The World Needs Pastors Right Now
The weary world needs a Word from God, and pastors are called to a special ministry of equipping and empowering God’s people to share that message.
“The whole world needs a pastor right now.”
~ Pastor Joe Chambers
That simple Facebook update – “The whole world needs a pastor right now.” – caught my attention when Joe Chambers, Pastor of Mountain Heights Baptist Church in Buena Vista, Colorado first shared it a couple of days ago.
I thought about it all morning.
And all afternoon.
And as I went to sleep that night.
I thought back to advice I heard Pastor Lee Roberson share with other pastors once about the need to show up and be a pastor for anyone and everyone in your town who might need one, whether they’ve ever heard of your church or not.
I thought about Matthew 9:36, which says, “When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
I thought about God’s complaint about the spiritual leaders in Israel through the Prophet Jeremiah and his promise to give them better pastors (shepherds):
Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD. Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the LORD. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the LORD.
~ Jeremiah 23:1-4 NRSV
And I thought about some of the amazing pastors I’ve known.
Pastors are often written off in our culture because the stories that get attention tend to focus on those who are abusive or corrupt. But the fact is, most of the pastors I know love Jesus, love people, and want to help the hurting.
If we are to believe that the church (that is, the church when it is the church Jesus envisioned) holds the solutions to some of the biggest problems people face in the world, then we must also see that pastors are the messengers of those solutions.
The weary world needs a Word from God. And while every follower of Jesus carries around the good news of the gospel to share with others, pastors are called to a special ministry of equipping and empowering God’s people to share that message.
If you’re a pastor, please know that you matter. Your work matters. The fact that you seek to serve Jesus matters. Your desire to apply the message of the gospel to the deepest needs of humanity, and that’s a very good work.
The only practical step in this article is this:
Go be a pastor to the world.
Sometimes, someone won’t want you to be their pastor. That’s okay. Respect that and let them leave gracefully.
But anyone who will allow you to do so, love them, pray with and for them, counsel them, minister to them, and share the saving message of Jesus with them.
Recommended Reading:
Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry, by Ruth Haley Barton
The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart, by Harold Senkbeil