Simple Joys

The Thanksgiving and Christmas season are times of fellowship and togetherness with dear family and friends.  These days are filled with one meal after another, seeing those we haven’t seen since this time last year, and reminiscing about times past and those to come.

Each family has their traditional gatherings and customs.  From trimming the tree, baking cookies together, and attending church together; our family and friends continue to make more memories as each year passes.  This year, may we be continually thankful to our Heavenly Father for allowing us celebrate another Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Let us be thankful that we will be apart of making more memories together.

To encourage thought in taking pleasure in the simple joys of this time of year I would ask you to share a small joy that you will be taking pleasure in this season.  Please write a small paragraph and post it in the comment section describing what you are thankful for, or a precious memory, or just a small joy.  I look forward to the responses.

Filed under: Christmas, Family, Friendship

Letters from a Pastor: Balancing Ministry and Family

Pastor and People,

I have been a pastor for about 6 years in a church in Virginia consisting of a membership of about 125. Besides a part-time secretary I am the only individual on the church staff. Needless to say, I am a very busy man as I strive to meet the needs of our members and reach out to our community. I have two Sunday messages to prepare, a Wednesday night Bible study, weekly counseling sessions, committee meetings to attend and much

Filed under: Family, Letters from a Pastor, Ministry, Pastors, The Church

Pastor: Teach Your Children to Love the Church

One mark of an excellent ministry is not the size of your church, the number of baptisms per year, the programs and various committees, but if your children grow up to love and adore the church. From the time they are born a pastors’ child is the center of attention in the church and cannot escape scrutiny by members. When dad doesn’t come home when he said he would, when dad misses the ball game, when dad misses the ballet; his children begin to resent the church at an early age. They feel that their dad loves others, who are not of his own family, more than he loves them. Brothers, let us keep watch over how we raise our children in the church. Let us be a pastor to our family first and then a pastor to our congregation.

The familiar verse from Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” If your children grow up to love, adore and cherish Christ and His church and become active members in a local body you have succeeded in your ministry. Teach your children that church life is not always problems and tribulations that consume dad’s attention. The church is the Bride for whom Christ gave His life and is the greatest institution on the earth. Raise your children to cherish Christ above everything else, including yourself.

There are several practical things a dad, pastor, can do to teach his children to love the church and the gospel ministry:

1. Spend time with your children. Set aside time each day to spend with your children. Uninterrupted time where you play, talk, read, etc… This time is just as important as when you sit at your desk. Cherish this time and look forward to this time. Let your children know that they have a place in your life as well as others.

2. Don’t discuss church business in front of your kids. This is a dangerous thing to do! You may discuss certain things with your wife, but never discuss church problems and issues in front of your children. They will grow up thinking the church is noting but problems and something that caused daddy pain and heartache.

3. Praise the church in front of your kids. After the Sunday morning service, on the way home, talk about how wonderful the service was. Discuss with your children their favorite portion of the service, their favorite hymn sung, etc…

4. Don’t let your children be an example to the rest of the congregation. Your parenting skills are a process just like the rest of the parents in your congregation. Just because you are a pastor and a man of God does not mean you will be the perfect parent. Don’t set your children on an unrealistic pedestal as an example to the rest of the congregation. Don’t allow your parenting and disciplinary skills be the standard for the other parents in your church.

5. Pray with your children. One of the best things to instill within the heart of your children at an early age is the love of talking to God. Before they go to bed, or at the breakfast or dinner table pray with your children. Teach them to pray from an early age. This will instill a confidence and trust in God. There earthly father may leave them but they will learn to seek a Father that will never leave nor forsake them.

These are just a few practical steps a pastor and his wife can take in raising their children to love the church. This counsel could be used by all Christian parents so that, “when they are old they will not depart from it.”

