Episode 209: The Care and Feeding of Pastors

By / May 3

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson and Ross Ferguson talk about how church members can support and encourage their pastors — and why this work is so important and a benefit to the church!



Go Outside: An Interview with Jared C. Wilson

By / May 2

Jared C. Wilson serves as Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Author in Residence at Midwestern Seminary as well as General Editor at For The Church. In his most recent publication titled Go Outside: And 19 Other Keys to Thriving in Your 20s (Moody Publishers), Jared and Becky Wilson share advice they’d give their younger selves. In 20 short chapter, they discuss the value of time spent with Jesus, taking care of your mind and body, how chasing your dreams is overrated, and more.

Tony Merida, Pastor at Imago Dei Church, commented on the new publication, “Go Outside is a treasure trove of wisdom for all present, future, and even former twentysomethings. It is filled with wit, written from a loving heart, and has the markers of battle-tested wisdom from years of serving this age group.”

Ronni Kurtz, Assistant Professor of Theology at Cedarville University, also said, “This book is a wonderful exercise in showing that gospel-centrality and practical advice are not at odds with one another.”

Costi Hinn, Teaching Pastor at Shepherd’s House Bible Church, said, “I can only wish that this book was written when I was in my twenties, but find great joy that countless lives will have this godly insight for one of the most foundational seasons of life.”

In a recent interview, Jared Wilson answered a few questions about his latest publication and the importance of the book of Acts.

For The Church: Why this book now?

Jared C. Wilson: If not now, when?

Just kidding.

In terms of the audience opportunity for this book, Becky and I both feel like young people are more hungry for mentorship and godly counsel than they’ve been in a long time. They are certainly more interested in it than our generation was at their age. In our day of increasing moral chaos and spiritual confusion, I think a book that carefully and clearly re-articulates the basic stuff of Christian spirituality for young adults in a practical way and really meets a need.

In terms of our timing in writing it, I would say that in now our middle-aged years we’ve spent over a decade now ministering directly to twentysomethings and speaking into their lives, and after thirty years of adulthood ourselves, feel equipped to share some of the most valuable lessons we’ve learned along the way.

FTC: What was it like writing a book with your wife?

JCW: It was fun! Though I should add that we didn’t exactly write the book together. Meaning, we didn’t collaborate on each chapter, but rather, divided up the chapter outline between ourselves. Becky came up with ten topics she wanted to address, and I came up with ten I wanted to address. We took our own time writing our chosen chapters.

The one thing Becky has enjoyed pointing out is that it took her months to write her half of the book, while it only took me a few days to write mine. You could conclude from this discrepancy that I’m a more natural writer than her, or you could conclude that she’s a more thoughtful writer than me. Take your pick.

FTC: What might readers be surprised about after reading this book?

JCW: I think most readers might be surprised at how relatable and refreshing the book is. Most things like this – stuff young people need to know – either comes across very legalistic or very dry. Both of us have good senses of humor. I write with a lot of illustrations and stories, and Becky writes with a very laid-back, unassuming, non-judgmental tone. Even when we’re giving advice or reminding our readers about things Christians must do or should do, we are constantly pointing young people back to the grace in the good news for their assurance and sense of okay-ness. In fact, there is more than one chapter on the importance of knowing God approves us fully because of Jesus, not our religious performance or spiritual production.

FTC: Which 2-3 of the 20 principles in the book do you wish you’d applied in your twenties?

JCW: Well, all of them! That’s the premise of the book: If we could go back, what are the 20 things we’d tell our younger selves. But if I had to pick just 3 of the chapters that are most important to me, I would say:

Chapter 4 – Porn is more toxic than you realize

Chapter 18 – Center on the gospel

Chapter 20 – You are not only as good as what you haven’t done

These three chapters probably best outline the plot points of my own testimony of sin and redemption in my twenties.

FTC: What’s one main point you hope readers take away from this book?

JCW: The biggest thing I hope readers take away is just how big Jesus is! How much he can be trusted. How investing in our friendship with him in our early adulthood isn’t just a way to be one of the “Christian college kids,” but the way we make sure we start out on a track of life that will fill our joy and keep us from looking back when we hit our thirties and forties and beyond with regrets and desires for a do-over.

