True pastor appreciation
Brings us to the realization
That to pastor
Is to facilitate demonstrations
Of the presence, power, and love
Of the risen Jesus,
Not just to give talks about Him.

October is Pastor Appreciation Month. It’s a great time for you to appreciate the joy of pastoring by encouraging and helping other people to daily follow and obey the living Jesus. I appreciate the professional pastors who haven’t settled into routine and haven’t given up their passion for the fire of God to fall.

Most professional pastors start out loving Jesus and wanting to lead people to Him, but their zeal is often drowned out by the demands and expectations of the religious system. To stop being the pastor of an institutional church isn’t to quit the ministry. Ministry is proclaiming Christ and serving others in the name of Jesus. All Christ-followers are called to be in the ministry wherever they are.

The Bible calls Jesus both the Great and the Chief Shepherd. As under shepherds, people who pastor need to train and disciple people how to daily hear the voice of the ever-living Jesus and do what He says.

Someone who pastors (helps others to follow Jesus) is a pastor whether paid for it or not. The 50+ New Testament one another commands show that all Christ-followers are called and ordained (set apart) to minister to one another.

Team Jesus needs coaches, not just lecturers — people who will train and disciple others to daily follow and obey the risen Jesus. Too often those called to be coaches in the body of Christ have surrendered their calling and become instead weekly lecturers and local church CEOs.

Some Christ-followers are hiring Christian coaches to train and disciple them. That’s the function of pastoring. Let’s freely pastor one another. Anytime you help someone to follow and obey Jesus more closely you are engaging in the ministry of pastoring.

Jesus came to start a fire — to fill His followers with passionate love for Him. To pastor is to stir up that fire in people, not to make them passively dependent on religious meetings. Pastoring is to make faithful and passionate disciples of Christ, not to perform for passive church spectators.

Jesus always has more for us. That’s why we are called to follow Him and be led by the Spirit. Like Peter and John said: “We must obey God rather than men.” Step out and start pastoring today!

It’s Pastor Appreciation Month. I appreciate everyone who pastors (who helps people daily follow and obey the ever-living Jesus)!