God, Give Us Good Pastors

Jeremiah 3:15  And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

*Good pastors are given to a people by God.

*Good pastors are constantly pursuing the heart of God.

*Good pastors feed their people.

*Good pastors impart knowledge.

*Good pastors impart understanding.

I have been in this thing long enough (almost 35 years) to know there are a lot of good pastors out there. They have sacrificed "normal" lives to be the man of God for the people of God. By that I mean, they have put the needs of self, finances, time and family on the back burner over and over again for people who often times don't understand or fully appreciate those sacrifices.

But they are doing this because it is God's calling upon their lives. 

Please accept the following tongue-in-cheek musings of the pastorate....

There are those in every church who have a desired agenda for the pastor. In their idyllic world, the pastor ought to be more forceful, or maybe he is too soft. They may think he should be more refined, or perhaps he might be a little too erudite. Oh, if folks only knew the tightrope he often walks to please God and yet retain a congregation. The prophets in the church think he needs to “clean house” and the mercy-showers want him to lighten up on those struggling with sin. Some wish he wouldn’t be so tight with church funds, while others claim he spends like a drunken sailor. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the pastor’s office and hear the well-intended suggestions. Better yet, to hack in to his FaceBook account and read the hints directed at him.

That line between hating the sin and loving the sinner can be so muddled at times. Changing the diapers of big, fat, baby Christians often stinks to high heaven, literally! But it is the job of a caring pastor. Soothing spiritual booboos, stroking over-inflated egos, truth-telling in love, scripting messages that speak to young and old, spiritual and carnal, zealots and the bored, this is the stuff good pastoring is made of. And then there is that Great Commission thingy that every pastor is tasked with. It all comes together as seamlessly as a three ring circus in which he is taming tigers, doing a high wire act and jumping through fiery hoops – all at the same time!!! Then, he gets to clean up after the elephants after everyone goes home.

The amateurs who have so much advise for pastors ought to try it sometime, just for kicks!

And yet the good pastor wouldn’t trade it for all the gold in California. In fact, he can maneuver all these things in his sleep. Indeed, he often does!

Ah, these choice servants of the King, many, many of whom I know, are honorable, God-called, Spirit-filled leaders of Christians. May God bless them with wisdom and heart, compassion and boldness, sensitivity and righteousness!

Lord, give us pastors pursuing your heart with the divine ability to feed their flocks with knowledge and understanding and to lead them in your agenda.