Helping your pastor keep going in ministry: 2 Timothy 4v1-8

I recently was asked to speak at the induction of a minister into the pastorate at another church.  Here are the notes of my sermon drawn from 2 Timothy 4:1-8:

A survey of pastors asked; ‘what the best thing about their job was?’ What do you think was number 1? It wasn’t only working one day a week. It was seeing people change. Pastors love to see people trust Jesus, then seeing people go on and grow as they’re changed by the gospel.

In Paul’s letter to Timothy we see Paul facing death for his faith calling Timothy to share his convictions and passion and continue in ministry. These are convictions we need in ministry and which churches need their ministers to have. Things you should be praying for your leaders and ministers and encouraging them in, as well as things they need to routinely return to, especially when ministry is tough.

Minister aware your Kingdom Context

Paul, as he writes to Timothy, is in a Roman prison. It wasn’t like our prisons. Roman prisons were dirty, dark, and damp, there were no rights, there was often torture and mistreatment, little food or water, and little hope.

But how does Paul describe where he is(1)? “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus...” Paul is not just a prisoner in a Roman jail awaiting his trial and death. That’s not his defining reality. Paul is in the presence of God and of Jesus. Isn’t that a different take on his reality? Paul lives out his life in the presence of God and exhorts Timothy to remember that he too lives and ministers in the presence of God. Does that change how we think of our reality? We live and minister in the presence of God and of Jesus.

The kingdom of God is now, but it is also coming. This section is bookended by a focus on the coming of the kingdom when Jesus returns as judge, it’s here in(1) as he gives Timothy this solemn charge but also in(8) as Paul anticipates Christ’s coming and his reward.

The most important thing Timothy must realise is that this world is not the most important thing, it’s not the enduring reality, it is not even what determines how you live. Don’t live life for now live life in the light of Christ’s coming kingdom.

Don’t let visible circumstances determine how you serve Christ but serve in light of his kingdom, which is now and not yet. We have a glorious future when Christ will judge the living and the dead. That’s the reality which must determine how you live.

Timothy needs to know this because he’s labouring in a church infected by false teaching, where people don’t want bible teaching, preaching the truth is unwelcome, results are slow growing, or look insignificant, and where he experiences opposition. But that isn’t the only reality, if you focus on that reality you will give up. Serve your saviour, live out your kingdom context.

We must keep our kingdom context in focus as we engage in gospel ministry. Often church looks unimpressive, our evangelism looks insignificant, we feel weak, sometimes congregations shrink before they grow, and we’re tempted to despair as we look around. But remember your kingdom context, we minister in the presence of God and Jesus and his kingdom and victory are certain.

Fulfil your Kingdom Commission

What is the thing Paul tells Timothy to do? “preach the word”. His dying charge to Timothy is keep on preaching the bible, don’t give up on it; it’s the most important thing you can do, give your life to it, die for it. And Paul doesn’t just tell Timothy what to do but how to do it;

a. Urgently – Timothy is to preach the bible when and wherever opportunity arises, when you feel like it and when you don’t, on duty and off duty, when people want to listen and when they don’t. There’s an urgency to preaching the bible because (3:16-17)it is God’s word, it alone brings us salvation and produces change.

b. Relevantly – Paul uses three words to describe different uses of God’s word; “Correct, rebuke, encourage...” Some of those we naturally don’t like to hear or give? In our society we don’t like correcting or rebuking but we like encouragement. But preaching the bible exposes our sin both before we trust in Jesus and afterwards, it warns us of its consequences, and it comforts us not by saying a therapeutic ‘there, there’ but by pointing us to Jesus. Timothy must preach the bible in a way that is relevant to his hearers as he points to Jesus. He must correct, rebuke and encourage in Christ as and when necessary.

c. Faithfully – Timothy needs two characteristics in his preaching, “great patience and careful instruction”. There’s a danger in preaching the bible – it is that you get frustrated when people don’t get it, or don’t change, or their hearts aren’t lit up by it. If it is the best thing about being a pastor, then the most frustrating thing is when it isn’t happening. But Timothy is called to preach the bible with great patience, in other words keep on preaching. Don’t give up and go somewhere else keep on preaching the bible. But he is also to preach carefully in terms of content, this is about what he teaches - teach sound doctrine, preach the bible.

