Want to Bless your Pastor?

In the past I’ve heard and been a part of a few gatherings of people with the mind to bless their pastor and thank them for their service in the church. I’ve thought about this a lot lately and here are some of the things bouncing around in my head.

These blessings usually center around dinners, gifts, vacations, etc., which I’m sure pastors love to receive and feel blessed by, but as I’ve talked to and listened to a number of pastors, I find one of the biggest blessings you could give to your pastor has nothing to do with something you could purchase for them.

If you truly want to bless your pastor, accept and embrace the call on all Christians to have a bi-vocational mindset. By bi-vocational, I mean have the mindset that you as a teacher, business man, lawyer, website designer or engineer/nerd have also been called into full-time ministry. Lest you think me a crazy heretic, scripture clearly indicates the priesthood of all believers in 1 Peter 2 with the implication that your full-time pastor is merely the one who is paid by the church to do ministry, meanwhile you get paid by your company to do full-time ministry.

What do you mean full-time ministry?

In Ephesians 4, Paul discusses the role of the leaders of the church is to “equip the saints for the work of ministry”, so their full-time ministry is equipping you so that Monday-Saturday you can faithfully live as a Christian at home, in your workplace, in your neighborhood, and serving in the church.

No longer can we say “I’m a Christian” and that only mean “I attend church on Sunday”. Now “I’m a Christian” means I live in all areas of my life as a full-time minister seeking to proclaim the gospel through my words and back it up with my life.

I don’t mean neglect your job and only do ministry. I mean do your job excellently as a work for the Lord and care for your co-workers.

How should I try to live this out if I’m a Christian?

Here are 4 ways you could live this out

1. Treat your home as a mini-church – Enjoy going to church on Sundays? Interacting with other Christians and worshipping? What’s stopping you from making your home a place a spiritual refreshment?
2. Go to work as a missionary – A right vocational theology sees Jesus as your ultimate and the greatest boss you could have. Your workplace can be a place of joy by seeking to be excellent at your job while also seeking to care about your co-workers. Both should happen simultaneously and the results should be that the gospel is displayed in 100s of workplaces throughout the week, not in 1 building on a Sunday.
3. Wrestle with and embrace your pastor’s vision – Christians have embraced an individualism that has allowed us to pick and choose what we like of what our church offers. If this is a Christian’s mentality, they are the opposite of a blessing to their church. Instead seek to understand your pastor’s vision and strategy so that you can embrace it as your own. I’m not saying you never disagree, but seek to help fulfill the church’s vision, not just your own. Then your church will have 100s of pastors instead of a handful.
4. Humbly submit to serve in their ministry – Ask them where you could be used to fulfill their vision and be willing to work behind the scenes for the gospel to be proclaimed publicly. This takes more humility than you currently think you have and working behind the scenes is actually the best way to build that humility.

I’ve never heard a pastor complain about people being willing to serve faithfully to fulfill their vision. It’s not only a blessing to your pastor, but it’s what must happen if the church in America is ever to survive. The church needs Christians to embrace their biblical call from God to be bi-vocational whether you’re a stay-at-home mom, a lawyer, teacher, or an engineer.