffee cup in hand, he walks into his study and settles comfortably into his desk chair. His Bible is before him. His resource library is around him. He clicks on his music playlist, a quiet mix designed to help him separate from the outside world.

He is alone with God. Worshipping. Waiting. Anticipating.

He opens his Bible and reads the portion of the day from his reading plan. Other chapters and verses come to mind as he reads. Marking the original text with a poem-filled bookmark that begins “My Pastor,” he flips through the Bible, following his cross-references until he lands back where he began his Bible reading for the day. Bible still open, he pauses, he waits. Looking out the window, down to the floor, or up to the ceiling, he meditates on what he has read. Themes and thoughts, some for him, some for his family, and some for his people, flow like a stream in his mind and heart, where he embraces them, contemplating their meaning and purposes.

His mind goes to God, himself, his family, and the people that God has entrusted to Him. Once again, he feels the weight and the privilege of being Christ’s undershepherd to this people in this place and time.

The pastor prays, asking God to be actively Lord and Master in his life this day, conforming him to the image of Jesus and growing him as a disciple.

He prays, asking God to meet the needs of the people God has entrusted to Him. He asks God to meet his need for God.

A FINAL WORD

Before I began pastoring pastors, missionaries, and ministers full-time eleven years ago, I pastored churches, serving adults, youth, and children. What a joy it was to walk with them. Yes, some were more challenging than others, but that’s to be expected when people are involved. Beyond all doubt, if given a choice to go back and do it again, I would definitely say “yes” to serving God as a local church pastor.

Over the years of our local church pastoral ministry, Pastor Appreciation Month in some churches meant adinner or reception to thank our family for our ministry. Some church boards wrote a check and made a special presentation in the Sunday morning service. The women’s ministry of one church gave my wife and me the wonderful gift of a weekend away at a bed and breakfast. There were people who gave us handwritten cards and notes to express their gratitude for our ministry. And yes, as a “heads-up” to young ministers and a “really?” to churches everywhere, there were those times when Pastor Appreciation Month came and went in silence – no thank you. We experienced it all.

THREE WISHES FOR PASTORS

I’ve concluded that if I could have three wishes for Pastor Appreciation Month, these are the wishes I would make. And I know many pastors would agree.

1. MAKE IT PERSONAL.

No check from the board, please, but instead, an opportunity for God’s people to give a personal gift, card, or note of appreciation. A check says, “Six board members are doing something,” where personal expressions say, “Pastor, I love you and thank God for you.” I’ll take personal expressions of love over a church check any day. I’ll let you in on a secret: I still have every card, note, and crayon-drawn picture ever given to me. It’s my privilege as a pastor.

2. MAKE IT SPECIAL FOR MY WIFE.

Honor her. Not because she’s the woman who wears my ring, but because she is who she is and is as much a part of this pastoral ministry as I am. She’s just not as visible as I am. No, she doesn’t preach on Sunday morning (or, in your case, she may), but she does a lot of one-on-ones throughout the week. She’s the nuclear core of a pastor’s home, keeping us strong through her prayer, love, and support. Pull her out of the picture, and, well, I don’t even want to think about it.

3. MAKE IT ABOUT DISCIPLESHIP.

I would wish that, along with a “thank you” for my ministry, people would tell me that I have been a true pastor to them, a living parable of Jesus that God is using to help them develop as disciples. My wish is that they would be able to tell me how their lives are more like Jesus because of my ministry, that they have come to know their giftings and their place in the body of Christ as ministers in their own right.

If I could have seen these three wishes fulfilled for Pastor Appreciation, a blessed man would I be.

And if I may, there is a fourth wish I would offer, a fourth wish that is, in fact, the first: the sense in my heart of the Heavenly Father speaking to me, “You’re doing well, good and faithful servant.”

Happy Pastor Appreciation Month to Jeremiah 3.15 shepherds everywhere. Honor to whom honor is due.

“Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you knowledge and understanding.” Jeremiah 3.15

———————–

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.

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. 

Now, more than ever, we need your help. 

If you or your church would like to help Millennial ministers across the US and overseas build strong for a lifetime in ministry, please click here 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

“Of all vocations, surely the gospel ministry is the one whose paradigm is most radically formed by the dynamics of godly mentorship.” 

Stephen Baldwin