Pages

Thursday, June 6, 2013

I am Your Pastor

I am your pastor.
“…the pastors and teacher[s] responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church.” (Ephesians 4:12)
I can teach you the truths of God from His Word and show you his love by example. I am redeemed by the same blood of Jesus and live in the same undeserved love and grace as you. I am not an expert on marriage, relationships, sex, raising children, politics, or the economy. Some may expect their pastor to fill these roles but the apostle Paul warns against pastors and teachers getting in over their head in areas they don’t belong: “Don’t let them waste their time in endless discussion of myths and spiritual pedigrees. These things only lead to meaningless speculations, which don’t help people live a life of faith in God.” (1 Timothy 1:4)
I tell dear people all the time, “I will meet with you once to determine what it is you want to work on and how to best approach it.” You see, I will listen to you. I will pray with you for healing, grace, strength, and courage, both spiritually and physically. I will connect you with the appropriate experts with the experience and gifts to help you deal with life’s issues. My role isn’t to do your thinking or living for you by giving you some religious expectation, a cliché, or scripted biblical answers or explanations – it’s to teach YOU how to think, to pray, to listen, and to act. In this way, your faith is in Jesus Christ by listening to the Holy Spirit and not in me or what I think. Your faith has to be your own. Jesus said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches.” (John 15:4-5)

I - am just your pastor.