Philip Wagner offers insight into the six major struggles
pastors face in the ministry and how to overcome them.
How Christians and church members can help:
Pray for your pastor.
Pray for guidance, protection, healthy friends, their
marriage, and family. Pray for inspiration, anointing, the leadership team,
unity, and clarity.
Protect your pastor.
As best as you can, don’t allow or participate in gossip and
criticism. How can you serve and problem solve to prevent overload?
Encourage your
pastor.
Thank him for his or her work and ministry. Thank them for
their sacrifice. Tell them a specific time in which you or someone you
know experienced a life change in their church. Honor them to
others. Let your pastors know you are praying for them. According to the
Barna report—the profession of “Pastor” is near the bottom of a survey of the
most-respected professions, just above “car salesman.”
To Pastors.
Don’t give up,
pastor! Persistence is powerful.
Keep on. Really! Your work, your labor of love, and your
sacrifice matters.
I realize the last thing a pastor needs is another sermon.
But these verses have helped me.
Hold on to God’s Word
with your life.
So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord.
Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need
now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that
he has promised. Hebrews 10:35-36 NLT
So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the
right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Gal.
6:9 NLT
Be careful of the
comparison trap.
Looking at other ministries can be inspiring. Comparing
yourself to other churches can be destructive and discouraging.
Make new pastor friends. Expose yourself to new influences,
new leaders, churches, or ministries that are doing some things differently.
Discover to some fresh views and ideas. Sometimes, it just
takes one or two new ideas that can change momentum around.
Pastors that are struggling or are no longer in ministry may
have unresolved hurts. I encourage you to find healing. Seek counseling; find a
local Celebrate Recovery group; equip yourself with resources on healing (some
examples are Safe People orBoundaries) and share your secrets with
safe people. Remember you’re only as sick as your secrets.
*The Fuller Institute, George Barna, and Pastoral Care Inc.
provide the statistics I have used in this post.
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