Imagine a big holiday meal with all the trimmings where only one person is responsible for cooking, serving, and cleaning it up. At the end of the day, that person would be pretty tired, wouldn\u2019t they?!
\nNow imagine a big holiday meal with all the trimmings that was prepared, served, and cleaned up by several people working together and enjoying each other\u2019s company. That\u2019s a very different scenario, isn\u2019t it?
\nLike cooking a big holiday mean with all the trimmings for family and friends, your job as a pastor is a big job. A demanding job. A tiring job. A long job. If you try and do it on your own, no matter how bright or clever or talented you may be, you\u2019ll wear yourself out. You\u2019ll be resentful of those who aren\u2019t helping. Joy will become strangely absent in the work that was once your passion. I\u2019ve been there. I know.
\nSo if I were to answer the question \u201cWhat should a new pastor focus on?\u201d I\u2019d answer \u201cMake sure you have adequate support.\u201d That may sound self-centered; it\u2019s not. Yes, in some ways the focus is on you when everything in you feels like it should be focusing on everyone else but you. But you are not doing this primarily for your benefit; it is for the good of the Kingdom, your family, your church.
\nWhat does such support look like? I suspect it\u2019s a little different for everyone. As I understand it, the rule of thumb in therapy is that anyone who does therapy should be in therapy. A responsible therapist is always in some kind of supervisory therapeutic relationship themselves. It is part of the professional expectation and obligation inherent in that position. Can we set the standard any lower for ministry?
\nI think that same principle applies to pastors. If we are going to minister to others, we better have people ministering to us as well. Personally, I\u2019ve found I need a Spiritual Director (to help keep me growing in my walk with Christ), a Mentor or Coach (to help keep me growing in my vocation), a counselor or therapist (to help keep me healthy in my mental life, as I\u2019ve already mentioned), and at least one friend with whom I can be completely open about everything\u2014and I do mean everything (to help keep me honest.)
\nYour support team may look different than mine, and my particular choices may be unconvincing or even undesirable to you. I understand that; the important thing is to create the support team you need to do your work well. I will say it one more time: You cannot do it alone.
\nSuch people have helped me disentangle my often mixed motives, see through agendas which I was convinced were God\u2019s but which were really my own, helped me constructively manage temptation, allowed me to sort through the morass of voices complimenting, criticizing, and cajoling me so that I can decide which if any to heed; kept me from thinking too much or too little of myself, and so on.
\nDo this, and you will create a scrumptious repast for your people that will not only nourish them but bring them joy and delight. What\u2019s more, it will do the same for you.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Imagine a big holiday meal with all the trimmings where only one person is responsible for cooking, serving, and cleaning it up. At the end of the day, that person would be pretty tired, wouldn\u2019t they?! Now imagine a big holiday meal with all the trimmings that was prepared, served, and cleaned up by several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1740],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastoring-and-preaching"],"yoast_head":"\n