The Pastor as Blessed
This semester I am interning under our education minister (sunday school) and prayer and evangelism minister as well as taking a preaching practicum course under the leadership of our pastor where we preach 5 18-22 minute (yes - that's hard) sermons (epistle, Gospel, Psalm, OT narrative, & a topic). Each week I have either had to study for both a sunday school lesson or a sermon or both of them throughout the week.
Granted, it has been a challenge in light of all the other course work and church responsibilities we already have, but it has also been a surprising joy. Each time I come to the text, usually having zero to minimal understanding of the passage, and begin reading, praying, pouring over it, meditating on it, usually within a few hours to a few days, the Holy Spirit is pleased to illumine the mind and the heart, and the infectious joy of God's revelation begins to penetrate the shell of sin and ignorance, and it is a time of communion with God through the truth of His Word.
God calls us to ministry indeed to show His glory through weak vessels, through jars of clay. I have seen over this past month that the pastor - for all the bruises, suffering, disloyalty, malice, and lonliness he suffers as he lovingly tries to shepherd stubborn, dumb, rebellious sheep to the green pastures of the Word of Life and the living waters of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit - that he is also richly blessed. He is constrained by his very calling to get into the Word, and not just read it, but wrestle with it, to break it open, to try and discover what it means and how it applies. And through this hard work, this wrestling, the Holy Spirit is pleased to let him catch a glimpse of God the Father through the Word, Jesus Christ. And this produces deeper love for God, transformation into Christ-likeness, and bread broken open for God's people to come and feast on. The pastor for all his brokenness, is still, bountifully blessed.
Granted, it has been a challenge in light of all the other course work and church responsibilities we already have, but it has also been a surprising joy. Each time I come to the text, usually having zero to minimal understanding of the passage, and begin reading, praying, pouring over it, meditating on it, usually within a few hours to a few days, the Holy Spirit is pleased to illumine the mind and the heart, and the infectious joy of God's revelation begins to penetrate the shell of sin and ignorance, and it is a time of communion with God through the truth of His Word.
God calls us to ministry indeed to show His glory through weak vessels, through jars of clay. I have seen over this past month that the pastor - for all the bruises, suffering, disloyalty, malice, and lonliness he suffers as he lovingly tries to shepherd stubborn, dumb, rebellious sheep to the green pastures of the Word of Life and the living waters of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit - that he is also richly blessed. He is constrained by his very calling to get into the Word, and not just read it, but wrestle with it, to break it open, to try and discover what it means and how it applies. And through this hard work, this wrestling, the Holy Spirit is pleased to let him catch a glimpse of God the Father through the Word, Jesus Christ. And this produces deeper love for God, transformation into Christ-likeness, and bread broken open for God's people to come and feast on. The pastor for all his brokenness, is still, bountifully blessed.