 

Editor’s Note: Go Outside: And 19 Other Keys to Thriving in Your 20s is now available for purchase.



Young People, Church Membership Isn’t Optional

By / May 1

One of the most concerning developments in church life over the last twenty-five years or so has been the virtual disappearance of young adults. Even kids who grow up in church, attending weekly with their families, participating in youth group and other programs, tend to drop out of church when they leave home at a rate of nearly 70 percent. That’s a lot of church kids suddenly deciding church isn’t for them!

There are probably a few reasons why this happens. First, for kids who move away from home to go to college, it can difficult to find a local church that feels comfortable or that resembles the church they grew up in. And some college environments, of course, aren’t exactly conducive to a flourishing spiritual life. If you have a new set of peers in a new environment, the value of church may just not be present, and there’s no expectation or encouragement to continue a commitment to church.

For others, it’s not the new environment of a college campus or new town that makes it difficult but simply the freedom of being a young adult, whether “leaving the nest” or not, making your own decisions apart from parental requirement and family tradition. You’re in the season of life now where you get to determine if your faith is really yours or just a custom handed down by your family. A lot of young people decide that church, at least at this time, just doesn’t fit into their own plans for their life.

Whether you’re in college or out, reject the idea that committing to a local church is something only to be done when you’re older, more “established,” or in the life stage of having a family.

There are a few reasons for this, but the primary reason is because discipleship isn’t designed to be done on your own. The New Testament knows of no Christian faith apart from commitment to the “one another” context of a local church. To grow in one’s relationship with Jesus, in fact, is to grow in one’s relationship with other Christians. And while you can make lots of friends in a campus ministry or other parachurch organization, and even learn a lot in those places that can benefit you spiritually, God’s design for optimum growth according to His Word is a local church.

But “God says so” isn’t the only reason to commit to a local church even if you only plan to be away from home for four years or less. A healthy local church provides a multigenerational family that is a much healthier environment for growing in wisdom than simply attending a regular program with people your own age. As I said, such programs can certainly be beneficial, but treating them like your church robs you of being around people who have lived longer, experienced more, and have insights and guidance from mileage in their Christian journeys that you don’t have.

Certainly, a new church environment, particularly one that has older people in it, may not always suit our stylistic preferences or comfort levels, but consider how even that experience can serve to build patience, empathy, and endurance in you. It does not serve anybody very well spiritually to always have their faith custom-tailored to their own self-interested tastes. But we become more like Jesus when we put ourselves in a position to consider and honor people who aren’t like us.

There can be a tension point, also, in suddenly finding yourself considering a commitment to a church that feels so different than the weekly attendance of a youth program or a worship service customized to youthful tastes. But remember that you can’t do youth group forever! Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:11 that he put away the things of childhood when he grew up.

Part of this for Christians today is not expecting our adult experience of church to carry on the same way as our experience of student ministry, especially if our student ministry programming was conducted in ways pretty different from the “big church” we grew up in. This is in fact one of the biggest mistakes churches and youth pastors make—creating an entirely different experience for young people that is pretty much insulated from the life of their larger church. Kids raised in youth ministry silos like this usually do not stay in church long after their youth group days are over. The contrast is too jarring. They haven’t been prepared to see value in and love the local church, only to enjoy the youth ministry portion of it.

One way you can overcome issues of stylistic preferences and the like in a new church is to commit yourself to serving in some way. How can you help? Maybe you can’t change their music or architecture or overall “vibe,” but you can selflessly love people and pitch in to help them be the church God has called them to be. There may not be many college students or other young adults there, and there never will be unless someone like you selflessly decides to pioneer that growth!

When I was pastoring a church of mostly older folks in a little New England town several years ago, we were all praying that God would grow our church and grow it younger too. It took a while, but eventually we had one or two twentysomethings decide that it didn’t matter to them there weren’t a whole lot of others their age in our church. They’d be the first. And then when the next young people visited, they saw people like them. And their number began to increase.

I thank God that one young lady and her brother decided to be the firsts. They took a selfless risk to commit to a church not for its immediate benefits to them but in order to love and bless others. They were the impetus God used to grow our church. So don’t turn your nose up at churches that don’t have a lot of young people in them. If the gospel is preached there, people believe the Bible there, and people are serious about loving others there, be a pioneer for your demographic. Don’t be afraid, as the saying goes, to “be the change you want to see.”