The thing this church needs is to hear the bible taught, applied to them as it is; God’s word. It reveals salvation, points to Jesus, convicts, and changes us. Preach it and keep preaching it, be patient and careful in your teaching.

Understand the threat to Preaching the Word(3-5)

Why does Timothy need this exhortation to preach? Because there is a time coming when people won’t want to hear the truth, they won’t want to hear sound teaching, but instead will find teachers willing to teach what they want to hear. No correction, no rebuke, no real comfort just teaching that suits their desires. The truth of the bible substituted for myths.

How might we see that today?

a. A desire to be entertained –One church in America tried to stop dwindling numbers by having church staff wrestling as part of their service! But it doesn’t have to be that extreme, it can simply be that jokes, anecdotes or stories or self can dominate instead of the bible.

b. A desire not be challenged – It can be not wanting to hear the bibles correction or rebuke. Wanting false comfort not biblical comfort that shows us our sin, warns us of its consequences and comforts us by pointing to our salvation in Christ as the answer and calling us to live out our new identity in Christ. False comfort is powerless.

c. A desire not to be stretched – The bible taught properly will stretch us, it will require us to engage, to think about it, to weigh our hearts, thinking and motives. It is not like watching TV; it requires participation.

d. A pressure to be short – How long will you commit to listening to the bible for in a week? The pressure is on to be short, 20mins is thought to be a long time – our attention spans to some extent are moulded by TV. But teaching the bible takes time, to explain the text, to work it into our lives and to apply it well.

How is Timothy, and how are we, to respond to this? (5)"But you...” Be countercultural, fight against the prevailing trends and desires. People won’t want to listen to the truth so what is Timothy to do? Keep on preaching. He is to think clearly about these trends and keep teaching the bible, as he experiences opposition he is to keep teaching the bible, as people reject and confront him he is to do the work of an evangelist. That isn’t going door to door, or doing open air but proclaiming the truth of Jesus – in other words teach the bible, he is to complete the task – preach the bible.

Pass on the baton

Paul gives one final reason for Timothy to preach the word, to fulfil this commission. Paul has done it(6-7), he has laboured, sweated and endured in gospel ministry committed to his saviour and now is excited about going home.

Notice how he speaks of his death(6), it is his departure not the end, simply time to leave this sphere of service and hear his masters well done! Paul has lived for the kingdom, preached the truth, fought the fight, finished the race, kept the faith and he considers it worth it. All of those words contain the idea of contending, striving, battling towards a goal.

Timothy preach the word, pick up the baton I’m passing to you because it is worth it. And Timothy is to pass this on to others(2:2), pass on what, a conviction and passion for teaching God’s word.

We must share those convictions; teach the truth and encourage others to teach the truth. These must remain our convictions.

But as a church how do you encourage your pastor to do that?

1. Pray for his preparation and preaching. In 2 Tim 2v15 Paul tells Timothy to "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." Pray that for your pastor.

2. Come ready. Nothing encourages a pastor like teaching people who are keen to learn, read the passage before you come, engage during the talk, and ask questions of him and one another. Don’t want entertaining, don’t want easy listening, don’t settle for less than the gospel.

3. Resource your pastor. Encourage him to work hard and preach well by providing him with the means to study well, to buy commentaries, to be taught and trained. Resource him time wise, not crowding out preparation time with expectations to be at or doing other things (Acts 6 - provides a good model).

4. Question your pastor. If the pastor’s greatest joy is seeing people change, then show him you are by asking questions about the passage, or challenging something that was said, or simply telling him when something has changed you or made you think. Because it’s thrilling to be part of someone grappling with and seeking to understand and apply more of the character, plan and power of God through his word.

