March 05, 2015
The Ministry of God’s Word
In a recent blog post a
preacher reminded readers that a pastor’s job is not simply sermon preparation,
“…we do spend 10-20 hours a week in crafting a
sermon but that is not all we do. Being a pastor/preacher is not a 40 hour a
week job as you well know.” Certainly there are many fingerprints on a pastor’s
job description, including his own. It occurs to me that I’ve never heard a
pastor complain about being overworked when he is following the scriptural job
description ascribed to by the Twelve Apostles. “…It would not be right
for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full
of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:2-4 NIV).
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I can assure the dear pastor that his is not the only more than forty-hour a week job. And in doing so, I rather understand what is possibly his desire to express it. For even I couch a bit of pride in my “complaint” of working six fifteens each week from January through mid-April. And I hear many clients “complaining” about similarly long work weeks, some doing it for near minimum wage just to survive. Those are the real heroes.
-----Occasionally I do get a few clients who genuinely complain about long working hours. Within a year or two, most of them have moved on to different jobs. I figure that the pastors who similarly complain will not be pastors for long, putting their hand to the plow and turning back. I never complain about my long hours. They are far more than a source of pride for me; they are a compelling reason for thankfulness to the Lord and joy in Him that I have been blessed by Him with a means for living. I know with certainty that complaining leads to weakness, and weakness funds failure. The true heroes who work long hours for meager pay are the strongest of us.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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