In the end, we commit to a local church, regardless of our age, because church membership is how God has designed Christian growth to take place. We are individually members of a body (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:27). Our faith may be personal, but it’s not meant to be private.

The community of believers is the ecosystem prescribed by God for healthy maturing in the faith. Don’t use whatever newfound freedom in this stage of life to free yourself from this important facet of maturity. Find a local healthy local church, overlook its flaws, work against your own selfishness and resistance, and become a contributing member. The church needs you, and you need the church.

This is an excerpt from a brand new book I’ve written with my wife Becky — Go Outside . . . and 19 Other Keys to Thriving in Your 20’s, now available from Moody Publishers. You can order today from wherever good books are sold.



What is Union with Christ?

By / Apr 26

Editor’s Note: The Theology in the Everyday series seeks to introduce and explain theological concepts in 500 words or less, with a 200-word section helping explain the doctrine to kids. At For The Church, we believe that theology should not be designated to the academy alone but lived out by faith in everyday life. We hope this series will present theology in such a way as to make it enjoyable, connecting theological ideas to everyday experience and encouraging believers to study theology for the glory of God and the good of the Church. This week, Union with Christ.

I can remember the first time I heard of the doctrine of union with Christ. I was sitting in a classroom in north Texas listening to Dr. Sinclair Ferguson lecture on the doctrine of salvation. He had us to turn to Ephesians 1 and asked a student to read it out loud to the class. Every time the student read the phrase “in Him,” he said in his deep Scottish voice: “IN HIM.” 

When the student finished reading, he launched into 45 minutes on the beauty of the doctrine of union with Christ. I sat in the back of the room, tears in my eyes. I had been a Christian for 22 years and the gospel was surprising me yet again.

After class, in the student commons, Dr. Ferguson was chatting with students and I began to pepper him with questions about this doctrine.At one point, after what must have been my tenth question, Dr. Ferguson turned to me and said, “Young Mr. Worley, it’s all in Christ. Every blessing God has for His people. They are all in Christ. Where else would they be?”

He walked back into class, but I didn’t. I walked out of the building in a daze and I walked around the neighborhood for the next two hours. All I could think about was what Dr. Ferguson had said: “Every blessing God has for His people. They are all in Christ. Where else would they be?”

The doctrine of union with Christ changed my life. It changed the way I conceive of my relationship with God. It changed the way I read the Bible. It changed the way I pray. It changed the way I pastor. It changed everything.

Union with Christ

But, what is it? In 500 words or less, here’s how I would explain the doctrine of union with Christ:

Louis Berkhof defined union with Christ as that “intimate, vital, and spiritual union between Christ and His people, in virtue of which He is the source of their life and strength, of their blessedness and salvation.” That’s a really wonderful way of stating it.

This union is intimate in that it takes God’s people and places them into divine fellowship by placing them into the identity and under the covenant headship of the Son of God. It’s vital in that it is necessary for salvation. As John Calvin says concerning salvation, “We are deprived of this utterly incomparable good until Christ is made ours.” It is spiritual in that it is a “mystical” union, it isn’t some tangible thing we can see, but it is real nonetheless.

The doctrine of union with Christ lives in the prepositions of the New Testament and is often overlooked because of its subtlety. But like one of those optical illusions and brain teasers, once you see it…it’s all you can see. Let me just point to a few places: (emphasis added below to spotlight the doctrine)

  • Romans 6:5, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
  • 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
  • Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Chrsit, who has blessed us in Christ…”
  • Ephesians 1:4, “…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world…”

And there are dozens more too!. In Paul’s writings alone we get a total of over 73 uses of the phrase “in (with, into, or through) Christ” with 24 of those times occurring in Ephesians.

John Frame said, “In Christ, is the most general thing that can be said about us as God’s people.”

I have often stressed that the doctrine of union with Christ is not primarily about me in Jesus, but about we in Jesus. The witness of Scripture is consistently pointing to the reality that when we are pulled into identification with Jesus, we are incorporated into His body, that is, all those who have been saved by grace through faith in Christ.

In Christ Jesus, we find all the promises and blessings of God for His people. Nowhere else.

