This post is not intended to be one of cautious, sympathetic, rebuke to today’s younger pastors, but one of encouragement to see areas God uses to minister to us as pastors. On Wednesday at 11 am I will perform the funeral of Mrs. Vivian Willoughby, a member of Ebenezer Baptist Church. Ms Vivian is a shut-in and I have a regular visit with her once a month. In these last days she would get better and then get worse until Sunday evening her life, as we know life on this earth, came to an end and she entered the eternal rest of Heaven. Ms. Vivian did not go to Heaven because she was a shut-in, neither did she go because she was a good descent woman, but she went to Heaven because she surrendered to God’s wooing call of salvation when she was a young child. This post today is a reminder of what I would miss if I insisted on performing my pastoral duties as if my job were a career. God has not called me to a career, he has issued to me a calling the bible references as Pastor. This calling is to be pastor/shepherd (“poimen” Ephesians 4:11) to a people that need to see the love of God, be equipped to serve God through serving others, and to know that God is present in the dark hours of grief.
This calling is not a calling to place myself and my needs before the people God has called me to serve. Oh, by the way, it is a sacrificial service God has called me. Read more
