Q & A: “WHAT’S A PASTOR TO DO?”

There’s reason to suspect that all across America, great numbers of pastors don’t know the answer to the question, “What’s a pastor to do?” The same is true of even greater numbers of people who make up their congregations. This is a particular and highly significant expression of a general apathy that is right producing a godlessness that is hastening the decline and fall of America.

A man, when asked the meaning of the word apathy, replied, “I don’t know and I don’t care.” That’s what apathy is—a combination of ignorance and indifference. Of all the many things people may be harmlessly apathetic about, what a pastor is to do is not one of them. Nevertheless and tragically, many pastors and congregations seem to share a cluelessness and unconcern relative to what pastors are supposed to be doing.

What is a pastor to do? The Bible is crystal clear on this subject, and a wealth of good material has been written concerning it. For the purposes of this post, I want to share a sentence from a 13th century English preacher’s written prayer, that I think is a succinct and beautiful summation of what a pastor’s is to do. Richard of Chichester (1197-1253) wrote (and prayed), “Lord, help me to enable men and women to know Jesus Christ more clearly, to love Him more dearly and to follow Him more nearly.” God-called pastors know this is what they are called to do, what they feel compelled to do, what they manifest a passion for, and demonstrate God-given competence in doing. Accordingly, their praying, preaching, planning and shepherding will be aimed at this goal: “to enable men and women to know Jesus Christ more clearly, to love Him more dearly and to follow Him more nearly.”

Much is done and demanded in the name of “ministry” now that is extraneous, superfluous, irrelevant, confusing and counterproductive to what will “enable men and women to know Jesus Christ more clearly, to love Him more dearly and to follow Him more nearly,” but, it is just this that is the gauge for measuring and the scale for weighing the appropriateness of what pastors and churches do; it’s the template to set over everything so that whatever unnecessarily claims people’s time and attention can be exposed and cut away.

Pastors and congregations need to be more discerning, discriminating and demanding relative to the preaching, teaching and activities that go on in their churches. Pastors need to ask themselves, “To what degree is this going to “enable men and women to know Jesus Christ more clearly, to love Him more dearly and to follow Him more nearly?” And people need to ask themselves, “To what degree is the Spirit of God enabling me and mine through this “to know Jesus Christ more clearly, to love Him more dearly and to follow Him more nearly?”