Dear Churches, Fight For Your Pastor
A maybe awkward word from a pastor about a highly important truth in Scripture
It can sound like Pinocchio when a pastor tells his people to respect the pastor—unless the pastor is being biblical. Unlike Pinocchio who desperately attempts to prove that he is “a real boy” the ordained minister of the gospel does not need to prove to the people that he is a “real pastor”. They took vows to God Almighty that they acknowledge his ordination and that they would treat him in light of his high calling.
Look at four verses where God commands His people to respect their pastors:
“Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” - 1 Timothy 5:17
“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” - Hebrews 13:7
“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” - Hebrews 13:17
“We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13a
When the pastor tells his people to respect the pastor, he is only saying what God Almighty says. To ignore these Scriptures and to act otherwise is to break the 5th Commandment.
To be sure, the pastor teach these truths with utmost humility. After all, God could have raised up any other man beside him to be a pastor. Being a Christian is all of grace. Bring a pastor is all of grace. None of it is deserved.
A Highly Relevant Book For Churches Today
This is why Peter Orr wrote the book Fight For Your Pastor. Don’t misread the title. It doesn’t say Fight With Your Pastor but Fight For Your Pastor.
The pastor is not always right. He is a sinner redeemed by grace. Yet, a faithful pastor is one who strives to live up to the high demands of the pastoral office as described in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. He must be doing all he can to look to Christ, proclaim Christ, and by God’s grace to form followers of Christ. God will judge him for this (Heb. 13:17; Jas. 3:1). This is a burden beyond what most people know.
Strategically, Satan sets his sights on the pastor. If he can cause him to grievously sin, doubt the faith, slack on a faithful proclamation of God’s Word, grow prayer-less, neglect the shepherding of the sheep, ignore his marriage and family, become lazy in the work of ministry, or put off the hard work of preparing to preach—if Satan can get to him in these ways then he slows down Heaven’s attack on his dark gates.
This is why Peter Orr says, “The person who is under more satanic attack than anyone else you know is your pastor. The person whose faith Satan wants to derail the most is your pastor. The person whose marriage Satan would most like to wreck, whose kids he most wants to cause to rebel, whom he most wants to discourage is your pastor.”
Orr quotes an anonymous pastor who hits the nail on the head for what every faithful pastor wants from his people. “I wish my congregation would understand that God would grow us to be more like Jesus if we turned our criticism and cynicism into prayer for others and church leaders.”
While being careful and not running into the danger of developing a victim mindset, we must feel the appropriate shame if our first response with others in conversations about the church is criticism about the pastor rather than thankfulness. Even when people are thankful for their pastor, have they told him so?
For every one compliment, pastors have ten other emails, phone calls, texts, knocks on the door, hearing of rumors, passive aggressive comments, or requests for meetings that are geared toward (often) unfair criticism.
It is true that pastors today need to understand what they’re getting into. They need to man up and not be so soft. It’s the nature of leadership. It’s especially the nature of gospel leadership. It’s what Jesus told us to expect in John 15:20, “Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.”
But this does not cancel out the fact that being a pastor is one of the most lonely places to be and that faces more criticism than a referee.
Brothers and sisters, fight for your pastor.
God Commands Us To Support Our Pastors
God’s sovereign authority for the church to pray for their pastor and elders. 2 Corinthians 1:11 says, “You also must help us by prayer.”
You might be able to guess the following: The amount of verses in Scripture where the church is commanded to pray for their pastors far-and-away outnumbers those about criticizing the pastor. Matter of fact, only two verses after telling us give double honor to pastors we read in 1 Timothy 5:19 “Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.” You won’t find any verses in Scripture that tell the church to willy nilly let their disagreements known to the pastor and certainly not to regularly give him criticism every time he steps down from the pulpit.
Again, any pastor who dares to use this teaching to manipulate others, grow in pride, or think himself to be above criticism is in urgent need of deep repentance. Too many pastors today play the “woe is me” card to guilt trip people into supporting them. There is a time and place to criticize your pastor. Yet, in a healthy church the people are slow to criticize and saturated in prayer for the pastor.
Whenever pastors are able to visit another congregation, they ought to encourage that congregation to “fight for their pastor” and not “fight with their pastor”. Without sounding like the pastorate is a Good Ol’ Boys Club, pastors need to proclaim God’s authoritative Word to lovingly motivate the people to support, respect, and pray for their pastor.
Who Can Help?
Pastors, as awkward as it is, teach your people what God teaches in His Word. This will only help the people respect the other Elders and Deacons as well.
Elders and Deacons, create a culture in the church for this to happen. Listen to the people but don’t let a culture of criticism build in the church. They took vows to God to support their pastor. Help them live in light of this. It will further your own ministry.
Staff, rally around your pastor. He doesn’t always make the best decisions. Hopefully there is a good culture in the staff to honestly and lovingly address these situations. Yet, be cautious when people come to you and want you to side with them against the pastor.
Congregation, at the end of the day this command is a mark of godliness. To oppose a faithful pastor is to oppose Christ (Luke 10:16). The leaders who are encouraged are the leaders who are mightily refreshed to minister the gospel to your soul.