God’s Glorious Church
Pastors: God Called or Church Called?
1 Timothy 1:11
Woodlawn Baptist Church
March 6, 2005
Introduction
Have you ever received one of those chain letters that tells you to send a copy of the letter to several other people, add your name to the list, and so on? There’s a story about a church that decided to include in their newsletter something similar. It had some tongue-in-cheek suggestions for church members unhappy with their pastor: "Simply send a copy of this letter to six other churches who are tired of their ministers. Then bundle up your pastor and send him to the church at the top of the list. Add your name to the bottom of the list. In one week you will receive 16,436 ministers, and one of them should be a dandy. Have faith in this letter. One man broke the chain and got his old minister back."
Preacher jokes abound don’t they? They’re like Aggie jokes. It seems like everybody has one. “Do you know how I knew I wanted to become a preacher? I woke up one morning with a strong urge for fried chicken and feeling like being lazy, so I knew I was called to preach.” “Preachers work how many hours per week? Three!”
Some people like to think of creative things to say on the way out the door. “That was a nice little talk preacher.” I came across some others I thought you’d enjoy this morning.
• "You always manage to find something to fill up the time."
• "I don’t care what they say, I like your sermons."
• "If I’d known you were going to be good today I’d have brought a neighbor."
• "Did you know there are 243 panes of glass in the windows?"
• "We shouldn’t make you preach so often."
I have to admit that preachers have done much to hurt themselves. We usually think of the televangelists and how they have ripped off the masses. They have given pastors, preaching and the Lord’s true churches a bad name, but it’s not just them. In fact, you probably know a pastor or two who has hurt his credibility because of his own sin or character flaws.
This morning as I address the subject of pastors, I want you to know that although there is much fun to be had at the expense of pastors, and there is much fun to be had with your pastor, pastoring one of the Lord’s churches is no laughing matter. In fact, it is what I believe to be the highest and most important calling on the face of the earth. Pastoring and preaching are second to none, and as I spend today and the next two Sundays speaking about pastoring and preaching, I want you to go away with a better understanding of and a deeper appreciation for the men God has placed in your lives we call pastors.
As much as possible, hear this message as I speak about pastors in general and not about me in particular. We are in the middle of a series of messages concerning the Lord’s churches. So far as the Bible teaches, there are two ordained offices in the church: that of the pastor and the deacon. I want to be very clear with you this morning that I am not preaching this message for recognition, but because God wants you to understand the office of pastor. I want to deal with two things in particular: first, what is meant by the call? We talk about pastors being God-called, and we talk about them being called by a church. Second, I believe that as members of the Lord’s churches, there are certain responses we owe to pastors in light of his calling.
Understand the Calling
First let’s consider what it means to be God-called. In 1 Timothy 1, the apostle Paul was writing to the young pastor Timothy and was encouraging him to fulfill his calling as the pastor of the church at Ephesus. He told Timothy that some were living contrary to sound doctrine, which is according to the gospel of Christ. Then I want you to see what he said to Timothy in verses 11-12.
“According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.”
Now let’s take a look at 1 Timothy 3:1. Paul says,
“This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work.”
In Romans 1:1, he said,
“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated [or called] unto the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
The call to pastor. The call to preach. What does it mean? In all the times I’ve heard people ask how you know whether God is calling you to preach, the answer is almost always the same: “You just know.”
God is at work in the world today seeking and saving those who are lost. God’s call is a divine invitation from God Himself to join Him in that work in an official, lifetime work. It is an invitation because God won’t force anyone to do something against his will. It is an invitation because when God calls a man, he has a choice to make. He doesn’t have to do it. He doesn’t have to accept the invitation. But listen, God’s call is more than an invitation. It is a heart-wrenching compelling to do the work of the ministry. When a man is surrendered to God, filled with the Spirit of God, the work of the ministry becomes that man’s burning desire, and aside from his relationship with God, it is what consumes him.
There are two aspects of God’s calling that you need to see.
