I know it’s crazy, but I’d like time travel to be easily accessible to the public. Because I have things I’d like to say to the younger version of myself. First of all, I thought I shouldn’t panic when I saw the Steelers in the semi-final of the 1972 national football championship, because Franco Harris, the boy who ran an “Italian army,” would celebrate the “impeccable reception” 30 seconds after the end of the game. I also told myself that computers are not a passing “mode,” and then I would mention that it would also be wise to invest in a small business called “Google. “Oh, and I’d also tell him to eat less pizza and more salad. In fact, I probably wouldn’t say that.
But I would like to tell my young man a few things about pastoral ministry, I have been doing this pastoral work for a long time, for more than 28 years, over the decades I have learned things that I would have liked to know. as a freshman pastor.
The pastor worries people about everything
I was an impatient, controllable and ambitious person who didn’t necessarily have time for people and their problems, it was easy to think about raising more in terms of leadership, programs and preaching, rather than getting involved with people, but the reality is: to shepherd is to be intimately involved in people’s lives?Be the shepherd of your souls! Peter said, “To worship the flock of God among you?”(1 Peter 5:2). Paul said, “Take care of themselves and all the flock of which the Holy Ghost made them bishops, that they may pacite the church of God, which he bought with his own blood?”(Acts 20:28).
To be a faithful shepherd you have to take care of the sheep.
I missed him at first. I remember when a member left a counseling session with me feeling more managed than guided. Your comments taught me. He came to find a shepherd to take care of him, what he got was a soul mechanic looking to make a repair.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was right when he said, “Loving preaching is one thing, but loving the people he preaches to is another. If I could have a coffee with my young self, I’d tell him what it means to “love people you preach to. “
The shepherd is for broken people
Jesus said, “Do the healthy need not a doctor, but the sick?(Matthew 9:12). In other words, I would like to tell my young self that it is not only that people come to the shepherds for help, but that people seek help and bring their luggage. We live in a fallen world where sin and sickness degrade God’s image and defraud human beings. They ruin and measure people. Pastoral ministry is not carried out in Eden. place in the dirty trenches of a fallen world. People often seek shepherds disfigured by the effects of sin.
I did not understand that, at least not at first, but God was faithful and reality invaded my pastoral celebration, I seemed to remember what had happened around a depressed woman who had not improved with the passages I asked her to memorize, luckily for me. The elder shepherds were there to get my world vision out of the clutches of my narrow mind. I began to see that the complexity of the rupture was not so simple, nor so easy to catalog, nor so practical. that’s why God created shepherds.
It’s a very enlightening moment when a leader realizes, “Wow, that’s the department. Is this really what the department is? We don’t usually think of the department that way. pulpit, with soft music and eloquent words driping from our lips.
But actually, the department is quite complicated, how could it be otherwise ?! We are not yet what we should be. I know I’m not! This is why I need the gospel every day. Is that why I need it? Shepherds
For the pastor it is to suffer
2 Corinthians 4: 7-12 gives us an idea of the reality of suffering in the ministry. Paul describes his ministry as distressed, perplexed, persecuted, and overthrown. It’s not exactly his best life right now. But even so, Paul also makes it clear that God reconciles all things not only for Paul’s sake, but also for the good of the people he served (2 Corinthians 1:7).
Is it easy for young pastors to expect a different path in pastoral ministry?Think only of the public and glamorous aspects of the ministry, but the department is a difficult matter. This is not for sensitive souls, only a suffering servant can actually serve the suffering one. When a shepherd touches the darkness, he learns to find the light and then learns to transmit it to others.
At some point along the way, I began to see him more clearly, I began to understand that if he wanted to experience the power of his resurrection, he would have to share his sufferings (Philippians 3:10).
I think that was the hardest lesson and probably the most surprising one too.
Conclusion
Less than a flow facilitator (if you have to ask, look to the future!) As I become a reality in the near future, I will not have the opportunity to speak to my young self. But I can talk to you and you may be able to learn faster than you were probably too slow to understand. I hope this will help you see the department more soberly. But more than that, I hope it will help you see a Savior redeeming our faults, so that even slow guys like me can voluntarily overwork and let himself be spent?(2 Corinthians 12:15) for those he loves.
By: Dave Harvey, © 2014 Call Me? Original: WHAT I WISH I COULD TELL MY YOUNGEST ABOUT PASTRY
Translation: Joel Pedro Cavani Review: Yago Martins © 2016 Faithful Ministério All rights reserved. Website: MinistryFiel. com. br. Original: 3 lessons for each pastor who starts in the ministry.
Authorizations: You are authorized and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided that the author, his ministry and translator are no longer no longer modified and not used for commercial purposes.