Don’t get me wrong. I love my seminary and my seminary education. It was a wonderful privilege to attend Dallas Theological Seminary and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. For four years I sat under some of the greatest men of God and professors at the time and soaked as much in as I could. As a fellow pastor once said, “Going to seminary was like taking a sip of water from a fire hydrant.”
But any pastor will tell you that a pastor’s education does not end the day he graduates from seminary. God has a lot to teach young pastors, and it’s a process that continues until the day he dies. I am no exception. My ministerial education has been ongoing for forty years.
So what have I learned since seminary? A lot. But there is one lesson I’ve learned that stands head and shoulders above all the rest and it resulted in a complete transformation of my ministry. Here it is:
A pastor is not just responsible for the spiritual wellbeing of his people, he’s responsible for the total wellbeing of his people.
Prior to learning this lesson, I was certainly aware that I was responsible for the spiritual wellbeing of my people (1 Timothy 4:16). The Lord had entrusted his sheep in my congregation into my hands and into the hands of our church leadership and I took this responsibility very seriously. Consequently, my sole focus was on preaching and teaching. I still believe that preaching the Word is the chief responsibility of a pastor.
But what I failed to grasp early on in my ministry was that preaching and teaching were not my only responsibilities. I had another major responsibility that derived from an important biblical principle:
Ongoing pressing needs in the local church cannot coexist with the love of Christ (1 John 3:16-18).
What this means in practice is that a pastor must take final responsibility for the wellbeing of his people, making the church the ultimate social safety net for every believer. In other words, Jesus’ command to his disciples, “You feed them,” extends to pastors today.
This means that the pastor must be intimately aware of the neediest people in his congregation and take concrete action to make sure their needs are being met. He cannot just stand up and preach in his pulpit and assume that just because people are in the pews then they’re okay. He has to bring his church to the point where it can say, “There is not a needy person among us.”
The problem, however, is that there are massive temptations in pastoral ministry that distract pastors from this second important responsibility of meeting the needs of the lowliest in his congregation. Programming, administration, budgetary requirements, staff oversight, building programs, and on and on, all of these demands draw a pastor’s attention away from this very important requirement.
So pastors, I have a challenge for you. Make a list of the neediest people in your congregation. Then prioritize them according to need. And finally, devise a plan to meet their needs. (Check out my website for some ideas on how to do this.) It will be one of the healthiest exercises you and your church have ever done.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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