What I Love About Being a Pastor

This one goes back a few years but appeared most recently in Voice, May/June, 2012.

Recently, I listened to an edition of Pastor Pastor, a radio program just for pastors, sponsored by Focus on the Family. The theme was “What I like about being a pastor.” That theme really put its hand upon me, because usually programs geared to the pastor deal with negatives such as coping with problems.

Being a pastor, I am well aware of the myriad of difficulties associated with pastoral ministry. These tensions erode the passion of many ministers, driving them out of the ministry. I have heard that from the time a career pastor begins his ministry to the time he finds another vocation is fourteen years. Such a high attrition rate is alarming when you consider the many years of specialized training that pastors have sacrificed to obtain. Some pastors are out of the ministry before they have paid off their school loans.

I will not attempt to thoroughly analyze such a complex problem in this brief article, nor will I deal with it without a sympathetic heart. My goal is to provide a measure of help to pastors who simply do not like being pastors.

I believe that a big part of the problem is that pastors tend to focus on the negatives of the ministry (and there are many) rather than the positives (and there are many).

So far as a pastor, I have logged close to forty years of nonstop service. These have not been easy years for me (or my family), but God has sustained me. And I believe that the positives of the ministry have been the primary means that He has used to under gird me these many years. The things I have loved about being a pastor have made the difference. They have outweighed the things that I have not liked. So in this article, I am going to share the things that I love about being a pastor, hoping to raise your awareness of the glories of being a pastor.

1. I love the constant study of God’s Word that is required to prepare sermons. Invariably, my heart is uplifted by this discipline. I get far more for my soul than I ever proclaim from the pulpit.

The preaching of any pastor will improve as he grows spiritually by digging into God’s Word.

Faithful pastoral study yields good returns just like compounded interest makes money grow. His preaching grows in depth and passion as he develops a more intimate relationship with Christ.

In my study I not only experience the joy of seeing wonderful things in Scripture (Psalm 119:18), but I also draw closer to Jesus. I sense that He is with me in a special way. The Bible is Christ’s love letter to us; here the Saviour who loves us meets us in the garden of His Word.

During the Nazi occupation of Scandinavia, a Norwegian freedom fighter was captured, thrown into prison, and sentenced to face a firing squad. On the eve of his execution a local pastor came for a visit, but the prisoner remained silent. The pastor left behind a New Testament.

The next day the pastor returned to the prison to retrieve the New Testament. Inside the cover he found these words: “Last night I read the book. Out of its pages came a man. I’ll meet you in heaven.”¹

As pastors we get to study God’s Book, and out of its pages Christ comes to us! This is what I love about being a pastor.

2. I love preaching God’s Word week after week, for doing so fills my heart with unspeakable joy. The very idea of preaching—expounding, applying, and commanding the very Words of God—is exhilarating. What a privilege God has given every pastor! Preaching is more than a lofty concept, however, for it is also an awesome reality. Preaching can change and empower people’s lives like nothing else.

Preaching is in a league of its own when it comes to life transformation. Haddon Robinson wrote, “Preaching stands as the event through which God works.”² It is the primary tool for doing God’s work in people’s lives.

To get a fresh feel for the power of preaching, visit another church and sit under someone else’s preaching for a Sunday. You will feel the power of preaching and be reminded of the power of your own ministry.

Preaching is not only an exhilarating thought and reality, however; it is also a wonderful satisfaction. Those who preach the Word experience an inner fullness that comes from the Lord’s satisfaction in preaching. The preacher tastes what pleases the Lord as he prepares the content of his message.

Eric Liddell, in the movie Chariots of Fire, said, “God made me for a purpose. He made me fast; and when I run, I feel His pleasure.” Those who proclaim His Word also feel His pleasure in their souls.

There is no joy comparable to the satisfaction that accompanies preaching. It is fellowship with the heart of God. The inner delight of preaching is what I love about being a pastor.

3. I love being needed by hurting people. Since the pastor has been appointed by God to be the shepherd of His flock, it is logical to expect him to play a special role in bearing the burdens of hurting sheep.

The biblical images of a spiritual shepherd picture him as paying particular attention to hurting sheep. The Bible portrays the shepherd as one who “shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young” (Isaiah 40:11).

As a pastor I have found great fulfillment in caring for people in crisis. I certainly do not like seeing people suffer, but I do like being there for them when they need me. A pastor’s tender concern in a time of pain will never be forgotten. Long after they have forgotten your sermons, they will remember that you were there when they needed you.

