shepherding the shepherd
from PreachingToday.com
Laying Down Our Lives for the Sheep
When we entered the ministry, we didn’t reckon on just how much dying would be involved. To carry the sorrows and failings of our people, to step into their messes and walk with them in dark places, to wrestle constantly (sometimes publicly) with our own faults and weaknesses, and to know the stab of Satan’s thorns—all that takes a toll.
Wordworkers
I know you face incredible pressures, distractions, and duties, but I must remind you again: nothing pastors do matters more than our Wordwork. We enter people’s lives, both believers and unbelievers, like heralds with long brass trumpets, like physicians carrying scalpel and ointment, like nursing mothers and watchful fathers, like sowers with seeds, and sentinels with sword at the ready.
Fingerprints
No two ministries are alike, I know, but take heart, dear brothers and sisters. Be filled with the Spirit and faithful with the Word. Leave your fingerprints, and Jesus’, on them.
Grace Waylaid
Barnabas was my pastoral hero till this flop. But this brand of hypocrisy still leads pastors astray. We wouldn’t want to be caught outside our camp and there are whole groups of believers we’d rather have sit at the kids’ table.
The Heart of Encouragement
Teaching the Word was, and still is, the ministry of encouragement at its highest and best. And it’s what we get to do for the saints entrusted to us! The Lord Jesus himself appoints and applauds pastors who lovingly, skillfully, and diligently open the scriptures week after week to teach, rebuke, correct, and train God’s people in righteousness, all breathed to life through prayer.
The Good Pastor
Barnabas, a.k.a. “son of encouragement,” is becoming my favorite Bible pastor. Pastors are born and blessed to encourage. If pastors have a patron saint, Barnabas could be the one. Maybe we should get little plastic Barnabases to stick on our dashboards.