Practical Pastoring: Ordination continued, Book Five

You may have heard that man proposes and God disposes. The best laid plans do not always work out the way we have intended. Karrie often tells me that things are not going to work out how I think they will. I am learning to allow more and more room for the “God factor”.

As I was beginning my pastoral journey and before I was ordained, Pastor Dan and his wife and children were in the midst of turmoil. Phillip Yancey wrote about “Disappointment with God” and I have shared from the pulpit that in my arrogance I was “disappointed with God”.

Part of the ordination ceremony encouraged me to be long suffering. I said yes to being subject to Jesus our Lord and King and to the Holy Spirit. When you become ordained as a pastor, you enter a brotherhood of believers with a special call to care for the congregation that Jesus has given you to pastor. You provide pastoral care even when you do not feel like providing care. You prepare sermons, visit others, answer the phone, check the church, and pray for the sick even when you do not feel like doing so. You do the next right thing even when the circumstances do not appear to be positive. These are the times in life when you need to encourage yourself in the Lord.

You have heard that life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond. Self-pity comes easy. It is easy to become pitiful when bad things happen to you in your pastoral ministry. Be encouraged. The circumstances will pass. Seek the Lord in the trying and testing stages and let the peace of God rule in your heart. Continue to work as if you are working for the Lord while resting in Him. Take captive the angry or bitter thoughts. Do not accept an invitation to your personal pity party.

Bad things do happen to good people. You are not exempt from being thrown a few curve balls in life. When situations of potential disappointment arise, seek God first. Next seek the wisdom of mature believers. There is wisdom in a multitude of counselors.

Pastor Dan learned dependence on God during a difficult season in his life and the lives of his immediate family. Karrie and I learned dependence on God shortly after the ordination ceremony when our circumstances took a radical downward spiral.

Pastor Dan and his family passed the test. Karrie and I, and our family passed the test. You, your spouse, and children will pass the test as well if you keep your eyes on Jesus and your focus on the Lord.

Kevin Barsotti

Ark Church

This article is part of Practical Pastoring: Mentoring Growth Letters from a Senior Pastor to a New Pastor, Book Five. The author responds to his pastor’s letters to him from twenty years ago when he began his pastoral journey.