The doctrine of union with Christ is an invitation to make our home with God in Christ Jesus. It is an unbreakable fellowship. Not because we strive to keep the faith, but because God the Father keeps His people in His forever love in the Son of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Brother or sister, whether you have been a Christian for a year or a decade, I appeal to you: Meditate upon this doctrine, let it anchor your soul and may the gospel surprise you all over again.

For the Kids:

Hey kiddos! Imagine you are playing outside and all of a sudden a storm shows up. The rain is pouring down, there is lightning and thunder; would it be better to stay outside the house or to go inside? Of course it would be better to go inside the house, that way you have protection from the storm!

When God created the world, He created it good. But when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, God’s good world was broken and all of a sudden everybody was caught up in a storm.

But guess what? God invited people to step out of the storm, by stepping into a relationship with God.

God invites us to make our home with Him by placing our trust in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is the home where God invites us to live with Him, safe from the storm, free from the penalty of sin.

Do you want to live at home with God? You can! In Jesus Christ, we are invited to live with God forever.



True Servanthood in the Footsteps of Jesus

By / Apr 26

Editor’s Note: This post is excerpted from A Ransom for Many by John J.R. Lee and Daniel Brueske (Lexham Press, 2023). This book is now available for purchase.

We believe that the term “service,” as applied to the mission of Jesus, must be understood in a nuanced and refined manner. Its overuse in our era has cheapened the concept. But in Jesus’s case, “service” meant embracing the most shameful and despised fate of his time—death on a Roman cross. It meant being condemned by his fellow Jews as one accursed by Israel’s God (cf. Gal 3:13; Deut 21:23). It meant being mocked by the Romans as a failed insurrectionist (cf. Mark 15:16–20). And the final phrase of Mark 10:45 (“to give his life as a ransom for many”) points to the ultimate expression of the Son of Man’s radical servanthood, his atoning death. Jesus did not allow his unique identity and authority to exempt him from the kingdom principle of sacrificial servanthood (cf. Phil 2:6–8). Instead, he lived it out fully (Mark 10:45) and thus provided the foundation and prototype for his followers’ radical servanthood in his footsteps (10:43–44; cf. 9:35–37;).

This emphasis on sacrificial servanthood is not limited to Mark’s Gospel alone. It is found across the New Testament (John 15:12–13; Eph 5:2; 1 John 3:16). Church history is replete with examples of radical servanthood in the footsteps of Jesus. Just beyond the apostolic era, 1 Clement 55:2 reports, “We know that many among ourselves have delivered themselves to bondage, that they might ransom others. Many have sold themselves to slavery, and receiving the price paid for themselves have fed others” (trans. J. B. Lightfoot and J. R. Harmer). This reported practice among early Christians reflects a literal application of Mark 10:45.2 Other examples of Christian servanthood across the centuries are not hard to find. One of the most notable examples is Francis of Assisi. Before his conversion, Francis felt a strong aversion to the sight of lepers. But after his conversion, he went to live in a leprosarium to care for those with the disease.3

Mark 10:45 does not describe service in general and abstract terms. Instead, the portrayal is quite specific and personal. The service in Mark 10:45 is a service that a particular person, Jesus, has offered in a specific manner at a specific time and place, namely, giving his life sacrificially for the sake of others by being crucified on a Roman cross. And he did this despite the defeat that such a death signified in the eyes of his contemporaries. If we want to follow in Jesus’s footsteps, we must also do so in a personal way in our own specific time and space. The readers of this book will likely have one or two people they can quickly identify as their models of sacrificial service. For some, time would fail them to tell about their heroes of Christ-like servanthood (cf. Heb 11:32).

However, following Jesus’s example of servanthood may also take less conspicuous forms and may have a more manageable and mundane expression. For instance, welcoming neighbors over for dinner, staying late after church to vacuum the building, serving in a food line that feeds the hungry, or offering to babysit for a single parent can all be meaningful ways of serving others sacrificially. The core thread common to each of these acts is a willingness to subordinate our liberties, comforts, rights, and sometimes even our necessities to those of others, and, in so doing, we embody Jesus’s own habit of sacrificial service in a small yet meaningful way.

