Paul, Supplement 1: Supporting the Work of Your Pastor

SUPPORTING THE WORK OF YOUR PASTOR (EPHESIANS 4:11-16)
The young preacher had just announced to his congregation that he was requesting the dissolution of the pastoral relationship in order to accept another call. He was standing at the door after the service and greeting people, as preachers are wont to do, when one of the elderly saints approached him, her eyes swimming with tears. She sobbed, “Oh, pastor, I’m so sorry you’ve decided to leave. Things will never be the same again.”

The young man was flattered, but was equal to the situation and took her hands in his and most benevolently replied, “Bless you, dear lady, but I’m sure that God will send you a new pastor even better than I.” She choked back a sob and was heard to say, “That’s what they all say, but they keep getting worse and worse.”

I am sure everybody is anxious to meet the next pastor. Who is he? Where does he come from? What experience does he have? Is he passionate or private? While all these are question on people’s mind, they are not the most important questions. The more crucial ones are, What is the pastor’s role in ministry? What does he do with God’s people? What is the best use of his time? Why does a church need a pastor?

Equip the Church to Grow
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (Eph 4:11-12)

Your Pastor and mine:
If he is young, he lacks experience; if his hair is grey, he is too old; if he has five or six children, he has too many; if he has none,
he is setting a bad example. If his wife sings in the choir, she is being forward; if she does not, she is not interested in her husband’s work.
If he speaks from notes, he has canned sermons and is dry; if he is extemporaneous, he is not deep. If he spends too much time in his study, he neglects his people; if he is visible, he is a gadabout. If he is attentive to the poor, he is playing to the grandstand; if to the wealthy, he is trying
to be an aristocrat.
If he suggests improvements for the church, he is a dictator; if he makes no suggestion, he is a figurehead. If he uses too many illustrations, he neglects the Bible; if not enough, he is not clear.
If he condemns wrong, he is cranky; if he does not, he is a compromiser. If he preaches the truth, he is offensive; if not, he is a hypocrite. If he preaches an hour; he is windy; if less, he is lazy.
If he fails to please everybody; he is hurting the church; if he does please everybody, he has no convictions. If he preaches tithing, he is a money grabber; if he does not, he is failing to develop his people.
If he receives a large salary, he is mercenary; if a small salary, it proves he is not worth much. If he preaches all the time, the people get tired of hearing one man; if he invites guest preachers, he is shirking responsibility.
SO WHAT! They say the preacher has an easy time.

If you notice, the gifts God gave to the church are five, but the word “some,” which is the article (“the”) in Greek, occurs four times. This leads many scholars to suggest that the last “some” modifies “pastors and teachers” together, not “pastors” or “teachers” individually. The role of pastors and teachers are inseparable. No matter how caring, considerate and compassionate the pastor is, without teaching, churches suffer, struggle and maybe shrink. Good pastors are more than just relational, affectionate and kindly; they must also be teachers, expositors and communicators of God’s word. The former is short-term, the latter longer lasting. Phillip Brooks say, “The preacher needs to be a pastor, that he may preach to real men. The pastor must be preacher, that he may keep the dignity of his work alive. The preacher, who is not a pastor, grows remote. The pastor, who is not a preacher, grows petty.” (John Stott, The Preacher’s Portrait, p. 81)

“Prepare” (v 12) in Greek is not a verb, but a noun, its only instance of a noun of the said word in the Bible. The NASB translation is “for the equipping” and the KJV is “for the perfecting.” Its verb in the Bible comes with the practical application for “mending nets” (Matt 4:21, Mark 1:19) and restoring the lapsed (Gal 6:1). The intrigue is who does the works of service in church – pastors and teachers, or God’s people? From the text equation, the pastor’s role is to equip God’s people for works of service, not to execute all the work by himself; not to expand his empire, but empower God’s people; not to electrify the congregation, but equip the body. The presence of a full-time pastor could be a liability if members see it as an opportunity to fold their hands, shake their legs and doze to sleep, which is, unfortunately, the widespread practice in many churches. The pastor is to provide believers the training, give them the tools and teach them the trade. A good pastor works himself out of a job, so to speak. Like a good parent, his concern is for the church’s independence and interdependence, not dependence on him. It’s been said, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

The success of a church lies in God’s people, not the pastor, competently and confidently using their gifts, talents and resources at their disposal. God’s priority is not building up the pastor but the parishioners, not the clergy but the church, who is His body, His bride and beloved. In that sense, the bigger the pastor is in people’s eyes, the smaller is he in God’s eyes. The more indispensable he is in church, the more ignorant he is about ministry. While the pastor is crucial to the church, he is not central in the church.

A pastor is a shepherd, never a therapist, a babysitter or a manager. The former feeds the sheep, gives them water, and fends off predators. Caregiving is the work of the whole church. If you find a pastor-teacher who does his role, the church will function properly. A pastor is strong in one of three areas - teaching, caring or evangelizing, but never in all three. Of course, he must not be uninterested, unconcerned and unresponsive in other functions either. The ministry of encouragement is the members’, not the pastor’s alone to do. Often in the Bible, the verb “encourage” is incomplete and complemented by the reflexive pronoun “one another,” addressing to the church, not the pastor alone (1 Thess 4:18, Heb 3:13, 10:25).

The analogy for “building up” (oiko-dome) is always structural, architectural and residential. It comes from two words, “house” (oikos) and “doma,” an edifice or a roof. A house, unlike a hut or a shed, is strong, stable and secured, not a house of cards, built on sticks or built with straws.

Encourage the Church to Grow
13 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. (Eph 4:13)

When I was a young pastor in my first church in the States in 1990, an elderly lady from an Anglo church befriended me and told me of an advice for pastors she heard from the pulpit:
“In the first year, they'll idolize you; in the second year, they'll utilize you;
In the third, they'll criticize you; in the fourth year, they'll mutilize you; and
In the fifth year, they'll ostracize you.”

