Discouragement seems to be an epidemic among today’s shepherds, this is due to many factors, among which loneliness is the most common; Pastors are known to isolate the the thes in their churches and ministries, so they are continually tempted to think that they are the only ones facing departmental pressures and demands.
The antidote to much of this discouragement is found in voluntary and determined communion with other pastors, not just any pastor, but pastors who think in the same way, promoting this type of fraternity was our goal when a friendly pastor and I started a pastoral fraternity about two years ago, which we now call pastoral fraternity for practical theology In this article , I will explain how we begin this fraternity, who we want to gather, what we hope to achieve, what our meetings are and what fruits I have seen so far.
- At the beginning of my ministry.
- I learned the importance of brotherhood with other pastors.
- So when Jim.
- One of my dear pastor friends.
- Approached me to begin the pastors’ fraternity.
- I became very interested.
- We knew it would be a good idea for several.
- Reasons.
- But the one that caught our attention was the fact that Jim and I had our own network of pastors that each of us knew.
- But not the other.
- So Jim and I agreed that each of us would include one more pastor we knew.
- Well and trustworthy.
- And we think we might be interested in meeting to discuss the possibilities.
Together with the other two men we agreed to include, we began to meet once a month to meet, fraternize, pray for others, and discuss whether pastoral communion was a wise and probably fruitful enterprise. this would be an interesting opportunity to meet and encourage other pastors, but we also realized that each of us was a pastor strategically in one of the four corners of the city, and each of us knew similar shepherds and the others did not. the start of the leadership team that would launch the Pastoral Communion for Practical Theology.
When we started discussing who to invite, we realized that we had to form a model that would allow us to unite pastors who have the same thinking in essential areas of consensus, without being too strict, unnecessarily eliminating pastors in need. in these four main factors to determine who would be invited:
? A commitment to the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ
? A commitment to explanatory preaching as the usual food of a congregation.
? A commitment to the centrality of the local church.
? A commitment to the call of the pastor to guide the souls of his people as responsible for their work.
Although members of our group have different positions on government, baptism, and reformed theology, we have decided that disagreements on these issues could coexist with the same thinking to make sense of brotherhood. We also limit the guest list to full-time and bi-educational pastors. , former lay people and associate pastors, because we knew that the inclusion of pastors in training and training could limit transparency, is a scenario that we always follow. We now have more than 50 pastors involved in this fraternity, between 30 and 35 years old, who attend all meetings.
Our main objective is expressed in our name: pastoral communion for Practical Theology. Our goal is to bring together a group of pastors who think in the same way in favor of communion and encouragement through the teaching and discussion of the themes of pastoral theology.
In other words, we want to fight together through the complicated trench work that characterizes the ministry of every faithful pastor and through the theological commitments underlying this work. Pastors need to know that they are not alone in trying to care for difficult people. , to counsel deeply wounded people, to strive to preach weekly, to resolve conflicts with leaders, to fight personal sins, and to try to love a woman and keep children in the midst of these pressures. fundamentals on issues that directly concern pastoral work.
For the past two years, the other three pastors who initiated this fraternity and I have been deeply encouraged by how this goal, by the grace of God, has paid off greatly. We’ll talk about it in more detail below.
What do we do in our moments together? Here’s a typical meeting
We meet once every two months, except in the summers. Each meeting lasts from 12 p. m. at 2 p. m. We offer lunch and distribute at least one book for free. After lunch, we head to another room for a time of teaching, discussion, and prayer.
The four of us generally share the responsibility of who will teach, another will lead the discussion, and then another will lead a prayer time related to the topic being discussed. When providence allows, we also invite special speakers who are in town this week to talk to pastors.
Jim and his church gently assumed the role of host and lunch provider. I usually take care of the sweepstakes by contacting generous organizations (such as 9Marks!) And publishers who want to serve pastors by offering free books. the other three pastors have contributed a little bit to offsetting the cost of this meeting, but overall there is a minimal cost compared to the benefit we have all received from that time.
These moments together produced unexpected fruits. I’ll mention two.
First, although the four pastors who initiated this fraternity wanted to increase their affection for others during this period, we can admit how astonishingly our love for others has developed. In months without a meeting, when our fraternity is not found, the four have lunch together to serve each other. Without exception, the Lord meets us through His Spirit in a very gentle and unexpected way every time we meet.
The second surprise is how far some shepherds travel for our meeting and how many have connected with other shepherds who did not know how to be close to them, as a result, began to meet regularly, the way this time has multiplied. Derived groups have been a great stimulus and unexpected joy for us.
Throughout our group, we all remember something very important: pastors are discouraged and need each other; we can pastor local churches, but we are all called to the same task as the sub-managers and we will respond to the same High Shepherd (1P 5. 4 The more we can embrace and encourage each other until the return of the High Shepherd, the better for all pastors that day.