Tips for supporting our church leaders
The high calling of pastoring the local church is emotionally, spiritually and even physically stressful at times.
So what can we do? How can we support the leaders of our local churches? How can we show them our appreciation and encourage them as they fulfill their calling? How can you encourage your pastors and church leaders?
- Pray for them.
What better way is there for you to uplift your pastors and church leaders than through approaching the throne of grace with confidence?
The Lord hears the prayers of His people, and He cares for the leaders of His people. Take time regularly to pray for the men and women on your church staff. Pray for their emotional well-being, their physical strength, their spiritual wellness and any specific needs you know. And let them know you are praying. This is definitely the simplest and perhaps most impactful way you can support your church leaders.
Before you do any of the following, be sure to pray.
- Encourage them.
Being approached after a sermon and hearing how the Lord convicted or encouraged people through the Word is great. So are texts. But letters of encouragement, especially handwritten ones, are true treasures.
What should you write?
- Thank your leaders for their time outside the typical workday.
- Share Scripture that may be encouraging to them.
- Tell them how the Lord has been using their ministry to make you more like Jesus.
- Write about how you saw a friend come to Christ.
Your pastors and church leaders will appreciate any encouragement.
- Serve willingly.
Churches are always looking for more volunteers. Willing hands and warm hearts are so needed in the local church, especially when it comes to children’s or nursery ministries.
How can you encourage your church leaders by serving?
- Start by asking your leaders where they need help.
- Spend a couple of months being a greeter.
- Sign up to be on the monthly rotation for parking lot duty.
- Volunteer to hold and pray for babies while their parents worship.
Any service you offer will be helpful for your church leaders. Simply ask where help is needed and be willing to be faithful.
- Give generously.
Giving is usually a pretty sensitive topic in church, isn’t it?
The pastor doesn’t want to appear to be campaigning for a higher salary, and the church is sometimes wary to give more than is comfortable.
Pastors aren’t in the ministry for the money. If they are, they will be sorely disappointed! You can show your appreciation for your pastors and church leaders by giving generously and viewing your gifts as an act of worship, not merely ministry maintenance.
- Encourage their families.
We’ve known the toll leading a church can take on the pastor, but the pastor’s family often feels it as well.
Occupational ministry is a family affair, even if the pastor is the only family member working in the church. Late nights, working weekends, phone calls in the middle of the night — the demands of ministry affect the whole family. Encourage the families of your church leaders like you encourage your church leaders: prayer, notes and acts of kindness.
- Speak well of others.
It is discouraging to leaders when they hear the people of God talking bad about others in the church. Don’t gossip about the bride of Christ. The body of Christ is a wounded body because it is made up of wounded people. Don’t add salt to its wounds. Speak of the bride of Christ as you would like someone to speak of your spouse.
October is Pastor Appreciation Month. Don’t just give a card — be an encourager.
EDITOR’S NOTE – Adapted from an article originally published by HomeLife magazine, reprinted with permission.
Impact of ‘Experiencing God’ study
By James Long
Retired minister of education
While God has blessed me with several men through the years who have significantly influenced my daily walk with Him, Henry Blackaby is the one who has had the most profound impact on my personal discipleship.
Blackaby has been my primary mentor through “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God,” along with Claude King and Richard Blackaby. I will always be grateful for their investment in my life.
Henry and Richard Blackaby state in “Experiencing God Day By Day” that investing in the life of a fellow Christian “is the purpose of discipleship.”
The “Experiencing God” study is not a program; neither is it a formula. It is a guide for daily walking in a growing intimate love relationship with God that is real and personal.
“Experiencing God” enables Bible students to see and understand to some degree life from God’s point of view.
It is an experience like no other. It equips followers of Jesus to experience God revealing Himself, His purposes and His ways.
To experience God working in our lives this way requires daily denial of ourselves, absolute surrender to the will of God as revealed in His Word and obedience to Him in all
areas of our lives.
It is all about God working in us and through us for His glory, and for our good and the good of others around us. It is really all about Him.
EDITOR’S NOTE — We’ll share more from James Long next week. We’d also love to know how the “Experiencing God” study has helped you in your walk with the Lord. Email us at news@thealabamabaptist.org to share your story.
