Seven Biblical Ways God Wants YOU to Support Your Pastor

Seven Biblical Ways God Wants YOU to Support Your Pastor

I. Pray
1) I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2) for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3) This is good, and pleases God our Savior (I Timothy 2:1-3, bold mine)

The Bible teaches us to pray for ALL those in authority. Since the office of pastor/elder is the highest office in the church, God wants us to pray for our pastor. If we prayed for our pastors as much as we talked about them or complained about them, our personal spiritual lives and our churches could be off the charts healthy. Wouldn’t that be great? So, based on this biblical principle, I challenge you to pray for your pastor specifically and consistently.

Pray Specifically: Pray for you pastor by name. Pray that your pastor would flourish in his relationship with God, spouse, kids, unbelievers, and the church. Pray for your pastor to be sexually pure, humble, and highly effective.

Pray Consistently: Pick a “pastoral prayer marker”—and every time you drive past it—lift a prayer up for your pastor. Not long ago, I had the honor of partnering with a pastor to train the elders of the church. I was challenging this group of about sixteen men on this very prayer point —to pray for their pastor specifically and consistently. The good natured pastor who is younger than I but with much less hair, pointed to his bald head and said, “Every time you pass a bowling alley—remember to pray for me!” It doesn’t matter what pastoral prayer marker you choose—just choose one and start praying specifically and consistently!

Can YOU honestly say, “I pray specifically and consistently for my pastor”? If not—you need to take seriously the command to pray for those in authority—and that certainly includes our spiritual leaders. It may be something as simple as every time you pull onto the church parking lot—you lift up a specific prayer for your pastor! Just do it!

II. Volunteer Your Time, Talents, and Spiritual Gifts
17) The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor… (I Timothy 5:17, bold mine)

Generally speaking, the job of pastoring can be summed up in the broad phrase: “direct the affairs of the church” (I Timothy 5:17). To “direct” means “to be over, to superintend, to preside over, to manage.” God gives pastors to churches—not so the pastors can do all of the ministry themselves—but so they can superintend and manage the mobilization of the entire church in the work of the ministry.

• A school superintendent does NOT normally teach in a classroom, discipline students (except in the most extreme cases), or get involved in the loads of paperwork. Superintendents oversee the running of the entire school via managers called principals. Organizational havoc would ensue in a school if the superintendent thought he/she had to do everything necessary to operate a school effectively. Thus, nothing would get done.
• While business managers are often expected to be able to do what those under them do—if the entire business depended on managers to do everything—the business could not function.
• The same oversight idea is implied here in I Timothy 5:17 when it comes to pastors and the church. To be sure, pastors should evangelize, give, serve, etc., but if all of us watch on the sidelines while our pastors do all of the work of the ministry—God’s work will never get done because there’s not enough of them!
  The implied imperative for us in I Timothy 5:17 is that we must throw our time and talents into the work of the church—and pastors must direct, superintend, and manage the endeavor!

According to church life pundit George Barna, pastors are expected to master sixteen major tasks as a part of the pastoral vocation—whereas other professionals are expected to master three or four major tasks required for their work. The current and unbiblical definition of the pastoral role—including some sixteen major tasks and responsibilities—results in the self-implosion of the pastor and eventually the church—as some of us can personally testify! God did not create the church to function so that the spiritually fat, unexercised masses complain about all of the work not being done by the exhausted and depleted few! In The Volunteer Revolution, Bill Hybels says, “I’ve learned that you can’t possibly build a God-honoring church with a congregation full of consumers.”

This is why one of the most important ways a pastor can be freed up to direct the affairs of the church is to train and equip regular Christians--volunteers like you and me--to do the work of the ministry. According to Ephesians 4:11-12, God gives a whole spiritual arsenal to the church—in addition to just pastors—for the purpose of equipping God's people (that's YOU and me) to do the work of the ministry: “It was he [Jesus] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (bold mine).

• Popular traditional unbiblical American thinking goes something like this:
I give money so the pastor can do the work of the ministry.

• Ephesians 4:11-12 biblically correct thinking is this:
We hire a fulltime pastor so the pastor can train me to do the work of the ministry!

I can hear your American objections right now: "Wait a minute! Are you saying that I am to give money so my pastor can take a salary—to train me to do the work? I give money AND do the work?" CONGRATULATIONS! You have just discovered God’s Ephesians 4:11-12 plan for the function of your life and church!

So based on this biblical principle, I challenge YOU to answer this question. Can you honestly say: “I give freely of my time, talents, and spiritual gifts so that my pastor can be freed up to direct the affairs of the church—rather than doing the entire ministry alone”?