2 Ways You Can Make Your Pastor’s Job a Joy
Humility Toward Leadership
It’s so important to say that humility toward leadership is not a blind and uncritical following. We always want to measure what we are being directed towards or encouraged in by Scripture. This is so important in our day when authority is often misused and can lead to abuse.
At the same time, sometimes we can pivot so far in the other direction that now we don’t have any sense of respect for, or submission to, authority. And there are so many verses in the New Testament that call us to submit to authority.
Humility
Gavin Ortlund
In Humility, Gavin Ortlund explains that humility is not just an abstract virtue but a mark of gospel integrity, casting a vision for gospel-centered humility that is ultimately self-forgetfulness leading to joy.
One of those authorities would be in the local church context, for example. So we want to think about what that means. There are a couple of things that I found helpful in my own practice. One is as I listen to sermons, to remember that this is ultimately God who is speaking. And this is an emphasis in the Reformed tradition, for example, that the word of God preached is the word of God. It’s not the word of God in the same sense that Scripture is the word of God, but we can call this God’s word.
And so as you’re sitting in the pew, something I found helpful is to not think of this as mere information or even information that I will subsequently respond to with worship and praise and repentance in the moment. This is an act of worship. To hear this sermon, I am worshiping God by hearing from him.
To hear this sermon, I am worshiping God by hearing from him.
So the Lord is speaking to me through the sermon. I’m listening, I’m considering, and in the moment, I’m responding with worship because it’s ultimately not about the messenger. It’s about the word of God coming to me.
Another thing that I found helpful is just to be the kind of person who receives correction. A great thing to aspire towards is to be so responsive to correction that it doesn’t need to become a huge deal when we are responding to something. But it can just be subtle. If it’s just a little nudge, someone just sort of has to hint at something and we’re already listening because we all know we all need correction. We all need to hear from others and to get input from others.
Our spouse will often say something to us and we think, Yeah, they’re right. I need to hear that. So, cultivate a disposition that—especially toward trusted people or when you hear something from many different people—is quick to respond to correction, quick to make those course corrections and listen. These are the kind of people that make the pastor’s job a joy or the elder’s job a joy, when we have a heart that’s quick to respond to input that we’re receiving.
Gavin Ortlund is the author of Humility: The Joy of Self-Forgetfulness.
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