A Plea for Empathy for Senior Pastors

Publish-Easter is a tricky time for a lot of Senior Pastors. They possible had such a busy week the week earlier than, and but this Sunday most church buildings will nonetheless have an enormous attendance drop. The calls for on them all year long are so intense intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and relationally, and few church members will ever know the load underneath which they reside and serve. As a result of some have disgraced their calling, all the career (particularly megachurch pastors) will get painted with a suspicious brush. As one who has by no means been and can by no means be a senior pastor, I’m writing with a plea to be grateful for and assist those that undertake such a demanding job.

Having by no means been a senior pastor, and never anticipating to ever be one, let me say I’m in awe of what they do and the various skillset such a place requires. I used to be reminded of this whereas studying my annual J.I. Packer ebook. I learn one Packer ebook a yr (and have by no means been dissatisfied by one). This yr I’m studying A Grief Sanctified: Passing Via Grief to Peace and Pleasure, which is a contemporary recounting of Richard Baxter’s memoir of his spouse’s life and demise.

Baxter was 47 years previous when he first received married. He waited so lengthy to get married as a result of he was such an earnest pastor that he didn’t consider giving himself totally to a church and a household was potential. He thought the calls for of shepherding a church and shepherding a household have been past the capability of an strange man. The rationale he lastly determined to get married was as a result of he misplaced his license to evangelise when he refused to evolve to the Act of Uniformity of 1662 (primarily a battle concerning authority between Puritans and Anglicans that the nonconformist Puritans misplaced). After his license to evangelise and pastor was revoked, he devoted himself to the vocation of writing, which he believed may accommodate the calls for of married life.

Can we permit Baxter’s earlier reluctance to marry to function a up to date plea for extra empathy for senior pastors, the overwhelming majority of whom are married? Social media holds particularly megachurch senior pastors as suspect at greatest, assuming they’re in it only for the ability or ambition. It’s possible a few of them are, however I’ve met many who serve with a gracious and humble coronary heart.

Proceed studying this free weblog on Substack HERE.