5. Treat your pastor as a person. Don’t put your pastor on a pedestal, none of us are infallible and it doesn’t help us to be treated as such. Treat him and his family as people you trust and love in Christ.

6. Remember ministry is not about the minister. Pastors prepare people to engage in ministry. The fruit of teaching the bible is changed lives among the congregation, it is the congregation increasingly teaching one another and becoming ministers themselves.

The perils of our favourite mp3 preachers

The internet is like everything in our world.  It is a great example of the skill, ingenuity and intelligence with which God has gifted man and his incredible creative ability.  It is a phenomenal force for good.  On the other hand it is also a great example of the ability of sin to take something good and twist, taint and turn it into something corrupting, contemptible and confining.

There are lots of ways this is seen; a disconnect from the real in favour of the virtual, a hunger for community that it can never fulfil, a sense of unfavourable comparison to the polished lifestyle others project, an overload of information which gradual erodes our ability to dwell and meditate on things and so on.  But I wonder if one of the most insidious and dangerous is the mp3 preacher.

You see your favourite mp3 preacher is not and was never intended to be your pastor.  Nor was he
intended to be someone that you constantly compare your flesh and blood pastor to unfavourably.  The joy and the problem of our mp3 preacher is that they are not real.  They are real in the sense that they exist, they are real people in a real church context but that is not your context.  They are not real in the sense that they are not preaching to you, you are not their flock, they are not your shepherd.

I'd be the first to admit that the internet gives us access to great preachers, we can click and hear a Keller, Carson, MacArthur, Palmer, Wilson and so on open up the scriptures and learn from them.  There is a phenomenal benefit to be had in doing so, if you looked at my podcasts you'd see that I listen to them too.  But the danger is when we compare the mp3 preacher to our pastor.  You see our pastor is flesh and blood, we know him and all his failings and weaknesses in a way we don't know the mp3 preacher.  We know the reality of the disconnect between what our pastor preaches and our churches reality, we know his highs and his lows. And if we listen with a critical spirit we can easily find ways to compare our pastor unfavourably with our mp3 preacher.

But here's the thing your mp3 preacher doesn't love you.  He hasn't committed to pray for you during the week, to study God's word to teach you and those around you in your context in your congregation, he hasn't committed to visit you when sick, grieving, suffering, or celebrate with you in your joy.  He has not been called to pastor you, he has been called to pastor the church where those mp3's were recorded.  But God has called you to be in your church listening to his servant, your pastor, opening up his word in your context.

We need to make the most of the wealth of resources we have but not at the expense of our sitting under the authority of the leaders and preachers who are called to pastor us.  Don't let sin infect your use of God's gift of resources and erode your love for your church or your joy in sitting under godly leaders.

Pastor love your church

We had our church fellowship meeting yesterday, it was a usual run of the mill meeting, nothing earth shattering.  Financial report - guess what we have deficit and so on..., a report on the last year with its encouragements and discouragements, a look at some new job descriptions and a look at what the next year holds.  But where we did veer off plan was when one of the congregation asked how long our current elders were committed to the church for.  Would we still be there in 3 years time.  That the question came from someone who is unwaveringly committed to the church and the people and the leaders spoke volumes as to that man's concerns and desire to for the gospel.

Here is my answer to that question, in a fuller way than I was able to give it yesterday as I responded on the hoof.  I love Grace church and I intend to be here until I die or you kick me out (that comment prompted interesting discussion about hypothetically how you would do that - at least I hope it was hypothetical).  I love the community which is increasingly being moulded and shaped by the gospel into a loving, breathing, real faith family.  I love the people in it who are generous and gracious and love to welcome all and forgive all readily, who hold the gospel out with open hands to anyone in our community.  I love those who have persevered with my failings in my first pastorate; my desire to do everything right now as we planted, who have awaited and are still waiting for my preaching to develop into maturity, who recognise my weaknesses but don't condemn me for them but pray for them.  Who have patiently waited for me to learn from ministry mistakes and never once said I told you so, who have forgiven and showed grace to me their pastor time and time again, and who throughout it all have loved and encouraged me and prayed for me and my family.