The Work
Notice that Paul used the word desire. Some men desire an office, others desire recognition, but Paul said “If any man desire the office of a bishop [pastor], he desires a good work.” The desire God fills a man with is for a good work, in fact it is the best work, but ministry is nothing less than that – it is work. When God calls a man, He calls him to take oversight of one of His flocks: to be an under-shepherd. The pastor is called to care for and feed the flock with spiritual food. Some will take strong food, others will take milk. The pastor is called to study the word, to rightly divide it, to preach it and teach it and defend it. There is more to the work than just that, but what I want you to notice is what Paul said in chapter 1. He said that when God put him into the ministry, he enabled him or equipped him for that work, whatever it might be.
The Authority
Who places men in the ministry? Who calls them? Who separates them for that purpose? It is God! I realize there are men who have abused the authority God has given them, but the fact remains that when God calls a man to the work, He gives him divine authority to do the work.
Here is an area in which I have previously been wrong, and it has to do with pastoral authority. I have preached and taught that the pastor and the members of a church share equality before God, and that the pastor has no more authority than the next member, but I have done you a disservice in preaching that. Now, when it comes to congregational church government, we are all equal when it concerns conducting church business. I have no more authority than the next member in that sense – we are all equals in matters of church polity.
However, consider these verses of Scripture:
“Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.”
That verse doesn’t specify pastors, but it certainly includes them.
Hebrews 13:7 says that we are to…
“Obey them that have the rule over you, who have spoken to you the word of God…”
Later in that same chapter we are told…
“Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account…”
The words rule, obey and submit either mean something or they don’t. In these passages, pastors are given an authority that doesn’t belong to other church members, and while we don’t naturally like the idea of authority, the authority is there nonetheless, but it is only there when it is exercised in accordance with the word of God and as the man of God himself submits to the authority of the One who has called him. This is easy to see in the analogy Scripture gives of the pastor working as a shepherd of a flock. Imagine the shepherd trying to lead the sheep along a path of safety, and the sheep saying, “You can’t tell us what to do! We’re all equals here.”
To be sure pastors must guard their sinful hearts against a spirit that wants to lord his authority over a flock, but they must also guard against today’s temptation to say that we are just one of the guys when God has called us to lead with divine authority, being fully equipped and enabled to do just such a thing.
So God calls some men to the ministry. What about the church call? When a church is in need of a pastor, and they are genuinely interested in what God wants, they are acknowledging that God already has a man whom He has called, enabled, and prepared for the work of the ministry in that local church. There are several ways that a church goes about calling a man to be their pastor, but essentially what they are doing is extending an invitation for that God-called man to fulfill the work of his ministry in their church body.
When you were looking for a pastor, I was on my end praying that God would put me where He wanted me, and you were on your end praying that God would give you what you needed, and in God’s own wisdom He brought the two of us together in a marriage of sorts. We have yoked up together to do the work of the ministry.
A Church’s Response
Let’s think this through. God calls a man to do the work of the ministry. God has found that man faithful, often times seeing in the man things that the man can’t even see himself. He leads some church out there to call that man to be their pastor. He has equipped and enabled him to fulfill his calling, and has given him divine authority to carry out that calling. What then should be the church’s response to that man? What are your responsibilities to your pastor?
Recognize his first loyalty
Look with me at 1 Corinthians 4:1-4. Paul said,
“Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.”
Whether they mean to or not, many people are overly critical of pastors. In my opinion it is usually when they don’t get their way or when the pastor didn’t do something to suit them. He may not have visited them enough or called them at the right times or perhaps he preached something they disagreed with. Pastors are going to be judged, but Paul said that what other people thought of his ministry didn’t really matter to him. “It is a small thing that I should be judged of you.” In other words, “I really don’t care what you think.”
Why? Because those people didn’t call him to the ministry! He was called by God. Pastors are ministers of Christ. Pastors are stewards of the mysteries of God. Sure we are church called. Sure you invited me to be your pastor, but my first loyalty is to God. Regardless of what you think of my ministry, my aim is to please God first. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to please you, but I firmly believe that if my desire is to please God and your desire is to please God, then we will please one another. However, if your desire is for me to please you, then I’ll never measure up to your expectations. A pastor’s first loyalty is to God, and if our church is to be a healthy church, you must recognize that loyalty.
