Pray for Your Pastor

From http://solofemininity.blogs.com/

Nearly a thousand people--pastors and their wives--are descending upon Gaithersburg, Maryland, today for the Sovereign Grace Ministries Leadership Conference. Our offices have been preparing for this event for months. It's been two years since our last Leadership Conference because our pastors attended Together for the Gospel '06, instead. So we are anticipating a kind of homecoming. The laughing and back-slapping will be thunderous, no doubt!

I will be serving in various administrative roles, but my primary task is to conduct video interviews with some pastors from other nations in order to track their stories for future mission videos. Speaking of videos, if you are curious about this conference, you can check out our latest online video. This four-minute piece features John Held, a first-time guest pastor at our 2005 Leadership Conference, with his perspective on why an event like this is important. (For the best resolution, I recommend downloading the video over streaming it.)

One point John raises in this video is how pastors can become weary. I wonder how many of us are even aware of that. So today, no matter whether your pastor is at this conference or not, I would encourage you to take some time to pray for those who labor among our churches as pastors and elders. These men are Christ's gift to our churches, a precious truth that should inspire us to intercede for their fruitfulness and faithfulness.

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men." (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:7-13 NIV)

Scripture also commands us to honor our leaders. 1 Timothy 5:17 (NIV) says: "The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching." Given the spiritual burdens our pastors carry, could I suggest that you send your pastor(s) a note of appreciation and encouragement? This small act could be the very thing God uses to refresh a number of weary leaders--and it brings glory to the God who inspired this Scripture verse.