How to Help Our Pastors in This Hard Season of Ministry

Instead, what made this season the most challenging for them was trying to figure out how to respond to the selfish demands of us as church members without completely derailing the mission of our church. Even when those pastors prayed faithfully and sought wise counsel regularly, they still got beat-up from one side or the other and sometimes even both sides at the same time.

Pastors are and should be held accountable to God and their churches for decisions they make and initiatives they propose. So, wouldn’t it seem only right and fair that we as church members should also be held accountable for how we respond(ed) to those decisions and initiatives? Maybe some of the following suggestions could help us help our pastors as we all continue trying to figure out how to do ministry in this hard season.

• Before labeling every decision our pastors made or will make as nefarious or politically motivated we should pray through those decisions as diligently as they did.
• We should stop expecting our pastors to preach our politics. When we mix politics with preaching, we get politics.
• Give them the benefit of the doubt. We seem to have forgotten that these are the same pastors we previously trusted to bless our marriages, baptize our children, and bury our parents.
• Give them a break. They’ve been busier this season than ever before so we need to make it easier for them to get out of town.
• We should pray for and defend our pastors even though we might not agree with every decision they made or will make.
• Seminary didn’t prepare them for this kind of ministry. So, we need to give them grace when they don’t get it right every time.
• Pastors need adequate study and preparation time to accurately present the Word of God each week. If we are filling their time trying to mollify us, then how can we not expect their sermon preparation and presentation to suffer?
• If we do have valid concerns with their decisions or directions, then we should talk to our pastors instead of about them.
• Our pastors have faithfully offered emotional, spiritual, and relational encouragement to us through this difficult season. Have we offered the same to them? If we haven’t, then who will?

Phillip Yancey wrote, I wonder how much more effective our churches would be if we made the pastors spiritual health, not their efficiency our number one priority?

This article was reposted with permission. It first appeared on David’s blog, WorshipEvaluation.com.