Pastors

Except in rural areas, with the success of church planting networks and multi-site churches, you really don’t often hear of bi-vocational pastors anymore.

The Catechism states that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, but most of the time, if I’m honest, there has been little to no enjoyment of Him. In fact, in the midst of my porn addiction, there was often no enjoyment of anything at all.

Spiritual formation and discipleship are more like horticulture than education. Good soil brings great harvests. Success in making disciples is not (at first) measured quantitatively, but qualitatively.

Jesus is not a cosmic vending machine where we put in our quarters, hit the correct button, and then enjoy the soda or candy bar we purchased.

A pastor's heart often goes through heartache. I make no claim that pastors are perfect people. We can be arrogant and uncaring at times. But at the same time, most pastors I know are genuine, faithful followers of God who love their congregations.

It is necessary that we learn to come to God just as we are. But that’s not where faith stops. It grows. Eventually it comes to the place of “just as He is."

Want conviction? Try the title of this article: “In the time you spend on social media each year, you could read 200 books.”

Current culture is more complex, it’s changing rapidly, and we must keep up. The church is good at these things on the following list, but we must get better.