It is not easy being a pastor!

I got an email from a pastor friend of mine, and among other things he wrote: “The church is well, i n the month of July many were on vacation, but now that we are in August, people are coming back to church, and this encourages me and makes me happy.” I knew exactly what he was talking about.

Yesterday, I took the afternoon to prepare the material we will be using for the next series of small groups which will be a six-part series in the book of Philippians. I found and meditated in the words of Paul who rejoiced even in prison when he remembered of the church in Philippi:

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy…God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.” (1: 3 – 4,

This church made Paul happy because they cared for him, they respected and loved him, they submitted to him as their pastor and that encouraged and made him happy.

In Hebrews 13: 7, the writer admonishes the believers:

“Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.”

What encourages a pastor and makes him or her happy is when the members of the church have confidence in his/her ministry and submits to the teachings to accomplish God’s purpose for the whole church. And what is God’s goals and purpose that defines the work of the ministry? Paul responds in Ephesians 4:

“To equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” (12 – 14)

This is the heartbeat of every pastor and that is what drives him/her to the work of the ministry!

I was reading Jeremiah this week and I find a discouraged leader. Why so much discouragement? Because the people do not listen to the Voice of God spoken through the leader. And he complains to God:

“You deceivedme, LORD, and I was deceived;
   you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
   everyone mocks me.
Whenever I speak, I cry out
   proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the LORD has brought me
   insult and reproach all day long.
But if I say, “I will not mention his word
   or speak anymore in his name,”
his word is in my heart like a fire,
   a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;