I liken a pastor to a sturdy pillar that people can lean on and find there the strength of the Lord in time of weakness.

Knowing that I make a difference in people’s lives at key times is one of the things that I love about being a pastor.

4. I love premarital counseling and officiating at weddings. I believe these are among the most important ministries a pastor can have to his people.

Preparing couples for marriage is a great opportunity to plant choice seeds that will bring forth fruit the rest of their lives. I make it a point to plan quality sessions, realizing that God has given me a unique opportunity to help develop the attitudes and perceptions needed to have a good marriage. I always have my wife participate for her presence and input are invaluable.

This is not only a ministry to the couple but also one to their children. Blessed are the children whose parents have a happy marriage.

Leading the wedding ceremony is also a special treat. It is indeed a rare privilege to share in a couple’s joy and commitment at this precious time. It is also a moment when a couple often bonds with their pastor. He becomes their pastor in a warmer and deeper way than before. Weddings are truly a pastoral moment! The marriage connection is something I love about being a pastor.

5. I love funerals because of the opportunity they represent, not because of the grief they bring.

I will never forget my father’s funeral. He died when I was a senior in high school. It was a time of intense grief for me and my family, but it also afforded a rare opportunity for a pastor to powerfully share Christ with many unsaved people at a very sensitive time in their lives.

I know firsthand that funerals are

an opportunity for people to be seized for Christ, because it was through my father’s death that I became a Christian.

Some of the most challenging moments of my ministry have occurred as I have stood before an audience of many unsaved people and proclaimed the great truths of the Gospel.

Even if the audience is made up primarily of saved people, it is still a priceless time to affirm people in their faith in the Gospel. In a time of great sorrow and perplexity, the pastor cheers his people on! Such moments are what I love about being a pastor.

6. I love knowing that God has a special and unique plan for my ministry. Pastors seek God’s wisdom and follow His leading. They do not chart their own course from church to church but rely on God.

I once had someone on a pulpit committee chide me, because on one occasion I had accepted a call from a church smaller than the one I had previously pastored. I got the impression that he thought a pastor was always to choose a bigger church for his next church.

Well, the Lord’s plan might be that way for some men, but where in the Bible does it say that God would never want a pastor to go to a church smaller than the one he had before? Pastoring is not simply finding the best job offer—it is finding God’s plan.

Every pastor will someday personally give an account to the Lord for the ministry the Lord had for him.

The issue will not be “Did you find the best churches to pastor?” Rather, it will be “Did you go to the churches I wanted for you?” It is assuring and exciting to know that God has a blueprint for your ministry (Ephesians 2:10).

Pastors will be judged on whether they faithfully followed God’s plan. They will not be judged on fruitfulness, for that is God’s part. He gives the increase and makes things happen in people’s lives. God’s servants are branches in the vine, and fruit comes from the vine, not the branches (John 15:15).

Paul said God appointed him for apostolic service, having counted him faithful (1 Timothy 1:12). No pastor will love his ministry if his primary focus is on anything but being faithful, for it alone is a constant well of joy and satisfaction. Everything else will fail sooner or later.

A pastor can find peace even in times of great adversity and barrenness, knowing that he has been faithful to the Lord in his ministry.

Many pastors are familiar with John Broadus, who gained recognition as one of the great leaders in American church history. He co-founded the Southern Baptist Seminary in Greenville, South Carolina. The seminary moved to Louisville, Kentucky later.

The progress of the school was interrupted by the Civil War. When Broadus came back to the school, he had only seven students. During this time he wrote one of the greatest books on homiletics ever written. He entitled the book On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons. Many people are unaware that Broadus wrote this book for only one student in the class—a blind man.³

Broadus is a model of the faithfulness that God requires from pastors. What God requires is doing your best in all situations, big or small, noticed or unnoticed, liked or disliked.

Jesus said, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much” (Luke 16:10). Jesus did not differentiate between “least” and “much.” In regard to faithfulness, He gave both the same credit. As I focus on the positive things above, I rejoice that I am a pastor.

Notes

1 The Minister’s Manual for 1989, edited by James W. Cox (New York: Harper & Row, 1989).

2 Haddon Robinson, Biblical Preaching, Second Edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2001), p. 17.

3 Cited by R. Kent Hughes, John: That You May Believe (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2001), p. 174.

Karl Kloppmann has served as pastor at churches in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Missouri. He is a graduate of Pillsbury Baptist Bible College, Grace Theological Seminary and Dallas Theological Seminary.