I love that it is a church that challenges me to not be distracted and to focus on preaching God's word faithfully, that it cares for my well being and that of my family.  That members will ask if I've had my day off and protect it for me, that they will ask if I've taken my holidays.  I love that it is a church that doesn't take itself too seriously whilst taking the gospel and our mission so seriously.  I love that Grace Church is generous with their pastors time, encouraging me to serve other churches, CU's and invest in training others and also to serve in our community.  I love that it is not a perfect church, that it is not always a joy to pastor but that through hard times, discouraging times, and painful times it has always looked to God by grace, longing to hear from his word and see again our Saviour.

Above all I am grateful to God that he has called me to be part of his church here, and amazed at his grace and goodness in allowing me to play my part in leading his church as I teach his precious all powerful word to his precious children.  That question has reminded me of the gift of God that his church is and of my call to love God's church.

Abdication: a theme of our age?

Abdication is a big biblical theme, it is also a travesty whether that's in Genesis 3 or elsewhere in the Bible.  But it isn't just a biblical problem, it is a human trait as a result of the effect of sin on our hearts and that means it is a significant problem today in our generation and in our churches.  So where might we see it?

Pastorally - pastoral care involves more than just hours of preaching, it involves pastoring.  I am tempted to abdicate when I decide to just preach about an issue rather than meet with people to resolve an issue face to face.  I am tempted to abdicate when I resolve (retreat?) to spend more time in the office than with people.  Yes primarily pastors are to prepare to preach and preach and pray, and we must get the balance right.  But often I wonder if that can be a cover for abdicating from the hard work of conflict resolution, confronting sin, pastoral visiting and face-to-face discipleship.  Or maybe that's just me.

Great commission - Have we abdicated from our calling?  We all know what Jesus calls us to do, but am I so aware of grace that I am overflowing in joy that reaches out to others with the great news of the gospel.  Am I engaging with and building friendships with those around me that are gospel capable?  Am I aware of and looking to pursue gospel opportunities to share and speak about Jesus?  Or am I abdicating from this glorious and joyful calling?

Discipleship - I wonder if this is our biggest problem.  To what extent are we making disciples, living life with others, intentionally inputting into their lives, modelling the gospel to them, revealing our battles with sin and  our constant need of grace, but our awareness of the sufficiency of the atonement won for us in Jesus?  To abdicate discipleship is to reduce the church to a club that comes together to hear a talk on the bible, it is to assume even we preach enough some of it will stick.  We abdicate here perhaps most easily by thinking it is the churches paid staffs job to disciple others, it isn't they train and equip us to disciple each other.

Parenting - This is another of those areas where abdication is rife.  We effectively contract out our children's education to school, their leisure time to other professionals, and so on.  The danger is we carry that thinking across into church - we outsource teaching our children the wonder of the gospel to the Sunday School teacher, the youth worker and so on.  When the Bible clearly (Deut 6) says it remains the role of parents.  When everything about our week cries out to us that it is in their parents where children will most see the gospel lived out and where the most significant opportunities to teach about Jesus will arise.

Abdication is a very real danger for us as a church and its consequences are potentially disastrous for ourselves, our families, church families, and the lost.

Feeding the Feeders

As a leadership team we are working through Marcus Honeysett's helpful book 'Fruitful Leaders' one of the questions it posed us as a leadership was how do those who feed us get fed?  How do we as a church ensure that our pastors are not drained and exhausted by feeding us every week?  It is a brilliant question.  Pastors are privileged to be set aside to devote themselves to studying the bible, praying and preaching but we also need to recognise that can be drained especially at certain times.

