Be known. Select two or three people who aim to build trust with you. Let your community love you. Without this kind of community interaction, both you and your congregation are at great risk. One does not have to dig too far into the annuls of the internet to find churches that have been destroyed because of a lack of pastoral community and accountability. 

Simply stated, a community is a place of belonging where people unify for one reason or another. The pastor’s community often consists of the sheep he is called to shepherd. This shepherding consists of feeding, praying, caring for, counseling, evangelizing, and even disciplining. For a pastor to accomplish all these tasks, he must know his sheep well. Most pastors understand the high calling of knowing their sheep. This is why they spend so much time preparing, preaching, praying, and providing for the spiritual needs of their congregation.

Pastoral Community and Accountability

While knowing his community is vital to the pastor, it is just as vital to allow the community to know him. He must not only feed his flock, but his flock must feed him. He must not only pray for his flock, but he must let his flock pray for him. He must not only care for his flock, but he must let it care for him. He must not only counsel his flock, but he must allow it to counsel him. He must not only remind his flock of the Gospel, but he must listen for Gospel reminders from the flock. In some cases, he not only disciplines, but allows the flock to discipline him. Pastors need community and accountability, too.

Don’t skip over this vital task too fast. Spending time and energy getting to know the flock is hard, exhausting, frustrating, and at the same time, very rewarding. There’s a personal gain at the end of those actions. Conversely, giving someone permission to enter the most intimate parts of a pastor’s life (heart, mind, will, and desires) by being open, honest, and vulnerable can be scary at best and horrifying at worst. It’s scary because information of an intimate nature can be used against someone in a punitive way. It can be horrifying because exposure could mean the loss of income as well as community. Punishment, loss of livelihood, and loss of community are three massive factors. These can lead many pastors to keep everyone at arm’s length relationally.

Being Known for the Good of the Flock

Pastors were never meant to pastor in seclusion. Seclusion allows for self-deception and secret habitual sin oftentimes resulting in destruction. This destruction might be in the pastor’s family, his church, or his own life. If a pastor is going to care for the sheep well, he must allow his flock to know him.

A pastor who is unwilling to allow his flock to know him sets the proverbial stage for his flock to receive devastating blows. An unknown pastor can upset the faith of some (2 Timothy 2:18), lead others astray (2 Timothy 3:6), and shipwreck his own faith (1 Timothy 1:19).

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