Through the year, names get checked off as families and individuals are visited in homes and cafes. Burdens and cares are shared; plans are made for private reformation and encouragement. Without scientific specificity, I have come to the conclusion that most congregations are like my own. The closer you get to the end of the year, elder visits increase. If there is time, ruling elders’ families will be visited before the end of the year, or at least before the congregational meeting. And if one is lucky—pardon the expression—the pastor and his family will be visited last. Yet often the new year comes; the list of visitations is reset; and often, elders go unvisited and the pastor and his family are left without this important component of spiritual care. And for another year, this question goes unasked… “Pastor, are you okay?”
As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings… labors, sleepless nights, hunger…with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through…dishonor, through slander… We are treated as impostors…as unknown…as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful…as poor…as having nothing. (Selections from 2 Corinthians 6: 4-10)
The Apostle Paul understood what it meant to fill up the sufferings of Christ. As a servant or minister of the gospel, Paul carried the sufferings of the people of God and described them in terms such as hardship and sorrow.
All ministers of the gospel know something of this suffering. I will be the first to confess that I have had a very joyful and fruitful ministry, harvesting that which others before me planted and watered. Even in the midst of great joy and happiness, however, there is a burden I carry for the church of God that came with my ordination. I carry on my heart and mind the sufferings and trials and hardships and disappointments of the men and women to whom I minister. No amount of seminary preparation could adequately prepare a man for bearing the weight of a congregation. But for the grace of God, it is a burden too heavy.
In the midst of the weight-bearing, very few, if any take time to stop and ask us, “Pastor, are you okay?” This has stood out to me in several ways over the last couple of months. Not all pastors are okay, and even those of us who are okay—now—still need to be encouraged and challenged toward the vulnerability it takes to answer the question, “Pastor, are you okay?” What are some ways that the Lord has brought this necessity to mind? I will share three ways the Lord has pressed this concern upon me.
Shared Suffering
Elder visitation is an important component of pastoral care in a presbyterian church. Visitation is a means by which the elders share in the suffering of Christ’s little ones.
Through the year, names get checked off as families and individuals are visited in homes and cafes. Burdens and cares are shared; plans are made for private reformation and encouragement. Without scientific specificity, I have come to the conclusion that most congregations are like my own. The closer you get to the end of the year, elder visits increase. If there is time, ruling elders’ families will be visited before the end of the year, or at least before the congregational meeting. And if one is lucky—pardon the expression—the pastor and his family will be visited last. Yet often the new year comes; the list of visitations is reset; and often, elders go unvisited and the pastor and his family are left without this important component of spiritual care.
And for another year, this question goes unasked… “Pastor, are you okay?”
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