Filed under: Family, Ministry, Pastors, The Church, Various Thoughts

Mother of Moses Makes Time Magazine Top 10

Numbered among Time’s 10 Best Moms Ever were such notables as Marge Simpson, Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, and Mrs. Jumbo from the hit Disney movie Dumbo. Among the list was someone I had not even considered as I was reading the Time story. Jochabed, the mother of Moses was number 5 on the list.

When Pharaoh demanded that all the male Jewish newborns be slaughtered, Jochabed had a difficult decision and was faced with trying circumstances. Jochabed was pregnant with Moses, the very one God would use to deliver His people out of Egyptian captivity and finally posses the Promised Land. Instead of subjecting her son to murder, Jochabed placed her newborn baby in a floating basket among the current of the Nile River (Exodus 2). Moses floated into the bathing waters of Pharaoh’s daughter who claimed him as her own. God’s marvelous providence positioned Jochabed as the nurse that would raise Moses in Pharaoh’s household.

Faced with the punishment of death for not following Pharaoh’s orders, Jochabed choose life for her son and placed him in the providential hands of God. She courageously choose to obey God rather than man. As we reflect on mothers and their infinite value in our lives and society let us praise the mothers who choose life!

Filed under: Family, Old Testament, Providence, Women

The Pastors’ Wife – Often Forgotten

In our thinking about the duties and demands of a pastor we often forget what a heavy load is carried by the pastors’ wife. She is often swept into the shadows as we elevate the pastor as the only one needing mentoring, training, and direction. It is said by many modern-day churches that the pastor and his wife share in a ‘co-pastorate’ of the church. I have seen signs with a picture of the happy couple advertising them as ‘Pastors’ or ‘Co-Pastors’. However, this is not the biblical role or mandate of the pastors’ wife. The pastorate of a church is for Godly men who have been called by God into such a high position. Even though it is not biblical for the wife to be a ‘co-pastor’ it is biblical for the wife to support her husband in the ministry and maintain an active ministry role in the church by being a Godly example to all other women and help-mate to her husband.

The wife of a pastor carries many burdens and also wears many hats. She is often asked to fill the vacant nursery spot, the empty choir chair, or cook the extra dish for the pot-luck dinner. She is kept in the dark about confidential conversations that go on between her husband and others in the church. She is ridiculed and examined by busy-bodies in the church for the way she dresses and mother’s her children. Never think this is an easy job. To be the wife of a pastor takes a special God-called women who is of noble character with the ‘patience of Job’.

There are many hats worn by the pastors’ wife and many obligations in which she should attend as her husband shepherds the flock. Below you will find a small list of some responsibilities that fall at her feet.

1. She should be a help-mate and biggest supporter of her husband. The first role she carries is paramount and necessary for the successful ministry of her husband. She is his solace when ministry gets tough and hard. She is his comfort when he feels alone and down-trodden. She is his vacation from the endless demands of ministry.

2. She should be a Godly mother. Like it or not the eyes of every church member are on the pastors’ wife and her motherly skills. She should display the utmost Godly character in how she teaches and trains her children. She should give Godly discipline, correction and guidance for her children. She should teach her children the importance of their father’s calling and ministry. She should teach her children to love the church, to love ministry, and to cherish Christ as their supreme satisfaction.

3. She should be a mentor to younger women. Not only should the pastors’ wife have mentors in her own life, but she should also mentor younger women in the church. Discipleship should be her main ministry in the church. She should pour her life into the lives of the women around her through various ministry opportunities.

4. She should be an example to all. The pastors’ wife will often set the tone and effectiveness of her husbands’ ministry. For example, if the pastor and his wife fight before Sunday morning worship the congregation will be able to tell there are issues the moment he steps into the pulpit. It is the pastors’ wife that watch-guards the life of her husband and the lives of her children. She is to be an example of character, virtue, holiness, righteousness, integrity, faithfulness, and love.

Church – let us love our pastors’ wives and recognize her for what she is. Pastors – love your wives and honor her, love her, and show her your appreciation for all she does. If you are a pastors’ wife – Thank You!

Filed under: Family, Ministry, Pastors, The Church, Women