As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
As this year began I started a series on spiritual growth, which I called “On Building Spiritual Muscle.” The series focused on the key spiritual exercises that the Bible prescribes for spiritual health, exercises that Christians have generally called “the means of grace”: Scripture, prayer, and fellowship. The next series, “On Devotions,” focused on the first two of those means of grace, and particularly on our private practice of them.
“What I want to do in this post, though, is encourage you to reconsider this past weekend’s church events and find some joy and blessing in all that took place—even if church wasn’t great.” - Chuck Lawless
“Church should be the place we sprint to when things are at their worst, not the place we avoid until we’ve got our Instagram-worthy Christianity back in place.” - TGC
“I’m posting it this year in September so you and your church can consider ways to show your gratitude to your pastor during next month’s Pastor Appreciation Month” - Chuck Lawless
“First, realize people need to talk to process…. Second, gossip is defined more by intent than content…. Third, it’s the leader’s responsibility to provide clarity.” - Church Answers
Read the series.
The fifth biblical command for us in caring for our pastor leads me, as they say, to go from preachin’ to meddlin’.
The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching (1Ti 5.17).
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We began this series in Hebrews 13, and we return there for this next step. Hebrews 13.17 reads,
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.
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Earlier in the same epistle that tells us to respect our pastor, Paul writes,
For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe (1Th 2.13).
“While…I don’t believe women should be the pastors or regular teachers of men in the church, I do believe that in the pushback against that idea of women pastors, often the case gets overstated, and there is an anti-women feel to it, which disturbs me.” - Randy Alcorn
Read the series.
In one of Paul’s earliest epistles the Bible gives us a second way to care for our pastor:
But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, 13 and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another. (1Th 5.12-13)
Paul identifies the object of his readers’ action as doing three things:
Discussion