Have you thanked your pastor lately? Or sent him a word of encouragement?
Think about it: Pastoring a flock well (and remember, sheep aren’t the most intelligent of creatures) is one of the most difficult jobs on the planet. As Colson Center theologian T.M. Moore told me recently, pastors “work like slaves all year long and take more regular criticism than most people experience in a lifetime.”
Well, October is Clergy Appreciation Month, so while there’s never a bad time to encourage your pastor, now’s a particularly good time.
And one thing I’d urge you to do is to let your pastor know about the Colson Center’s website devoted especially to pastors and local church leaders. It’s called the Worldview Church.
With content written by pastors for pastors, WorldviewChurch.org is a place where your ministers can go for resources to equip them to think and live as Jesus’ light and salt in the world. They can network and engage with fellow ministers on the site as well, and garner insight from some of the great Christian worldview thinkers about understanding the times and the culture in which they carry out their Kingdom work.
WorldviewChurch.org has email newsletters and devotionals like “Ekklesia” or “Pastor to Pastor” in which T.M. Moore taps the deep well of wisdom from the ancient church fathers and the great reformers — and applies their pastoral teaching to here and now.
The site also contains articles by ministers such as Al Mohler, Tim Keller, Tullian Tchividjian, John Piper, Byron Wheaton, and others on worship and liturgy, on building community, on biblical preaching, not to mention reviews of books that would interest your pastor.
In other words, WorldviewChurch.org is a great place for your ministers to come and learn, network, and be renewed.
So please, tell your pastor about Worldview Church. And, if you want to go the extra mile, during Pastor Appreciation Month we’ll have a ColsonCenter online bookstore gift certificate available for you to purchase for your pastor. The gift certificate is good for any of the great books and resources available at ColsonCenter.org.
As we pray for the renewal of the church, remember God’s agents for renewal: our pastors and ministers.
Before I leave you today, let me share with you a centuries-old appreciation of a good pastor, written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the prologue of his Canterbury Tales. Describing the band of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, Chaucer tells us about the model minister in their midst:
“There was a good man of religion, too/ A country parson, poor, I warrant you;/
... Who Christ's own gospel truly sought to preach;
Devoutly his parishioners would he teach/
... Wide was his parish, houses far asunder/But never did he fail, for rain or thunder,/ In sickness, or in sin, or any state,/ to visit the farthest, small and great/
... And holy though he was, and virtuous/, To sinners he was not impiteous,/ Nor haughty in his speech, nor too divine,/ But in all teaching prudent and benign./
… But if some sinful one proved obstinate,/ Be who it might, of high or low estate,/Him he reproved, and sharply, as I know/
... There is nowhere a better priest, I trow.”
Eric Metaxas is a co-host of BreakPoint Radio and a best-selling author whose biographies, children's books, and popular apologetics have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
BreakPoint commentary airs each weekday on more than one thousand outlets with an estimated listening audience of one million people. BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print.
Publication date: October 9, 2012