Constructive Thoughts on Pastoral Ministry

A couple of thoughts before I get into my ruminations on pastoral ministry. First, I journal as a form of personal therapy. Writing helps me to think and process whatever feels bound up inside of me. Second, a friend of mine who’s working on his doctorate degree told me, after I expressed to him my desire to be a professor, that he thinks I should definitely teach a pastoral ministry class in college/seminary because of my unique ministry experiences. I'm starting to come around to this idea now.

These two thoughts should set the tone for what follows regarding some of my ruminations on pastoral ministry.

Are we doing a good enough job of training for the costs of pastoral ministry?

In Luke 14:25-35, Jesus emphasized the cost of discipleship.

”25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ 31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. 34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”” (NIV)

If this is the cost for following Jesus as His disciple, how much more is this passage appropriate for following Jesus as His undershepherd?

There is a great cost and lasting toll that accompanies pastoral ministry, and I believe this isn’t discussed or taught or realized enough. This topic should be a ‘must have’ in all pastoral training and seminaries: how to anticipate and navigate the cost-impact of pastoral ministry/eldership. What if, in teaching this and training toward this end, we may help some men come to realize they and/or their families aren’t ready for the costs of pastoral ministry just yet. Imagine what we’ve spared them from. Imagine how some might return more ready than before. Imagine how this might help reduce pastoral burnout or breakdowns or church hurt or joyless serving. In the beginning of this year, I started elder training with a couple of guys. We spent the first eight months exploring “the call”, “the person”, and “the office”. For eight months I wasted no time using the books, articles, tests, and scriptures we were exploring to explain to them the wide-ranging costs of the call to shepherd God’s people as pastor-elders. At any point during the first year, they can bow out if they come to realize they aren’t ready for this. (That’s partly why our elder training is a three-year-long process; you can’t rush pastoral preparation and they have to learn in real-time the life-family-work-ministry balance).

It’s not enough that the guys pursuing pastoral ministry can rightly exegete Scripture, craft a message, understand sound & bad theology, teach, disciple, & counsel others, and lead meetings & worship services. What about how they handle repeated criticisms, crises, stress, depression, sacrifices, loneliness, broken trust, or how their people will misunderstand or not understand the weight of their pastoral decisions, etc? What about how their families endure these costs too and don’t have any training or counsel for what to do about it? These things consume just as much of their time and mental & emotional energy as what they are trained to do will.

Pastoral ministry has the highest turnover rate than any other profession. Some of this is because of sin or hasty ordination. Some of this is simply because of poor/bad decisions. Some of this is because of cost unpreparedness. There are more solo-pastor-led churches in the world than there are co-pastor-led churches—and that’s not counting co-vocational pastors which have another set of costs associated with it. Where’s the training toward this end?

Pastoral ministry is more than preaching and leading others. As Dr. Macintosh said, “Pastoring is also about leading oneself.” Thus, how we train future pastor-elders has to be tailored enough to prepare them with tools to succeed in the office and tools to survive the cost and toll of the office. It shouldn’t take pastors going to see a counselor after the fact for us to realize the gravity of the cost and toll. Pastors should be prepared for this in advance, to include normalizing getting a counselor to talk through these things if/when necessary.

To any aspiring and ordained pastors reading this, and to those who are training pastor-elders, please hear my heart:

We must anticipate, accept, prepare, and have a plan to endure the greater costs of our personal, family, and corporate discipleship that come with pastoral ministry or it will swallow us and/or our family.

Yes, our God is sovereign. He can and does providentially work through our ignorance in this area. However, Jesus told us in advance to count and prepare for the cost of following Him. So how much more should this apply to pastoral ministry? This means we don’t have to be ignorant or foolish here. We can teach, train, and remind one another to follow the wisdom our sovereign God has given to us regarding counting the costs. I wonder what greater good this might do if we did.

#lessonslearnedinpastoralministry