We concluded that actually it wasn't something we thought about very much as a church, or as pastors.  We all know that we can feel low and tired and a bit spiritually run down but we do little to address those needs in pastors who are expected to teach us and pastor us.  It is hard as a pastor, especially when you are ministering on your own in a small church to be fed, it is also hard not to cast envious glances (or lingering long looks) at those in team ministry or those working for organisations like UCCF who are brilliant at this sort of feeding, stretching and equipping of its leaders.

Here are some reflections on things that have helped keep me going and fed me as I look to feed others:

1. Gospel Partnership
There are various gospel partnerships which churches can join and which have benefits for pastors.  Last week we had the Yorkshire Evangelical Ministry Assembly which was brilliant.  (Talks are available as MP3's here: http://www.ygp.org.uk/audio.asp .  It is a chance for pastors to get taught, to stand back, to think, to encourage one another and get fresh perspectives and is vital.

But that is only once a year, a new innovation for us in YGP South is our twice yearly training.  Last summer we had a day looking at teaching Deuteronomy, next month we have a day with someone teaching us on 'Preaching to the Heart'.  These times of refreshing and fresh teaching on bible handling and pastoral ministry are vital and refreshing

2. Preaching Group
About every 6 weeks a group of us get together and preach our upcoming sermon and then help one another deconstruct and reconstruct our sermons.  Again we spend time sharing and praying and support one another.  A great reminder, support and chance to be taught God's word afresh.

3. Reading
I'm a voracious reader, I love it and it is vital for my ministry.  It is another opportunity to hear fresh ideas, be stimulated, be reminded, and sometimes when you read something heretical to engage in and sharpen your understanding of God's word.

4. Other Ministry Opportunities
One of the things I have valued most over the last few years has been the chance to preach in CU's.  It is brilliant to be among young keen Christians, especially from a church where our students leave us to go to uni.  It is refreshing to step out of my normal ministry context and see something else entirely, and often be ministered to by the students themselves.  The missions I have been involved in have been a particular blessing to me in refreshing spiritually even whilst tiring physically.

I am incredibly grateful to God for his graciousness in keeping me, in teaching me, in giving me the resources and loving people around me to sustain ministry.  But as I look long term and across the church in the UK I think this is question we need to ask ourselves and our elders and pastors, who is feeding the feeders?

How to care for your Pastor

I was re-reading a book recently which contained this statistic: 44%of those in pastoral ministry for more than 15 years suffer from burn-out, mental breakdown or serious illness (and that doesn't include immorality or loss of faith). Whilst that alarming statistic is from Australia I don't imagine the UK is much different. I think in view of that we need to think about how we as churches and church leaders care for our pastors, how we facilitate their being in ministry long term. I’m going to suggest a number of things that I think are helpful:

1. Set Clear Expectations

• How many hours is he expected to work?
• How many hours he is actually working?
• How can we maintain a healthy balance here?

2. Help him avoid distraction from gospel work

• What are our expectations of him in his duties?
• What priorities do we want him to have?
• What other things might occupy his time?
• What distracts him from his primary tasks?
• How can we help him enjoy his work?

3. Help him keep on growing in his faith

• Is he reading and praying for himself?
• How can we encourage this even more if it is the case?
• Or facilitate it if it isn’t?
• Should we put in place a mentor system to ensure this is happening?
• If not how else do we pastor the pastor?

4. Resource him

• Are we encouraging him to continue being trained?
• Are we resourcing this with time and money and necessary changes to expectations?
• Is there a budget for conferences, books, etc... and if so is it sufficient?

5. Friendship

• Who is he spending time with outside of ministry?
• How will we encourage close friendships with those in the church?
• How will we facilitate time spent with other ministers?

6. Encourage him
It strikes me that we Brits never like to encourage someone in case it goes to his head and yet we are quick to challenge and even criticise, this can be incredibly damaging.  It is not that we must never criticise or question that would be equally wrong, but we also need to see the value of encouraging.

