Even though the material is addressed, primarily, to pastors, some of it is very applicable to staff people and others in places of church leadership. This list of “reminders” is not complete, nor necessarily in order of importance, but perhaps will cause you to “remember” other things that are also important My “reminders” do not come from a fellow who “knows it all,” but from one who is still learning what it means to be a good pastor.
l. PASTOR, REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE, I Peter 1:1-2
A. Elder. B. Shepherd. C. Overseer
In these passages Simon Peter is, probably, not talking about three different offices in the church, but uses these terms to describe the one office that we most often refer to as “pastor.” Paul makes a similar use of these words in Acts 20:28.
The word “elder” calls us to remember the wisdom, maturity and dignity that should characterize our lives as ministers.
The word “shepherd” calls us to remember that we are to nurture, care for and feed our people. Much of Psalm 23 is a good pattern for the pastor. We need to continually remind ourselves that we are not cattle “herders” or “horse wranglers.” We are “shepherds.”
The word “overseer” calls us to remember the dangerous world our church people live in. We are to be prepared to stand guard over them. What Peter wrote about Satan in chapter 5, verse 8 is still true of him today.
I Peter 5:4 teaches us that the “Chief Shepherd” is to be our example as we serve our people. You can’t pick and choose between being an elder, shepherd or overseer.
If you try to be an elder without being a shepherd and overseer, you are likely to come across as cold and sanctimonious. If you try to be a shepherd without being an elder and overseer, you will likely be seen as a hireling, interested in what you can get, not in what you can give. If you try to be an overseer without having the wisdom and maturity of an elder and the “heart” of a shepherd, you will likely regard yourself as the CEO or the “boss” of the church.
2. PASTORS, REMEMER THE IMPORTANCE OF CHARACTER, I Peter 5: 3 (examples to the flock). We need to continually remember that when Paul gives the qualifications for ministers in I Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9, probably all but one of these deal with character, not preaching. We need to remember that our effectiveness as a leader will be determined more by our character than by our preaching.
3. WE PASTORS NEED TO REMEMBER THAT OUR SERMONS SHOULD NOT ONLY GROW OUT OF OUR TIME WITH GOD AND TIME IN WORD OF GOD, BUT TIME SPENT OUT AMONG THE SHEEP. Unless you have a very unusual church, you will have the following kind of people present for your next Sunday morning church service: people who may have lost their jobs; parents who have wayward children; marriages that are in trouble; teens struggling with moral or addiction problems; families that have financial problems; people who have gone through the hurt of divorce; one or two who got that “cancer” word from the doctor; one who has come to church one last time to try to find a word of hope, etc. If you don’t spend quality time with the sheep the other days of the week, you will not be prepared to preach on Sunday.
4. THE PASTOR NEEDS TO REMEMBER THAT WHEN HE PREPARES HIS MESSAGES, HE MUST PREPARE FOR ALL KINDS AND ALL AGES OF SHEEP. Remembering this will help you to
A. Keep in clear. When preparing your message, keep in mind the “ONE” thing you want your people to know and the “ONE” thing you want them to do. You don’t want any of your people leaving a service asking, “I am not for sure what the pastor was trying to get across to us today.”
B. Keep it simple. A candidate for a D-Min degree was given an assignment to write a sermon on the “Second Coming Of Christ,” then let three people read it, each underscoring anything that was not clear. First, a college graduate...then a high school graduate...and, last, a 5th grader. . When the 5th grader had finished, the sermon was again rewritten. Then, the D-Min professor told the candidate, “ Your sermon is now ready to be delivered to the people.”
C. Be brief. More good sermons are ruined by being too long rather than being too brief.
D. Be Christlike in your delivery of the sermon. It is well to remember that you should never preach to your people on a Sunday morning in a way that you would not talk to them, individually, in the living room of their homes.
5. REMEMBER YOU ARE PASTOR OF ALL THE PEOPLE. No pastor should ever be heard saying that he can’t relate to a certain age group in the church. The church may employ other staff people, but you are the pastor of ALL the people.
6. REMEMBER TO KEEP A JOYFUL AND POSITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARD YOUR CHURCH PEOPLE AND YOUR CALLING AS PASTOR. . Remember to always speak well about your church people, whether you are talking to them or talking to others about them. Tell your people, often, that you love them. Having this kind of attitude toward your church people will make it less likely that you will get out of bed every Monday morning with the thought of “getting your resume out.”
7. REMEMBER THE IMPORTANCE OF GETTING PERSONAL TIME WITH INDIVIDUAL CHURCH PEOPLE...coffee & hamburger time...a birthday phone call, etc. It could be that as many as 90% of the men in our churches have never had this kind of personal time with their pastor. One 78 year old fellow got a birthday call from his pastor. He said, “I have been a church members since I was a little boy and that is the first time I ever had such a call.” Have a list of the birthdays of your people, including the children. It will only take a few minutes each day to give each one of these a “happy birthday” call.....guarantees an annual contact with each member. Try to get your church to put some DQ money in the budget. Set a goal to get “coffee” or a hamburger with at least one man each week. That fellow will, likely, say, “This is a first for me.”
8. REMEMBER THE IMPORTANCE OF HOME VISITATION WITH MEMBERS. Most of these can be brief, front door visits. It is very easy to make a dozen of these kinds of visits in a couple of hours. Keep a list of visits and dates of visit. If you don’t, you will find your visitation can easily revolve around just a few of the members. This kind of visitation should characterize the regular, not the occasional, work schedule of not just the pastor, but all church staff people.
9. REMEMBER TO GUARD AGAINST SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME ON THE COMPUTER. A recent president of the Southern Baptist Convention, while speaking to our SBTC staff people, talked about the danger of “electronic addiction” (talking about computers, cell phones, etc.). Not only is this a great time waster, it can lead to all kinds of problems, including pornography and having moral failure. One fellow, in explaining why he thought Mormons were exploding with growth and Baptists are in decline, went on to say that we Baptist ministers have computers...the Mormon preachers have bicycles.
Remember to very careful about how you express opinions by use of “Twitter” and “Facebook.” The wrong use of these can be both harmful and embarrassing, not only for you, but your church people.
10. REMEMBER THAT MINISTRY IS HARD WORK, INVOLVING LONG HOURS.. How many hours should a minister work each week? A good pattern might be found in studying the work habits of your finest lay-people. Most of them work 40 hours a week, with an hour or two thrown in getting to and from work. If you add the time they spend in church ministry...attendance, various kind of meetings, preparation for teaching, visitation, choir, etc., you come up with about 55 hours a week. It is doubtful if a pastor (or a staff minister) can do his work is less time than this. Once a pastor gets the reputation for being lazy, this is very hard to overcome.
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