Make Pastoring Hard Again
Will real men stand up?
We’re running out of pastors. And we’re recruiting the kind that run away to replace them.
Generational shifts are touching many industries. More workers are retiring than we can replace. This cultural shift is clearly seen in the pastor shortage.
The number of churches without a pastor is growing. Seminaries are being forced to make dramatic changes. Bi-vocational and co-vocational models of ministry are on the rise.
I’m excited about the innovations and saddened about the shortage.
We need to talk honestly about a lie that snuck into the ministry career conversation.
The lie that “pastoring is too hard.”
I have a bone to pick with that little word “too.”
Pastoring is awfully hard when done right. There’s no reason to hide it, downplay it, or pretend “it shouldn’t be this way.” I’ve wanted to quit MANY times.
What if “hard” is a feature and not a bug?
What worthy endeavor in the world doesn’t bring pain and press you beyond your limits?
I’d love to meet the Navy SEAL who enlisted because of a steady check, amicable schedule, and comfortable life. I doubt they exist.
People don’t go to war because it works for themselves. The right warrior enters the fray because they see the reality of the enemy, the beauty of their home, and the stewardship of strength.
If strong men don’t enter the battle, no one enjoys steady, amicable, comfortable anything.
We either quit apologizing for the pain of pastoral ministry or we’ll end up with a soft and skittish band of hired hands.
Hired hands hold the job as long as it takes care of them. They quit when it gets too hard.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
John 10:11–13
Shepherds hold the job even if it cost them everything–with strength from the Chief Shepherd.
There are many churches that need to repent and obey the Scriptures clear passages that pastoring is worth its wages. I’m a huge fan of paying people to devote themselves to prayer and the Word. It is a biblical command many churches have selfishly disobeyed or played loose with.
That said, you don’t find shepherds by changing the pay, you retain hired hands.
We need to call men to this task even if it cost them their lives. Pastoring will cost more than we can cover with money.
The solution to the pastor shortage is not merely to increase pay. At some point every pastor will recognize they’re not paid “enough.”
Pastors, like myself, who make a great wage will still face the reality that they could make as much or more money doing something that requires less pain.
No one is paid enough to suddenly hear about the sin of your closest friends or watch your friends evaporate like mist or endure slander for being the first person to step to rescue someone from deceit. The list of pains is long enough that there will never be a compensation package built for it.
Paul describes the betrayal and battle that are coming for the elders of Ephesus.
29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard!
Acts 20:29–31
Pastoring is not fundamentally about compensation but about calling.
The benefits of pastoring deeply outnumber the pains I believe. But we shouldn’t be doing cost-benefit analysis as the world’s career paths! It sets pastoral ministry on a horrible trajectory.
Embarrassment about compensation quickly becomes permission to make life comfortable.
Give a hired hand room to work his own hours, choose his own tasks, and feel like he’s piously suffering all the way along and what will happen?
You’ll prove that pastoring is not worthy!
Hired hand pastoring won’t be worthy of the sacrifice.
Men of self-interest and cowardice sully the calling enough that men of courage no longer savor the call.
I hope your church takes pastoral compensation seriously. I pray it takes pastoral calling, conviction, and character more seriously!
We need to make pastoring hard again.
We need to call our best and brightest and most loving men to take up a sacrifice that will only make sense in eternity.
I’m not interested in making pastoring unnecessarily hard. I’m interested in celebrating the fact that it’s going to be hard either way.
You will likely make less money and likely face more hardships. What of it?
Who ever changed the world for the benefits package?
Young man, are you really going to let a few dollars keep you from a calling that matters forever?
I’d love to see you get a steady check, amicable schedule, and comfortable life. The New Creation will be great and I’m confident you’ll enjoy it.
What if you stepped into the sacrificial service of God’s people because He is worth it?
What if you enlisted because there is a war raging for your loved ones, community, and world?
What if your labor will be compensated in a glory that far outweighs the troubles?
Take up the call to proclaim the death of Jesus against the rage of the Enemy and the anguish of sin and display the suffering of Jesus until that day when the resurrection of Jesus proves it worthy!
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” h Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:7–18
ps. I made these pictures with AI to show the valiant calling of pastoring.
