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How Pastors Can Beat the Monday Slump

Monday can be an awful day for pastors who take their calling seriously. Not only are they often spent at every level from giving all they have to the preaching of God’s Word and other duties that are incumbent upon leaders, but there are other factors at work in their mind. Their emotional exhaustion tempts them to enlarge any criticisms they received the day before, since most already believe they will never measure up to expectations (their own, or anyone else’s). Their wholehearted desire to serve the Lord faithfully and be a success (even in biblical terms) often collides with the endless exaltation of celebrity pastors who they will read about this week in the blogosphere. And the harvest they witness from their own ministries falls so short of their efforts to sow the seed of the Word and water the ground of stony hearts.

So, what is a pastor to do on Monday morning (and any day, for that matter)? He must continually place before his mind the truth that the church is Christ’s church and Jesus will be the final judge of success at the end of the age. The pastor must remind himself that he is but a servant, which is an incredibly high calling, and will one day be rewarded by his Master. Fellow pastor, for your encouragement, consider just a few of the Apostle Paul’s musings:

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. — 1 Corinthians 3:5-8

This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. — 1 Corinthians 4:1-2

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. — 1 Corinthians 15:10

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. — 2 Timothy 4:6-8

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Dr. Paul Tautges serves as senior pastor at Cornerstone Community Church in Cleveland, Ohio, having previously pastored in Wisconsin for 22 years. Paul has authored eight books including Counseling One Another, Brass Heavens, and Comfort the Grieving, and contributed chapters to two volumes produced by the Biblical Counseling Coalition. He is also the consulting editor of the LifeLine Mini-Book series from Shepherd Press. Paul is a teaching fellow Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC). He and his wife, Karen, are the parents of ten children (three married), and have two grandchildren. Paul enjoys writing as a means of cultivating discipleship among believers and, therefore, blogs regularly at Counseling One Another.