To be clear, Mark’s message is not that we must suffer or serve in order to get into heaven. Suffering and service do not earn our redemption and reconciliation with God. And not everyone who follows Jesus will face the same obstacles. Interestingly, Acts 12:2 mentions the death of James, which likely occurred only a decade or so after the request of Mark 10:37, yet church tradition indicates that his brother John lived to an old age. Likewise, in John 21:18–24, the resurrected Messiah foretells two very different paths for Peter and “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Mark does not claim that we will all experience the same afflictions and persecutions or identify the same needs among our neighbors.

Instead, the message of Mark is that those who follow Jesus must be willing to complete the journey. It is not enough simply to hear the message of the kingdom (Mark 4:4, 15). It is not even enough to receive that message with joy and start following Jesus if we are not committed to remaining with him to the end (4:5–7, 16–19). It is only those who receive the message of the kingdom and bear the fruit of loyal perseverance—committed to following Jesus wherever he leads and whatever it costs—who can say that they have truly followed him (4:8, 20). If you consider yourself a disciple of Jesus, it is worthwhile to ask yourself periodically, “What obstacles might deter me from staying on the path?” This world offers many distractions to lure us off the path of discipleship. For the rich man, it was his earthly treasure (10:17–22). For James and John, it was the pursuit of honor (10:35–37). For Peter, it was an aversion to shame and suffering (8:32; 14:66–72). What tempts you to sidestep the shame and suffering that may come with following Jesus? What are you unwilling to give in service to Jesus and others?

The spirit of competition and worldly success that once possessed James and John (10:35–40) is still rampant in our generation. Even churches, Christian institutions, and missions organizations are not immune. Too often, we view one another as competitors, not recognizing that Jesus sharply opposed this sort of perspective. We must again listen to Jesus, who sharply contrasted his way (Mark 1:3; cf. Isa 40:3) with that of the world: “it shall not be so among you”(10:43, ESV)! We who would follow Jesus on the way to the cross must deny ourselves and take up our own crosses (8:34), and we must learn to embrace the way of God rather than the ways of the world (8:33).

2 Garland, A Theology of Mark’s Gospel, 453n62.

3 Augustine Thompson, Francis of Assisi: The Life (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013), 18–19.



Episode 208: Aaron Armstrong on Guiding New Christians

By / Apr 26

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson talks with author Aaron Armstrong about his new book of counsel for new believers and how we all might help our new brothers and sisters take their first steps in the pursuit of Christlikeness. But first, a conversation about comic book movies! (If you just want to skip to the book conversation, jump to 9:37.)



Jonathan Leeman on Church Discipline

By / Apr 21

FTC.co asks Jonathan Leeman, editorial director for 9Marks,”What do most Christians not know about church discipline?”



Even Tolkien Felt Like a Failure

By / Apr 20

One time J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a short story to help him process his own frustration with work. The story, Leaf by Niggle, was about an artist who had been commissioned to paint a mural on the side of city hall. Niggle spent the rest of his career attempting to complete that mural, a large and colorful tree that would inspire for years to come. But in the end, the artist was only able to eek out one, single leaf.

And then he died.

On the train to heaven, Niggle saw a vague, but familiar, image in the distance. He asked the conductor to immediately stop the train. When Niggle got off he approached the object and discovered that it was a tree—his tree—complete and lovelier than he had ever imagined. And there, in the middle of the tree, was his contribution—Niggle’s leaf for the whole world to see. In the end, Niggle discovered that all of it, the tree and even his single leaf, was a glorious, completed gift.

Tolkien wrote Leaf by Niggle as a way to process his frustration with another work of his, one that he had spent years creating but was convinced would never be completed or appreciated by anyone. The name of that frustrating work was Lord of the Rings.

If only Tolkien had known then what we know now about his “unsuccessful” work. And if only we knew now what we will one day know about our own work and how it fits into God’s overall plan to save and heal the world.

In those moments when you are tempted to stop pressing on and to give up, in those moments when you might be tempted to use the word “just” about your work—”I’m just an accountant, just a stay at home parent, just a musician without a label, just a landscaper, just a clerk, just a pastor…”—I encourage you to visit, and then revisit, the story of Leaf by Niggle. I encourage you to consider not only the past but also the future, where the significance of your life’s work, which may seem like only a leaf or two, will be revealed as an essential part of the tree that God will place right in the middle of his City—the great Tree of Life, which will be for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2).

