The Pastor: Prophetic Journey or Adventures in Babysitting?

If this content resonates with you, share your thoughts in the comments below.

You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful people who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:1–3).

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (2 Timothy 4:1–5).

When I speak of the pastor’s role as ‘prophetic journey or adventures in babysitting,’ I am not attempting to insult anyone or any local church or denomination. I speak as one who has pastored congregations in different communities for most of the last fifty years, and I have had the opportunity to see a lot in “the church.”

Clearly, there is a great need for many and probably all of us in “the church” to be challenged to live up to who and what God has called us to be.

Serving as a pastor is a great privilege and responsibility. It is in no way a job to be taken lightly.

We who serve as pastors must be very serious about ministry. People are precious to God, and therefore, they are to be precious to us as well.

It’s a tough and demanding job that requires you to have very “thick” skin.

We are called to be undershepherds under the direct supervision of the Great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are called to love the people of the church and teach them the fundamentals of being disciples.

Leaders in the church are wise to teach believers the critical place of spiritual disciplines or spiritual habits. John Wesley called them “Means of Grace.”

Some of these would be:

Reading the Word of God daily (3 chapters a day is a wise goal).
Spending time in prayer every day.
Obedience – live what you learn from God’s Word and the Holy Spirit.
Giving thanks and praise as a lifestyle.
Giving out gospel tracts daily.
Challenging believers to get involved with ministry activities.

We are called to help believers grow spiritually and become mature in their faith (See Ephesians 4). So, when believers have been saved for many years and yet remain spiritual “babes,” something is wrong.

Often, either they are not being spiritually fed and equipped, and/or they are choosing not to learn and apply what they are being taught and what is being shared with them through the preaching and teaching ministry of the church.

Either of these scenarios happens too often, and the results are tragic.

When the church has a lot of spiritual babes, they act like spiritual babes.

In other words, you very often have immature believers, some of whom are in leadership positions in the church.

In the natural, children think, act, and carry themselves like children. They are immature in their ways and actions and you cannot expect them to do the mature work that you expect from adults.

So, often churches are largely led by spiritual “first graders.” What do spiritual “first graders” look like, and how do they act?

They are often believers who may or may not come to church regularly and who are easily offended over very small matters. They rarely read their Bible, or may read it a little before Sunday School or Bible Study (however, many of these immature believers rarely, if ever, attend Sunday School or Bible Study).

Too many believers give very little of their income to the church. They will often come up with reasons they consider very valid as to why they don’t need to give to the church, and sometimes, when they do give, they feel that they have done their financial duty to the church for a few months.

Some believers are offended when they hear preaching and teaching about giving tithes and offerings to the Lord.

Some of these same individuals may actually get angry to learn of large gifts the church has given to a particular mission project. And they may declare that this is why they won’t give again any time soon (though they were giving very little to the church anyway).

All of these matters are issues that the Word of God speaks to in direct statement or in principle.

And yes, we pastors are never to be afraid to address areas where our members need to grow as we preach and teach the Word of God.

Church, we all need to grow up!

Our responsibility as pastors is to love people and help them mature in their faith and grow to fulfill the call of God on their lives. We are called to help believers grow and become faithful and dedicated members of the body of Christ in order to carry out the Great Commission.

A part of helping believers in the church grow and mature involves preaching and teaching the truth in love. We are called to speak truth to believers and challenge them to obey and live out the Word of God faithfully and boldly.

We are called to challenge believers to become kingdom warriors. However, the truth is, very often people don’t like being challenged. They don’t want to feel convicted about sin in their lives. Too many church folks may actually get offended if they feel convicted by the truth shared in a Sunday morning sermon.

How tragically sad.

A pastor is never to serve as a glorified babysitter, seeing his job as the task of simply making people feel good.

A very important part of our work as ministers of the gospel is to challenge believers to grow up and grow strong in the Lord.

We are called to help believers to become bold kingdom warriors in the kingdom of God who are passionate about following Christ - sacrificially!

We are to be bold and courageous in the way we preach and teach the truths of the Word of God.

Why is it so important for us to challenge the church to be the church? Because we have a world with many people who are lost and are on their way to hell if they do not hear the gospel and are not saved!

We are to preach and teach the truth in love. Yet we are to preach and teach the truth, even when it is not well received.

Is that hard for a pastor to do? Often, it is, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are called to and are supposed to do it.

Sometimes, the members of the church may decide that they know better than the pastor how he is supposed to do his job. There are instances where people may be offended about whether the pastor wears a robe on Sunday morning or not. Or they may be offended because the pastor did not wear the right color robe.

I recall many years ago when I served a church as pastor, I would do a children’s message aimed, of course, at ministering to the children. One officer of the church decided that he didn’t think I should do a children’s message on a particular Sunday and let me know of his thoughts about this matter.

Well, the children’s message is for ministry to the children! And that is a part of my responsibility as the pastor to do just that – minister to the children.

When that Sunday arrived, and I did the children’s sermon as usual, this officer was furious. Immediately after the service, he followed me to my office and informed me, “We pay your salary!” He wanted me to know that they could get rid of me if I didn’t do what they wanted me to do.

So, can immaturity on the part of members of the church make the pastor's job harder?

Is water wet?!

Yet, we as pastors are called to do what we are called of God to do – anyway.

We are wise to pray daily for the members of the church fellowship we serve. And we are wise to pray for wisdom and boldness – to go forward and do our job even when the going gets tough. And when we do our job, many believers in our congregations will grow, and many will mature.

Some will become kingdom warriors who God will use mightily to touch people and the world – for eternity.

So, pastors and leaders in the church, let's courageously do our job.

We have a world out there that desperately needs to hear about Jesus Christ and be saved!

Please Note: We moderate all reader comments, usually within 24 hours of posting (longer on weekends). Please limit your comment to 300 words or less and ensure it addresses the content. Comments that contain a link (URL), an inordinate number of words in ALL CAPS, rude remarks directed at the author or other readers, or profanity/vulgarity will not be approved.