One of the elements of pastoring that is not talked about enough is that it is a very serious and deep responsibility. You do not have the authority or right to control someone’s life, your job is not about constantly telling people off, but on the other hand if you do not get involved in people’s lives – you are not pastoring properly.
The Bible is very clear about this. It says: Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit. (Hebrews 13.17 NLT)
Notice here, that the work of the pastor is to “watch over souls”. You are supposed to watch out for people and help them not make dumb mistakes, to see things coming that they didn’t see coming and help them. The Greek word for “watch” here actually literally translates as never sleeping. We as pastors need to be alert, not sleepy, we need to be attentive and aware of what is going on around us. Many pastors are living in a dream world, asleep all the time, only doing what makes sense on a logical and reasonable level. Many pastors are not even watching their flock, they are watching themselves – they preach to impress not feed, they are always looking around to be noticed, to be promoted, they are wanting to preach here and there, and it’s got nothing to do with being a pastor but being a self-promoter.
A few years ago, someone in my church in Dagenham came to me and said “can pastor such and such come and preach in our church” – it was a pastor I knew fairly well, but had no plans to invite to preach. I said “why would you mention him, does he have a revelation that especially blessed you”, and the answer was that this pastor had contacted someone in my church on social media and actually asked them if he could persuade me to get him to preach. That kind of behaviour makes my life grief not joy – as I have to then correct it, and it causes strife in the church. I am praying that pastor does not reap what he sowed by ignoring the order that God has created in the church to try and platform himself. That is sleeping.
I remember another pastor, one that I had raised up in ministry, one that I had opened many doors for, and I took him away to a conference for a few days, and I was hoping to disciple him, but he had zero respect for my wisdom and seemed bored to be with me. At one stage, we were talking and his body language was like he was going to fall asleep. Then one of the conference speakers walked past, and he jumped up, alert and ran to the conference speaker to thank him for an awesome message. I am glad he was so respectful to the guest speaker, but a pastor should be above the Uncle syndrome! That is not a pastor who is watching and noticing what is going on, and this is a pastor that will be amazed when his own church treat him like that!
How can you make yourself the best watcher there is? Let’s look at some ways.
- Be an example. Make sure you are obeying your spiritual leaders. If you are a pastor as part of a family of churches, then obey the leaders of that family of churches and make it easy for them to pastor you. Do that and I guarantee the harvest of that in your church will be nothing but pleasant. I have found out that God appoints pastors in places and gives them pastors so they can sow joy into their pastors so that the people they pastor bring them joy. It’s a great deal if you notice it.
- Think about things. When you read the Bible, think about it. When you are counselling people, think about the principles of the Word. When you are hearing good teaching, consider it. When you read that the Israelites spent forty years in the wilderness consider it – they were arrogant, stubborn and rebellious – they did not honour God or Moses. So think about it, do you want everyone in your church not seeing the prophetic words God has spoken to them and the next generation to enter the promised land? No – so teach on these things, share your wisdom. Part of the wisdom of the pastor is to see these things coming and teach on them.
- Pray for your people. Peter did not know satan was coming for him and bringing him to a place where he falls so far, denying he was even a disciple of Christ. Jesus did though. And He spent the time not just counselling Peter, but He prayed for him! I recently spent five hours praying for someone because I can see he is about to fall. He can’t see it, but the anointing and grace (and a little experience) that I have means I can, so I pray. Sometimes you watch and pray – you see something then go to pray. Other times, you pray and watch. While you start praying for someone in your church, suddenly you get revelation and wisdom.
You are shepherd, you need to be watchful. You need to be aware of what is going on (not nosey, but just aware in the spiritual sense). It was shepherds who saw the birth of Christ first. They knew what no one else knew. Maybe that is a picture for us as pastors – we are supposed to see where God is moving on earth first.
You have to spend time with the Lord, and let Him show you what is going on in your church. Let Him show you who to counsel, who to love, who to pray for. Let Him show you as a pastor how to relate to your pastor and how to make their life a joy and how to sow that seed in a way that will bring you a harvest into your church and ministry.
I want to, as we draw near to Christmas, to challenge every pastor reading this – be like the shepherds in the Christmas story and keep watch of your flocks by night. While everyone else is going to sleep, buying the turkey, shopping like crazy, you get on your knees and pray for the people in your church, ask the Lord to show you what to preach on this month – not to impress but to bless. Ask the Lord to show you what to pray for, what to do, how to serve, so that your sheep will have the best Christmas of their lives. Ask the Lord to show you any sheep in danger like Peter was, and like Jesus pray for your Peters! This is your responsibility, and nothing takes the place of this high calling.
When the shepherds in the Christmas narrative watched their flocks by night, they encountered angels and found Jesus. I wonder how many encounters we have missed and how many times we have failed to find Jesus because we were not watching the way we should be as pastors.
Inspiring and Challenging Dreamers 