“It was clearly of the Lord. We could not have orchestrated these events in any other way, there’s no other way you could explain it but that it was just the greatness of God,” said Derek Staples, pastor of First Baptist Church Jacksonville, on being a perfect match to donate a kidney to Jennifer Borders, a member of the congregation.
“We are in a world where we consume so much — we consume social media, entertainment, movies and sports,” said local artist Tracy Jarrells, whose art is on display at Patricia S. Bendall Art Gallery at Brookwood Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham. “It’s really fun for me to be able to create something beautiful and give back.”
“We were serving. Not just me, but my music was being used … to bring comfort … . I realized that the message of the music could really impact [others], and God was using me at that moment,” said Janeth Pacheco, who traveled with a missions team to Peru to aid in a church’s ministry alongside International Mission Board missionary Amy Fisher.
“It was so much more than just having instructions to walk around and pray,” said Melanie Arnold of Lineville Baptist Church on prayer walking in western Europe.
What America needs is more disciples. … Too many churches have … observers.
Richard Blackaby
Author and Bible teacher
I suppose it’s true that the church has had several issues thrust upon us in recent years without invitation. The most disturbing is the abuse of children.
Years ago this issue wasn’t on the front burner. We know the problem was there, but I can’t remember churches dealing with this or even discussing it. Maybe we lived in blissful denial. But today we see this issue with new clarity.
Churches must have policies in place to protect boys and girls. We want to be the happiest and safest place on earth for them.
There are enduring consequences for those who’ve been credibly accused or convicted of harming children, even when they’ve paid their debt to society and repented before God. They cannot be near children, and they cannot be unaccompanied in church buildings.
Surely one of the most difficult things churches may be called to do is befriend offenders like these and foster a human connection.
Churches work hard to be welcoming and affirming, but today churches cannot afford to be complacent.
Pastor Michael Brooks
Siluria Baptist Church, Alabaster
Except for a few very large churches with corresponding financial resources, most churches cannot compete with the show put on by top entertainment producers. Mid-size and certainly smaller churches cannot replicate what people experience at entertainment venues and even larger churches.
As a result, some of them [believe] they are out of date and out of step with what it takes to provide meaningful ministry to people today. That’s simply not true.
Churches have two incredible advantages: content and community.
We don’t need a show on Sunday. We have the gospel to celebrate.
We don’t need the energy of an anonymous crowd to sustain us. We have Christian friends.
Jeff Iorg, president
Gateway Seminary
God uses His children throughout their entire lives if we let Him.
Amy Hacker
the-scroll.com
From the Twitterverse
@ricklance
Giving through the Cooperative Program makes an eternal difference in the lives of an untold number of people. I am grateful Alabama Baptists continue as pacesetters in Cooperative Program giving.
@jenniferwilkin
Spiritual disciplines nurture steadfastness.
What we repeat in times of ease, we will recall in times of hardship.
@ethicist
Sin is exhausting; holiness is life-giving.
@DanielDickard
If Jesus is in your heart, He will come out of your mouth; and when Jesus consistently comes out of the mouths of believers, the Church grows.
So, church growth born out of a move of God is good; church growth birthed out of a tried-and-true formula is not.
@PaulTripp
The gospel means you don’t have to hide in shame. You can confess your sin to a perfectly holy God and receive forgiving and empowering grace.
@shane_pruitt78
The dangerous part of ministry leadership is when our gifts & talents take us further than our character can sustain us.
@LysaTerKeurst
Father God, I know that You’re more interested in preparing me than keeping me comfortable. No part of me wants to experience any discomfort or pain. But I know I can trust Your heart for me. Keep shaping me. Keep strengthening me. I know the work You’re doing in me is good.
@howertonjosh
Politics as religion will disciple you into a person of hatred.
@nathanafinn
My definition of an elitist: somebody who was raised with small town traditional family values, but now thinks he is too good to drink coffee from a gas station.
@mhenslee
Preach as though they almost didn’t come. Preach as if they may never come again.
Preach as though eternity hangs in the balance.
Thoughts that aren’t meant to add guilt, but remind us to preach with desperation. … Be faithful to the text, point to Jesus and trust Him
to move.
@brocraigc
“Christ in the heart is better than corn in the barn.” —Spurgeon
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