A Message to ALL Pastors…From the Wilderness…”Stop Being So BUSY!”
A Message to ALL Pastors…From the Wilderness…”Stop Being So BUSY!”
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Having been a pastor for all of my adult life, I know what your lives are filled with, what consumes your time, the problems you face, the burdens you carry, as well as all of the joys of the pastoral ministry. I speak humbly from experience here, not as a judge, but as one who has a different perspective now that I am not serving a congregation as its pastor, now that I am a lay member of a congregation along with the rest of those who are members in the Kingdom of God. “Hindsight is always 20-20″, as the saying goes, and it is true. If only hindsight could be seen as foresight. That’s where God’s vision, leading, and His words of wisdom, knowledge, and prophecy spoken TO us as pastors come in.
BUSY-NESS…
Ahh, every pastor or ministry leader in the world of every time since creation has used this phrase MANY times over (sometimes many times a DAY)…”I’m just SO BUSY!” And that is the most common excuse we give when we have to apologize for some shortcoming…”I’m so sorry I didn’t ………, I am just so busy with …….” (and that excuse can be worded differently, but say the same thing, in about a million different self-excusing and busy-ness legitimizing ways).
Let me speak briefly and to the point. We were never called by God to be BUSY. We were called to shepherd God’s people. Jesus is the Great Shepherd, we are His under-shepherds. Our calling is no different than Jesus’ calling as the Great Shepherd. What Jesus did we are to do as pastors and under-shepherds. And Jesus was NEVER BUSY…at least He was never TOO busy to shepherd His flock. The modern institution of the church (which looks and operates today absolutely NOTHING like God intended it to look like or operate as) imposes duties, responsibilities, administrations, chores, tasks, meetings, committees, boards, services, etc., etc., on pastors and other ministry leaders that are very effectual at KEEPING us pastors from the only true call on our lives which is shepherding the flock that we have been entrusted with, whose souls WE are responsible for. When the job becomes more important than the family, when administration becomes more important than the call, when preparing the message for the flock becomes more important than the flock itself, when meetings and tasks crowd out of our schedules our availability TO the flock, WHEN WE AS THE SHEPHERDS CEASE TO HAVE THE SMELL OF SHEEP ON US, then it is time for us (YOU!) to step back, to retreat, to find that lonely place with God, to CEASE ALL of the “important” activities that keep us from our true calling. If we are not willing to do that, then it is time that we forfeit the very mantle of that calling. The sheep deserve better. God will not put up with us because of His love for the sheep. He said in His word that He Himself would provide for them true shepherds who would bind up their wounds, feed them, guide them, love them! Too many pastors love (really, I think most tend to secretly hate) their jobs, but hate having to deal with people. I have heard this many times…”this would be a wonderful job except for the people I have to deal with!” GET OUT OF THE MINISTRY! NOW! If you spend all or even MOST of your time in a “cave” preparing a weekly message…if you get upset when the needs of the flock pull you away from your sermon preparation (the needs of the flock should be the BASIS of your sermon preparation!), then you are NOT a pastor/shepherd…you are a professional preacher, a soap-box orator, filled with yourself, and the church already has far too many of these…even ONE is too many. If you spend most of your time running from meeting to meeting, task to task, and you cannot find the time to return phone calls, e-mails, and text messages to members of your flock or other pastors who are crying out for your attention, then you truly are TOO BUSY, and you are NOT a pastor/shepherd. If it takes one of your flock (or ANYONE) weeks or months to schedule an appointment with you, to “squeeze in” to your very busy schedule, then you are NOT their pastor/shepherd. If you are a “loner”, and not a “team player” with the other pastors on your staff or the members of your church, then you are not a true pastor/shepherd. You SHOULD be the CHIEF MENTOR of your staff…the CHIEF SHEPHERD of your congregation…the one who is MOST available to them, not the LEAST available. If you delegate relationship and fellowship ministries more than you embrace them, it’s time for you to hang up the ministry mantle and go write books or guest speak somewhere.
Busy-ness is one of the most insidious, destructive, demonic tools of the enemy, and it is far too evidently effective (as a weapon used against the Kingdom of God) in most EVERY pastor’s life and ministry. If asked what their true feelings were, without any danger of reproach, my guess is that almost every church member would say that if they could change ONE thing about their present pastor is that he/she would be more SHEPHERDING, CARING, and AVAILABLE to him/her, just an ordinary member or attender of the congregation. Jesus had compassion on His sheep. How can we as pastors do any less? Damn the busy schedule (“damn” used respectfully and properly there, as in it needs to be “condemned”…not in a swearing manner)! It’s time that the flock that God has entrusted to every pastor be cared for by that pastor/shepherd as Jesus cares for His flock as the Great Shepherd.
Now…don’t shoot the messenger (me!)…if this hits home, don’t make a big fuss about it and no one will know it was meant for you! But if it does hit home, don’t get angry about it…get humble about it and ask God to help you change your ways and be the under-shepherd that He called you to be.
And please know, that as I said in my previous note about “The Wilderness”, that God spoke all of this to ME FIRST…it convicted MY heart, and I simply share it with you as colleagues and co-workers in the Kingdom.