Although it is sometimes hard to believe that your work, done for God’s glory, has enduring significance, it absolutely does. In their book, Every Good Endeavor, Tim Keller and Katherine Alsdorf do a tremendous job of explaining the significance of Niggle’s leaf and how it relates to our present stories:

“There really is a tree. Whatever you are seeking in your work—the city of justice and peace, the world of brilliance and beauty, the story, the order, the healing, it is there. There is a God, there is a future healed world that He will bring about and your work is showing it (in part) to others. Your work will only be partially successful on your best days, in bringing that world about. But inevitably, that whole tree that you see—the beauty, the harmony, justice, comfort, joy and community—will come to fruition. If you know all this, you will not be despondent that you can only get a leaf or two out of this life. You will work with satisfaction and joy.”

These comments help me see that my work, whether I recognize it or not—whether anyone else recognizes it or not—fits in God’s overarching plan.

Scripture promises, “No eye has seen, no ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). It also promises that the good work he has begun in us, every good work—whether it be the work of becoming more like Jesus in our character, or the work of painting just a leaf when we dream of a tree—will be completed. The God who is Creator and Restorer and Architect and Builder of his great city—will be faithful to complete that work (Philippians 1:6). And as he completes that work, he will also look toward us through the finished work of Jesus and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).

The work you do now will go on into eternity. It’s a leaf on the Creator’s tree.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published at scottsauls.com. 



Episode 207: FTC Mailbag

By / Apr 19

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson and Ross Ferguson dip back into the mailbag to answer your questions on Christian life and ministry. This week we cover when to inform congregations of a pastor’s theological shift, whether pastors should ever turn off their phone, whether husbands should confess their porn struggle with their wives, handing ministries off to a new generation, and more.



Encourage Discouraged Pastors

By / Apr 18

There are plenty of pastors with generous smiles on their faces each Sunday who, deep down, are very disheartened.

Pastoring a church is hard work. For one thing, it is usually thankless. I know there are some churches that seem to remember their pastors with such fanfare, but most do not ever esteem them. They don’t work for just the members ultimately, so they can get over it, but never hearing those words, “Thanks for what you do, pastor,” is discouraging. But you can remedy this one, can’t you? Perhaps right now is the best time to write that email or note, or to make a phone call.

Some pastors get discouraged because their people expect a Dr. Internationally Known Mountain, when what they really are stuck with is only Brother Molehill. Expectations are at an all time high in these days of exceptional media coverage. Every pastor is happy when a member listens to sermons every day, but he knows he doesn’t measure up to the gifted pastors these people hear most of the time.

Some are discouraged because they are physically worn out. It just takes a few sensitive members to help him remedy this problem by pulling him away from normal tasks for a break. A member who makes special efforts to show love to his or her pastors will never be forgotten. I used to have a man who took me to lunch each week just to talk. He would usually say something to encourage me and even slip me a $20 bill. He helped me immensely to keep perspective. Perhaps you can pull your pastor away for that fishing trip or golf outing. Such things are like a drink of cool water on a dry, dusty day. Paul said of Philemon, “You’ve often refreshed me.” Be like that.

Some are discouraged because they cannot resolve long-standing conflicts in the church. Churches have conflicts because they have people. Even the early churches had them. But pastors take these very hard, and long for conflict resolution.

Well, there may be other reasons pastors are discouraged. They aren’t perfect and can even bring more on themselves than is dealt to them by the church’s health.

What can you do? Perhaps more than anything else, just become your pastor’s friend. Friendship has a healing aspect to it. Open your home and care for them. Think of the pastor’s wife and kids. They need you also. I doubt that you could possible know what intentional love can do for those God has, in his providence, put over you in the Lord. Do what friends do—take them extra vegetables from the garden, invite them along for your trip to the Mexican restaurant in town, buy that scarf that you think the pastor’s wife will like. You’re not buying friendship, but nourishing it.

“Let them do this [the management of the church] with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable to you,” the writer of Hebrews said. But I know you church members pretty well. When you get to thinking about it, you can do some amazing things for the pastors God has given you. Get started right now.

“Esteem them highly in love.”

Editor’s note: This article was originally published at ccwtoday.org.