Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to join in my struggle by praying to God for me. Do this because of your love for me, given to you by the Holy Spirit. [Romans 15:30 (NLT)]
The story is told about a pastor who was shaking hands with his congregation after church one Sunday morning when a little boy handed him a dollar. After thanking him, the pastor asked what it was for. The youngster replied, “It’s for you, because I heard my daddy say that you were the poorest preacher that we ever had.” How easy it is to criticize our pastors when, instead, we should be praying for them.
Have we given thought to the fact that our pastors are people just like us and prone to the same physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges? Expected to produce inspiring sermons every week, their family lives in a fish bowl, they’re on call every hour of every day and, unlike Superman, are vulnerable to far more than kryptonite! Like the rest of us, they get sick, lonely, tired, disappointed, discouraged, angry and can feel inadequate, depressed, overworked, and under-appreciated. A clerical collar does not protect our pastors from the hazards of living in our fallen world; like you and me, they endure illness, injury, family problems, loss, financial hardship, and temptation yet, for some reason, we find it easier to criticize them than to pray for them!
Ministry never has been and never will be a one-man show! The Apostle Paul understood he couldn’t conduct his ministry alone and, knowing he needed God’s power, frequently asked the church for their prayers. Although Paul asked for prayers, our pastors frequently don’t. Just because they don’t ask, however, doesn’t mean they’re not in need of them!
Rather than complaining to his son about the minister’s poor preaching, the man could have asked God to refresh the pastor’s call to preach so that his sermons would inspire and revive the congregation. Prayers for our pastors, however, aren’t limited to complainers; along with praying for their preaching, we should pray for their spiritual discernment, evangelism opportunities, ministry effectiveness, leadership, wisdom, courage, and spiritual protection. As we pray for our pastors’ physical, spiritual, and mental health, let us remember to pray for their families. Our churches seem to have councils, altar guilds, prayer chains, small group leaders, hospitality committees, and worship, set-up and evangelism teams, but do they have anyone who regularly prays for the pastors?
Evangelist, author, and radio host Woodrow Kroll said that, “Pastors need your grace, not your gripes.” I would suggest they need our prayers, as well.
When explaining to some of John the Baptist’s followers why His disciples didn’t fast, along with the illustration of patching an old garment, Jesus compared His new way with winemaking. While many of us have sewn patches on clothing, few of us are experienced winemakers. Nevertheless, we know that today’s vintners ferment their wine in oak, stainless, concrete, or clay barrels rather than wineskins. Our only experience with wineskins may hearken back to college football games and ski trips when some fellows carried a wineskin filled with an alcoholic beverage hidden under their coats.
My in-laws were great ones for giving theme parties. When they hosted a “Backwards Party,” guests entered through the back door, wore their clothes backwards (which my mother-in-law admitted made it difficult for the men), and ate dessert before dinner. At another get-together, attendees came dressed as children, received jump ropes and jacks, pulled taffy, and played games like “Mother May I?” and “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.” My introduction to their parties was in 1966 when they turned their house into a Prohibition era speakeasy and guests needed a password to enter. Women dressed as flappers while the men wore fedoras, vests, and spats. Another party had the theme, “Come as You Wish You Had Been.” My mother-in-law, dressed in shorts with a whistle around her neck, came as the PE teacher she once dreamed of becoming and my father-in-law dressed as the train conductor he once aspired to be. Other attendees dressed as ballerinas, weight lifters, princesses, cowboys, or baseball players.
Every breakfast, lunch and dinner, a recent house guest consumed between five and fifteen supplements like flaxseed and fish oils, magnesium, vitamin D, calcium, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and resveratrol (among others). Annually, people like our guest spend around $35 billion on supplements, vitamins, minerals, botanicals, and other substances to enhance their health. It doesn’t stop there; every year, five million diet books are published, at least 17 million cookbooks are purchased, and $33 billion is spent on weight loss products. Add to that all of the magazines, food channels, websites, blogs, and podcasts dedicated to nutrition, recipes, and weight loss and you have a nation of people who seem obsessed with what goes into their bodies.
Jesus often took the Pharisees to task, not for their theology, but for their behavior. With the Talmud’s description of seven different kinds of Pharisees, six of whom were contemptible, we know that the Jews were not unaware of their failings. Since Jesus was well-versed in Jewish law and tradition, I wonder if He was thinking about the Talmud’s list when He pronounced seven woes upon the scribes and Pharisees.
When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, “Come in and eat with me”? No, he says, “Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.” And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey me you should say, “We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.” [Luke 17:7-10 (NLT)]