It’s been said, “A pastor must be ready to preach, to pray and to pack up!”

A pastor has a short tenure at a church, three years, experts say. The success of a pastor when he leaves depends on whether he accomplishes his task. The goal is to reach or attain three things, as indicated by the three-fold Greek word “eis,” or English “to” (verse 14’s first “in,” “and” “to” and NASB’s three “to’s”)– one, unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God; two, become mature; three, to the measure of the fullness of Christ. The three goals therefore, are preserving unity, producing disciples and practicing Christlikeness. The first concerns the community of Christ; the next, the character of Christ; and the last, the conformity to Christ.

The stress of the first part is on the “unity” of the church. This “unity” is not mentioned in any book or chapter in the Bible except twice in chapter four, where verse 3 mentions “make every effort to keep the ‘unity’ of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” (Eph 4:3) There is no better witness than the unity of the church, but there is no worse witness than the unraveling of the church. It’s been said, “It takes months to build a house that can be wrecked in a day.” In our multilingual, multicultural and multigenerational church, with 80 worshippers from more than 10 countries, diversity is our strength and our weakness. Unity alone won’t steer people through the front door, but unity lost ushers people out the back door.

The second (“mature”) refers to members’ mental and moral character. A pastor’s success is not measured by church programs, church property or church parking, but by the progress of his members in their sanctification, steadfastness and surrender to Christ, and the stride they made they in loving God, learn God’s word and listening in obedience. Are the members better off and more mature than when he first came? To be mature is to reach one’s potential, make good progress, and choose right priorities. There is no point leading a church where there is no qualitative and quantitative growth, where people are deadened to sin, dull of hearing and drunk with power. Pastor Earnest Campbell says it eloquently:
“To be young is to study in schools we did not build.
To be mature is to build schools in which we will not study.
To be young is to swim in pools we did not dig.
To be mature is to dig pools in which we will not swim.
To be young is to sit under trees, which we did not plant.
To be mature is to plant trees under which we will not sit.
To be young is to dance to music we did not write.
To be mature is to write music to which we will not dance.
To be young is to worship in churches we did not build.
To be mature is to build churches in which we may not worship.”

The third is to grow in Christlikeness. To be Christlike is to show Christ in our attitude, behavior and commitment. It is to live a life that is offered to Him, obedient to Him and ordered by Him.

Expect The Church to Grow
14 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 men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Eph 4:14-16)

Things you never hear in church:
11. I couldn’t find space to park outside. Praise God!
10. Nothing inspires me and strengthens my commitment like our annual stewardship campaign!
9. Pastor, we’d like to send you to this Bible seminar in the Bahamas.
8. Since we’re all here, let’s start the service early.
7. I love it when we sing hymns I’ve never heard before!
6. Forget the denominational minimum salary, let’s pay our pastor so he/she can live like we do.
5. I volunteer to be the permanent teacher for the Junior High Sunday School class.
4. I’ve decided to give our church the $500 a month I used to send to TV evangelists.
3. Personally I find witnessing much more enjoyable than golf.
2. I was so enthralled, I never noticed your sermon went 25 minutes over time.
1. Hey! It’s my turn to sit in the front pew.

The delight of pastors, as indicated by the Greek “that” (translated as “then” in NIV), is seeing the members are no longer children. Children (nepios) is made famous by Paul’s five-fold repetition of the word in 1 Corinthians 13:11 - “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.”

“Children” are not teenagers, youth, adolescent, minors or juveniles; they are merely babies, infants or toddlers, learning to stand, walk and speak. Children are used in the Bible in the context of having to “cherish” (thalpo), cuddle and coddle them, not merely care for them (1 Thess 2:7) and in the context of requiring milk, rejecting solid food (Heb 5:13).

As a result, qualified by two Greek participles, the child is “tossing” back and forth and “blowing” here and there. Tossed back and forth refers to the raging sea; blown here and there refers to the howling wind. The winds sway you, but the waves sink you.

There are two “in” prepositions in the passage: Verse 14’s “and by” is “in” (en) in Greek, complemented by another “in” at the end of the verse. The first preposition – “cunning” (kubeia) - is fraud and scam, the second for “craftiness” is trickery or sophistry, the serpent’s tool on Eve, according to 2 Corinthians 11:3. Complimenting the second “in” is “method of deception” in Greek, or deceitful scheming. “Method” (scheme), according to Ephesians 6:11, is the devil’s ways – he has method, not might! “Deception” (plane) is the word for Balaam's error (Jude 11), also translated as falsehood (1 John 4:6), lawless (2 Peter 3:17) and delusion (2 Thess 2:11). Balaam is famous for his vague yes, no and maybe answers in leading Israel to sin.

The contrast with the two participles – “tossing back and forth” and “blowing here and there” – is the participle “speaking the truth,” which is simply “truthing” in Greek, the use of the noun “truth” as a participle, an action noun. Paul gives us the strongest and foremost principle in communication - speaking the truth in love. Speaking the truth without love hurts and hinders, but speaking the truth in love honors, helps and heals. Both hurt, the former passing, but the other permanent. One leaves foes, the other friends. Speaking the truth in love is the healthy, honest and helpful way; other ways will result in anger, antagonism and aggression, succumbing to the dark side. Truth alone produces self-righteousness, but love alone produces softies.

Conclusion: Are you giving the pastor the respect due his work and his calling deserves? Do you know his financial and his family’s needs? Do you support your pastor in prayer? Do you instruct him or inspire him? Are you doing your part by attending meetings, obtaining training and volunteering service? Are you his ministry associate or merely a church acquaintance? Is he your spiritual elder or an office employee?