What We Need From Pastors

Today, I was reading Brian Dodd on Leadership. A good word for pastors…

We want our pastors to work on their craft, to be prepared, to think of new and creative ways to communicate the timeless message of Jesus Christ. But because of the over-abundance of pastoral talent and our access to it, we no longer need slickness and craftiness.

Here are a Few Things we Need:

1. When you stand up on Sunday, we do not need you to impress us with your brilliance and insight. We just need to know you have been with alone with God and he has marked your life.
2. We do not need a talk. We need you to have a message for us from the Ancient of Days addressing the issues we face at this point and time in human history.
3. We need you to have calloused knees on our behalf.
4. We need you to elevate the importance of the Bible. It is God’s Word on paper and we want to know what it says.
5. We need you to preach the truth of Scripture, the virgin birth, the sinless life of Jesus, and Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.
6. We need you to tell people there is a heaven and a hell and everyone will go to one or the other.
7. We need you to challenge us to live righteous and holy lives.
8. We need you to prioritize the pursuit of personal holiness over the pursuit of personal freedoms.
9. We need you to be a picture of the desired destination at which you wish for us to arrive.
10. We need you to put your relationship with God above all else and your family second.

Here are a Few Things we Need for You to Know:

1. We need you to know how much we love and admire you.
2. We need you to know how often we pray for you.
3. We need you to know how much we appreciate the fact you could make far more money consulting or in corporate America but you choose to pastor sheep like us.
4. We need you to know how much we look forward to hearing you each Sunday.
5. We need you to know we have you and your family’s back.
6. We need you to know we were glad you were there at our most defining moments – weddings, funerals, baptisms and baby dedications.
7. We need you to know how sorry we are for saying stupid, uneducated, and ill-advised things we deeply regretted later on.
8. We need you to know we should have paid you more.
9. We need you to know that if you need anything, all you have to do is ask.
10. We need you to know how glad we are you did not resign this past Monday but decided to come back for another Sunday.

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