GIVE YOUR PASTOR REST!

My teacher and mentor shared a story with me:

His own mentor just finished teaching a session in the state capital. The host pastor requested that he should drop off the Reverend at a car park. Rather than do that, he volunteered to drive him the whole three hours back to his base.

He said some few minutes into the journey, he looked into the mirror and spotted his mentor sleeping soundly at the back of the car. He felt so fulfilled.

Can I speak to my generation and those coming behind us? My charge is simple- “Give Your Pastor/Mentor rest.

Be like Joshua. Follow instructions wholeheartedly. Use your sword on the Amalekites. Do not turn it on your Moses. Give honest feedback but never join the association of critics. If all you have are words, do not still use it to weaken your pastor.

The least you can do is to share how his teaching has been a blessing. When I listen to my spiritual father, I will send a message of how the teaching is a blessing. There are times a teaching helped three years after. I still send a message with a reference to how it helped. That’s the least you can do.

“Hmmm” in your heart is not thank you. “Wow” in your bedroom is not thank you. That is your own nourishment. Send a Feedback to your pastor. Let him be nourished by your gratitude.

Be like Aaron and Hur. When Moses got tired while holding the rod. They found Moses a place to sit and they held his hands. They did not begin a discussion of tired Moses and then try to wrestle the rod from his hands. If our Moses have no rest, Joshua will lose the battle.

They got to the peak like Moses. They saw the weak moments of Moses. They did not call him a “weak leader”- they strengthened his hands by joining theirs to his. When your hands are holding that of your pastor, you will not have any other hand to use to point fingers.

Ah! A lot of Pastors have become weakened by external assaults and internal accusations. They can no longer lift the rod. They now lean on it. When the prayer time of a Pastor become full of heavy sighs over assaults and accusations, he will not be able to fulfill his priesthood assignment.

Most of the complaints you will have against a Pastor will likely be what the Apostles eventually had to abandon- serving tables! You should help them serve tables rather than complain about the meal. Let them bring great spiritual meal and not bother about a broken socket.

When will our Moses (pastors) have time to ensure that we conquer more territories when he has been taking over with the burden of our immaturity?

Be like the men of David, when the giant wanted to kill David, they rose up to the ocassion- first, they killed the giant. Second, they told David, it is time to let us fight the battles. You take the rest. Why? The lamp of Israel must not die.

When the hands of Moses are lifted, we win. When his hands are down and we do like we do not care, it is not just Moses’s loss- it will be the loss of an entire generation.

May ministers of the gospel find rest indeed! May the rest we give them not be “Rest-in-Peace” written with regrets that we could have done better.