• How can we share with him what has helped or challenged us?
• How can we help him labour for the long term and not become disheartened by the often slow pace of change?

7. Provide for his family

• How generous can we be in providing financially?
• What will we provide by way of holiday/days-off?
• Will we check he takes it?
• How can we protect his day off with his family?
• How do we convey this to the church family?

8. Partner with him
Loneliness is one of the prime defeaters of ministry, it saps and sucks passion and energy.

• How can we share in vision setting and reaching that goal?
• How do we convey that an eldership is a team and we are partners together in this ministry?
• How do we build that team?

How can you support your pastor?

Christianity Today has a fascinating article about the role and pressures of being a pastor in the United States (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/julyweb-only/mostriskyprofession.html), whilst not everything the article says is true of, or applicable, to the pastorate in the UK, it is a thought provoking read and may be helpful in helping us think through how we support the pastors of our churches.

Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor

I've almost finished reading Don Carson's book about his dad's ministry. It is an interesting read, as a book it is a slow grower, I found the initial chapters on the context of Canadian ministry quite a struggle to read and get in to. However, as Don unveils his Father's struggles with ministry it becomes a very telling book which gives us insight as church leaders and especially pastors into our own struggles with slow growing ministry.


We live in an age that values the celebrity and successful, even in the evangelical world, and that drive means pastors who are not published or who minister faithfully seeing slow growth constantly fight discouragement and a sense of inadequacy. Memoirs of an ordinary pastor is a very honest book that confronts those issues in Tom's life and looks at the great care and love he had for his people even after he had finished pastoring them.

It was a real encouragement to continue loving people and teaching faithfully, and an antidote to success driven books that are out there.

Thoughts on pastoral care

Last night a group of us got together to think about how we care for one another in the church. We began by focusing on the fact that pastoral care is not just something we give others; we need to also recognise our need of it. We cannot help feed others unless we ourselves are being fed.

Secondly pastoral care is not one person’s responsibility it is everyone’s responsibility. It happens whenever we teach the bible to others in a way that is applied to real life. But it also happens relationally when we live out our discipleship alongside each other, but it isn’t automatic but intentional.

The Bible assumes we as believers will be engaged in this:
"I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another." Romans 15:14

"Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you." 2 Cor 13:11

"Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts." Col 3:16-17

"Therefore encourage one another with these words." 1 Thess 4:18

"See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called "Today," so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Hebs 3:12-13

Different levels of care:
Everyday/everyone/low level – based on growing relationship with individuals and within the group.
What does it look like and when does it happen? It looks like any number of things here are some: taking in interest in someone, exercising hospitality, texting someone you know has a tough week, asking how someones week has been and how they are spiritually, asking what encouragements there have been.

When does it happen? It can happen any time and any place but here are some we may want to intentional utilise: Sunday at church over coffee, at start/end of home group, whenever we meet up and ask about each others lives, when we open our homes to someone

Medium/more formal level – involves deeper relationships and commitment.
What does it look like and when does it happen? In a 1-2-1/prayer splodge (triplet or group), visit to house, having someone over for a meal, a set accountability relationship, a agreed meeting times

When? It can be part of home group, or regularly, or as and when.

High Level – Is basically crisis care and support.

The difference between care and pastoral care:
However we can be doing these things and it be just care rather than pastoral care. Pastoral care is specifically when we are seeking to bring the Bible and its truths to bear on people’s lives.
In pastoral care we don’t want people to feel better about themselves or their situation but to grasp the gospel and its implications and thus change. That means we must be teaching the bible to people as part of our pastoral care, ‘speaking the truth in love’.

The Bible is our pastoral care manual, because it is realistic about:
• the problems and pressures we face in life (Heat)
• the nature of our hearts and reactions (Heart)
• the solution (Cross)
• the right response of faith (Fruit)

In 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 we see a good example of the Bibles realism.
Heat: What is the pressure here?
Paul and the team are facing troubles, under pressure beyond what they can bear, despairing of life itself, under death sentence.

