HOW PASTORS CAN SUPPORT THEIR FLOCK
Church members are in the best position to minister to the world.
When they go to work, talk with neighbors, volunteer in the
community, your members are already in the mission field doing
the things their God-given talents have best prepared them to do.
When a pastor supports a ministry of the laity, he is multiplying
the effectiveness of God's ministry in the world.
What should a supportive pastor be doing:
- Be a believer. Truly believe that the church is to minister
in the world and that the laity have been called to do it.
- Listen. Ask your members to tell you what they do in their
daily routines. Once they believe that you are truly
interested, they will tell you.
- Affirm, affirm, affirm. Affirm that their work is important
to God. Do it over and over. They have been raised in a
church that told them only you were the minister. So you need
to preach, again and again, that their work matters to God.
- Be patient. It will take time for them to recognize their
ministries. After all, being a passive pew sitter is a
comfortable way to practice religion. Taking God's ministry
into the workplace is more difficult and scarier.
- Equip. Together with them find the ways they can best carry
the Gospel into the world. Help them to make the connections
between Sunday and the rest of the week. Help them to help
each other.
- Nourish. Make sure the word you preach, the sacraments they
receive, and the worship they experience each Sunday will
nourish them for the week ahead.
- Support. Help them to create their own support groups. You
don't have to do it. Just give them the vision and resources.
Reprinted from Ministry in Daily Life by William E.
Diehl (AL174) with permission from the Alban
Institute, Inc., 7315 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 1250W
Bethesda, Maryland 20814-3211. Copyright (c) 1996.
All rights reserved.