An Encouraging Pastor

After 18 years in para-church ministry, with a heavy emphasis on evangelism and discipleship I began a pastor position in my mountain community. One of the questions that I’d often ask myself was, "What kind of church are we going to be?" A seeker church, a bible teaching church, an outreach oriented church? The parallel question I really had to ask of myself was, "what kind of pastor am I going to be?" A hell-fire-brimstone preacher, grand fatherly affirming pastor, truth evading-but culturally relevant preacher, etc. You can imagine many categories and probably know of popular examples of each.

In the midst of this self evaluation a wise friend with whom I’d pastored said, "go with your strengths." During our conversation I’d already revealed to him what kind of preacher/pastor I wanted to be. But an additional driving desire burned within me.....to be an encouraging pastor. The greek word for encouragement is para-kaleo....literally meaning to call one alongside. That’s a great description of what a pastor...an encouraging pastor, should be doing. Calling people alongside. Of course this presumes that as a spiritual leader you’re already close to God, and as such you are then calling others alongside the both of you.

What does this look like? I thought about this long and hard, as this was something I really wanted to be....an encourager both in my personal interactions and the flavor of my Bible messages. I think it means to share the revealed truths from God in His Word, the Bible....but to do it in a way that draw people into a desire to obey and a hopeful expectation that they are capable of obeying. To hear examples of faith in action and think and trust that they too, with God’s empowerment could have similar faith and perform similar actions.

Remember when Jesus said in John 14, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater {works} than these he will do; because I go to the Father."? Wow! What a promise! What a concept! I realized that Jesus was an encouraging pastor! He was telling His guys that with God’s power-assistance they were going to do more than even the Son of God Himself! Sometimes when we dream things all we need is someone to come alongside us and believe in that dream for us. To say, "You can do it, I believe in you." How many people have gone on to fulfill great things simply because one person said, "I believe in you."?

This is a great power that each of us possess. The power of encouragement. How many people have you been the person that said, "I believe in you. You can do it."? Do you have someone in your life that regularly tells you this? If not, find someone. If you can’t, at least be that person for someone else and get the chain going.

So that’s it. That’s the kind of person.....and pastor I want to be....an encouraging one. With every message I prepare I want to ask myself if I’m presenting these Godly truths in a way that people will feel encouraged and hopeful.

"Lord, thank you for the gift of encouragement that even your Son modeled to us during His time on earth. Thank you for your Holy Spirit that wisely leads us in dispensing these words. Amen"