Heart: What is the natural hearts response?
(9)self reliance, despair

Cross: What ought we to focus on?
But Paul and co do not give in to the pressure, or respond from sin in their hearts but they respond by grace, recognising God’s character as a God of compassion, the comfort God provides, and the comfort that comes through Christ who has shared in our sufferings.

Fruit: What results flow from a deeper understanding of the gospel?
They rely on God not themselves and are able to comfort others as they have been comforted, and do not loss their hope and despair but are able to live in the light of their hope.

Some basics of pastoral care:
1. Men deal with men, women with women
2. Help people see that factors like other people, upbringing and the stresses and strains of life are not the problem, ultimately our hearts are.
3. Help people see that we underestimate our sinfulness
4. Help people see that we underestimate our new identity in Christ
5. Examine the gospel gap in their living and how they may have filled it with other things.
6. Apply the gospel – not legalism, or activism or pop psychology to their lives.

We then spent some time thinking through some situations, none of these is exhaustive but was simply to get people thinking about the how and when as well as how the gospel can be applied in every situation.

Work through these asking what is the Heat, Heart, Cross, Fruit? What are the right contexts and ways to deal with this person? How is the gospel gap showing itself in their lives? What passages of scripture would it be helpful to look at and why?

1. Mel has a problem with one of her girls, and she begins to open up to you over a coffee, no matter what they try Elle just rebels and refuses to do whatever they say. And it isn’t just in the home, but at church and it is embarrassing. Mel is at the end of her patience and has recently found herself snappy and aggressive towards Elle.

2. Simon has always been career motivated; he was a high flier earning and was well respected in the business community. But then with the downturn he has lost his job and despite having lots of interviews has not got a job. Simon is getting depressed and withdrawing, his wife is working so they are OK financially but he is beginning to be aggressive and resentful towards her.

3. John comes along faithfully to church every Sunday and is very active in lots of areas, if a job needs doing John will volunteer. He is a willing participant in home group but you notice that his answers are always based on what we can do.

4. Holly knocks on your door distraught her best friend finally passed away this morning after a long battle with cancer.

5. Doug confides in you over coffee that he simply can’t stand someone in his home group, in fact he has stopped going so that he doesn’t have to see them. It’s OK in church, he says, because he can just keep out of their way, he asks if he can join your group.

A Few Good Men

Was looking at 1 Timothy yesterday and the discussion turned to the first verse of ch3, "Here is a trustworthy saying: whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task." Now it struck me that is the verse that gives the Bible balance to this issue of leadership.

I think I and others have been too quick to teach eldership and the pastorate in a negative way without adding this important balance. So often I have heard others talk about the challenge of becoming an elder, the responsibilities, that it is not to be entered upon lightly, that those who teach will be judged more severely quoting James. Even people saying only do it if there is nothing else God will allow you to do. And I want to say it is a responsibility but I TIM 3:1 makes clear that it is a great thing.

That becoming an elder is something to be aspired to, to want to do not to be avoided, that teaching God's people is a privilege not a chore. I need to live my life in the light of that realisation.

I can't help thinking that is why we as churches in Britain struggle to find male leaders, we struggle to find elders - because it is not something to be aspired to, it is instead treated as something which you do if you have to. It is the same reason we struggle with men filling the empty pulpits in England - it is a privilege to be called to preach the Bible to God's people.

We need to deconstruct this idea of a mythical call too. For me the call consisted of having a gift others identified and a ministry they suggested and then recognising a need and agreement with the elders that God had and would enable me to take on that task.

Do you see a need? Do you have a gift that can meet that need? Then our default setting should be that God has called me to meet that need. Do you see how that flips our thinking?

It is a privilege to be called to serve God in his church as a pastor or an elder, it is something we should aspire to.