5 Ways To Love Your Pastor

Now we ask you, brothers, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you.

1 Thessalonians 5:12 

Pastors are not more important than other members of the Christian family. But, they are the God assigned leaders and shepherds who aim to labor for the good of their people. Because of this special role, God has instructed His churches to love their pastors. Here are 5 thoughts on how we can love them, especially during pastor appreciation month: 

1-Pastors are not mere consumables

In an age where you are the consumer and almost everything else in your life is meant to be consumed, this will take intentionality. Your true heart for your pastor can be easily seen if you examine it after they preach a mediocre sermon. Are you tempted to complain? Tempted to leave and seek out “better” preaching? Or do you long to love your pastor, recognizing they are mere humans. Do you approach their sermons with curiosity and grace? Knowing they most likely spent hours pouring over the Bible, praying, and thinking about you as they wrote it? Not every sermon will be a home-run. But you can find spiritual nourishment from faithful pastors.

We need to learn to give our pastors more grace. Your pastor is not a consumable, loved when they contribute and provide, but neglected when they do not. Your pastor is a person. A human. One whose energy levels rise and fall, who carries their own struggles, weights, anxieties, insecurities, doubts, and fears. Yes, pastors are to be an example in holiness amongst their people. But this does not make them any less human. Do you love your pastor? Or are they simply a consumable for you, tossed away when used? Love your pastor for more than what they provide for you.

2- Pray for your pastor when they preach

Can you imagine the heavenly scene: God and the angels are watching your pastor walk up the stairs to the pulpit as the last worship song is sung. And as he opens the Bible, the prayers of those in the room fill the heavenly places: “God, be with pastor as he preaches. Calm him” – “Father, be with pastor as he brings the word, open our hearts.” “Jesus, give pastor clarity and freedom while he preaches to us.” – “Lord I know pastor has had a long week, strengthen him as he loves us in preaching”.

Can you imagine that? God in heaven hearing numerous prayers for the pastor as a he goes up to preach. God would be pleased. I’m not sure a greater gift could be offered to a pastor than to know his people are praying for him the very moment he is pouring out to them. I honestly am brought to tears imaging that scene as I write this. The pastor needs the church just as much as his people. Be the church. Who knows what your prayers might accomplish.

3- Believe the best about your pastor

1st Corinthians 13 says – love believes all things… in a church gossip is to be found, I think it’s just the nature of churches. There’s always differing opinions. People always assume they know better or that things should be done differently. You will hear gossip and you will hear slander and you will hear people in your church make assumptions that may or may not be true about your pastor. What if you practiced believing the best about your pastor?

I’m not saying we should not be discerning or should not, in a healthy way, be thoughtful if a situation deserves it. The call to believe the best isn’t the same thing as being naive or brainless to the realities of the sinful human heart. Rather, the call to believe the best is to not let other people (or even yourself) fill in details that you do not know the extent of. This is something I need to grow in. “Pastor so and so forgot to email me back last week, how selfish.” Perhaps he is selfish, but perhaps he was preaching an unexpected funeral, trying to prepare his sermon for Sunday, and trying to love his wife and kids well and my email slipped through the cracks.

Persistent patterns of forgetfulness may deserve their own conversations, but what if we believed the best about our pastors until proven otherwise? Let’s give the same measure of grace we would desire about ourselves. Not everyone knows the pressures you face in your day to day life, but you want them to judge you with the awareness of them. Let’s do the same with our pastors who carry weights we know nothing of.

4- Build a culture of encouragement

What if our churches were known for being encouraging of it’s staff? Not the cheap (but perhaps still meaningful) thank-yous after a sermon. But the letters of thankfulness, the encouraging Monday morning texts, the sending of an uplifting bible verse.

5- Love their spouse

Being the spouse of a pastor comes with unique difficulties and pressures. Sometimes thrown into the 2nd class category, never known autonomously, always as “pastors’ wife” can be lonely. It can undercut any sense of God’s calling on their life to meaningfully contribute to the body of Christ. Love their spouse for who they are, as their own person.

Not all pastors spouses will be extroverted, that’s ok. In our overly prized extroverted western culture, it seems wrong, but it is not. “You are fearfully and wonderfully made” we say, unless you are a quiet pastor’s wife. Or not any other character trait we’ve historically labeled for pastors wives.

People are wired differently and that is a beautiful thing. Our propensity as a church to value and love pastors and their spouses based purely on what we can gain/receive from them is a massive indicator of the health of the western church. Perhaps many of us, myself included, need to repent of the sin of selfishness regarding our pastors. They are not consumables to be drained and tossed away. They are humans, just like us, trying to do their best to follow Jesus in the way He has called them.

I love my pastors,

Josh.

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If you’re looking to buy your pastor a book, one that has encouraged me incredibly is The Pastors Justification by Jared Wilson. Find it here on Amazon. Also, if you buy it through that link, Weapons of Grace will get about 30 cents and I’ll use it to keep the website lights on.

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