He is to root out any sort of danger that may enter the flock. God has carefully chosen pastors whom he would deem worthy of protecting his people. The relationship between the pastor and his people is one of the greatest relationships in the whole world. This relationship will denote a sense of connection. This sense of connection will cause the people of a church to respect the leader God has given them. If the people and the pastor do not have a relationship the people will not heed what the pastor teaches them to do.
God is not pleased when a pastor does not have a good elationship with his people. The same goes for when a person is dissatisfied with their pastor. Pastors have the tendency of drifting away from meeting their individual needs, and rather stepping back and focusing on the church as whole. This is dangerous as a pastor is to care for his people''s every day specific needs. Some pastors can be good administrators, some can be good speakers and take pride in their oratory skills, and others take pride in their effective promotion.
These are all good assets which can assist a pastor greatly. However, the greatest office in which e should focus is in pastoring people. A church can tolerate average preaching and a lot of other things, but if they have a problem with the pastor it is a lost cause to try to persuade them. Pastors need to love their people. Paul is an excellent example in the Bible of how a minister is to love his people. When we think of Paul we can think of man, who while in Jail still took the time to pen a letter to his people.
Paul''s life was his people. Paul states his concern and love for his people in I Thessalonians 2:7-13 " But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: So being ffectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.
Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and Justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe: As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, That ye would alk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of , which ettectually worketn also in you that believe. Though Paul may be noted as being more a missionary, soul winner, and a church planter than a pastor, he is still seen doing many things that a pastor ought to be doing. When he started a new church he was the people''s pastor. The word "nurse" in this passage gives the idea of mother with bond and love for her child. Paul was perhaps the greatest soul winner who ever lived yet still gentle, loving, and kind to the people whom he pastored. He set a great example for the modern pastor. Continuing, people wrote that he was "affectiously desirous" of his people.
This would mean "to lovingly long for". Absence is said to make the heart grow fonder. Though Paul''s missionary pastorate was short, it was characterized by love. Love is a strong force that when demonstrated at its fullest effect can cause a person to lay down his life for that whom he loves. Paul was illing to lay down his life for his people. Notice later in verse eight of the same passage he says "we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls. " Let''s define the word "impart. This word means "to give. " So if we were to rephrase that a little it would say "we were willing to give our own souls to you. " (Recall how Jesus spoke of the good Shepherd giving his "soul" for the sheep). He poured out his soul to his people because they were "dear" to him. This denotes that Paul loved the people of Thessalonica which meant he was willing o pour out his soul to them. I Corinthians 13:13 states, "And now abideth, faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. A pastor without a heart of love for his people will eventually be found to be sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Without fail there will come a friction with love. A pastor needs to stand for faith, and having done all to stand, he needs to set forth hope for the people. But the virtue which is the lubricant between all friction and shortcomings is love. The apostle wrote of the virtues which holds a church together, but the greatest of them ll is love. Trouble will await a pastor who fails in this crucial area of ministry.
Having established now the abundant need for love within the confine of the local church, let us consider a number of out-workings pertaining to the matter of love. Ezekiel 34:1-4 states, "And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe ou with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.
The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. " We see how shepherds can become self-denoted. Though these shepherds may not have been pastors, and we really don''t know who they were, the simple case show God''s chastening of the shepherds. These shepherds were chastened for not properly shepherding their flock. They were there but they were not helping the lost, hurt, and wounded.
What can happen so easily is that a pastor will not go out of his way to help a person. If a pastor loves his people he will help them. Isaiah 40:1 says "Comfort ye my people, saith your God. " This old English word comfort means to encourage. If a pastor wants to really help his people he needs to be constantly encouraging them. A famous pastor once said, "Be kind to duties. In conclusion, let us remember this great task nas given us. T ministry to which God has called us centrals on people. We are to preach the gospel o every creature, but we cannot win this world on our own.
We need people to assist us. The people whom God has placed in our church are not to be taken advantage of. We need to remember the biblical virtue on which the church is built, and that is love. Love will melt the hearts of your people and cause them to desire to do as you teach them out of God''s Word. Let us follow the examples of Paul and Jesus Christ. If we want to lead, we need to serve. We have people looking up to us and depending on us to lead them. Let us respect them and seek to follow God''s Word in the plan in which he has laid out for us.
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