Honor him
I mentioned this a moment ago. A lot of folk have mistaken ideas about what it means to honor God’s man. It doesn’t mean to kiss his ring or bow to him like the cults and false churches teach and practice. When Paul mentioned honoring those who labored in word and deed, he specified the financial support of those who labored. That is certainly one way to honor God’s man, but there are other ways to do so.
If you want to honor me as your pastor, I’ll give you some ways you can do so. Respect the office of pastor. There are some policemen that I do not respect, but I respect the office they hold and I know there is much more to it than what I see. The same is true of pastor. You can respect the office of the pastor. Don’t treat pastors with contempt, and don’t tolerate others who do. If you want to honor me, then take up for me and stand by me. Give me the benefit of the doubt, and when in doubt, come talk to me about it instead of picking up the phone.
You can honor me by doing something with God’s message. If I am anything as God’s man, it is His spokesman, His voice in a noisy room. The office of apostle has been done away with, but an apostle was simply a man who bore the message of another, and that is part of the work of a pastor. If I have gone to the trouble of answering God’s call and of answering your call to proclaim God’s Word to you, then when God speaks to you through me, obey Him.
Allow him to fulfill his calling
I’ll not say too much here, but I do want to point out that God has called men to join Him in His work, and too often there are churches or members of churches who really aren’t interested in being a part of that work. There are some who are content to hear a sermon and be left alone. There are some who are content with the status quo. There are some who are afraid to move, afraid to spend, afraid to work, afraid of change, and afraid of what God might do. There are those who don’t want to be bothered; those who are filled with self-interest.
You add all that up, and you get a people or a church that can and will keep a man from fulfilling God’s call on his life. Listen, if God calls a man to lead, and you as a church call that man to lead, then he must be allowed to lead.
Encourage him
Did you know that…
• 90% of pastors work more than 46 hours a week
• 80% believed that pastoral ministry affected their families negatively
• 33% said that being in ministry was an outright hazard to their family
• 75% reported a significant stress-related crisis at least once in their ministry
• 50% felt unable to meet the needs of the job
• 90% felt they were inadequately trained to cope with ministry demands
• 70% say they have a lower self-esteem now than when they started out
• 40% reported a serious conflict with a parishioner at least once a month
• 37% confessed having been involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with someone in the church
• 70% do not have someone they consider a close friend.
There is no doubt that being in the ministry is hazardous to one’s health and well-being, so how do you encourage the God-called man? You can pray for him. Tell him you’re praying for him. You can write a note; care for him; stand with him; work with him, feed him, buy him cars and send him on luxurious vacations (just kidding!) and did I mention pray for him?
Hold him accountable to fulfill his calling
Like anyone else, pastors can allow many other things to distract them from their calling. Some are legitimate, others are not. Some get involved in other jobs, community affairs, they get distracted by money or marriage or school. Sometimes they get discouraged. Other times they are elated. It really doesn’t matter what the cause, you have a responsibility to hold your pastor accountable to fulfill his calling as a minister and steward of the gospel.
Conclusion
When God calls a man into the work of the ministry – it is a serious calling. God has always called upon leaders to guide His people. In 1 Samuel 13:14, the Bible says that “the Lord hath sought out a man after his own heart…” The Lord is still seeking that kind of people today. For some, God is searching your heart in pursuit of a personal relationship with you. He wants you to be saved. If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, or you have doubts about whether you have done that or not today, God is calling you to trust Him. It is simply an invitation, a compelling to confess your sin to Him, to trust Him to deliver you from that sin and take up residence in your life as your Lord and Savior.
God may be calling others of you to some place of ministry. He is not going to twist your arm, it is an invitation to join Him where He is already at work in your life. Will you join Him today? You alone must respond to God’s Spirit speaking to you. How will you answer?
